S7 memories...

"Cramped, damped, and dingy affairs, but the benefits enormous," as Ben Moon had said (on wood holds in cellars). Proud to have stayed and trained in the S7 district, as, "The American," I was called. I wore army boots then, go figure. Fellows didn't want me to go to the nearby army shop, but gladly accepted me into their dole homes and gym and pubs. I was 19.

S7	SHEFFIELD	Abbeydale, Nether Edge, Millhouses, Carter Knowle	Sheffield

Great link

And if you haven't read Jerry's Revelations, read it now.
Superb book.

John Gill's website

John Gill's Website

A Climbing Memoir   1953 - 2011

The Green Corner

It's now fall and perfect, so back I go.

Reminds me of Camp 4 perfect granite (photo taken last summer)

Yet another stout unclimbed line in my Missouri.

From last year, climbed several great lines:

Last summer, a classic!

See video above  (or here)

Great move to square block edge, dicey feet, classic

A nice little garden

"The Spider"

Build a Wall

How to Build a good, solid, simple wall. One you can always have, can move if need to, and can always rely on for great sessions and training.

This one is portable, panels held together with bolts and nuts, 8' x 10', with an extension 8' by 2' for higher ceiling basements/cellars. Perfect training wall, easy to build, half-day project.

Updated History Page, (and other pages)

I've recently updated the Missouri Rock Climbing History page I have created, as well as my own Bio page, and I have added a resourceful Links page.

-Greg

When you're young, and inspired, will it be routes, or bouldering?

Starting holds, Peter!

http://echelmeierclimb.blogspot.com/2011/02/what-i-know-is-new-post-about-climbing.html

Classic Guidebook Rediscovered!

Just rediscovered in the basement among old gear, books, and maps the long lost St. Louis Rock Climbing Areas guidebook by Jim Thurmond, written in 1994. It has been a joy rock hunting with Jim over the years, and he truly is both the legend and the enigma of Missouri climbing history, completely dedicated and driven and a good old friend of mine. Good climbing times Jim! Here's to you!

Here are the first few pages from his book (click link below):
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5Zu7fnsliENN2YxZTg1ODUtNDI3My00MDdmLThmNDctOTdlNWY0YzliM2Y3

Jim at Silver Mines just last year

Remote Shawnee National Forest bouldering

Just a photo.

New blog discovered

Good words, especially how the author connects with nature and the rock and moments he and others have and share climbing. Hope to read and see more!

southernilbouldering.blogspot.com
The ILLustrated Man

Working on access issues.

Great Medicine Waters

Wow Kevin!

So great we walked up that hillside and discovered that! I forgot to ask you how it was? How others liked it.

Hen-of-the-Woods

Here's something I just wrote: 

"Well no wonder it was called Great Medicine Waters.

In the late summer upon first visiting, I saw such beauty, wonder, and felt such connection, inspiration. Then in spring I came back and could sit for hours. And now just the other day this early fall with all the rain a friend and I almost stepped on The Hen-of-the-Woods, growing big and healthy and under a tree, a mushroom "prized in traditional Chinese and Japanese herbology as a medicinal mushroom, an aid to balance out altered body systems to a normal level."

I read up on it it and makes sense we went the other day. That place is truly healing and special to me.

"Kitchemuske-nee-be" for The Great Medicine Waters

Image source file links provided.
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grifola_frondosa

DNR: http://dnr.state.il.us/publications/pdf/00000591.pdf

Just some good pics, Joe!

They are yours too.

I have found much, share what I share, and wish through bouldering we can make some amazing moments happen. Our old mountains have made us some great gifts.

20 years climbing!

Yes.

First day back!

Climbed just the other day for the first time in over 3 months since having bilateral surgery on my toes. Still hurts, extension and flexion on the first metatarsals, but it's ok. What the heck! Steep walls hard problems and cushy pads may be my retirement afterall, until I begin mountain climbing.

Message to Joe

Gregory Alan EchelmeierJoe Reidhead

Having family that is good is better than bouldering. Next to that, bouldering. Bouldering is the presence of so many things, not the absence of things. Just gear. Have a doppelbock, sit back and relax, enjoy the nature around you… this is bouldering... C'mon Joe don't be lame, you can send hard and easy. I'm gonna be ready soon!!

Bouldering with Ian

Took him to Elephant Rocks and he LOOOOVED IT. He's such a good little climber, too!

This was last year over the summer.

Rowing is great exercise

My little raft in the water...
Feels great!

8 more weeks!

Until I can climb again. Aah! So I'm grabbing my bike. Doc says I am healing good, though. The surgery was a success. I do have a theory: climbing (has given me) great range of motion on the great toe (as I do have), though sped up a degenerative process as well.

The Swiss Clock Project

This was October of last year.

It will climb like a Swiss clock. Every move matters!

This is an amazing problem
that has seen no send yet!

By the time my toes heal it may just be too warm
for this one this year! Plus it's desperate!

Peter come send it!

Old Training Notes

I used to train like a regimented fiend. Looking back, it looks silly! But I don't mind my dedication. I am much mellower now, though, may even climb harder. I now just climb and do exercises to get and stay strong. But youth is what it is. It may have taken these dedications to get to where I feel now, so much more free, so much stronger in fact. (If it helps, well, I am 35, can climb V13 on a wall, happy to still be strong and able after all these years; am trying to climb the V13 in Missouri, but it is hard, am weak now, 20 lbs overweight after toe surgery; and yet love discovering new areas even if I can not climb just yet.) I hope whoever reads this will never shut the light out on themselves, whatever works! Actually, I believe it is a combination of training and letting go that will get you up some really sick climbs! We are seeing that today if you read the climbing news...

These notebook pages are 18 years old now, taken around a time I had been climbing less than 2 years, a time when I just was breaking into climbing 5.13s and hadn't yet realized just how much of a boulderer I am, and love for bouldering above all else. I find myself reflecting on a time in American climbing milieu... and remember the rock and holds pulling on. I began to really feel at my place by 1995, I stopped competing, I stopped taking notes, and I began bouldering a ton in Lake Tahoe, resurged old classics at Indian Rock, and put down my rope for sick slopey wood holds and tiered roofs and wave walls as I learned crazy movements and training while in Sheffield, England, courtesy Johnny Dawes and gang. I had my first beer in Sheffield, and played my first game of pool, ever. I was 19, then. These notes, 18.

Today, I would never be regimented with any climbing. Perhaps that is why I climb better now? Or perhaps it was then I did?

These pages are recycled, now. I've kept just these few here. It's amazing, but we climbed hard during these years; I think we tried too hard. Funny, now we don't try hard enough, and seem to climb harder. These pages look silly but they are important: Climbed hard before the time. So these notes...they are captured innocent discoveries, as simple as they are.

There was much to send, then. (Several of my old bolted projects are still unsent.)



Many pages I have left out, but you can imagine. Tuesday, Feb 7th, I bolted, and rested. Friday, Feb 8th, I bolted. Sunday, Feb 26 I bouldered medium hard, and did 5 sets of something.

We trained too hard, I remember. I trained a lot with the strong Timy Fairfield, lived off my sponsor Power Bars, and scared people like Rob Candelaria at CATS before knowing it just yet; that a youth movement would be on its way in America. (It was just over a year later Chris Sharma would prove this, first at an event, one that Christian Griffith and myself and friend set for; Christian believed I made the semi-finals route too hard, and thus he made it easier, all climbers flashing it; I knew the young, us, were going to need harder climbs).

So methodical I was at this time!

A schedule

By 1992 I had been flashing V6s, by '94 V9s, but by 1995, I would try the Dominator, wasn't quite strong or good enough just yet for it, or perhaps was, and yet knew this was what I loved. That amazing clean granite, the forest, the warm sunshine, the crisp air, the smell of pine and other trees, those steep gymnastic moves, I was at home. But only had an hour to try it! Then I got injured on a road trip and had to take some time off, taking years before returning.

Last day of climbing

I am very happy now I still climb! I loved it then, I love it now. Hope you enjoyed these notes! To your joy, to your goals, fellow climber!