Nothing useful

i have an insane amount of catching up to do.  Not all that much climbing, but some cool experiences nonetheless.  And some climbing.  Things have been a lil weird since moving to alaska.  It's very far away from everything.  Everything.  It's difficult to find motivation in a place like that. The gym is ok at best, but the people are psyched.  That helps some.  Still, it isn't like it was back in NC.  And the season is short.  i'm in Nevada at the moment and ak will be trashed with snow by the time i get back.  Nevada is quite nice at the moment.  Hot for climbing, but a welcome change from the damp chill of anchorage.  i've been super busy with work, but today was a welcome reprieve.  i've been controlling f-15's all week, but they cancelled their sortie today.  So i got to climb.  It was quite dope, but i didn't have a crash pad.

That's ok though, the dinner of champions prepared me well for the coming day

i did a cool v7 called Bubble Butt and then went to try monkey bar direct.  

 One fall on that thing and my elbow smashed a rock pretty good. i decided to wait for someone else to come along and try it so i could bum some pads.    It didn't take long before 6 or 7 people showed up (with pads).  Feeling much more comfortable, I sent in 2 more goes.  Managed to flash a couple of variations in the boulder too.  Oh, and Alex Johnson and Kati Peters were there (Kati Peters is a total babe btw..).  And i've got a crazy long day ahead, and posting from a phone is crap.  i promise i'll catch up at come point.  Peace..

They've all come to look for america

After a rough start (f u post office and dmv) I'm off on the 1st leg of my journey.. the late start in the day didn't afford me the opportunity to make it to Colorado on day one.  Thus I missed the cool stuff in Vail.  World cup bouldering or somethin..  Either way by day two I braved the tornados (3 times (my goal in life is to see a tornado)) and made it to Boulder.  Despite lack of food along the way, The Spot made my#1 stop upon arrival.  This gym is so far superior to anything I've experienced.ever.still.  I haven't been there for quite some years now, but it was pretty dope.  They have ipads for people to fill out waivers..  I felt unworthy to be in the presence of such trendy dopeness.  I encountered such big wigs as Abbey Smith and proceeded to flail as she (and most other chicks)  cruised my projs..  that's ok though.  I had a blast.  I think I'd be a decent climber with a resource like The Spot.  My car is so packed to the brim,  kinda sucks. I can't find my toothbrush dammit.

The gates to Tornadoland

The Spot.. so sicky

Beer.. mmm

A true dark and stormy..  mmm

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