The NEW Laeser Institute Climbing Wall

After about a two weeks of work, spread over a couple months, we finally have a new climbing wall down in the basement of the Zuni house in Los Alamos. This is the third wall to be built down there and definitely the best. The floor space is only about 12'x12' so it's pretty cozy with a low 8' ceiling height but all the walls flow together pretty well without too many sharp corners. It seems to climb pretty well. The semi gloss white paint makes the space reflect the light and a totally self supporting framing provides easy access to the back and lots of storage all the way around the wall for fixing t-nuts.

The original Laeser Institute wall in 1991

V2.0 was quite a bit better in 1996

Mel on V2.0 in 1996

Here's a video of the old wall in Chattanooga:

Here's some photos of the construction process that we started in September. Special thanks to Masumi for donating all of the plywood with t-nuts already in place.  That helped keep the cost down to less than $200.

Layton helps with the initial framing

Building the wall in our shop was awesome because there's lots of space and tools

Almost there

Kestrel getting ready to paint

Layton getting ready to put the first holds on.

A couple features I'm proud of are "midnight lightning" bolts Layton and I stenciled with gold spray paint along the bottom and the 2" gap at the bottom of the plywood to provide access for grabbing stray t-nuts should they get bumped out.

Layton demos the finished product. One of our best walls ever!

Here's a clip of Layton trying to traverse around the wall:

Return to Indian Creek

After a nearly eight year break I returned to the finest crack climbing mecca, one of my most favorite places anywhere, Utah's ultra-amazing Indian Creek. With Mike Brumbaugh of Venture Sports (my partner on many similar trips) and his friend Marc Rouse of Food By Marc, we climbed for two days, one at Broken Tooth and one day at Supercrack. Beautiful 60 degree temps made for perfect conditions and because it was mid-week we had our first pick of the choice lines. Two days of jamming and scuffing on desert sandstone was all my weak and poorly tuned frame could handle, Mike, however could have climbed forever. I'm super thankful to be living out west so I can go back again soon!

Mike firing up an unnamed 5.11 at Broken Tooth

Chillaxin'

Blue Sky Mining

Mike and Marc hiking down after 6 pitches at Broken Tooth

Gorgeous sunset colors!

Backyard Rainbow

In September we experienced torrential rains that flooded the southwest. In Los Alamos the damage wasn't as severe but many hiking and biking trails were damaged. Between storms we were treated to the most brilliant rainbow we'd ever seen -- right in our backyard.

April Trip to Bosque del Apache

Last weekend for part of Layton's spring break we drove south to do a little climbing (about 5 minutes worth) and visit NM's famed Bosque del Apache which is about 20 miles south of Socorro to watch some wildlife. The weather was not super cooperative but we went anyway and a great time.

Rain, sleet and snow in the backyard before driving south.

We arrived at Socorro's box canyon in time for gusts up to 50 mph and hailstorm. It was still fun to hike around and  attempt a few problems on the streambed traverse.

Pokey bouldering in the streambed

We arrived with sunny skies...

Birds of a feather

Whooping Cranes are the star attraction

"What's that!"

Clearing skies after the spring hailstorm

Going crazy after being cooped up in the car most of the day we started jogging the loop road

Absolutely beautiful. We saw about 25 species of birds including about 10 that were new for me.

After fun day of birding we stayed the night in ABQ and went to the aquarium/botanic garden the next day before heading back home.

The Japanese garden at the ABQ botanic garden.