Sunday I went to the Poudre Canyon with Angela. I slept in and we didn’t get up there until about 1:30. I was tired from the day before and hoped I could do one problem, the Cloudwalker crack. Dave Graham did the first ascent and underclinged his way out the massive roof. New beta has been found but I think this remains a classic problem on good granite. The first move is quite intimidating, as a jagged talus pit threatens below. I had climbed on this a few weeks ago and had the beta figured out. I sent it today with a bit of work. Dave originally graded it V12 but I think that V10 is appropriate. Here is some video to start your Monday off right.
Afterwords, I made quick work of Paul Robinsons new problem Public Property V11, which climbs the face to the right of Scarface. The crux revolves around a hard move to a very small crimp and another tough move to a bad pinch. It was getting late and Angela gave me 15 minutes to try and do it. “One more try” I said. Famous last words, but this time it was all I needed. Also congrats to another midwesterner Chris Craft who sent Canopener V10! Psyched on a nice weekend.
Friday night I drove up to Ft. Collins with my good friend Brian Capps. We spent the night at Ben Scott’s house, who was eager to show us some new problems in Red Feather.
Saturday was cold and damp. The road into Red Feather was wet and the mood was skeptical. When we arrived at the first boulder everything was dry. The temperature was around 34 degrees and a thick fog hung in the air. We slowly got warmed up and I did a very nice V11 roof problem called The Chopper put up by Chuck Fryberger in a few tries. I had tried it last year at the end of a long day with poor beta. We then played around on some really fun variations and waited for Andre and Olson to join us.
Brian Capps on the Chopper, a V11 roof.
We drove further into the woods and the road was more rough. Finally Ben pulled off and showed us his finds. First up was Andy Warhol, a classic problem put up by Chuck as well. This is really an amazing problem, and one of best I have climbed in a while. The problem starts on two opposing sidepulls and does a sick dyno to an edge. From there some tension climbing leads to a stab out right to a crimp.
Andre in the thick of things
The problem finishes with a nice mantle.
I got up through the lower section to the mantel in a few goes and my fingers went numb. I tried everything but couldn’t seem to figure out the cryptic sequence and step up on top. After what felt like an eternity I had to jump off. Everything was ok, until the screaming barfies (Source: Refers to the feeling of such an action; “screaming” from the pain of the situation and “barfies” from the vomiting that can ensue. Context: After climbing on ice-covered mountains, blood rushes very quickly back into the arms of climbers. It is known be to be so painful that it causes the climber to vomit as a reaction to the pain.) hit like a truck. I dry heaved several times and tears were in my eyes all to the amusement of the group. I rested about an hour and did the top out once and sent it in proper form. Brian followed suit about an hour later.
Ben harrassed me into trying a tall problem called Bob Ross Arete V3. It was scary and it took a few tries to get it. Afterwords I renamed it the Bob Choss Arete. It was a really fun day with my good friends in the mountains. Here is some of the sports action from today. Enjoy.
Filmed by Brian Capps
Update: Last year I put a few days into trying the FA of a sick sport route. After falling off after the crux, Chuck did the FA and named it Marylin Monre. Consensus seemed to fall at 5.14a. New beta has been found it looks to be in the 5.13b/c range. I would be very psyched to go finish this amazing line.
Yesterday I went to Moraine Park with Olson and Angela. We met up briefly with Seth Allred and Chad Greedy and then later with Matt Tschol and Andre DeFelice. Moraine Park is also known as Arch Rocks. It is a mile hike from the Fern Lake Trail head on a flat trail along a gorgeous creek. There is a massive talus field of polished granite and a comparitively small number of problems. About a month or so ago Harry put up a very nice problem called Both Sides of The Spectrum V12. This problem revolves around a very poor sloper. It was a little warm for the slick granite there and I managed to split my tip badly. There seems to be some question of the grade and from what I could gather it doesn’t feel near the difficulty of the other established V13s in the Park. This was my second day on the problem. The first day I did the long move to the sloper maybe 10 or 12 times and fell rocking up on my foot in a steady snow. Olson and I had a good laugh when we shined the lantern on the sloper and there was water all over it.
I did manage the possible second ascent of an old Tommy Caldwell contrivance. Nick Sagar had told me it was V11, but it didn’t feel so bad and I did it fairly quickly. Instead of having another unnamed problem, Olson and I took the liberty of giving it a name, The Werewolf V10, in honor of the full moon. This problem is very contrived, and any repeats should follow Ryan’s hand sequence. Here is a quick video of him getting the third ascent.
In other news, it sounds like Carlo Traversi has been putting a lot of effort into Trice and is very close. Will this become the problem of the week, or return to obscurity? It will be interesting to hear what comes of it if he does the problem.
Fred Nicole in the Hollow Mountain Cave
photo Simon Carter
There is very nice footage of Chris Webb-Parsons doing the second ascent of Dai Koyamada’s Wheel of Life in the Grampians of Australia. Is this the hardest stretch of rock ever climbed? I really feel this deserves a route grade but people continue to call it V16. Chris is obviously very talented, but it would be interesting to see what he would do on pure power problems like Jade, From Dirt Grows the Flowers, or anything put up by John Gaskins.
Starting after Thanksgiving, Angela and I will be traveling for an extended period. I will be headed to New England (Rumney, Pawtuckaway etc) to start things off, and then after Christmas we will be in the South (LRC, HP40, etc) followed by either Hueco or Bishop. This will all be a warm up for two months in Europe, where we will spend most of our time in Switzerland and Font. Upon our return to the States we will finish up at either Priest Draw or Joe’s Valley. To say that I am psyched would be an understatement. I will be doing everything I can to update the site with pictures and video.
Vasya Vorotnikov has climbed the Dave Graham route Jaws at Rumney on the Waimea Wall. His is the first repeat after a crucial hold broke and he has suggested the grade of 5.15a (he has also changed the name to Jaws II). If the grade sticks this will be the hardest route east of the Mississippi, and only the second possible .15a in the country. The other is Tommy Caldwell’s Flex Luthor at the Fortress near Rifle, CO.
Saturday the forecast was for rain and snow in the afternoon. We hoped to get up to the Park early and beat it. The alarm was set for 7:30AM. I often check the Estes Park webcams as the weather can be quite different from that in Boulder. A low cloud hung over the Front Range but Estes showed blue skies. Off we drove up 36 and the weather got better with each passing mile. The mountains are beautifully dusted with snow and the hills are sprinkled with golden leaves. Fall is here and it is a wonderful time to be a rock climber.
Lake Hiayaha
My objective was to finish off the Automator V13, which I have written much about. Low clouds moved in and hung in the air. I warmed up quickly and gave it a solid burn from the start, falling off the last move. The crux hold felt sticky. I rested for about ten minutes and gave another effort. This time everything was right and I stuck the last hold very well. The rest was over quickly. I am so psyched to finish this problem!!! I really feel this is a true Colorado crimping testpiece. For me, it is important to try and repeat the outstanding established lines in an area, at all grades. For Chaos Canyon this is one of them. Here is the video, uncut, for your enjoyment.
Only about an hour after I sent, the snow came down hard. Everything was soaking wet and we scampered down the hill. The forecast is for 10-18 inches in the Park and this maybe the end of the season.
The Petzl Rock Trip has made its way to Slade, Ky and the Red River Gorge. When I lived in Michigan I probably spent 25 weekends down there sport climbing and bouldering. There is so much rock down there and it is all very high quality. In my mind, the Red is a world class area, and hopefully with all the strong climbers there (Dani Andrada, DG, Daniel Woods, Sean McColl) some new routes will be opened up at a high standard. The big news so far is that Sean has made the first flash ascent of a 5.14b on American soil. The route is Thanatopsis (Dave Hume FA) at the Motherlode. Thanatopsis was the first 5.14 in the Red and Dave graded it sandbagged 5.14a. I am looking forward to seeing what else gets done.
The Motherlode
In other news Tony Lamiche (who made a very impressive one day ascent of Ode to the Modern Man V14) and DG have left Colorado, and Jade still only has three ascents. Lamiche only tried Jade briefly. It is rumoured that he was not impressed at all with Colorado. I will be back to the Park on Sat., to try and finish the Automator.
Here are the results from the first Triple Crown of the year, Hound Ears in Boone, NC.
1.Paul Robinson
2.Nick Vosbein
3.Ryan Roden
1.Jill Church
2.Kate Mcginnis
3.Tomoko Ogawa
The next event is HP40. Check out their site at http://triplecrownbouldering.com/
The south is one of the most amazing areas in America, and I always look forward to spending time down there. Good people, amazing rock, and perfect problems.
This fall I have scraped my previous plans due to lack of time outside. I have decided to put all of my effort into the Automator V13. The Automator was put up in 2000 by Dave Graham. It has 11 ascents to my knowledge. The crux move revolves around a very hard move off of a slopey pinch. In the past I have always felt this was just too hard for a serious effort but this year it has felt more and more doable. Conditions have finally gotten good and my beta has been refined. Saturday I went there feeling fresh and psyched and gave it my best effort yet. Here is a quick clip of my best three goes from the start. More often than not bouldering is about failure and it wouldn’t be a proper hard problem if I didn’t fall off the end a few times. Chad Greedy knows just how it feels.
