This fall climbing season was amazing! The weather followed its normal pattern and turned fair in late November and clear skies made for lower nighttime temperatures and low humidity - perfect conditions for sending routes at the otherwise hot and sweaty White Mountain. On my first day out I redpointed a personal best - on my first attempt! That, added to a few trad leads, including a first ascent on the Camel's Neck, made it a memorable season. Family obligations cut my trip short at 15 days instead of the hoped for 5 weeks but next year, with our youngest child off t college in the US, I should be able to take advantage of all the great conditions.

The weather is still great and will probably will remain so until into late December. Some of my best climbing days in Yangshuo have been in the 3rd week of December, and it is painful to sit in Shanghai just thinking about it. SW and I climbed indoors here yesterday and I really had to keep reminding myself that it was supposed to be fun!

A number of Shanghai climbers have been talking about spending up to one month in Yangshuo over Chinese New Year, which falls on January 26th, but the thought of the cold rain doesn't really do it for me yet. Family is talking about Thailand. Tough decision!

I've been going through my most recent photos including the ones I took from a boom I put together and set up at White Mountain. Just having the boom does not guarantee good photos and I will have to think more about composition and and the sun angles before I put it up again. I took a lot of photos, but did not come up with too many spectacular ones. You can check them out on Flicker.