Half Day Climbing; Prison Hill Carson City, NV 5/28/16

Late May I caught up with my long time friend Daniel Mayes ( PHD Student, Physics Dept. UNR ) of Stead, NV, and his Fiancee Lindsay Dorio ( Anthropology Major ).  We arrived around 3 and found calm temperatures with an approaching storm from the East.  After a rough warm up on Reno 911 with just a single pad for protection, we walked south and found a little VB perfect for Amanda ( Level 2 Patient Access Rep. ), her second boulder outside to date.  To complete the day Dan and I worked through the V4 arete climb on boulder "A", which apparently has no name.  The bottom of the climb may as well have been an actual ladder, but towards the middle the climb involves a right hand crimp on a good edge, a left hand sidepull on a hold that really seems to blend in to the wall, followed by a high crouched left foot (recommended higher than as seen below in picture 1), a crux right hand crimp on the arete itself, and a powerful bump with the left hand towards the top to a jug.  This was my first V4 climb outside in over 12months and I was pretty excited by the finish.

Personal Review of Area : Rock/Climb Quality 3/10 - Size 2/10 - Accessibility 8/10
Public Information : http://tinyurl.com/zvqj6st
Approx. Location : http://tinyurl.com/hhwmla6
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Full Day Climbing; Lover's Leap Strawberry CA 5/18/16

Mid May I found time for a full day trip out to Lover's Leap with Craig Black ( Level 1 Rope Access Tech ) of Gardnerville, NV.  We decided to climb a fun route for our first multi pitch as direct partners with each other.  We arrived at the Hog's Back formation around noon and ascended the 5.6 route known as Deception, considered the best line on the Hog's Back.  The first pitch was really more just class 5 hiking, but the real crux came near the end of pitch two in the form of a 5.7 finger crack section with sparse protection.  Both mountain project and super topo consider this variation of the route to be a grade harder and much more interesting than the main crack formation, that's one word you could use to describe the section...  Overall we had a blast as seen below.  We also got the chance to test out Craig's latest idea, renovating a 70's van for camping/climbing.

Personal Review of Area : Rock/Climb Quality 10/10 - Size 10/10 - Accessibility 9/10

Public Information :  http://tinyurl.com/z7yhnlc

Approx. Location :  http://tinyurl.com/heluslw
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Evening Climbing; Thomas Creek Galena NV 5/11/16

Mid May Amanda Mac ( Level 2 Patient Access Rep. ) and I left our apartment to have an ordinary workout at the BaseCamp Climbing Gym above Virginia Street.  The gym was temporarily closed due to construction in other parts of the hotel, a 6yr long ongoing renovation process.  We decided to make a trip out to Thomas Creek in South Reno above the Galena community.  For our climb we did the brief 5.9 pitch known as Orange Marmalade.  Mountain Project reviews consider this route to be sandbagged, though I can't say with much certainty if this is in fact the case or not.  Of the climbs at Thomas Creek this may be my favorite.  I have yet to climb the Torch Light route, or the blocky choss lines on the East side of the area, but I have climbed every other line at some time or another, and I can attest that this line is among the more clean and secure routes for this area.  For locating Thomas Creek the Mountain Project directions are your best source of information, additionally I have provided a picture below of the goat trail leading from the "mountain bike" trail which is used to access this area.  A closer look at this photo and you can see the base of Thomas Creek crag at the top of the photo.  If you don't mind a short but arduous approach and a little bit of choss this is a great summer location given the cool breeze of the canyon and the constant afternoon shade topography.

Personal Review of Area :  Rock/Climb Quality 3/10  -  Size 2/10  -  Accessibility 6/10

Public Information :  http://tinyurl.com/jrqx36z

Approx. Location :  http://tinyurl.com/hy7uybx

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