A weekend in Vegas

I'm guessing most people don't fly to Vegas for a weekend and then abstain from drinking and gambling and wake up every morning at 6:30 AM. I'm also guessing most people who go to Vegas have no idea how beautiful the climbing, hiking, and scenery is 20 miles outside the city at Red Rocks.

In 3 short days, Red Rocks quickly became one of my favorite areas. The crazy thing is we barely saw much of it at all. We spent all three days at the Kraft boulders and Bob, Tiff, and I methodically ticked off the area classics. We also each managed to send a v10- Bob and I sending "Stake your Claim" and Tiffany ticking off "Scare Tactics" (second go!).

Tiffany sticking the crux on Scare Tactics v10

Me with Tiffany's newest Crimp Chimps chalk bag

In a month and a half the three of us are heading down to Hueco Tanks. I'm feeling fit in the gym and I am excited to go on a week-long trip. 2012 was a down year for me in terms of hard sends outside, so you can pretty well guess what my new year's resolution will be. More updates to come.

14,000 feet in the air

So, I'm not really sure who reads this, but as some of you might know I am starting a new job at Mapquest on Monday. I'm really excited about this, as I think it's going to be a great opportunity for my life and my career. The job is in Denver, and I am anticipating having a lot less free time due to the job and the (1 hour each way?) commute.

I had some time off in between jobs and was trying to decide what to do with my free time. Because I live in Colorado, doing something outside seemed like a natural (ha) choice. I don't hike enough, and when I have in the past it's been mostly walking around a boulder field miserably with a giant crash pad on my back.

Looking for boulders at Rocky Mountain with James back in 2008

So I got the idea to try and do a fourteener. For those of you who aren't familiar here are some cool facts that I totally did not just steal from Wikipedia:

1. A fourteener is a mountain whose summit exceeds 14,000 ft. above sea level. 

2. Only peaks with over 300 ft of prominence are considered in this qualification

3. There are 88 of these mountains in the United States, of which 53 are in Colorado.

Here is a graph illustrating how awesome Colorado is compared to the rest of the United States:

On Saturday 9/8 and then again on Saturday 9/15, Tiffany and I went out with hopes of conquering two of these mountains. Most (all?) of the fourteeners in the state have established trails, and due to differences in starting elevation, terrain, weather conditions, and distance, the degree of difficulty can vary greatly.

The two we chose to do were Longs Peak near Estes Park, CO and Mt. Bierstadt near Georgetown, CO. What was interesting is that while Mt. Bierstadt is widely considered one of the easiest fourteeners, Longs Peak is widely considered one of the hardest. Here are some stats:

Hike	Elevation Gain	Distance (Miles)	Class 3 Terrain	Avg. Deaths per Year	Time
Bierstadt	2,850 ft.	7	0.25 miles	0	4 hours
Longs Peak	5,100 ft.	15	1.6 miles	2	10 hours

We did Longs Peak first, and with proper planning we managed a very successful hike. 

About 2 miles from the summit

We woke up at 4:45 AM and began the hike at 6:18 AM. With the difficulty of the top section, it's very important to summit before likely afternoon thunderstorms arrive. We were feeling great at around 9:30 AM with about 1.6 miles left in the hike and I foolishly drank most of my water, not knowing how difficult the last section would be. The last 1.6 miles took nearly as long as the first 6 miles, and we reached the top around 12:10 PM. At the top we overhead a man saying it was his 70th birthday. I found this to be absolutely incredible. While I'm not an experienced hiker by any stretch, I am a fairly accomplished and sponsored climber who has been very active in the last 14 years of my life. On top of this I am only 28 years old, and I can say without a doubt that this was the most difficult hike of my life.

Tiffany posing as we begin our descent

We made it back to the car starving and exhausted, but by next Saturday we were ready to try another one. It was a pretty interesting experience to follow one of the most difficult fourteeners with possibly the easiest, but Mt. Bierstadt was a beautiful and still challenging hike (plus dogs were allowed!).

For this one the planning was quite different. We woke up around 8:45 AM and began the hike bright and early around 11:00 AM. There were people, dogs, little kids, and even overweight people, but the hike was still great. Doing it in 4 hours round trip was not that easy, as the hike is more gradual than Longs Peak and still features some Class 3 scrambling near the top. 

If a Westie can do it, so can you!

Anyway, I loved doing these hikes, and felt that my timing of starting work Monday could not be better. I feel refreshed and focused, not to mention I have a new goal of 5 more fourteeners in 2013!

Père Lachaise Cemetery

Here are some photos I took at the Père Lachaise Cemetery:

 

Today is my last day here, and I'm skipping a return to the bouldering at Fontainbleau to catch up on more sights that I haven't seen in the city. I've been seeing a lot of art in the past few days, and I'll likely do another post tonight or tomorrow.

The World Mind Sports Games

I just returned from Lille, where I competed in the 2nd World Mind Sports Games on the US Team for the game of Go.

The venue

The event was very intense, with participants forming 30 teams from around the world. The way it works is each team has three players, and each round consists of games between two teams. The team with two or three wins is the winner of the round.

The tournament room

As usual, the Asian countries were dominant at the event, going 1-2-3 and sweeping the medals. Our first round opponent was eventual gold medal winning team China Taipei 1.

In general, when playing a much stronger opponent, I try to complicate the game and play chaotically. The idea is to entice the opponent into overplaying and starting a fight where the result is unclear. In contrast, I think that playing simply against a stronger opponent is more difficult.

I tried this against China Taipei and made a game out of it, but eventually was forced to resign. My teammates also lost so we lost 3-0.

Round 2 we played Italy, and this time my opponent was much weaker (around 1D AGA). He made a mistake on the top and I captured a large group, but he played well on the bottom and made the game playable. In the end I won by over twenty points and round 2 became a 3-0 win.

Round 3 was against Thailand, and I played well early despite a joseki mistake and captured some stones on the right side. My opponent was very strong, probably around 6D AGA. The game was very intense and close throughout, and I estimated myself behind by 1 - 3 points late. Unfortunately, I made a mistake in the endgame and became down about 8 - 10 points. At this point in the game I couldn't find a way to overcome the deficit and I resigned. My teammates were both losing as well, but on board 1, Thailand made a careless mistake late and lost 15 stones. He was forced to resign, but as a team we lost 1-2.

Round 4 was against Romania, and I played very poorly. My opponent was around my level (European 2D being about AGA 4D), and it was a game I needed to win. I made a terrible mistake early on and spent the rest of the game trying to come back, but in the end I lost by 1.5. My teammates both won, however, so we won the round 2-1.

Round 5 was against Hong Kong, another strong team from China. Despite my opponent's strength (AGA 6d or 7d), I played a very good game, one of my best in the tournament. I found a nice tesuji late that made the game very complicated, and after I failed to kill his stones I resigned. However, he remarked after that I should have continued playing, and this may have been the case. In the end we lost the round 3-0.

Overall, we finished 2-3, and the other USA team finished 2-3 as well. It was an exciting event, and I hope to be able to go to another one in the future. I'm happy to have had the opportunity to represent the US, and to increase exposure to the game of GO worldwide!

Gold medalists China Taipei (not sure why they gave kids champagne)

Day 3: Fontainebleau

So I couldn't go a full two weeks in Paris without climbing, so yesterday we went out to Fontainebleau to try some boulders. It was HOT out- around 87 degrees Fahrenheit, but the climbing there is incredible.

The first thing that struck me is how fun all the warmups were, which is the complete opposite of the Colorado bouldering experience. Before even trying anything hard I had topped out about 12 boulders between v0 and v3. The easy boulders have painted markings based on their difficulty, which I actually kind of liked because it made it easier to find warmups.

I managed to do a few classics despite the heat, including Levitation 7A+ and Chute de Pierre 7A+. Here is a video of me sending Chute de Pierre (video starts one move in):

We will probably go back to Font one day next week (hopefully with cooler temps). I'll have some more videos and pictures then.

Day 2: Napolean's Tomb

Day 2 started with a visit to Napolean's Tomb. It made me realize that I really need to start looking into constructing a tomb for myself in case something unfortunate happens.

Entrance to the tomb

I'm sure this says something epic

The tomb of either Napolean or a small elephant

That night we went to see a cool concert in downtown Paris, and grabbed some italian food. I really could do an entire post about the food here. For example, this morning we were running late and grabbed a quick bite to eat from the cafe at the train station. The pastry and sandwich I purchased at the train station were better than almost anything I've had in the US.

Tonight we grabbed some gelato made from melons and fresh basil leaves. It was very good. I'll try to take some more food photos in the future.

Concert in Paris

Lasanga with Pesto and Parmesan

I know I'm a day behind, so I'll try to post something tomorrow when I wake up!

Paris: Arc de Triomphe and Luxor Obelisk

Arc de Triomphe, Paris

I just finished my first half-day in Paris, and I am already blown away by the city. After getting in at 7:30 AM and finishing up my 4th flight of the day, I went straight to bed, waking only for some afternoon sushi. By 5 PM I was ready to go see the city.

I must say that Vijay gives a pretty good condensed tour of Paris, because in 5 short hours we were able to grab a good meal and see a very good chunk of the city.

Pont Alexandre III

My favorite thing was probably the Luxor Obelisk, which is a random 23 meter Egyptian obelisk in the middle of Concorde. It is 3300 years old and was offered to France as a gift by Muhammad Ali Pasha in 1829. The obelisk is flanked by two decorative fountains. It's crazy to think of the amount of work that went into transporting an obelisk of that size and weight (250 metric tons) in the early 1800's.

Luxor Obelisk at night

Fountain by Luxor

Today we started off with some Cafe au lait and crossants as we wait for Vijay to get off work. Expect another update tomorrow...

Lost Cove Bouldering

Ok so, first off I apologize for the lack of updates. I just finished a week in a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina and had no internet except for 3G on my phone. I'm going to post a full recap of the event tomorrow, but for now a post about the climbing we did in Boone.

So Wednesday is our day off from the tournament, and we took advantage of this by going to check out some of the bouldering near Boone, NC. Our friend Peter was nice enough to show us the bouldering at Lost Cove. It was very hot, but the climbing is incredible. We saw lots of hard lines and tried a bunch of moderates which I can't remember the names of. I'm definitely excited to go back and spend a full week in the south once it gets cooler. The rock is amazing and the lines are very aesthetic.

Tiffany warming up

Patrick trying a cool V5

I am currently sitting in Boston waiting to board a plane to Paris. You can expect a lot more frequent updates once I arrive!

Goodbye Boulder

In an hour, I get on the bus to the airport and begin my three weeks away from Boulder. I somehow managed to get everything I need into all carry-on:

Clothes
Toiletries
iPad, iPhone, Macbook
Camera
Climbing Shoes
Passport

My luggage

Here is my itinerary:

8/3 - 8/12    North Carolina
8/13 - 8/16  Paris
8/17 - 8/19  Lille
8/20 - 8/24  Paris

I'll be taking a ton of photos once I arrive!

The dogs right before I leave

France

August is going to be quite the month.

Over the last eight years I have dedicated a large part of my life to the game of Go, and on August 17th I will be representing the United States at the World Mind Sports Games in Lille, France.

I leave Boulder on August 3rd and travel to Black Mountain North Carolina. I'll be spending a week there with Tiffany, Patrick, and Lisa while we participate in the US Go Congress and search for some nearby boulders. Here is a photo from last year's Congress in Santa Barbara:

Photo by Brian Allen

On August 12th, I fly to Paris, where I will be staying with my friend Vijay. I have four days to acclimate, explore the city, and visit Fontainebleau before taking the train up to Lille for the tournament.

I am participating in the team event. It is a three player, five round, Swiss format tournament in which a 3-0 or 2-1 score denotes a win. The games themselves are short, with 60 minutes of main time, in contrast to the 120 minute games played at the Go Congress. I have been very focused on preparing for both events.

Oh and of course, I'm going to be in France! I have never been, and needless to say I am very excited. I started this blog to document the trip, but will hopefully keep it going whenever I do something cool or have something interesting to say. I have more thoughts as I am getting ready for the trip, and I will be posting these later in the week. Until then...  

Ciao,

-Philippe