“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.”
Henry David Thoreau

After spending the New Year in Arkansas with Jessa, Jeremy Collins, Corbin Brady, Mr. and Mrs. Lasseter, Bryan Schillig, Paige Bushling and a host of others, I have been moving non-stop.

The crew at Jim Lasseter's cabin on Kent Mtn in AR.

I finished several big flooring projects, trained, climbed, shot/edited videos occasionally slept and got prepared for a trip to go climbing in Venezuela; I leave today and just now at 7:00am found the time to scribble out a blog piece.

The jungle wall kit.

Tepuy!!

Before I talk about some climbing projects Jessa and did over the last month, and well, didn’t do, I gotta rant a bit:

I work, I have a job and I love it! No trust fund here! At an increasingly alarming regularity I am bombarded with slightly patronizing remarks regarding my life style - “must be nice to get to climb whenever and not have to work” is more or less the assertion. And just the other day at the crag a colleague barraged me with a “woe is me, I suck at climbing because I have a job and can’t stay focused on climbing, but you wouldn’t get it, you can climb whenever”. F-you buddy, I work my ass off, on my hands and knees at an alarmingly high volume. Most jobs I do, I pack 10-12 hr days in, go home train and hustle hard so I can get up at 6:00am the day I leave for a month long trip and get packed. Just because my climbing dreams and goals are backed by the incredible support from some the outdoor industries leading equipment manufacturers, does not mean I just sit at the coffee shop and wait to find a cool scene that will make a “dope” hipstamatic pic with my smartphone, I don’t even own a smartphone.

Yurt hardwood floor!

10" of belt sanding bliss!

Finish work.

June Bug packed for a day at the office(s).

9:30pm training at the "gym".

OK. Arkansas is AWESOME! I went to try and do this wicked, old school trad project rumored to be mid 13… I got beat down, maybe 14a..? The weather has been good enough around here in WV to get the odd evening sesh in and send a few first ascents on the NRG’s incredible boulders with Jessa.

Jessa workin the fa of The Green Face 13a(ish).

                                                              New boulder problems at the NRG.

Oh yeah, going to Venezuela today to do some community service at a small village in the Gran Sabana and climb a Tepuy, hopefully by a big, new free route!

Wow!

I’m stoked and thank all my friends, family and especially Jessa – without a doubt the hardest part of a big trip is not gathering the funds, or training, it’s leaving my lady!!

Goal0, Jonny Copp Foundation, Sterling Rope, Metolius, Mountain Hardwear, Julbo, Probar, Waterstone Outdoors and Sportiva have put huge support into getting me on my way to this jungle adventure, thank you soooo much!

Cheers,
PG