New Routing on the MoonStone! Whitney Portal, Lone Pine Ca

Well, nothin' like kicking off the season with a new route, that climbs a 1'200 foot blank buttress. We are currently 600ft off the ground, taking mad screamers and ripping sketchy hooks off the wall, all in the effort of trying to protect the blankness. The climbing has been steep with giant knobs that have to be connected with incredible blank sections in between. Chris, my partner in crime on this one is hanging in there, catching every flight that has been taken as well as every jaw dropping moment. Hats off to his ability to hang in there, on the slow exhausting progress. I'll keep you posted on the project as we start round two. For now "It's a marvelous night for a moon dance"

Slideshow was a Hit!

Thanks for everyone that came out to hear us flap our jaws about our trip to Torres del Paine. We hope you all enjoyed the Photos as well as the videos. It was great to see the turnout of people... I was shocked to see that kind of support. We have a great community and group of friends which showed on Saturday. A big thanks goes out to the Thompson Family for generously allowing us to use the Hostel for our presentation. We would also like to thank Trango for supplying us with the equipment for our trip and future endeavors, as well as the swag for the slideshow. Also a big hell yeah to the American Alpine Club for there help via the Mountain Fellowship Grant... if your not a member you should be one! It was so much fun to see and hear people truly interested in what went on down South and what happened in the vertical world.

Thanks so much!

Torres del Paine Slideshow/ Potluck with Myles & Amy

Come hangout with like minded people and experience the North, Central, and SouthTower.
Enjoy a potluck and beverages as well as some amazing photos.

We will have a bunch of equipment to show what we brought down on the expedition and what we use in the vertical world.

Location: Whitney Portal Hostel 238 South Main St. Lone Pine Ca, 93545

Date: Saturday- June 29, 2013

Time: Potluck at 7:00pm

Presentation at 8:00pm

----After party in Alabama Hills at the Ghost Area, enjoy fire and I'm sure ridiculousness -----

Climbing with a Legend

How often do you get to take someone out to relive an adventure that they hadn't experienced since 1966? How about that Someone you had read about in old mags and books. A man who has impacted the future generations of climbing in a positive way, with style and technique. And if that isn't enough, how about taking that person who is pushing 70 years old with "no string" up a climb that takes most parties an entire day to climb with a rope.

"I wish I had my forty foot cord for this one" he said.
"Not a problem" I responded... "We got a seventy meter rope, we'll just lop thirty feet off".
He was hesitant about the idea of cutting a perfectly good line, but I couldn't have found a better reason to do what climbers dread doing at that very moment.
So with a smile on our faces, Amy tensioned the line and I sliced.
"Alright let's go!"

It was late enough for most parties to say "it's to late, we'll start tomorrow morning", yet the time did not seem to bother us, actually it seemed to slow down.

We hit the notch at the starting point on the East Face of Mount Whitney, pointing out lines on Keeler Needle and Day Needle to our good friend Doug Robinson.

We loitered there long enough to take it all in. "You ready Doug" I asked. A simple "Yup!" from D.R. had us free soloing to the left on the beginning traverse. Amy hanging back a little way to catch the master at work in her view finder. Up the chimney we went with the thirty foot rope stuffed in the pack with one cam and a sling tucked next to it. I watched as D.R. threw his day bag from one shoulder the next as he wiggled his way up the wyde without a problem.

The washboard slabs felt cleaner to the three of us as we took a perch before it's end and admired the views, the setting, and for me... the company. This was about to be a totally different experience. There are not many moments when Amy and I take the opportunity to sit and ponder at every flat spot we come across. We move fast, usually gasping for air. This was a classic time with friends at every stop along the route, as if sitting at a park bench flapping our jaws. We just happened to be 2'000 feet off the deck with time standing still.

Up, then down, then back up took us to the "Fresh Air Traverse". As many know, it is a wildly exposed step across that everyone raves about.

Doug fired it. It was the exposure of the following section that got him...he later described it as "loose a foot and a 1000 ft to the talus!" But once again, the rope remained in the pack.

Up a chimney, some more chillin' and we were on the summit. Doug had some previous issues with wood cutting and had reopened his scraps during the climb. A kid asked if he needed first aid, which DR modestly refused, as Amy and I laughed nearby. If only that Whitney summiter knew who he was speaking with!

We scoped some peaks from our high point, asking Doug to identify this one or that, peaking his interest with prospective, future endeavors. He knows the mountains here well, as they are one of his many Sierra stomping grounds.
The chill of the wind finally had us scrambling down the mountaineer's route and back to camp before dark. We clanked beers and watched as the massif faded into darkness, ending one of the most relaxed days I have yet experienced in the backcountry.

Back home in the Portal!

Well, we are home sweet home at last! The beautiful, wonderful Eastern Sierra. Working, climbing, hiking, and eating hamburgers at the Whitney Portal. So far we have been playing around on the established lines...including one of our own that we hadn't yet repeated...somber de la Luna. Myles soloed two grade V's, 5.9s in a day, for a total of 33 pitches. I soloed cathedral peak on a whim for my first climbing in tuolume meadows and decided to do it again, I had so much fun. Then, hiked up the north fork for the 1st time this season and soloed the Impala, which is the 1000 ft granite pyramid up from upper boyscout lake...Becky route 5.7, but endless wandering on good granite for all levels of difficulty.
Just updating, so now you know where to find us:)
Slide show for our Patagonia trip will be at the Whitney Portal Hostel June 29th

Heading Home!

We are now sitting in Buenos Aires Airport waiting to head home, drinking our last Quilmes Cerveza for awhile. We had some successes, some failures, some close calls, but nothing short of a memorable time. We have seen the country of Uruguay, hanging out on the beaches with the locals and enjoying the tranquil, slow moving atmosphere of Punta del Diablo. Brazil for a day with a quick border hop. Argentina has been our main transfer station. Then there is Chile... home of the giant rock walls and wild weather, a place with locals that you won't forget and friends that you look forward to seeing.

We have many friends and family to thank for our first international expedition: To my folks and Amy's folks, thank you so much for the support and help! Our bosses Doug, Earlene and Dougie of the Whitney Portal Store- thank you for employing our sorry asses and allowing us to use your "home" the Hostel as base camp. Trango climbing equipment, Elevation, Mammoth Mountaineering Gear Exchange, and Rab for giving us a chance and the tools. Erratic Rock in Puerto Natales for allowing us to loiter around the Hostel when the weather was poor. To Justin and Trisha Hall, Ruth from Holland, Billy the Kid, the House Mother Julie, Big Paulie and his older brother Bill, as well as Rustyn, thank you so much for always making sure we had what we needed, when we needed it, and always leaving us with a smile on our faces... Dirty B. hope to see you around! Pedro the Spaniard, and last but definitely not least, Nico, the local Chilean climber. This guy is as strong as bull and an awesome person. His donation of a rope for our Central Tower Project was huge!!! If you are ever in the Torres look up Nico and friend Thomas, both great guys and friends. We also need to say thank you to the American Alpine Club for the help received with The Mountain Fellowship Grant. And, finally our family of guadalaparques for their support, company, and fresh baked bread!


Here's some photos...


Edit: We have landed! We are home!

Pasamientos en el Torre (written by Amy Ness waiting for our escape)

Disappointment, yes, there is some of that. We've sat in a portaledge bombarded with snow for a whole week now. Everything was going to plan before...we were just a little worried about our water supply; 3.75 gallons would not suffice. We had counted on a storm, nothing major, just a few days so we could refill our water jugs and continue onward. Everyday we would get our hopes up, then late afternoon would give us just enough clarity to keep us pinned to the ledge. "Tomorrow is going to be clear," we would say crawling into our sleeping bags under a starry sky. Then, in the wee hours of the morning the pitter-patter of snow on the rain fly would begin, anew. We were one pitch from the corner, having done 10 new pitches out of twelve on great granite to get to this point. We began with 20 days of food and 70 lbs of water to allow us the time to free-climb the Central Tower of Paine. But here we sit again, day 7 of storms, resolving to go down when we get a break in the weather. March is too late. Even if we get clear skies in a few days, the chance of it giving us enough time to not only get up, but establish a free variation and let's not forget, get down safely, does not seem likely. Yesterday during our few hours of sunlight, the first we'd had in 6 days, we experienced the fear of being a "sitting duck" as snow and ice cascaded down onto our ledge. How we wished we were under a roof! We battled to get on this wall, more so than any of our previous endeavors...which is probably what drove us to sit in a 3X6 space of battered, patched rainfly material during the worst storm we've seen in Patagonia, yet. A week. An entire 7 days of just sitting here and it is still snowing! We will come back. Even now, we sit wondering how to save the funds to allow us another chance. Central Tower, one. Moser-Ness, zero.

This was written during one of many moments of clarity and self pity in the portaledge... Now we sit, eating chocolate and drinking the last of our Chilean wine, waiting for our flight home in a few days. We are excited to be out of the park; three months was too long and March was too late. We can't wait to get back to the Sierra granite and sunny Californian days, but we will return for the Central Tower, we have a vendetta to take care of!