In Memory of Chris Hale
Chris Hale was reported missing on Sunday June 14th, 2009; his body was found in Yosemite the next day near Mirror Lake. I only spent a few days with Chris in Hueco but that’s all it took for him to leave a positive impact on my life. Without Chris, the sends and videos of Crown of Aragorn, Full Service, and Power of Landjager wouldn’t have been possible. He was there for Ian and me as our guide and was full of positive energy to help us send our projects.
After our first tour to East Mountain with Chris we arranged for him to take us to the East Spur on Sunday, the last day of our trip. The private tour was necessary for us to be sure we could get on our projects one last time before making the twelve hour drive back to socal. We showed up outside the ranch at 9AM expecting to see Chris ready for our tour. After waiting a few minutes, we started asking around to find Chris. We were directed over to his white tent where he was still resting and recovering from the night before. Instead of trying to opt out of his duties, he just asked for a few minutes to get ready and grab a snack before we left. We didn’t really have enough room for three people and three big pads in my car but he happily squeezed into the back and held his pad out the window during our drive into the park. Chris didn’t climb that day but was happy to carry his pad around and encourage us on our projects. That day Ian sent Power of Landjager and I sent Crown of Aragorn, two of the hardest problems we have ever done. This wouldn’t have been possible without Chris and his positive attitude. We owe much of our trip’s success to him.
By the end of the season we will have a new classic first ascent at Black Mountain named in Chris’ honor. Chris will be deeply missed throughout the climbing community.
The video below shows Chris sending Ultramega V8 in Hueco Tanks which he had put some effort into before sending first try of that day.
Mandala
Here’s video of my ascent of the Mandala V12 in Bishop on January 3, 2009. This was before I bought the HD cam so the video quality is subpar but it’s better than nothin!
Big Sends and Big Falls
It was another Black Mountain weekend for Sonja, myself, and lots of other socal climbers. We started off with a 30 minute hike out to the new area around the hillside. We stopped at the midway boulder to warm up and break the hike up. It was at this point that I realized I left my camera back at the car and had to hike all the way back! A lucky start to the day.
Power of Landjager!
Ian McIntosh and Alex Savage climb Power of Landjager V11 in Hueco Tanks, TX.
FA’s and Planes
The big news is that Anthony Tarascio put up an amazing new line at black mountain yesterday, Where the Wild Things Are. It is on a very large 40+ foot boulder in this new area Ian found this weekend. It is easily one of the best lines at black mountain and likely checks in around V8. I have some video from the weekend attempts and Ian has some pictures he may post up at some point. Nice work Anthony!
Like I said earlier, if you want to check out this new area you should give Ian an apple pie and he might take you there!
The other news is that I got my laptop back yesterday so I can start editing again! I will have some time today since I will be on a plane for 5 hrs making the trip back home to Atlanta for a weekend of family and a wedding.
Black Attack
Sorry for the lack of updates lately but I’ve been having some technical difficulty with my computer so it’ll be a couple weeks before I get a new video up.
In the meantime we’ve been having lots of adventures up at Black Mountain. Last week we climbed at the corral, the chappies, and the boulders near groupsite four. At the corral Alan put up a new line he’s calling LohBoh which starts on Lobotomy and finishes on Loh’s Roof. Later Ian found some secret beta for this line and we both sent quickly. It is a fun one and is probably in the V8 range. Bridget got agonizingly close to sending this one using short beta which makes it way harder. She climbed all the way to the jug at the lip but didn’t have the wing span to reach the next flat hold in order to finish the climb.
The Mountains
