I had to retire my Trango Cinch after just 2.5 years of use.  A quick summary, a photo comparison to the GriGri2, and a link to belay tests is here:
http://greencrap.com/articles/trango-cinch-and-grigri-2/

I had to go to a conference in Disney World, then Suzanna says “Hey, we’ll be there for Memorial weekend – you should come.  But there won’t be any climbing.”  Hmmm I suppose I could just relax a bit.  ‘Relax’ is code for ‘get hammered for 2 days’.   Suzanna’s friends were all super fun 30-something children so we got along well.  Mike and Suzanna came back from Aruba engaged (Congrats!).

Beth and Cassie also got engaged, and Ann-Marie announced she was pregnant!  Big weekend!

The rest was less serious – just a bunch of random, pointless entertainment like salmon jumping

and baseball, where you get points for batting while mooning, points for entry style, the watermelon was third base (and floated randomly throughout the pool), and defense was more like football blocking

A few new photos up from the tower.  We towed a grill all the way out there to grill up some grub.  Was it worth it?   Hell yes.

Spent a week in Bend, OR kickin around the cold, wet desert doing a little climbing and a lot of just hangin like balls.  Got my sis and hubby on some rock…

After a bit I started to think her kid was the devil.  All day, every day there is jumping, running, throwing, spitting, yelling, more jumping… it’s unbelievable.  She got him a sweatshirt to exemplify this

I did get a few sends despite the rain:
Heinous Cling start:  12a
Latest Rage 5.12b (onsighted that one – it was a rugged struggle and had a 30 ft runout to boot)
Chain Reaction 5.12c.  This one almost made me cry I missed the final throw so many times.  Laura allegedly has some good shots of this I’m waiting for…
Kings of Rap 5.12d.  Got this one on the third go surprisingly.  This is a picture of Todd the Canadian on it

Lots of folks in town including Craig, Gary, Sev, Ryan and their respective significant others.  Even got a shot of the extended family.  We actually hung out without killing each other.

More photos on the photo page…

Went to the Enchanted Tower and got schooled by an eleven year old.

The kid finished off the above 5.13a – grabbing hold I wouldn’t even think of (like the two finger undercling for the crux as you can see in the photo).  His feet would cut but with no mass he just sorta held on to whatever he wanted.  Pretty rad really.

Friday and Saturday were great but Sunday sported 50 mph wind gusts so we bailed and had some Pisco Sours courtesy of DiRT from his Peru trip.

There’s some new photos up and ones from a second trip to Hueco as well.

Headed back to Hueco Tanks with MSM, Dan, Jaime, Jason, Jenny and Dirty Jeff, then met up with Eric the Great and friends Danimal, JW Black +?  More photos on the photo page.

First we went to the terminator area.  I got punched in the face by 2 V8s but Mike, Dan and Dirty were crushing!  Here’s Dirty on a V10 (Predator) trying really f’ing hard!

After a few beers (and Blue Label) it was getting late but we hadn’t really arranged for camping.  Dirty was already asleep but Wanda the park bitch came over and woke him up to tell us to get out.  Dirty promptly fell back asleep.  When I inquired what happened this is how the conversation went:

“What’d she say?”

“We have to leave.”

“Why are you still sleeping?”

“Cuz I’m tired and I don’t care”

Good ‘ol dirty taking care of things.  She came back and kicked us out.  Basically it meant that she’d rather be a bitch than to get the camping money from us.  Wanda you bitch.

Next Day we meandered around North Mountain.  Jenny and Suzanna were back to See Spot Run – the classic high ball V6.  Solid progress! but no dice.  I was preoccupied with my fleeting interest in the Indian (Eastern, not native) culture so didn’t climb much but did get Mexican Chicken and Hog.

Thanks to Mike on the last one for instilling some motivation in an otherwise motivation-free weekend for me.  Stupid proposal got in the way of climbing.  Be sure to check out the video on the photo page (shows up as an flv icon).

New photos are up from Last Chance, Sitting Bull and White Sands.

Go read the Fourth Turning

I redid the photo section to gain a few advantages from the previous gallery setup:

1.  All (or most) photos in one spot.  I was doing this by year but now all are in one spot

2.  Smooth transitions

3.  Searchable context.  You can search for photos by their tags or captions or dates.

4.  Virtual Folders.  These are buttons that are basically searches that I’ve set up such as ‘Favorites’ and ‘Recent Uploads’

Hope you enjoy!

I added a bit about Henry the new van.