The long road

This post is from my phone because I'm a cheap ass and don't have internet..
So, I haven't posted for quite some time now.  A lot has happened over the past year and a half, but not much in the way of climbing.  I figured the rest of what I do with my life isn't that interesting, thus no blog posting.  If you are curious and didn't already know, I joined the air force and I've been in training this whole time.  I've been to Alabama, Panama city fl, and Oklahoma city.  Again, not much in the way of climbing.  It is barely an exaggeration to say that I literally didn't climb in 2013.  2014 ain't looking great so far either.. Even so, I am optimistic, for I have officially finished my training and I'm off to Alaska for new adventures!  I basically busted ass so that I could earn the Alaska slot; my career field doesn't offer the best selection of places to be stationed.  I'll be in anchorage for the next 3 years or so which is pretty dope.  There's a climbing gym that doesn't look like it'll make me want to slit my wrists, so that's cool. And I'm hoping there's a bunch of untapped potential for new climbs out there.  Not that I'm very strong these days, but I might get back in shape.  Either way, I'm psyched.  I'll be posting a good bit along the way hopefully, as I'm planning on hitting Boulder, Leavenworth, and Squamish.
Here's a couple of pictures of the lil bit of climbing I've experienced while in okc.

Wish I had discovered the Wichita mountain wildlife refuge sooner.  Project...

FA of a bloc I found and cleaned up.

Project...

Super lowball project...

Ryan on Balls Deep v4/5

Perfect arete projects...

Hard project...

And for some of the rest of my life:

I went to the zoo.

I went to the creepy ass museum of osteology

My okc apartment

Ugh, stuck in Florida..  gross.

Kayak fishing was dope.

Trout for dinner.

Sorry D Woods, I think I win dirtiest mustache award.



I have a bow.  I'm addicted completely.

So I bought another bow..

That's it for now. Phones dying.

Ketchup

Here's those photos that i was gonna put up a couple weeks ago:

Shep on Zen Corner

Black 45 photos by Josh Shepherd

Mike Stam

4 bros packed into Tilley's truck for the long haul

Conditions weren't prime

CBreez

The lengthy approach to Junkyard Cave

The cave in all of its glory

That's right.  Take note.  That is how Jay Tilley ticks a boulder problem.

V14 Project!!! OMFFG!!!!!

Move 1

Sicky gnar crimps.  Just look at that face

Actually not a bad feature

Cruxn

This move is hard.  You can see the fear in his eyes.

Half Moon Tilt

Why do you people even need soap? are you that bad at going to the bathroom?

Things are gettin crazy here in Boone.  I don't really work much any more, so now i need good weather so that i can get through the days.  Of course, being Boone, there is a limited supply of good weather.  Last week it finally reached freezing temps and I was able to work on the Concave Proj for 2 days.  Made good progress, but still no send.  I'm starting to get a little tired pressuring myself on that thing.  It just gets so few good days out of the year that i can't help feeling like i need to send it every time i go out.  One of these days!!
Anyway, like i said, weather is mostly bad here, so a few days ago Tilley, Josh, CBreeze and myself all decided to get away up to the New River Gorge.  To boulder.  We drove through rain during 90% of our drive there, so I didn't have the highest of expectations.  Our impulsive decision to make this trip turned out to be a good one.  We went to the Junkyard Cave on the first day because it had the best chance of being dry.  Despite the waterfall that was cascading down the face of the boulder crag, the roof was quite dry.  Junkyard Cave may not be the most glamorous of destinations, but it is a really fun time and it totally works your core, ya know?  Our abilities in the cave really reflected the fact that there is no roof climbing in Boone.  Everyone flailed pretty hard on some juggy problems, but we walked away with some good sends.  Check the 8spray for the deets bros. 

CBiebs gettin ready to punt the last move of Big Daddy Direct

After that, we desperately tried to get in touch with Friksn Sponsored Athlete Nic Spruill so that we could stay at his place as had been planned earlier but then apparently we didn't have enough climbster cred for him to call us or answer the phone and let us stay at his place which is totally understandable because, well, yeah.  We're still wiating to hear back from him.  So we stayed at the cheapest place we could find.  Hillcrest Inn or something instead.  We had a buncha beer so it was pretty cool.  Key was in the door type of place.  Total bro party.  So the next day we decided to check out Cotton Hill.  We started at Cotton Bottom and walked around for a while checking out the rocs.  It looked like there was some good stuff, but a lot of it was still a lil wet.  So, we decided to start out at Cotton Top instead.  Some of the topouts were still a bit wet, but we knew the sandstone would probably dry to prime conditions within the hour.  We started at a little roof up at the base of the routes (which looked sick) and did some fun steep climbing for a bit.  There was an obvious next-gen project on the right side of the roof that's dubbed the Yeah V14 Exists in the South Proj.  Tilley ticked up the holds and Josh and I were makin it happen, but then it just got too hot for the send.  I'd say it's a lot like God Module, if God Module was hard.  Next time!! (photos to come).  Cotton Top is sick!  I had a really good time just running around and looking at these giant boulders scattered across the hillside.  One problem in particular got us all pretty amped up.  Half Moon Tilt was the last problem of the trip, but it was worth spending the time and effort on it.  It is a pretty enigmatic climb due to the unique feature and the excess number of chalked holds.  Once we figured it out, it wasn't so bad.  Or maybe it was, I dunno.  I managed to do the sit, Josh was stupid close and ended up doing the stand, CBiebs pulled some shit out of his ass and thrutched his way to the top of the stand as well (pretty awesome).  And Tilley got epic.  He probably should have sent, but he was kinda out of it at the time.. 
Anyhow, haven't enjoyed climbing and hangin out that much in a long time.  It was a fun-filled trip full of good memories and fast food.  Zebracakes and Type gay diabetes.

O, and the library has been closed, so i'll get some pics up when i can.

Wise men say, 'It looks like rain today.'

Hi, my name is Brian Clevenger, and I haven't sent a boulder problem for the past 17 days. 

My most recent ascents came at HP40 of all places.  I had vowed never to go back there after being devastatingly shut down in years past.  Still, I wanted to compete in Star Chasers for the Triple Crown and maybe get a little redemption.  The day started poorly when we missed our exit and arrived rather late for the comp.  Fortunately, we were able to register and try to recover the day from that point.  I think we all had a diffucult time getting our heads in the spirit of competing, because none of us ended up doing very well.  I was slow to start and lost some psych when I saw that none of the labels had star values on them..  I also lost some psych when I realized that V3 is still stupid hard at HP40.  So, obviously I thought I had a better chance at V11.  Tilley was feeling equally unmotivated and accompanied me over to God Module.  I tried it for quite a while that day.  Tilley left to try to do some more new problems, so I tried it by myself with my mini Organic pad, then I was going to leave but Rami and Doug showed up.  I tried it some more and still couldn't do it.  I think I was pretty close to doing the first move, and the rest of it didn't feel that bad, but I just couldn't put it together.  At least I wasn't jumping off of the ground for the start.  Anyway, I quit trying to climb hard and went back to chasing stars.  I did a lot of new climbs, including a sick V5 highball to finish the day.  I was nowhere near placing, but I guess it was a better HP40 experience than I expected.  Except for the part where it was over and I had to drive back to Boone so that I could work the next morning. 



snaked this pic from DPMClimbing.com
Superstar Bitches


Since then, it's been non-stop work, air force (I went to Chapel Hill to take the TBAS test and hopefully did well.  Still haven't gotten my scores back.  While I was there, I went out on the town with Purpur and some of the people that he climbs with.  It was a pretty crazy scene for sure.  Frat Stars, Sorostislewts, Skinny-jean Hipsters, and even Brodie Climbsters.  I saw a lot of interesting things that night.  The girls there are not like the girls in Boone.  It was about 28 degrees, and all of them were walking the streets in their lingerie, all of the bros were wearing their blazers and boat shoes, rounds of 3 dollar PBR bottles were being bought left and right, and somehow we (the climbers) were in the middle of it all.  The last place we went to had nothing to drink for under $4.50.  Thus ended the night.  Still, I had a really fun time and I'd like to go back.  I finally felt like I found a place where I fit in.  Nothin says "Home" like standin on the sidewalk, suckin on a girl's neck while she texts another dude.), rain, and sickness (and a couple days of feeling stupid close on the Concave Proj).  I'm finally starting to feel a little bit better, but it'll take some time to get back to full strength.  Fortunately, everything is wet.

Oh, also some shoutouts (even though everyone who reads my blog probably already knows):
Some peeps killed it last week:
Apparently
Dalen Gray strengthened his pimp hand and sent Full Throttle
Rami Annab climbs solid V13 and sent Lord of the Dance
Bri Wills did her hardest traverse to date with Stems and Caps
and
Josh Shepherd doesn't need good climbing shoes to send Preferential Treatment

Chain so big, can't pop my collar

We went down to the Linville Gorge the other day and did a fair bit of climbing with Mike Stam.  This was one of my first times really getting to climb with him.  It's pretty amazing to see all of the work that he puts into developing new boulders down there.  He spent like 4 hours building a landing and cleaning holds for one problem, and then he flashed it.  It's crazy to think of putting that much effort into something that lasts for only a moment.  He called it Naive Melody (V4), but it was pretty hard.

Me on Naive Melody- Rachel Scheffe pic

He got video of the climb, so i'll link it in when/if he posts it.  I did a handful of climbs while i was down there, including Glassy Heel Hook (V4), Stranger Than Friction (V7), The Devil (V6), and a couple more that I don't know the name of.  There is a stupid amount of climbing that I want to do in the Gorge and i'm psyched to get back!! 

Also, i just got a new lens.  The Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8.  I took a few test shots recently and so far i really like it.  There is definitely distortion at 11mm, but the image is still mostly sharp.  Here's a few snapshots that i've taken so far:

Under the twilights, we livin the miller high life

A lot has gone down recently.  To start, it's Triple Crown season and my psych level is super high.  I've been doing the Star Chasers category and it has worked out quite nicely so far.
Hound Ears:
With bad weather in the weeks before the comp, i didn't get to do as much training as i would have liked.  My skin was soft and the only circuit training i had done was in the gym.  Even so, i was looking forward to the challenge of taking on both Tilley and Purp.  Comp day rolled around and it was super cold.  It was also snowy/raining.  As much as i didn't want them to postpone the event, it turned out for the best (mostly).  The only downside was that there was an 'afterparty' that didn't get postponed.  I may have had a bit too much fun, dropped my beer for no apparent reason (beer in a cup, so it really went everywhere (including all over my shirt/pants)), decided Cookout would be an excellent idea, and decided sleeping in my car would be an even better idea.  The upside to sleeping in my car was that I was already at the meeting spot for carpooling.  The downside was that i didn't actually sleep that much due to the frostbite that was surely setting in on my legs and feet.  So, feeling a little sick and quite tired (don't worry, i fixed the 'tired' problem with a couple Monsters (but that only added to the 'sick' problem)), we were off to the comp.  It turned out to be the best conditions Hound Ears has ever seen.  My goal for the day was to win and to do the three four-star problems in the field.  This includes The Crusher (V10), which I have been itching to do for years.  Oh, and also to have a killer good time and climb loads of boulders that i had never done before.  I started off by racking up a decent amount of stars, then went to try The Crusher.  I almost did it first go (closer than i'd ever been before) but it just got worse after that.  I blanked out on all my beta, wasted way too much energy/time, and didn't send.  It was a struggle to finish the day after that (pumping out on v4), but i managed to do a lot of good climbs before time was up.

Final Stars:
Me: 107
Tilley: 104 (how crazy close was that!!)
Purp: 83

Also, shout out to some other peeps who killed it that day:
Men Open:
1. Brad Weaver: 13,128
2. Nate Draughn: 12,508

Women Open:
1. Kasia Pietras: 7609
2. Isabelle Faus: 7183
3. Leanna Lockhart: 3539

Advanced Men:
3. Ben Newton: 6999

Intermediate Women:
1. Kat Marek: 3041

Big thanks to Jim Horton and Chad Wykle for doing another amazing job putting together Hound Ears and seriously hooking it up with the prize packages!



And.... On to the Stone Fort.  This year the comp fell on the weekend after Hound Ears.  Fortunately, it was just enough time for most people to recover (not Doug, his hands were... ). 

I drove out to Chatt with Chris Collins and Michael Harrington. Good ol Andrew Miller was nice enough to let us crash at his place.  We arrived a little late for pre-reg, but we chilled for a while and drank some free beer, watching some serious climbsters in action (tanktops, speed climbing and everything) at the Urban Rocks Gym.  Someone stole my Stone Fort shirt and koozie.  What really killed me was listening to everyone talk about the "Hound's Ear comp."  Next day, we got to Montlake way too early, hung out for a while, and eagerly awaited the 80 degree day to come.  Long story short:  The 'easy' climbs that get stars are all slabby and slopey (aka hard as shit), and all i had was a pair of blown solutions and no slab skills to speak of.  At Hound Ears, I fell a handfull of times all day.  At Stone Fort, V2 slabs were kicking me off left and right.  My feet were bleeding by the end of the day (they actually weren't, but they might as well have been).  I got dehydrated on 3 separate occasions and nearly decided to quit each time.  But, I did learn a lot about how to climb and i won some cool stuff anyway.  Some rando beat me at Star Chasing by 8 stars, but i still got second with 121, and i also did the Premium Blend Light Roast the fastest (nobody else did it, but i was still really fast dammit).  Shout out to all the people that killed it again (i'm too tired to list everyone tho).  They also premiered A Fine Line by Andrew Kornylak.  I thought it was badass.  Off to the afterparty (which i though meant free beer and fun).  I had spent all of my cash on water that day, so when i saw that they were charging 3 bucks per beer, i was a bit sad.  Fear not, we'll just hit up a gas station to buy more beer for cheap and have our own party, right?  And we'll just walk to the nearest one, right?  An hour and a half later we made it back with our beer.  And we didn't get stabbed or shot.  Things were really going our way now.  Did you know they have 32oz Miller High Life cans in Chattanooga? 

Yeah, i may move back there this season after all.  When the night was done, I was a little disappointed that I didn't get that ride to Atlanta that I was looking for, but I guess that's ok.  Waffle House for breakfast (awesome) and back to Boone (by way of Asheville....).  Good shit.

Drinkin every night because we drink to my accomplishments

Yeh, joking, of course.  Just a heads up, no pics in this post, so all you people who spend 20-30 seconds on this page for the 'eye candy', go ahead and bail.  The focus of this post is to observe [one of the] personal motivations for climbing.  While there are many reasons to devote our lives to the seemingly insignificant and largely misunderstood action of climbing a rock, some are far more inspiring and less selfish than others.  Those are the ones that tend to get more coverage (like Sharma stuff (being one with 'the nature')), as they portray the sport in a positive light, and provide a positive influence on new climbers.  While i respect all of that to the fullest (and try to live by a personal moral/ethical code that adheres to the highest of standards), let's be honest with ourselves for a minute or two.  People are selfish and have motives that we don't like to share with others (and not just in climbing).  Personally, one (among many (don't judge me)) of the reasons that i became very involved with climbing was to gain the approval of others.  i met a lot of people that i respected and admired and envied, and i decided that these were the people that i would like to be friends with.  i thought that being a good climber would translate to being able to gain the respect of those people.  While i did improve quickly for a while, it was ultimately an effort in futility.  i find that most of the people that i had aspired to be like (the people that i thought that i had formed solid friendships with), have disparate viewpoints.  i feel pretty disappointed when i don't recieve a call from a friend who is visiting town (or whatever; i guess i'd rather not provide copius examples from my personal life).  Anyways, i guess my point is that pushing yourself to gain the approval of others (sponsors, strong peeps, ladies, etc) may lead to rather evanescent and ultimately disappointing results.  Climbing can be the most therapeutic form of recreation, and the most torturous.  Find what works for you, and stick with it!!  Forreal.
*Also, to any gumby out there who may think that climbing is perceived as desireable by an attractive female (or any female, for that matter), just do yourself a solid and quit.  Devote yourself to something like basketball, baseball, football, weight lifting, fraternities, tanning, lots of money, puppies, tanktops, drinking way too much, and being a bit of a douche.  That seems to work wonders.  Cheers