Greece Tufas and Temples

 

I was talking to my good buddy Spence a few months ago when he mentioned that he was headed to Greece on a climbing trip with some other people. It just so happened that the dates that they were going were about the only dates that Kimber and I could take much of a vacation before I jumped into my busy 4th year of podiatry school which would put me on the road visiting residency programs all over the western part of the country. So we decided to throw down the doe and invited ourselves along for their trip.

Each of those numbers is another awesome climbing area. 

The flight was 14 hrs and included a few hour layover in Paris. Then from Athens we had another few hours to the island of Kos followed by a 30 minute ferry ride to the climbing mecca of Kalymnos. This island hosts the North Face Climbing Festival and is a pretty big deal in the climbing world. We arrived at our luxury hotel around 12:30am to find a huge balcony with a view of the Agean Sea and a huge cave called the Grand Grotta all light by a full moon. It was pretty impressive. We were set to stay for 8 days of climbing and hanging out.

Us in an Athens elevator approx 3ft square, with all our gear. 

Kalymnos is a very interesting island because it is literally over run by climbers. In the afternoons and mornings there are scooters zipping around all over mounted by climbing helmet dawned climbers and loaded with all of their gear. In the evening the small markets are filled with feakishly fit people dressed in casual mountain garb with sun damaged skin. I will have to admit, I felt pretty comfortable there. The climbing is endless. I believe there are over 2,000 routs on this little island and most of them are world class.

Russ climbing for the camera at the Grand Grotta. Our hotel is a 20min hike below. 

We followed suit and rented a scooter, because it was the cheapest and most efficient way to get around.

This scooter taught us of the importance of insurance when we laid it down and got a  little road rash. Should have known not to go with the pink!

We climbed at some amazing areas, offering excellent climbing and superb routs. Of course all of the super awesome ones were way harder than I can climb, but it was fun to watch the other guys in our group work them.

Spence(L) and I (R) pulling on some tufas, AKA weird shaped stalactite things. 

Me on a long sweet rout with a view.

Ryan climbing a "celestial" rout in the Grand Grotta cave. I know we weren't the first to take that shot. 

Sikati Cave. It is the huge sink hole in the middle of the picture. We had to climb down into the hole to get to the goods. 

The goods down inside Sikati Cave. They were harder than I could handle but had fun trying and watching other send. 

Kimber and I had the beach below Sikati to ourselves for awhile. 

Kimber getting in some physical therapy/rehab on her shoulder with Kara climbing below. 

We spent a total of 4 days in Athens (1 on the way there and 3 on the way out). Kimber and I were mind blown at how old all of the ruins were and at the detail of the stories that was recorded. We as a human race and come a long way since 1200BC, and the Greeks were pretty amazing as well.

Me playing tour guide on the Acropolis. A lot of cool really old  ruins up there. I was blowing Spence's mind! 

A model in the museum showing how they think that Greeks assembled their massive temples. I was impressed.  

 

Birthday necklace for Kimber. This thing is known as the "Phaistons Disk" ( and is famous for the fact that no one can figure out what all of the symbols mean and what the purpose of it is.

This little guy with the accordian got some change from me, however I shouldn't have paid him because he should have been in school learning. 

Our diet consisted of break, Greek salads and Gyros. We didn't mind. 

On the flight home we had a 14hr layover in Amsterdam so we got a hostel and checked it out. It was nuts. There was public transportation on what felt like every other street, a billions bikes! The city reminded me of how I imagine an ivy league university to look but the size of a huge city.

***As you can tell, the majority of my picture are, at best, sub-par. Kimber took the trip serious from a photography standpoint and I will have to post a few of her good ones later or you might see some of them on her website soon at kimberhansen.com. She is a busy lady these days so soon is being used loosely.

The Not" Way to Cool" Western States Maze Run

Today me and a good buddy Richard Byler(a fellow foot lover) decided to go and run a section of the historic Western States 100. The race started as a 100 mile horse race in 1955 and it wasn't until 1974 that it was run on foot in 23hrs and 42 minutes. I have heard that he did it on foot because his horse died but that information wasn't verified by the event's website. The current record for the course is 15 hours and 7 minutes. We were shooting for something in the distance of 20-25 miles and decided to scab the course map of the "Way to Cool 50K" that is run each year and uses a section near the end of the WS trail.

Our plan was to do the upper loop of the 50K using this map. We planned to do it in reverse in an attempt to be down near the water later in that day, thinking it would be cooler. A good 24 mile loop. Seems straight forward enough, right?

The above grey line is what it felt like happened and is partially confirmed on my GPS. We made it to the start by the fire station and there was a charge of $10 just to part for a few hours! I decided to risk it and call the bluff of the "we will tow you at your expense" sign at the shopping center next door. He headed off. Things were fine for a while, we took the obvious directions at all of the splits in the trail. There was pretty good signage....until. About 2 miles in we started taking non-signed educated guesses as to which way we were supposed to go and that was about how the next 5 miles went. It was like a maze in there. We would randomly pop out on residential streets, follow them for awhile and then take the next trail the dived back in the woods. We joked that we were like the PacMan earning points for traveling on as many trails as we could. Had it been the case we would have gotten a pretty awesome score.

We ended up following some horses for about a mile as they trotted in front of us, getting directions from a guy that knew the trails well but failed to mention that there were TWO gates at the end of the road, not one, one of which would have taken us to the right place (not the one we chose). Eventually we made it to the right trail and down to the river. At the river there was a sign that stated that the city of Cool was only 6.3 miles away. We headed off after down about 1 miles of up river and back to try to get more miles. We were feeling fine and eventually made it to the HWY 49 to find steep switch backs with a sign that said Cool was still 3 miles away!!! Not quite sure how that worked out because I guarantee that we ran more than 3.3 miles along the river. At that point I was done, my bonk was in full effect and we stumbled down to the road and caught a ride with a nice Subaru owning lady (love them).

It was a great run none the less. I didn't get my car towed and we finished it off with Smokey BBQ in Auburn. Our total distance, according to my GPS, was about 21 miles in about 3:20. The abouts are due to me not turning off it off when we caught the ride back. I think I would liver in Auburn....

Norther Colorado is an option...

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity of spending a week at the Northern Colorado Podiatric Residency program. I had a great experience and was able to see what type of training they had to offer. I could see myself ending up there. I actually think that it would be good for me to get back to the mountains.  

While in Colorado for the week I stayed with Brody and Kiley Hatch, some old friends from forever back. Saturday morning Body took me up one of his favorite nearby climbs. It was a 6 pitch sport climb called Brown Palace on the main buttress of Mary's Bust that goes at 5.11a. Earlier in the week it had snowed over a foot in Fort Collins but the weather Saturday morning was superb.

My mighty Chrysler 300 on Wednesday morning. Rented this baby for only $10.99/day!

This is my creative side, getting both of us in the shot. The first pitch was a bit of a traverse. 

Brody

Setting up the rappel from the top. Dropped my water bottle lid from up here!

Rapping down pitch 6. 

Colorado is a state that I haven't really done much in. I have always attributed it to Utah being so awesome that I never had to go over there. Is it time for me to move there and check it out? Only time will tell.

Rodeo Valley 50K Trail Run

While 50 mile races might be considers more "badass", 50K runs are sure a heck of a lot more enjoyable in many aspects. They don't take a whole day to do, they don't take a whole week to recover from and they don't make you want to swear them off when you are done. Last week, I participated in the Rodeo Valley Trail Run. Richard Byler, a fellow podiatry student, and I had been considering doing a trail race together for quite some time. We debated back and forth between doing the 30K(18.6miles) or the 50K(30.1miles). Richard was starting to see the awesomeness of distance trail running and made the mistake of saying he would join me in whatever distance I wanted. That settled it.

Pre-race pic.

I had run much of the course a few years earlier solo and unassisted along with riding my bike to and from the Embarcadero BART (Bay Area Transit System) station in SF (20miles RT) and it MURDERED ME! Might as well try it again, minus the self support and bike ride.

Dork hat and the other runners at the starting line.

Race day was beautiful! There was clear skies above settled fog down in the bottom. There were over 100 participants  for the 30 & 50K at the start line. Richard was convinced that we needed to start out slow, not something that I have ever been able to do. When the gun went off, we ran together for about 10 minutes and I couldn't take it and had to leave him, that being the last I saw of him until 4 minutes after I crossed the finish line. I started out feeling a bit Meh, not bad, but not awesome. Climbing up out of the fog on the ridge provided some beautiful views of the mountains to the north, bay to east, ocean to the west and city of SF to the south. The route also had us run above the cliffs at Pirate's Cove. Gorgeous! Overall I had a pretty good run. I finished strong with a time of 5:16. The final 2 miles of the course have you coming down a rather steep face in and out of old military bunkers and tunnels into the valley and it really gets you amped running down hill and being able to see the finish line and hear the cow bells. Kimber was waiting at the finish line to document the event and provide moral support. Richard came through just 4 minutes behind me, finishing strong at 5:20.

Some dude, beating me on the single track.

Looking North up the coast.

I like the 50K trail distance. It still hurts enough to make you feel like you worked for something and you get to finish strong. I placed 19th/78 finishers and got 9th in my age division(30-39). Richard placed 24th overall and 7th in his age division. It was a good day.

This guy, in the sandles, passed me around mile 25. 

The good photos compliments of the amazing Kimber. Thanks babe.

ACFAS Conference and Red Rock, Las Vegas

Being the president of our school's student chapter of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgery got me a ticket to the annual scientific conference that the national organization holds every year. This year it was held at the Mandalay Bay Conference Center in Las Vegas, NV. The conference went from Monday to Thursday with the following Monday being President's Day.  So naturally it makes sense to stay the additional Friday to Monday and climb in Red Rock...naturally.

The conference festivities consisted of lectures, an exhibitor hall, various leadership meetings and tons of food. The lectures were on various surgical topics starting at 7:30am and continuing on until  6pm or later. Evenings were spent at various dinners and mixers, doing the whole networking thing.

Top of the Stratosphere.

Limo ride. 

View from the 64th floor.

Red Rock Canyon

While down there I was able to hook up with some family and friends and do some climbing in Red Rock, just outside of Las Vegas. That place has a lifetime of climbing available.

Derek(L) and Mondo(R) climbing on the "Ultraman Wall". I believe that this was their first outdoor climbing experience and I doubt that it will be their last. We did two long crimpy slabber routs. They were amazed that the climbing shoes would stick to such tiny ledges. When I asked Derek earlier if he had any climbing shoes his reply was, "Do you really need them?" Both of them  made it to the top! Mondo even logged it with the Contour.

I met up with power couple Spencer and Annie Weiler who drove down from Salt Lake City to climb for two days over the President's day long weekend. They do it every year.

Spence did all of the planning and our first objective was a 5 pitch route call "Adventure Punks" that went at 5.10d. Throughout the climb the phase "spicy meatballs" was used to describe various sections including the  poorly protect 5.9 start that Spence lead. He offered me the first lead but the first placement was a bit too high for my comfort level. When he brought out the Elvis leg mid-route I knew I had made the right decision.

Annie leading the 3rd pitch.  

Nothing like a tiny belay ledge.

Start of pitch 2. Always greatful for a Piton. 

Annie and I following Spence up pitch 2. 

Me, doing the chicken arm deep in the wide off width!!!!

Spence and I have been pulling adventures together for ages and we have this nasty habit of biting off a bit more than we can chew. You could maybe say our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. Monday's objective was a 7 pitch route called "Warrior" that went at 5.11a.

The climb is on the shady face of the dark red strip of rock on the front center peak. To get there we had to scramble/shwack up a bunch of 5th class rock. It most definitely took us 2hrs to get to the climb just as Mountainproject had stated. 

One of the many 5th class scrambling/bush swacking sections of the approach. Kind of looks like it should be part of the official climb.

Me climbing up a mossy face to the start of the climb. Moss makes rock slippery. 

When we got to the base of the climb there was a couple from Mammoth there with the lead half way up the 1st pitch, forcing us to hang out in the cold for an extra 45min.

The first pitch was a 5.9 chimney pitch. I decided to take the lead.

During my lead on the first pitch I was able to place the huge #6 cam that we had been hauling around for two days. When Spence and Annie climbed up to me their feet were numb. The group above us from was making some pretty crazy noises trying to get up their pitch. We looked at the next pitch from our tiny belay ledge, and the culmination of cold toes, the difficulty ahead and it being mid afternoon we made a group decision to bail. Note to self. When climbing in the winter, don't do routs in the shade.

We rapped off of all of the junky sections of the approach, but it still took forever. 

Spence and Annie headed back to the inversion of Salt Lake and I spent the next 6hrs sitting on the floor of the Las Vega McCarran Airport studying for my surgical rotation OSCE the next morning at 7:30am. It was great to get on the rock again. It has been to long.