The CragBaby

I like to try and support the local entrepreneur, especially considering I work in venture capital . The local establishment of highlight today is 4th Street Laundry located on 4th East and 1700 South.

When I moved into the area I decided I would try out this laundromat to wash a bunch of sleeping bags. Like every laundromat I have ever frequented, it was pretty (to be honest) ghetto when I walked in with the somewhat dirty floors. However, I was pleasantly surprised on my return visit. I had forgotten my sleeping bags and had to pick them up the next day. Upon walking in the lady behind the counter immediately said hello and introduced herself (her name being Rita) and told me how she had owned the establishment for 30 years. She was so extremely friendly and had gone out of her way to ensure my sleeping bags were completely dry and bagged up for me. I had brought some dry cleaning with me to drop off and she insisted that I just pay for the sleeping bags when I pick up my dry cleaning as it would be more convenient.

The service of 4th Street Laundry is phenomenal and their dry cleaning prices far beat out Red Hanger.

Shaft bought me the nicest gift, The Free Spirit. She is a beautiful cruiser, previously owned (my favorite type of gift), purchased from craigslist, a little rusty, only has one gear but now (thanks to Shaft) fashions a basket, bell and kickstand. I love her.

Whew. Pure beauty! I was so thrilled upon receiving her as it was completely unexpected and exactly what I had been looking for on craigslist.

Ever since I received this beauty, Shaft and I have cruised to the our local coffee shop on the weekends. CB typically trots alongside, but I have started to train her to actually lay in the basket (with a little mesh covering protecting her) in prep for the longer ride to the downtown Farmer’s Market (which starts in a couple weeks). Yeah, we somewhat resemble the Wizard of Oz..

It is amazing how much rock is in Utah. I have been climbing 4 years (this season will be my 5th season) and there are still canyons I have yet to explore. I finally made it to Echo a couple weekends ago with Screamer, Mr. Math (who will from here on out be called Bold-er), Barlow and new friend Adam.

The rock in Echo is similar to that of Maple and lower City Creek, being a conglomerate composition with medium sized stones. Conglomerate does not make up my favorite rock lines as it is anything but aesthetic; however, the routes are usually pretty good for re-gaining endurance, of which I currently have none.

Adam climbing at the Main Wall.

We climbed a bit at the Main Wall, where I was introduced to a real fun, boudery 12a (thanks to Screamer for throwing up a top rope for me), and then we ran a couple lines at the Echo cave.

Barlow and Screamer hanging out at the Main Wall.

The day was so enjoyable besides one weird incident.  I have no idea the reasoning, but there were 5 dead animals along the 15 minute trail up to Echo Cave. These weren’t just any animals, but rather one buck deer, two doe deer, an elk and a huge moose. All of which were just along the trail (if not right on the trail) without any sign of hunters or reason for death. Anyone know a probable cause?

Picture from my birthday dinner at Cafe Madrid last August.

The other day I received a text message from a friend inquiring about Salt Lake City restaurants recommendations. I realized that lately I have been frequenting the same restaurant continually and making a list of favorites reminded me I needed to re-visit some of these classics. My favorites include:

Sushi

• Koko’s Kitchen - I was introduced to Koko’s by my friend Gunner. I might be in debt to him for this as Koko’s is now my favorite restaurant, with me visiting about once per week. I have always eaten sushi there (as sushi is one of my favorite dishes) but Gunner has a whole list of recommendations. For sushi, definitely try the Fireball and Pocky Dynamite. They have great sake, an extra large filled to the rim being only $8. Location is the corner of 300 south and 700 east.
• Takashi - Takashi is great place for a nice night out on the town, but expect to wait if you don’t make a reservation in advance. They have some creative combinations, including Strawberry Fields which combines the odd couple of strawberries and red chilis. Location is on Market Street in downtown Salt Lake.

Mexican

• Red Iguana - though the place is a dive, it is hands down the best mexican dishes in Salt Lake City. Location is the west side of North Temple.
• Lone Star - the best fish tacos are definitely found at Lone Star located on 6200 south. It is the place with an old car covered with stickers out front. Note that they do not take credit cards for amounts under $20, but do take personal checks.

Italian

• Michelangelo’s Ristorante - homemade pasta in the heart of sugarhouse. However, for some odd reason I think I have only gone there on one occasion. Located across the street from the Wild Oats on the Highland Drive side.
• Caffe Molise - located downtown on 100 south, this quaint restaurant has delicious gnocchi that can be enjoyed in a nice outdoor setting.

Mediterranean

• Mazza - fantastic Mediterrean food. There are two locations, one in 15th and 15th and another in 9th and 9th. The menu and pricing are the same, but the atmospheres are distinctly different. The 15th and 15th location is loud and small, feeling somewhat like a small cafe. The 9th and 9th location is more elegant with the white table clothes and lots of room. Both are great depending on the occasion. Definitely try the looma, hummus, grape leaves and lentil soup.
• Atlantic Cafe - cafe atmosphere. Food is more expensive than Mazza and not any better. Still worth a visit. Location is main street and about 300 south.
• Cafe Med -located on 33rd south and just a little east of state, this restaurant also has good food, but doesn’t completely compare to Mazza.

Indian

• Bombay House - the Bombay House might be my all time favorite restaurant. Everything from the massaman to saag to all appetizers are utterly fantastic. Location is off Parley’s Way by I-80.

Tapas

• Martine - good tapas in ample sizes. The setting is just ok, but the food quality makes up for it. Location is downtown on 100 south and between (I believe) State and Main.
• Cafe Madrid - located by the Black Diamond store on 3900 South, Cafe Madrid has fantastic tapas made of exquisite mixtures. Unfortunately they are quit small in size, probably the smallest portions I have had from a tapas place. Definitely try the shrimp in cream sauce and the sausage in fig sauce. Delicious.

Pizza

• Settebello - if you have been to Italy and enjoyed true Italian pizza, you will adore this place. Fantastic pizza that makes you feel like you are sitting in front of the Duoma. Location is downtown by Red Rocks.
• Este Pizza - the Grayhghost gave me the heads up about this joint. It is small shop in Sugarhouse with some snow attitude. Stickers of ski resorts are plastered around and they refuse to put pineapple on pizza. Great pies and pitchers of beer. You honestly can’t go wrong with this place! Location is one of the side street of Sugarhouse and around 1100 East.

Sandwich Shops

• Robin’s Nest - this woman ran business is by far my favorite sandwich shop in town. My personal favorite (in fact, so good that I don’t think I have ever branched out) is the Robin’s Grill. Location is Main Street and 300 South.
• Gandolfos - New York style subs that are good, but their breakfast sandwiches are delicious and extremely fairly priced. My personal favorite is the Radio City. Location is downtown on about 200 South and Main Street. There is another location in Sugarhouse, but the hours are really odd.

Pubs

• Desert Edge - this one would not have made the list, except that once I tried their crabcake salad. Superb. I will never order another dish there.
• Bayou - whenever I have a friend visiting I take them to the Bayou. The beer selection is the best in SLC and the food, especially the sweet potato fries, are delectable.

If you readers have personal favorites, please post up in the comments.

I have been wanting to hop on the uber classic route “All Chalk and No Action” for quite awhile as many people have mentioned that it would be my style (crimpy!). A couple weekends ago the crew and I headed up LCC for the first battle.

The Route Slayer on a TR run of “All Chalk and No Action”.

The Route Slayer, Gunner, BinerBen and I all did about 3 laps on TR, assessing out the holds. Next time I go back, I will probably need to do a couple more top rope runs prior to hopping on lead. The climb is CRIMPY with two distinct crux moves and I think a fall from the last bolt going to the chains could be “exciting”.

Grace climbing a funky 5.9.

The boys: Shaft, Gunner, Tallman, BinerBen. LCC was beautiful this day. The temps were perfect for LCC granite climbing, but warm enough to cause two avalanches across the canyon.

Ms. Unicorn gets the hardcore high five for the day. This girl just started climbing and has NO FEAR. Even though she is a noob, she hopped on the 5.12 to “give it a try” and ended up with a bloody finger. She then hopped on a TR that was on “Perhaps” and after unclipping the bolt (for anyone who has done this climb you know that bolt on the slab) fell and took a pendulum swing, ripping her pants, that scared everyone on the ground, but not her. Hard core!

I strive to volunteer on a weekly basis but am looking for some new volunteer opportunities. The places with which I currently affiliate my time include:

ARUP - I like to donate platelets on a bi-weekly basis, albeit I feel well. This is my favorite volunteer service because by sitting and watching a movie, I can directly impact a life. I choose to donate through ARUP because all donations are used at the local hospitals and very rarely do they receive enough donations to fulfill demand.

Climbing - During the summer I like to donate a climbing day a week to taking out climbing newbies. I do this because I used to be one of those newbies who couldn’t find a partner. And it sucks. By taking them out I can still have a beautiful day in the outdoors, teach proper safety techniques (keeping the climbing community safe) and allow someone else to enjoy the sport I love.

KCPW - I volunteer often during the KCPW pledge drives. KCPW is Salt Lake’s independent national public radio station (that barely escaped from being turned into a Christin station. Thank you again KCPW board members). I really love the programming, the KCPW crew and the point that they brought the BBC to its own frequency so that listeners could have BBC news 24/7. This volunteer opportunity is only on a semi-annual basis.

Ten Thousand Villages - I used to volunteer weekly with Ten Thousand Villages but have now put this on the back burner. I still really like the organization, but didn’t feel completely needed when I was there. I felt as if I didn’t show, the job would still get done… so why not spend my time elsewhere?

I have also looked into working with the Literacy Center of Utah, but have not started on with them as I just think the time commitment is too much for me to take on right now. I have also looked into NAMI (the National Alliance of Mental Illness). I was so jazzed when I found NAMI because I feel like mental illness is a prevalent disease that many people do not understand and I was hoping I could help with social awareness. I was so psyched for their cause I offered a year of my time, but they just didn’t know what to do with me. Thought their cause is good, at the time that I talked with them they seemed to still figure out how to operate, so I stepped away.

I would love to hear where you readers affiliate your volunteer time and why. I am looking for something that I love as much as platelet donation. Some form of service that is really needed and appreciated.

The biggest downside to climbing is finding climbing partners. My phone is chalk full of people I can call, but I would absolutely love to find one solid partner who is excited to get out on a regular basis. Yet there are so many variables when finding a solid partner, which include finding someone who is:

• psyched on the same type of climbs I am pysched on, which this year is 5.12 sport climbs.
• willing to also hang the draws. It is easy to find a catch, but harder to find someone willing to try and lead. I don’t mind leading, but I also get scared and have mental blocks, so it is nice if my partner and I can swap leads when necessary.
• knows the art of the dynamic belay. I am usually lighter than my climbing partners and do not want to end up with another busted ankle.
• has a similar schedule to mine. This is real tricky in Utah as many of my friends can get out earlier than 5pm.
• who is jazzed to go out with me, so the calling isn’t one sided. This is one of the trickiest variables. I feel like I am always doing the planning and it would be nice to find someone where the excitement to get call me was equal.
• and it would be nice to find someone who could plan prior to the morning of the climb. I have noticed that this one might be real tricky to find.

The ideal situation would be to find someone who every week wanted to get out on a certain day to work 5.12’s. The problem is, if this person is found, it is real easy to date the person (if male) and then inevitable things end and though friends, there really isn’t the interest in climbing together regularly. Or if female, as soon as they find a guy they would rather climb with their boyfriend. I understand both these traps and realize it is just part of the variables in finding a partner.

Regardless, if you are reading this and looking for a 5.12 sport climbing partner please contact me. I would be jazzed to meet you and get out on a regular basis. Hell, I will even bring beer and try to be cheery every time we hang out. =)

Ms. Pear (who will from here on out be referenced as the Route Slayer) and I have been wanting to hop on Castleton since last year. We had tried to run it this past November, but due to inclement weather were turned away, cragging for the day instead. So when the weather was looking nice and sunny this past weekend we decided to cruise down with our friends, Triznut and Frenchie, for a desert weekend and a break from “real life”.

On Saturday we spent the day cragging at the Ice Cream Parlor, each of us climbing a handful of pitches and I even taking a couple of the trad leads. Let me note, that I am NOT a trad climber by any means but am trying to develop a “trad lead head”. Learning to love this type of climbing is definitely a work in progress for me.

Triznut leading a very fun 5.8 finger crack.

Frenchie cleaning another excellent line after leading it.

That night we camped at the Castleton camping area. The Route Slayer and I were so exhausted we skipped our planned dinner and quickly toasted quesadillas. I gobbled mine down and was the first to bed around 10pm, instantly falling asleep.

My tent with a sun-lit Castleton in the background.

The next morn we spent an hour preparing our trad rack and cleaning up camp, then set off on the trail up to Castleton. I quickly realized that my lack of cardio for the last year due to the ankle injury and my climbing partner’s intense cardio workouts due to her scheduled Boston marathon run created a huge discrepancy in our hiking times. =) Thankfully she was the fastest of all four of us so I didn’t feel like a complete slacker.

The Frenchman hiking up to Castleton. Frenchie and Triznut ran the Kori-angles line, meeting the Route Slayer and I at the top to join ropes for the rappels.

The Route Slayer and I did the North Chimney line of Castleton, a four pitch 5.8 line. The blue line on this picture shows the approximate route (with the dotted line showing that we were actually on the backside or I guess really the middle of the tower). Beta for the route can be found here on MountainProject. There is an offwidth section on pitch 2 that requires a 4 to 4.5 camalot. Yet if new to offwidth, the Route Slayer actually suggest a 5 camalot.

I was real psyched on climbing Castleton, but I think I must have forgotten many aspects of tower climbing since I have only done one other tower to date. I somehow forgot that I am NOT a desert trad climber, I don’t particularly like exposure and I can often become a little queasy with great heights. None of these characteristics, especially combined, are useful on Castleton. =)

Me. Real jazzed. Well.. until I started to climb.

The Route Slayer pulling the boulder move at the bottom of the first pitch.

Me and the Route Slayer at the top of the first pitch. The Route Slayer had taken the first, and hardest, lead and had done a phenomenal job. I struggled mentally, even on top rope. The first pitch seemed pretty “in my face” with the exposure feeling more extreme than what I had expected from pitch 1. I was smiley in this picture, but deep down I wondered if I was going to hit the summit.

Me finishing up the second pitch. The Route Slayer took this picture as she vowed NEVER to climb an offwidth again. =)

The Route Slayer and I had decided in the morn that she would take the first two leads, the hardest of the four, and I would take the last two. I wasn’t quite sure on the hike up if I could actually take the last two leads as I seriously am not a trad climber. Yet, I thought I would see how the climb was feeling. By the top of the second pitch it was real obvious that me taking the last two leads was not going to happen. I continued to mentally struggle to feel even somewhat comfortable on these routes. The Route Slayer gladly stepped up (thank you again) and led the last two pitches easily.

The top of the 3rd pitch was a fantastic corridor, comfortable for sitting and enjoying the sun.

Me finishing up the 4th pitch, which was by far the most enjoyable pitch as it contained face holds and allowed the use of the trusty heel hook.

The Route Slayer and I hit the summit early afternoon, meeting Triznut and Frenchie who had beaten us by about half an hour. The summit views were spectacular and I felt honored to add my name into the summit diary, even with my entry stating that I was scared and hit the summit only due to luckily having the best climbing partner ever. =)

The view from the summit.

The Frenchman, Triznut, the Route Slayer and I.

Triznut escaping the wind in the hangout area.

Getting ready for the first rappel.

A picture looking down on the first rap. I usually don’t like rappeling as it is the most common way climbers get hurt. This rap seemed especially intense due to the exposure, sheer wall and wind. This was the first time that I truly thought I might throw up upon looking over the edge. Why again do I climb for a hobby?

Soon enough we were all back on level ground.

Overall, climbing Castleton was a good experience. There were some downsides, for instance me almost crying twice and seriously thinking I might throw up. Ha ha…! I don’t know why this climb was so incredibly emotional for me. I hoped it was an off day or because I hadn’t been on a rope for awhile. Regardless, I did get to hang out in the sun with my friends and see some beautiful views of Moab. But mostly, I learned that deep down I am truly just a sport climber. I like the movement of sport routes, the face holds and the length of the climb. And you know what? That is ok. The more I climb, the more I learn that all my partners and I all have different fortes. Tower leads should be left up to Frenchie, Triznut and the Route Slayer. Please only send fixed gear leads my way. =)

My friend, the Greyhghost, gave me the heads up about a phenomenal recycling service in Utah. The company, Stone Castle, is in the computer and electronics recycling business specifically but recycles everything imaginable from monitors and hard drives to batteries, electronics, glass, plastics, microwaves, DVDs, cell phones etc. The company services Weber, Davis and Utah counties through a handful of location drops, but addresseses Salt Lake County with a pickup service. They pickup and recycle everything for free except monitors and tvs which cost a mere $5 fee.

To schedule a pickup appointment, call 801-731-9444 and tell them where you will leave the items. Fantastic!

Shaft and I cruised up to Solitude in celebration of St. Patty’s for half a day of skiing. The snow conditions were pretty good (meaning a little fresh powder only in the trees), but it was just nice to escape the city for a bit and take a break from the stresses of life.

No matter the ski day, the picture always looks the same. =)