Life in Sheffield right now is pretty hectic and I am paying the price for taking 3 weeks off from the business to go on a Red Chili road trip across Utah, Nevada and California so I mustn't grumble. Although I don't agree with most of what George Bush does I do like America, have a lot of good friends over there and always enjoy climbing and travelling in the states. Although 3 weeks wasn't much time we did manage to visit a lot of places and pack a ton of climbing in. The highlights for me was the bouldering in Little Cottonwood Canyon and The Buttermilks. The Buttermilks is great with some of the best bouldering around in a beautiful setting and is only slightly spoiled by being unbelievably rough on the skin, I think you would be hard pushed to climb to your limit 2 days in a row. The highlight at The Buttermilks was doing the Mandala which you can check out in the video section of the web site. Originally graded V11 or font 8a it's now slightly harder after one of the crux finger holds broke and weighs in at an easy V12 or font 8a+. The crux move is at the start matching for the left fingerhold after that it's just a few big moves bewteen good holds and a easy mantle to finish. I would say it's well on for the flash if you got cold conditions and were feeling strong.

Although the Buttermilks is good Little Cottonwood Canyon (LCC) is better and I will bring you more from the USA road trip over the next few days but for now it's back to getting the Spring/Summer 2006 line ready, in other words back to work!