Ang and I are off to Alaska on a family vacation for the second year in a row. The scenery there is stunning on the highest level and I would recommend a trip to anyone that appreciates being outside. I have edited some of our Swiss footage, all of which has gone to MC, into a trailer of sorts. Just a motivational piece to get you psyched.
There has been alot going on in the Front Range and I have been busy with work and travel, so here is a quick update.
-Matt Wilder, Nalle Hukkataival and Jon Cardwell have made an ascent of Ode the Modern Man at Mt. Evans, V14.
-Carlo Traversi has climbed the Automator V13 in RMNP.
-Chris Schulte added a new low roof at Emerald Lake called Storm Shadow and suggested V13. Andre DeFelice made a quick repeat and has suggested V11 or soft V12.
-Chuck Fryberger put up some nice problems in Newlin Creek. Newlin is a newer area and the rock there is very high quality. One of the problems Chuck suggests could be V14, “I’m giving myself 14 points for it” Nick Anderson made the second ascent registering it on 8a.nu as V12, with the comment that it could be between V11 and V13. Newlin Creek is about 2 hours south of Denver, which makes it a very long drive from Boulder. I went there two years ago to climb a classic problem called the Nickness V10.
Many climbers are bouldering in our alpine areas and it is interesting to me that many of them to take the highest grades on all of the problems. Is this the effect that 8a.nu has on our climbing areas? Or is it the lack of a guidebook? Does 8a lead to uprating? I am not immune to any of this and I certainly don’t have a definitive answer. I am often made fun of for being a “downgrader”, when I think my suggestions are pretty middle of the road. It seems that fewer and fewer climbers are being conservative. Will this lead to a shift in the grade scale? In the end, of course grades are by definition an abstraction. But my interest is not so much in a number, and more in the difficulty. It is irrelevant that Jade is V15, because we all understand that it is one of the hardest problems in American. Pushing the numbers up higher does little for the progression of hard bouldering, when the problems don’t reflect the challenge accurately.
Usually I try to provide my own media, however I stumbled upon a really nice video I think is worth checking out. www.lvmrock.com has great video of some highlights from semifinals and finals. The energy from the comp is captured well.
Here are the results from America’s first Bouldering World Cup in Vail, CO.
Men
1. Killian Fischuber, Austria
2. Gabriele Moroni, Italy
3. Paul Robinson, USA
Women
1. Alex Johnson, USA
2. Katrina Saurwein, Austria
3. Anna Stohr, Austria
I am completely exhausted (sick in fact) from a week of long, hard days outside of physical labor. I heard from a TEVA official that 7500 people were in attendance. That seems a bit high, however the crowd was massive, Timmy O’Neil was great on the mic, and the energy was amazing. Killian made a very dramatic flash of the hardest problem to win the comp. I think almost everyone there had a really good time. Spirits were high all night long.
Sunday I arrived at Vail and the World Cup. I just perused the running order and it is totally stacked. Some of the names I am looking at are Killian Fischuber who won the 2007 World Cup. Also Christian Core, who has made fast repeats of Slashface, Dreamtime, New Baseline and established a V15 of his own. He climbs with a fluid style and has long reach. As well, Nalle Hukkataival, (who has bouldered several V14s), David Lama (who has won World Cups), Gareth Perry and many others.
The wall is AMAZING with a great view of the mountains. It looks to be a spectacular event.
My friend Cooper Roberts at Big Up Productions has been hard at work at their newest film, which premiers at 8pm on June 4th at the Boulder Theatre. Beth Rodden, Tommy Caldwell, Ty Landman, Daniel Woods and many others will be there. I am sure it will be a great party, and if I was in Boulder I would definitely be there.
Saturday, Justin Jaeger snapped some great photos of The Power of Ten V12. Check them out.
Justin has been climbing very well lately, sending Silverback V10, Stinkbug V10 and the Kind Traverse V11 in the last few weeks. He also climbed just about every variation on the Stinkbug Boulder. Justin’s infectious motivation and dedication to bouldering, while holding down a full time job, is admirable. Well done.
Yesterday I went up to Stinkbug and finished off The Power of Ten V12. The wind was blowing hard and our session was almost ended by an abrupt snowstorm. Justin Jaeger crushed Stinkbug. This is the first hard problem I have climbed since taking almost three weeks off.
In a week I leave for the World Cup in Vail. I am one of three American setters and I am so psyched to be such an integral part of one of the biggest climbing events in a long time.
Today after work my friend Vitaly and I drove up to Stinkbug a classic V10 for a nice evening session. It was put up by Tommy Caldwell and was originally named Lonestar. I didn’t find this out for several years and I still refer to it as Stinkbug. I had done this problem in the fall of 2003, and as I recall hadn’t been back since. I was interested in The Power of Ten V13. This problem was put up by Ty Landman last season and adds two moves to a problem I put up the same day I did Stinkbug called Finite Endeavors. The name comes from Fredriech Nieztsche who writes to the effect that we may find infinite pleasure in our finite endeavors, and I felt that was appropriate. I haven’t climbed much at all in the last three weeks and it was great to get out with an old friend. I did the moves on Ty’s problem quickly and would love to go back and finish that one off.
Vitaly climbed well on Stinkbug and it was one of the first times he has climbed outside.
I also did a variation that starts on Stinkbug and after the first three moves heads left. I thought this was probably in the V10 range and I did it quickly. I also tried a problem called Stinkbug Extra, which starts on The Power of Ten and heads left into Stinkbug. This was a second ascent and I did it on my fourth try. After taking three weeks off, I’m not sure if I can climb a V12 so quickly, so my suggestion is V11.
