Webster Art

I’ve been meaning to write up my last Utah trip. But I’ve delayed so long that it seems pointless. I’ll probably just post up a bunch of the photos. Part of my problem is that I’ve stopped subscribing to Photoshop. Gimp and or Affinity is a lot slower at processing photos.

On the plus side, I have been busy. In no particular order, I’ve complete a long list of projects.

• Invented a new ultralight wet painting carrier…on the third try
• Redesigned and cut the weight of my Upright Panel Holder (UPH) to 12 ounces down from 32oz.
• Sewed a new zippered brain for my rock pack. Zippers are so fragile!
• Finally learned the picking and singing for More to This (after two months)
• Changed the oil in RAV4 and on the Tundra: swapped out studs and greased ball joints
• Tightened my shoulders with exercises so I can play decent ping pong again.
• Painted Rainier twice plein air and twice in studio
• Climbed at City of Rocks, Leavenworth and Squamish
• Replaced an exterior door, who knew it was so much work!

Going back to the beginning, I got there in a day and a half. Meg showed up that night. I know Meg from the City of Rocks group and had climbed with her and Jill for a couple days. It was nice to have a partner show up. Not that I’m opposed to making new friends and partners face to face…that works great, it’s just less convenient for us bashful types.

We started out dead easy on a couple 5.8’s: Twin Cracks  and Triple Jeapardy. Meg didn’t think the stacked blocks on Triple were safe. She may be right. But they don’t move at all and I’ve climbed past them probably a dozen times now. People say the Creek starts at 5.10, but it’s not true if you hunt around. I never lead tens the first few days.

I saved a life Wednesday. We were packing up at the end of the day, no one around. We heard a shout from Twin Cracks 5.8. S. had her knee stuck 50 feet up and was hanging below, suspended from the knee. She’d been there for 15 minutes and was in tremendous pain. I climbed up and over her body to the anchor, then lowered down with a knife, water and lotion. I built her some aiders to stand in on my cams. After a scary 30 minutes we were getting nowhere, pouring water just made it worse. She kept saying that her knee needed to come out going down but it wasn’t working.

“Just grab my tights and pull!”

“Are you sure, they might rip and it could make it worse.”

“I don’t care, just yank on them, I have to get out of here!”

I grabbed her tights below her knee and yanked. I felt the fabric tearing but suddenly there was movement and her knee came free. We took some photos at the base, feeling very happy to have completed the rescue.

She started coming by our camp each night and became a quick friend. She joined us at Lighting Bolt crack and lent me her 6 and 7 for the offwidth.

We were climbing a 5.9 called Binous crack when we saw a 30 year old couple walking toward us with lost expression. They were looking at the wall, then down at their open guidebook. We all do it at new climbing areas. It’s one reason why I like repeating routes. You waste less time looking for stuff.

“You guys looking for something?”

“Oh, thanks. Yeah, we are looking for Chocolate Corner?”

“It’s about two rope lengths to climbers right.”

As they got closer they saw our line.

“What is that route that you’re on?”

“It’s a 5.9.”

“That looks pretty good.  We just got in last night, never been here before.”

“Ah, creek virgins!”

“Yupp, everything looks pretty hard. We are primarily boulderers but we do trad climb.”

“Would you like us to haul your rope up for you? Meg is about to clean this one. She could hang a top rope for you?”

“Oh man, that would be awesome, you don’t mind?”

“No, it’s the least we can do. I know what it’s like to walk up to these walls and get intimidated. Happy to help.”

Liam went first as we packed up our gear. He floated up it with no problem at all. We talked with his lovely girlfriend Chelsea as he climbed. She told us they were towards the end of an eight month road trip and had both taken sabaticals from their jobs near Squamish, Canada. He was a carpenter and she was something white collar?

They followed us over to Chocolate Corner where I had, again, backed off and handed the lead over to Meg. I have a complicated relationship with that climb. I’ve probably climbed it a dozen times, but only once clean. It’s red #1 Camalots, and my hands are two big to get secure jams.

Stronger, usually younger big handed climbers can stick their hands as deep as they will go…up to the start of the palm…and simply flex. With enough forearm power they can make their hands stick and climb up. The feet are fine. It’s a tight corner, less than 90 degrees so shoes are decent. It’s the hands though that have to hold on long enough to place gear.    

Meg got up Chocolate Corner just fine. I followed it with no problem, even finding some kneebar rests. 

The next day Chelsea and Liam joined us at the Blue Grama crag. I’d been hearing about it for years. But had avoided it because new crags often involve lots of searching.

Turns out it’s a very nice crag with a nine I flashed.

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105717487/unnamed-9-aka-mexican-unicorn

A new easy nine at the creek is a rare bird.

Liam led a hard right facing corner.

https://www.mountainproject.com/route/105886695/unnamed-10-steep-thin-hands-dihedral-to-pod

It looked like too much work but later I wished I had taken the top rope. Pride has no place at the creek. One needs to be constantly building stamina and any top rope is a good top rope.

Meg led Petrilli Motors and I did TR that one, falling a couple times at a corner transition and at the crux. Kelsey flew through the crux. We were all watching and Cass said: “Yup, she is a gymnast!”

Cass showed up for the second week. Meg, Cass and I had a fun few days, including a rain rest day up at the ruins. I told them about my vision up there and we looked around. Meg left soon and Cass and I had a slow morning. It was her birthday so I offered to draw her portrait. Then in the afternoon I flailed my way up Generic Crack. Technically I have no problem with the moves. It’s the stamina issue that keeps me from getting it clean. I must have hung 4 times. Each time after a rest I climbed strongly before petering out again. Cass was so hot from belaying in the afternoon sun that she had to take a long rest in the shade before gamely cleaning my route. Not surprisingly, there was no one else up there, and this on a route that normally has parties waiting.

Cass left at the end of the second week. I spent two days painting at both Horseshoe Bend two hours south, and at the green river before picking up Chris at the airport.

We climbed at Donnelly where I led The Incredible Hand Crack almost cleanly: I grabbed one cam to clip the rope rather than taking a runout whipper on the roof. I’m calling it 98% clean. Chris also led it but didn’t get it clean due to it not being her hand size. We also climbed Horse Crack, Zits and Soulfire. For those that don’t know, that means two long approaches in one day. The second one, up to Optimator crag was a grueling sufferfest in broiling sun. That was the day we decided to never do two crags in one day…and to come down two weeks earlier next year.

On the last day she led Cave Route. One of my last memories from that day was her looking at Quarter of a Man. Christine and Julia were looking at 150 feet of reds and greens in a 90 degree corner. That encapsulates my last trip to the creek. Having just led Cave Crack, and it being our last day she was seriously considering Quarter of a Man. I’d not done it…it being light years out of my league…even in my prime…and not my size anyway. But it would have fit her. The determining factor was we were all tired from 4 days of climbing (her and Julia) and 3 weeks for me. Plus she didn’t have enough greens and reds. Her last word on the subject was: “I saw that really good German guy hanging on a green.”

I flailed on the easy 9 by railroad cracks. We were looking at Binous crack, and I was thinking it looked like too much trouble when I was saved by a rainstorm.  It rained all the way back to Salt Lake City airport. That night, our last at the creek, we played sad lonely cowboy songs around the campfire as the rained drummed down on the tarp overhead. At one point, as I chose another song about broken hearts she commented: “It’s weird you and I singing love songs together.”

“Ah yeah,” I replied. “We’re both thinking of our loved ones, who we miss very much and who are so far away.”

“And who I’ll be seeing tomorrow!”

“I know. It’ll take me 2 days to drive all the way home. You’re lucky to be catching a flight.”

Our last song, cast into the rainy desert night was “House of the rising sun”. We sang that song in perfect harmony. She really does have perfect pitch, and it was a joy to hear that flawless harmony blast out into the empty desert night.

Since Indian Creek I’ve now gone to Leavenworth, The City and Squamish.

In the midst of that I painted Rainier plein air twice. I liked the paintings so much I decided to upscale them to a studio version but much larger at 24 x 36. I’ve painted the mountain 22 x 30 before, and sold it to a friend. But this is the first time I’ve done it in oil.

Usually I try to finish plein air pieces in the studio. They often have rough edges that need refinement: passages that were hurried due to changing light. But I’d forgotten how relaxing it can be to take my time on a large painting in studio over multiple days. 

It does tend to drag on like work, but I enjoy the process and sense of purpose a multi day painting brings. Being retired gets boring, there are days when I almost miss work. But the opposite is true also. On my 3 day trip to Squamish with Dave we were doing up to 7 pitches a day followed by long walk offs or 4 pitch rappels, plus a walk off. Incidentally, you can do four 30 meter raps from 100 feet below Karen’s Math to a short trail down to the car. It’s vastly superior to the Broadway Decent.

Anyway, after three days of doing either new routes (Welcome to the Jungle and Long time no See) or 7 pitch routes (St. Vitus to Karens to Memorial), I needed a rest day. Dave doesn’t tolerate rest days and left. I could have tried to get a spot and a partner at the Chief campground but was more in the mood to hang with Sue and paint, so I left too. 

I liked the big 24 x 36 inch studio painting so much I painted a copy of it same size, but this time I used palette knife. Knife painting is fun because the colors are so bright, but jeez it’s labor intensive! The first one is on canvas glued (Miracle Muck) to a cradled board. The whole cradled board concept is fine up to a point. Yes, the paintings are well protected, and glue is archival and reversible. But what I didn’t know is that a cradled board that big is very heavy…and that’s before you add the frame.

In researching it on youtube, I’m finding that artists have traditionally painted on canvas because at the end of the day it’s easier for the artist. It’s true that the painting is much more vulnerable to damage. I know it sounds harsh, but once it’s sold it’s not my problem if you poke a hole through it.

If the painting doesn’t sell, a cradled painting has to be stacked like furniture. Large paintings on canvas can be unstapled from the stretcher bars and rolled up. Van Gogh sold one painting during his life. But he always worked on canvas for convenience. When he died, his family found a shed full of rolled up, unsold canvases, stacked like cordwood.

Large canvases are surprisingly light. Sure, they are fragile…it’s just cloth. But museums are full of large paintings on canvas, and many are 200 years old.

Anyway, long story short, I’m getting tired of working in the studio. It feels too much like a job. Aren’t I supposed to be retired? I tried to make a frame for the first thirty six incher. Not only was it confusing and delicate carpentry to make my first floating frame, but varnishing is awful. How in the hell do people learn that stuff? Mine looks like a 6 year old was finger-painting. And the float leaves a huge gap where light can come through the frame. How do I fill that…paper?