A late start to a New Year

I've been a bit lax in updating this blog recently, just been busy travelling and haven't really had anything much to say. Nevertheless-

During the month of December and into the first week of January I went back to the states to spend the holidays at home. It had been a full year and a half since I'd been back, so it was good to see the family and catch up with people. I didn't really take any photos except during a few days while I was in Vegas. I stopped off to meet up with a couple friends and have a few relaxing days of climbing to help break up the 50+ hours of travel required to get from Launceston TAS to Ithaca NY. The time in Vegas was awesome, one of the best climbing trips I've been on. Got to see some good friends, the weather was perfect, the climbing was excellent, and none of us really had any goals so we just had fun climbing and hanging out. I don't get out climbing with very many people these days, and when I do it's a bit different, so it was really nice to re-live some of those good ol' days.

Here are a few shots I took of Brian Raymon climbing the classic Gift (7c) at the Gallery in Red rocks, along with a few other shots up at the Trophy wall

Since I've been back in Tasmania I haven't been up to a whole lot. I've started running again, after about a 10 year sabbatical.  For the first 5 or 6 years of not running I used to pride myself at my 'off the couch' ability, but in these last few years my shape has definitely atrophied in that regard and it was time to get back out there and do some cardiovascular fitness. I've been running about 3 weeks now, and I already feel better. When I get my shape up a bit better I think I might start doing some trail running up in the mountains.

I got a new HD video camera for Christmas, so I'm excited to break that out and shoot some footage. I took it down with us last weekend when we went climbing on the Tasman peninsula at the Paradiso and messed around shooting some stuff on the walk in and a little bit of Leanne climbing. I put together a short clip to see how it would go and get a feel for the software. I lost some quality with multiple format changes, but I think I just need a little more time getting used to the camera and software and it'll be good. I've embedded it here, or you can watch it on Youtube.

I've also been out searching for new climbing crags, and have found a really nice (albeit small) cliff relatively close by, which I intend to go out and develop soon so stay tuned for that and hopefully some more video.

I'll try to post again before the end of the month. Till then-