Ready for take off!

I spent the last week packing, unpacking, and repacking. But I think I'm finally ready, the packs are good to go. My flight to Hong Kong is tomorrow morning. Once I'm in HK I plan to crash in the airport for the night (in true dirtbagging style), next day I make my way across the China/HK border to Shengzhen, then take the sleeper bus overnight to Yangshuo. I should be in Yangshuo by 7 am on the 30th local time.

I just weighed myself while carry all my luggage. The scale reads about 230 lbs. Without the luggage the scale reads about 140 lbs. Great, my packs weigh about 90 lbs... I think I'm going to have a rough time catching buses and trains in China.

Packing list:
Clothes: two pairs of pants (convertible), one pair of softshell pants (winter), three pairs of shorts, three t-shirts, six pairs of boxers, four pairs of socks, three long sleeve shirts, two pairs of long john, one softshell jacket, one insulated jacket, one rainjacket, two hats, two pairs of gloves

Other things: dSLR camera, portable CD writer, battery chargers, headlamp, two pairs of climbing shoes, hiking boots, sandals, helmet, harness, chalk bag and chalk, one and half set of nuts, three tri-cams, two Maxcams, ascender, Gri-gri, Reverso, slings and quickdraws, climbing rope, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, camping hammock, books, and other small stuff

I won't go on a climbing trip without bringing any climbing gear again.

By the way, blogspot.com is probably blocked from within China, so I may not be able to keep this blog going. If I stopped blogging, don't get too concerned! For those of you whom I known, I will try to e-mail you with updates from China. If I don't e-mail you... e-mail me and I'll fix that.

Well I'm totally excited, tomorrow is the start of a new adventure!

Aug 18-20: Climbing in Sandrock, Alabama

So not much blogging lately. Well, I'm in Florida, so there isn't much climbing happening. I did go freediving in Blue Springs once again, but I barely broke 45 feet on my deepest dive. Or I COULD tell you about the time we took a "roadtrip" to the Melbourne climbing gym so I could get my hands in some fake crack, but that would be really lame. Rest assured, I haven't stopped climbing. In fact I may be climbing too much, I go to the gym three or four times a week, and recently the base of my middle left finger is getting really sore. I know a few climbers with finger injuries, so I'm careful. I've stopped bouldering (which is what hurts my finger the most), I even avoid hard routes on toprope. I've just been doing laps on 5.8ish routes on TR to work on my endurance.

Anyway, apart from lots of plastic pulling, I got to get back on real rock again last weekend at Sandrock in Alabama. Last time I was in Sandrock was last Thanksgiving with Hung and Eric, I got spanked on a 5.11a/b called Never Believe. This time my goal was to redpoint it. But I totally forgot the sequence for the crux, so I had to work it again from the beginning. After working out the sequence on the first day, I came back the second day hoping for a redpoint. We had to leave by noon to make it back to Florida by midnight, so I only had one shot. The crux started right after the first bolt until you pull the small roof past the third bolt. I was too pumped to link all the moves to push through the crux. I fell twice near the crux, then had to take near the top when I ran out of juice. Not even close to redpoint.

Maybe next year.