Bouncing Marty

I love my parents! Just thought I’d throw that out there right off the bat. My Dad’s an architect in Spokane, WA and his firm designs arenas, schools, and buildings around the country. One of the most notable is the Gonzaga University basketball stadium, looks something like this:

Convienently, ALSC recieved a design award of some kind, and it was presented right here in Vegas, so my folks decided to make a trip out of it and spend a long weekend with me. Thursday the parentals got familiar with Vegas traffic, and attended their banquet. Friday I bailed from work early and showed them around the town a little, then met up with Mollie for a Sushi dinner just off the Strip. With full stomachs, we drove to the MGM to see Ka, one of the Cirque du Soleil shows. Ka was fantastic, by far the best show I’ve seen. In the very fitting words of my Dad, post show, “I have been entertained”. Spectacle at its finest.

Saturday we had a big ole’ breakfast at one of my favorite places, then headed to Redrocks to give them a picture of what life is like outside of the strip.

Here she is folks, Marshall’s Mom!

And Marshall’s Dad!

My Dad hates it when I take his picture, I’m actually holding him captive in this one. I grew up hunting and fishing the spectacular country in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho with my Dad, but since I’ve moved its been tough to put together anything out-doors with him. I had a great time showing him some of the places I have climbed, as well as hunting for wildlife in the desert washes. Just to make things interesting, I had these guys appear:

Super cool. A herd of seven Desert Bighorn Sheep, all of them rams. Two of them got into it a bit, and did the whole “head bonking, I’m the biggest stud” contest, slamming into eachother. The ‘thud’ resonating off the canyon walls assured me that Bighorns may not be the most intelligent of animals, but they sure have the hardest heads.

My Dad, doing a little bouldering of his own.

After a great hike, enjoying some Nevada sunshine, we headed back into town for a final meal, and trip to the airport. I had an awesome time, and I’m looking forward to the holidays. It’s tough being a long ways away from family, but it sure does make the times you have together sweeter.

Thanks for coming out Mom & Dad!

I’ve been dying to get Mollie to Santa Barbara, to enjoy some of its SoCal Wonderful-ness, for a long time now.  I wrangled a free weekend out of Shane and Jayna, and we set up all kinds of fun stuff to occupy the time, and give Mollie the full Santa Barbara experience.

We arrived Friday night after a long drive through the desert.  It proved to be an easy drive actually, especially considering the 15 south was closed at LA!  Luckily we skirted the trouble, and made it in short time.  We caught a quick bite of sushi with the Swenson’s, and headed to bed.  After of course, the prerequisite two hours of talking with Shane about skiing, climbing, and all things gnar.

Saturday we were greeted with something unusual and rarely found in Santa Barbara.  Weather.  It was cold, blustery, and threatened rain at every turn!  We assumed correctly that we were caught in “Fall”.  Apparently it happens every year.  It passed by lunchtime, the sky cleared, we jumped right past “Winter”, and promptly began spring by late evening.

Chris Cobb, Brian Frandsen, Thad J-to the-Blonski, and all of us headed out for some climbing Saturday morning at a small crag in the mountains above town.  We found some moderate stuff for everybody to pull on, as well as some crimpy stuff to make me sore on Sunday.

Everyone did great!  It was a bit chilly however.  I had no idea just how wonderful pink earmuffs could be.  I’ll be getting a pair of my own.

We had a faithful companion, Cooper the Mountain Dog along for the ride.  He well confirmed the fact…Yes, I do want to get a dog (someday).

After climbing, we all headed back and cleaned up at the Lee’s house.  The guys headed off to do their own thing, while Shane/Jay and Mollie/I rolled downtown to dinner.  We went to a Moroccan restaurant!  Awesome food and great atmosphere.  Sitting on big couches with pillows gallore, all food was eaten with freshly washed hands.  Very enjoyable evening.

Sunday meeting in SB was great as usual, and we packed up and headed home.  Great food and good weekend!

A long awaited climbing weekend finally arrived Saturday as Brian Frandsen, Brian Burgess, and Matt Elley all converged on my apartment floor for some of Redrocks’ best sandstone. The Brian’s both showed up Thursday night for two full days of climbing Friday and Saturday. Matt was coming up to try to get in some multi-pitch climbing before it gets too cold, and to make up for us having to bail off of the Fishook Arete of Mount Russel earlier in October. Friday Brian and Brian smoked up Ginger Cracks in the Cloud Tower area, picking off one of the climbs I’d been scoping for quite some time, while I was busy slaving away at work (ie chatting gmail and trying to look busy).

Saturday morning came early, and we headed out the door at 5:45am. After much debate and speculation, we decided on a couple classics in the Black Velvet Canyon; Brian Burgess and I would head to Sour Mash, a 5.10a in the center of the wall, and Brian Frandsen and Matt headed to Frogland, a sweet 5.8 up the outer wall that I climbed earlier in the year.

I was super stoked to climb with Brian Burgess. Frandsen had been spewing for years about this ‘apparently’ awesome guy, who leads trad climbs like they are going out of style! As our day of climbing continued on, Brian’s skills and awesome attitude proved Frandsen to be telling the truth.

There’s the route…just to the right of my finger, is a crack system running 600′ or so up some varnished black sandstone. Black Velvet wall is HUGE. Even after 6 pitches of climbing, we were barely into the middle of the wall. Here’s me and Burgess 3 pitches up.

The crux pitches were the first and the fifth, so we swung every two pitches. I took the easier 5.7/5.9 pitches in the center, while Brian cleaned up the 5.10a’s on either end. Awesome exposed climbing!

Above me is Brain on the heavily bolted 5th pitch, and me way up high, leading the 4th, naturally protected 5.9.

Getting to the top was pure elation. I was so stoked! This is the hardest trad climb I have ever been up, and it was such a fantastic line. One crack, the only line of weakness around us on such a giant wall. I pulled up to the top to meet Brian, and could tell he was just as pumped as I was. We threw a high-five and a couple victorious fist pumps to top it off. Brian’s climbing has absolutely inspired me to push the trad envelope a lot more than I have. There’s nothing better than sharing an awesome climbing experience with people you trust and really enjoy spending time with!

As we pulled the top, we could see Brian Frandsen and Matt hanging out at the summit of their respected climb, but across the canyon, with a half mile of air seperating us. Felt great to know that we all had a great day of climbing!

Gotta get in some more days like this! Come on back any time guys!

So I don’t usually get too excited about cars. Working and living in Vegas has exposed me to so many supercars, exotics, and ridiculously built vehicles that I feel like I’m almost numb to it. Its seems to take something special to make me look twice anymore. I like ferrari’s, and I ran into (not literally…yer’ welcome State Farm Insurance) Ferrari’s flagship, the Enzo. He was kind enough to be stuck in traffic with me so I could keep up and snap some window shots.

As I was passing him I expected to hear the gearie high pitched whine that Ferrari’s always sound like. Instead this thing ROARED at me. Throaty deep and loud. I approve Mr. Ferrari.

Then 10 minutes later I encountered this specimine:

Gotta love American Excess.