B3bouldering.com

E-grips

B3 — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 04:58:59 +0000

E-grips brought back one of my favorite holds, The Dream Pocket…

Northwest Branch

B3 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:15:46 +0000

Wednesday I arrived in Washington, DC for the ABS Nationals Season 11 Championship. I am here as part of a four person setting crew which includes Chris Danielson, Scott Mechler and Kyle McCabe. Most of the wall from the World Cup in Vail this year was driven out and is currently being reassembled inside, which should make for a really nice competition. Qualifiers begin a week from tomorrow and finals the day after. The comp is being held in Sportrock, Alexandria, VA and I hope to have photos and updates as the week goes on, particularly of the comp. itself. The crew is awesome and motivation from the setting crew is very high.

I was really hoping for a chance to get outside and tick off at least one new state in my V10 quest. Wednesday was cold, but today was really quite nice, as the sun was out for most of the day. I procured a pad and drove out to Northwest Branch, at the recommendation of James O’Connor, who I regularly climb with at CATS. It took a while to find the area, but I eventually stumbled upon a small parking lot in the midst of East Coast suburban madness.

Northwest Branch Parking Lot

The boulders were obvious and thankfully one side of the gully faced somewhat south. This left the hillside fairly free of snow and I quickly found my objective. I had several options, but due to the snow, the only feasible one was a V11 called Prelude to Crimps. The rock was fairly poor, but I was motivated to just see new boulders, and tick one off the list.

Crimps

I climbed the stand start Crimps V9, as a miserable warmup and proceeded to have a go at the sit. I tried to be as efficient as possible with skin conservation, beta and attempts. After doing all the moves I took a nice rest, calmed my mind down and climbed the problem.

Prelude to Crimps V11

I find much motivation in visiting these out of the way places and today was no exception.
I can’t thank James and Phil London enough for providing the beta to get me here!

HP40 Guidebook

B3 — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:50:11 +0000

I just received an advanced copy of the new HP40 Guidebook written by an acquaintance of mine Adam Henry. Adam is an old timer who has lost a bit of a step, slowly becoming out-of-touch with todays modern bouldering scene. Nevertheless, he probably knows what he is talking about more than anyone when it comes to bouldering in the Deep South. His book is filled with hilarious stories and wonderful testimonies from many climbers (including Fontainebleau local Stephan Denys) who have fallen in love with the absolutely perfect rock in Alabama. Adam tells it like it is, and his new guidebook is definitely worth a buy. HP40 is a very special place, and his book does an excellent job of getting that across. Well done!

Here is Mike McClure on the Horse Pens classic God Module V11

Switzerland III

B3 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:27:01 +0000

Here is the third and final installement of my Switzerland video. Enjoy!

Switzerland III from Jamie Emerson on Vimeo.

Daniel Woods sends Terremer V15

B3 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:13:14 +0000

Daniel Woods, who is in top form these days, has done the third ascent of Terremer V15 on North Mountain, in Hueco Tanks. Fred Nicole made the first ascent and Paul Robinson the second. Here is a video of Paul climbing Terremer. Daniel also fell going to the jug trying to do Esperanza from the Shaken not Stirred jug, which is another potential V15. He hinted that the Boulder Canyon Super Project could be the next level… Well done!

Webcams

B3 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:47:25 +0000

Most of the time the weather here in Colorado is great. This weekend looks like a typically perfect January with highs in the mid to upper 40s and nothing but sunshine. Sometimes, however, storms blow in and the conditions can be drastically different from one area to the next, mostly depending on elevation. If the weather is in question I usually check Weather.com and Wunderground.com. Another awesome site with more really quality information is NOAA.. These are pretty basic and I would imagine most climbers check them on a regular basis.
Webcams provide an amazingly helpful resource too. Often it can be cloudy and rainy in Boulder, but sunny up at higher elevations. For climbers living in Colorado, there is a web cam for Red Feather, RMNP, and this site, which lists many of the webcams for Colorado. Anyways, it’s another tool in the boulderers arsenal for a successful outing. Enjoy the weekend!

New Boulders

B3 — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:22:47 +0000

I’ve been so caught up in work and writing new editorial posts that I forget that I still do actually go rock climbing! This weekend I went to two of my favorite new areas in Colorado, Red Feather and Newlin Creek. Both offer nice scenery, great rock, potential for new problems and LONG drives from Boulder. Red Feather is typically two hours and Newlin is a solid three, which makes for a very long day trip.
I’ve been feeling inspired to try and repeat Chuck Fryberger’s excellent V12 at Newlin Creek called William Shatner. I had a nice session on it on Saturday and I look forward to heading back down soon. This is one of the best problems of its grade in the state, as far as I am concerned.

Ben Spannuth on William Shatner V12

I also climbed a few moderates Livin’ on Prayer V9 and a low start to Finger on the Steel V8, and having not climbed outside too much in the last few months it felt great to roll over the top of something new. In other Newlin news, Austin Geiman, a Colorado Springs local, made the first ascent of a project I cleaned last year and had been calling “The Majestic Arete”. Austin has yet to name it, and I have yet to climb on it but I hear rumors of V10. Very nice effort.

Monday I went to Red Feather to try a few projects. The high on Weather.com was for 31, but as the project lies in the shade it was bitterly cold. The dry, crusted old snow melted on our pant legs as we post holed to the boulder. We built a nice fire, but climbing was difficult and without success. I look forward for things to dry up and warm up a bit before I head back to Red Feather. Looking forward to spending more time at both places this spring.

Also of note, Daniel Woods has spent two more days on the Super Project in Boulder, Canyon and has yet to link all the moves. He is off to Hueco to try and repeat Terremer, Fred Nicole’s V15 on North Mountain.

Switzerland II

B3 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 04:31:17 +0000

Here is the second part of the Swiss Video! Enjoy.

Switzerland II from Jamie Emerson on Vimeo.

Switzerland Video

B3 — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:20:28 +0000

A while back I compiled all of the footage we shot on our trip to Switzerland and made it into a 30 min bouldering video. My intent was not only learn how to edit, but to just show Switzerland to my friends. Vimeo won’t let me download the entire thing, so I am putting it on here in 3 installments. Here is the first one, it’s about 10 minutes long. Enjoy!

Untitled from Jamie Emerson on Vimeo.

Clear Creek Canyon

B3 — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:05:56 +0000

Saturday was a gorgeous day and I went to Stanley Kubrick V11, at the 268 Boulders in Clear Creek Canyon. Clear Creek has an urban feel, with tunnel barreling buses bearing loads of tourists up to the casinos at Blackhawk. Stanley Kubrick was put up by Joel Gilmore, and it features some nice powerful campusing to a tricky and committing mantel. The crew was a good one. Kubrick is one of the first problems to dry out in the Front Range and as the snow continues to linger it was an obvious choice. I have tried this problem sporadically since I first moved here but I never had the pads or the courage to finish it off. I came back with renewed focus. I backed off the top several times but finally figured out a good sequence, and gave it a go from the start. The challenge now lay in turning my mind off and letting my body execute. I quickly found myself in a good position, with my toe on the edge of the lip and my weight over my foot, but still fought hard to keep the negative thoughts at bay. I turned them off with one confident reach to a positive jug and scampered up to the top. It’s a great feeling to cross a problem off of a ticklist I wrote 7 years ago. Here are some pictures.

Stanley Kubrick photo:Jrt Jaeger

A tenuous mantel photo:Jrt Jaeger

Ryan Silven