Free Range Video...

The Free Range video is up. Visit www.deadpointmag.com

Free Range...

I love having good climbing spots in my backyard. Boulder Canyon has got to be one of the best backyard spots in the U.S.. Since the end of this years park season come for me. I've been giving my local spots more attention. Free Range (the V13 sit start to Cage Free,) located in Boulder Canyon is in my opinion one of the best test pieces around. A hard tricky start climbs into a desperate dyno to the lip. I've had my eye on this one for a while.

So after a snowy day waiting around for the weather to clear up. I headed up and, Did Work!

Free Range !!! Video soon...

Ode...

Check out www.deadpointmag.com for a nice day out at the Dali wall!!!

Ty combs his hair...

Crazy events have brought me back to Ct. for a week. I wish it was a good reason why I'm back but either way I believe things happen for a reason and in the end, it will be ok.

I have managed to climb a bit while I've been back. Today I dragged my lil' cuz Tyler out. Ty has been focusing his time on school work and not climbing much, so I didn't expect him to come and beast one of the hardest problems around.

We warmed up on some classics then went straight to this amazing test piece named Suspect Device. Suspect Device is graded V11 and I bet people reading may think "One of the hardest around?" Well The grade on this one doesn't really matter much. I've only heard of one person climbing it in a day. Most people have spent a few days on it. I spent about 5 years on it before I climbed it. Needless to say this is a savage line and very respectable to climb it, let alone in a day. Ty made very quick work of it after nearly flashing it (flashing way past the crux.) He may look a bit rusty at the end but the strength to get through the beginning is still there. Nice one mate!

Suspect Device V11 from Phillip Schaal on Vimeo.

Hound Ears...

Post savage climbing day.

Hound Ears was lot of fun. A lot of sharp holds and many problems left me brutalized.

I think I may have ended up 4th which is cool since every problem I did was new for me. And all were done with 5 split tips. One tip had 3 splits on it WTF!!!

The hardest one I climbed was called Random Man V11,

Thanks to Dave Wetmore for the stills. And check out www.meaning2memorize.com for Max making the 2nd ascent and me having a nice freak out. Just one of many I had during the day. I know I'm a P. Ham.

All jokes aside the comp was great and I would tell anyone to go. The organizers did a great job and if I'm around next year I'll be there.

A report from the CO high country is that a fresh foot+ has fallen. This may be the end of season but you never know what will happen up there. It could be 80 deg. tomorrow.

Training Hard...

Climbing in RMNP can be pretty dangerous.

But in the end its worth it.

I've been climbing alot outside preparing for this weekend. Tomorrow I'm leaving for the first of the Triple Crown Bouldering Comps. The first comp kicks off Saturday morning at Hound Ears, outside Boone N.C.. I lived in Boone for 4 months during the fall of 1999. I climbed my first V6 and V7 there at Blowing Rock. My time in Boone opened the door to bouldering for me. Needless to say I'm excited to go back for the first time in 10 years.

Yesterday as my final training day, I headed back to Upper Chaos to circuit and climb Pterodactyle. The weather was snowy and a bit wet. The thought of toping out the highball-ish Pterodactyle seemed crazy so I headed over to the savage little Friday the 13th.

After running a lap the skies cleared but enough to give Pterodactyle a burn.

After figuring it out the other evening. I knew I had a good shot to send first try. I pulled on and pumped my way to the top. I had dropped back from here two times before. This time I knew what to do and toped it out. Not that it's the scariest thing I've climbed but it's the scariest in a while so my heart was beating pretty fast. I spent the rest of the day circuiting and left exhausted.

When get back from N.C. I'll be spending most of my remining time in the park this season, suffering on Aslan.