Breakfast in Hell, just another scary obscure choss pile, why wouldn't you climb it?

    Years ago Greg Prescott and I were wandering around the limestone above Lake Mary, exploring the Booze Pig and Long Ryders walls for the first of many times.  Admittedly we were somewhat lost, Toula's guide will get you in the general area but the rest is up to chance.  We found Booze Pig and were pretty sure we found Long Ryders and were stumbling about in search of what ever else might be out there.  Then we found it.  A tall roof leaning out over the sloping away hillside with easy climbing up to the point where the roof started and then everything gets very real and consequences become serious.  The landing slopes away and is tiered in such a way that pad placement is challenging.  Well ole GTP and I tried it a handful of times but ultimately decided that we needed more crash pad and more bodies before we tried this line again.  We walked away from the cliff but something about it just stuck in my head, something that I just couldn't shake.   I'm pretty sure Greg forgot about the line but it floated in that dark recess of the brain where bad ideas ferment.
      Fast forward a few years and my friend Anna and were out for a quick session at the Pig and some sunshine.  We exhausted the lines we could climb at Booze Pig and the call of that tall roof began to sound in my head.  We packed up and wandered across the hillside, I knew it was out there but wasn't quite sure where it had been a few years after all.  Eventually we stumbled on it again and layed out the pads, we only had two and I would only have one spotter, Anna.  Not exactly the dude-bro posse and plethora of pads Greg and I had envisioned but we were there.  I don't remember the details exactly other than knowing that if I blew the moves in the roof or pressing out the top out I would likely take a truly ugly and R/X rated fall and both Anna (if she didn't have the good sense to not spot me) and I would be seriously hurt.  But, I gave it hell anyhow and after a handful of aborted attempts I was able to top out the line.  It was terrifying and I don't remember the sequence at all.  I named the line Breakfast in Hell after a Slaid Cleaves song I had been listening to quite a bit.
     Its been years since that day with Anna and no one has repeated the line.  Its probably only V3 but the consequences are so dire that I'm not sure that I can really just tell anyone to go get on it.  In all reality if you were to blow the crux or top out you would end up in the hospital if not the ICU, hell it might even be worth wearing a helmet.  That being said though I keep coming back to it.  Last year I was able to talk Joel, JJ, and Wade into walking up there, thinking that with the added pads and a spotter a repeat or second ascent was assured.  No so luck.  Now really its not a pretty line its not all that aesthetic and the consequences are so dire that I really don't know why I feel a compulsion to repeat the line.  I've done a bit of work shoring up the landing area a bit and putting up a handful of other lines on the scrappy cliff band I've taken to calling the Unsung Wall (all the problems are named of Cleaves songs.)  A week or two ago I was out by myself just blowing off steam and found myself starting to reach into the crux of Breakfast in Hell.  Common sense came crashing down on me and I shakily downclimbed.  Sat there a moment and tried it again, same result. But still I tried one more time, this time I actually had my fingers just brushing the hold but couldn't quite commit.   Once again I reversed my moves and called it a day.
     This last week I had the great fortune to go climbing with Tam and Matt.  We hit the Long Ryders wall and appreciated JJ and Wades hard work in  trail building and cleaning the almost forgotten but classic lines on the wall.  Then I suggest  to Matt and Tam that we walk down to the Unsung wall, just to look...   They both were game and we headed through the juniper to the wall.  I showed them the other few problems and Matt made short work of "Cold and Lonely" another roof problem, not as high but just as hard and with its own challenging landing.  (FYI watch out for the Cactus!)  Then we moseyed over to my nemesis.  Its decieving, from the ground it just doesn't look the tall or hard or scary.  But pull up through the initial moves and yer focus narrows and you find yerself in a very serious situation.  Matt put several good runs at the line, sticking the crux move but finding himself unable to commit to letting go with his lower hand and downclimbing.  I tried and kept botching my beta, frustrating.  Tam just watched with Prince the weiner dog in her jacket and laughed.  After being denied one time to many we took off the climbing shoes and put on the street shoes again.  Matt scrambled up the warm up and shuffled over to the top of Breakfast and his eyes widened as he saw the desperate nature of the top out.

     Well we're back to square one, right where Greg and I were so many years ago, a posse, crashpads, serious psych.  Its possible, it does go, but its not really that aesthetic, its not really that hard, its not really that cool...  and if you blow it, the name says it all, you'll be eating Breakfast in Hell.    But for some reason I can't wait to get back on it posse or no and get my confirmation send.  Experience that fine line between in control and completely off the rails.  



---  so this didn't come out the way I really wanted, but hell its late and I'm tired.  But what is it that drives us to boulder alone and push the boundaries?  Thats the real thing I meant to write about but got sidetracked.  Anyhow if anyone reads this don't climb this boulder problem its Scary!  But if you do go let me know I'd love to see it happen and I'd appreciate a spot too!

video of Breakfast in Hell, Slaid Cleaves

The trick shoulder... or something like that

Soooo its been quite the while since I put any words down, just after Boys Christmas if I recall.  Now I find myself in that awkward spot of wanting to catch up on all the huge events but knowing that a.) no one really wants to read all that and b.) my attention span seems to waver from minute to minute and chances are I'll get side tracked.  So instead I figured I would do a brief recap and then get to the business of what I really have to say.  HA!
     The last two months have been a blur with some of the highlights being the Tough Mudder with the Weakest Links, the new job-flight medic with Guardian Air, and an amazing girl.  Now you might be asking "if she's that amazing doesn't she warrant her own post"?  Well she does, she is that amazing but... perhaps that would be too bold?  Wouldn't want to scare her away now would I?  Actually, I feel like I've been talking people blue about her she is just that fantastic, only hitch she lives in Cali, but time will tell, time will tell.  But in a nutshell, her name is Laura but I call her Sassafras, Sass for short and she calls me Arizona cause well I live in Arizona.  She teaches 2nd grade by day and slings booze by night.  She makes me smile and I hope that I return that favor.  Oh and did I mention she is beautiful?

But I digress...
     With all this upheaval in my world during these two months, working 96+hrs some weeks and studying my brain to mush I haven't been able to climb as much as I would like.  Which on some levels is okay, actually I had resolved to take the whole month of December off to let my "trick" shoulder aka "chick lifting" shoulder convalesce.  I was very disaplined and didn't climb once during December, however this didn't really produce the desired results.  As a matter of fact I had a massage during that month and the masseuse was very hesitant to do any work on my bum shoulder because she was fearful that she might loosen things up so much that it would just fall out of socket.    The story behind the cause of this bum wing is a bit hazy, years of abuse followed by a wedding last summer where I may have imbibed a bit to much bourbon and hoisted my date into a sitting position on my shoulder using only one arm.  (She claims that the injury obviously happened when I was doing Double cartwheels and Wagonwheels with Lil Nikki.  I'm pretty sure thats how I got a big goose egg on my noggin but I'm   sure my shoulder was fine...)  Its been a bit wonky over the past 8 or so months but finally failed on me while climbing the Prosecutor with Carrie in November.  Bummer, but we persevered and had a great trip to Castle Valley after which I decided to take time off.   Well that one month slipped into 2ish and 3ish of very little climbing.  I've been trying to squeeze in the odd day out here and there all of them have been fantastic, even bushwhacking all over West Fork with Joel and Darren!  Unfortunately the cripple wing is not improving, actually I think its getting worse.  It hasn't actually dislocated, but theres an odd catch that happens during passive movements and when it happens I can't lift my arm above my shoulder.  Give me  about 4 minutes of fussing with my arm and tada!  good as new back to climbing, hiking, day to day living.  Everyone seems to have an opinion and everyone seems to think seeing an orthopod is a grand idea.  I appreciate all the advice and have been focusing on trying to strengthen it as much as possible and zero in on how to reduce it or "fix" it when it slips.  However the idea of seeing an orthopod is somewhat repulsive to me, not because their not good folks, but rather that after having two ACL reconstructions I am not looking forward to being a cripple again.  And why bother going to see them when I know that the word will be that I need some sort of surgical intervention?  I can't take extended time off work as of yet and I'll be damned if I let this thing keep me from getting back on the rock!  Which leads me to my next topic.....  Read the next entry, duh.