ISRAEL (is real)

WOW. Israel was amazing. I already wish I was still there. The limestone truly is world class. It is unfortunate that while the rock is amazing, climbers only legally have the right to climb in a few specific nature reserves. Fortunately, the Israel Alpine Club is working hard to open up new crags. The areas they've got stand on their own with amazing features, tufas and pockets abound, and beautiful scenery (you can't beat the Mediterranean). I took LOTS of photos of Ofer Blutrich, Elad Omer, and others on killer routes, and here are a few half decent shots.

Ofer Blutrich on his "Jekyll and Hyde," 8a+/8b


Ofer pulling through one of the many cruxes of "Madness," 8c, another of his hard FAs.


Ofer pulling onto the upper headwall of "Madness," 8c


Rest days in Tel Aviv are a nice distraction from the aching tendons and sore muscles. Luckily I have great people to spend my time with there.

A view of Tel Aviv from the old city of Jaffa (Yafo)


Shawarma humus plate in old city Jaffa. Pretty much heaven.


Our last day climbing was Friday, and I didn't really take climbing photos, as I had captured more than enough on previous days. Here is a photo Maya took of me on Ofer's "Hyper Fuel," 8a/+(5.13b/c) just moments before losing hope of sending it this trip and taking yet another huge whipper. Because of the angle, looking straight up at the steep overhang, to the left you can see most of the super classic "Ali Baba," a bouldery 5.12c/7b+, and the hardest climb I actually sent of the trip.


Elad Omer belaying jovially.


Ofer Blutrich and Inbal Katzanelson at Gita.


I was convinced that my experience of the "scene" wouldn't be complete without a tour of the "LULE" or chicken coop-turned-bouldering-gym, just outside of Haifa. They were right. It's the shit.

Elad


Ofer


Ofer and I standing under the 60 degree wall, deciphering a difficult move.


Myself, really pulling Hard.


Saturday, our last day in Israel, was no longer for climbing, but for family ... Maya's mother's side, specifically. We met in Ceasariya for lunch at a pretty great restaurant. Maya's cousins on that side all have kids, who make great models. This day is highly abridged out of necessity.
Here is Bar, posing in her "boots with the fur."


Here is Bar with her older cousin Noah, Maya is sitting in the background.


After lunch, Maya, her parents, and I went into the old city of Ceasariya, which is actually a national park of ancient Roman, Byzantine, and Crusader period ruins, right on the sea.
This used to be a moat.


How many places can you just go playing on top of ruins like this?


Or go swimming out on top of ruins like this?


The power plant at Ceasariya, just south of the old city's Roman theater, is its darker side. It just doesn't feel like it belongs.


Maya being pretty.



This morning, we flew from Tel Aviv to London, where Maya and I will be staying for three days with very distant relatives of hers, both of whom are artists, so I feel right at home. Well, almost. I don't foresee myself getting used to English expressions any time soon.

Here is the view from our window on Oakfield, looking an awful lot like Brooklyn does this time of year.


We are here so Maya can check out the AA (Architecture Association), which is one of her top choices for graduate school, so I may have to get used to this weather again.

More perhaps when we return stateside.

PSYCHED!!!

Currently I'm in Israel. I've been climbing once already at a cool crag in the north called Gita, with a high concentration of hard routes, and will continue to explore more of the brilliant limestone that Israel has to offer,

Here is a crazy large praying mantis.


Here is a detail from a mosaic by one of Maya's distant relatives.


Here are cows, with the town of Gita in the background.


And here I am sending the easiest route at the Fuel Sector of Gita, "Super Fuel," 7a+/5.12a. My belayer is Ofer Blutrich, Israel's resident stongmo, who has been kind enough to kick off my Israeli climbing tour.


Stay tuned for more, the best pictures have yet to come.

.I have tried to update this thing a few times this summer, as I have traveled far and wide, taken thousands of photos, and done a fair amount of climbing. Every time I try to post, it seems that uploading large photos makes blogger crash on my slow connection, so I then get frustrated and don't post. But inasmuch as it has been like four months since I posted, I figured I should.

Here's what I've been up to:

May: Finished the semester on the 4th. I started the summer with a week-long trip to the Grand Canyon and Zion with my close friend and fraternity brother Zac Feltoon. Here are some photos (of the hundreds I took).










roadside bouldering





Upon returning from that trip with Zac, I headed to Israel on a Taglit Birthright trip. I saw a ton of the country with a great group of now close friends. Check out some of the pics:






Yes climbers, that limestone is of very good quality.

And THIS is why Israel can never give up the Golan.


Prime Minister Ehud Olmert

June: After our Birthright trip ended in early June, I extended my stay for an additional ten days and spent the time in Tel Aviv and doing even more traveling around Israel. Here are a couple pics from that leg of the trip.






After returning to New York I headed to Vegas, spent a few days in LA, and then close to a week in Bakersfield with my grandfather. Almost as soon as I got back to Vegas Maya joined me (after working in New York for a bit) and after just a couple of days I drove her to LA and spent a few more days there.

July: That's right, more traveling. Waaaaah? After chilling in Vegas and climbing at Mt Charleston for a little bit, Maya and I met up in Idyllwild, California and visited the summer camp for the arts where we met years ago and hung with our old teachers, John Brosio and Richard Godfrey. I even got in a couple short afternoon bouldering sessions in the Idyllwild area:


After returning to Vegas from Idyllwild I only had a couple days to play around with ... er carefully babysit my brother's 2006 Subaru WRX wagon (someone else's) before heading to Richmond, VA for a Kappa Sigma leadership conference. by the end of that I was certainly ready to do some rock climbing for a bit

August: After Leadership Conference Maya came to Vegas for a few days and I only had a little time to climb before heading up to the Outdoor Retailer Trade Show in Salt Lake City, UT (august 7 - 11), where I spent much of the time fielding questions at the Evolv booth and got to see a bunch of climbing friends from far and wide that I hadn't seen in a while: Susanica Tam, Brett Ashton, Buck, Fish, Paul, Daniel, Laura, and many others, as well as meet some new people in the industry/community, many of whom I would now call friends. Bouldered one afternoon with the entire Evolv posse at Little Cottonwood Canyon, and had a generally great time staying with this guy Mike Imperiale at his home in SLC. Since then I have sent a 13a at Charleston called the Energizer, spent a few days in LA to return my brother's car to my dad's garage, broken down in my 88 Sentra on the side of the I-15, and climbed a little with Susanica up at Mt Charleston.

I fly back to New York on the 26th and I guess I'm psyched to get back to school, and back to climbing on plastic once a week and scrounging for rides up to the Gunks. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.