#100 - Happy Halloween!

In addition to Halloween, today marks this site's 100th post. Thanks to everyone for reading! I'll leave you with this lovely group of women I shot last night. Note the 10 year-old on the right.

-BLOCHEAD

Rock Climbing Anchors: A Comprehensive Guide

Craig Luebben brings his depth of knowledge as a mechanical engineer as well as years of practical climbing experience to this definitive book on building, analyzing, maintaining, and understanding climbing anchors. A must have for climbers of all disciplines.


-BLOCHEAD

Powell's New & Used Books - Portland

Covering an entire city block, Powell's is an arena of printed word. They have EVERYTHING you could hope to find in any field. I spent nearly two hours just in the literature room. Yes, literature room. Science fiction, mystery, and other types of fiction have their own room. While spending almost no time reading, I only got so far as to be fascinated with the depth of work carried by each author, various editions, and so on. This is how a bookstore should be. It is great to see a city celebrate reading on such a grand scale.



-BLOCHEAD

Count Crankula

Yesterday afternoon after flying in from Portland I drove straight to Red Rock Climbing Center to take part in their annual Count Crankula Halloween Comp. It was great to see everyone and try an entire gym full of new boulder problems. Evolv and Desert Rock Sports provided free shoe demos and swag, including a raffle prize for each contestant after the comp ranging from chalkbags to a new Asana crashpad.

Patrick Luther won for the advanced men while Heather Robinson defended her title as advanced women's champ. With the temps dropping steadily everyone has definitely come out of the woodwork, and this fun local comp was a great way to kick off the winter season.

-BLOCHEAD

Portland - A Week in Pictures

I just got back from Portland last night and here are, as promised, a bunch of grainy cell phone photos.






























-BLOCHEAD

Portland

Headed to Portland for a week. Stay tuned for some bad cell phone pictures.

-BLOCHEAD

1235 N. Greenview

-BLOCHEAD

Orangeville, UT

Yup, right there in the middle.

If for some reason you are curious about the history of Orangeville (or Castle Dale for the history buffs) then this article is for you.

Here are some teasers, sure to keep you riveted:

"The infrastructure of Castle Dale includes a modern up-to-date water and sewer system, curb, gutter and sidewalks, quality roads, curb to curb, public buildings, and both natural history and pioneer museums."

"With the creation of a town board, tasks that had previously been managed through the LDS bishop and priesthood were now being handled by the board of trustees. However, for the next twenty years there was not a clear division between church and state."

"The nearby mountains and San Rafael Swell provides a vast opportunity for biking, 4-wheel recreational activities as well as for hunting, camping, hiking and rock climbing."

We made the cut!

-BLOCHEAD

Joe's Valley Recap

After only spending a brief two days in Joe's Valley I now see the appeal of hanging out around Orangeville, Utah. I suppose it's a good thing there is amazing colorful sandstone because there sure isn't anything else. I had never bouldered in Utah, and feel totally excited to go back. Among other things though, I would like to spend more hours climbing than driving next trip. The lack of time for climbing forced photos and video onto the back burner, but I still managed a few.

The Right Fork...and some chalk on the lens
Kind of Burly, V8
Rock Porn
Dyno, V5
The first move on...
Fingerhut, V10
Epic approach.
The last remains of some unknown hipster.

-BLOCHEAD

Joe's Valley

Headed to Joe's Valley tomorrow at 5 AM for a quick two day trip. There probably won't be a lot of time for video, but hopefully I'll manage to snap off a couple photos. In the mean time check out these sweet new gear bags I picked up from my new sponsor! They are totally lightweight and super rad!


-BLOCHEAD

First Day of Issue

These never sell, but they are still awesome.






-BLOCHEAD