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.

1.The Dracula Project, which heads left from The Vampire
2.The Parvin Project, which I have done all the moves on and is in the V12 range
3.The Swoosh Project, which is very hard crimping, probably 8B.
4.The Arete, haven’t put a lot of effort into this one but it is a V12-V14 18ft arete. Amazing.
5.The Smurf Project. We can’t forget about The Smurf Project
6.Clubber Lang sit, there is a very hard sit start, perhaps V14 to Clubber Lang that has yet to be climbed.

Anyways, it was Chad’s first trip and he seemed to enjoy himself. We started out on a couple of nice warmups.

A Classic V4

We moved on, to the Toucan Boulder. Last year I put up a problem called The Vampire, which I graded V12. The first move is really hard, perhaps a hard V10 move on its own. It involves a precise stab into a slot. Brian Capps made a repeat but several others who tried the problem in the spring repeated it with a toehook on the lip. I had tried the toehook, and found it to be very difficult. I went back this year, hoping to link the beginning of The Vampire into an unnamed V10 I put up last year to the left. I again tried the toehook method and again found it impossible. I did all the moves on the link-up, using my original method and am psyched to get back soon. Thin, crimpy and powerful, I really like the climbing style. This is another problem that is at least solid V12 if not V13. There is still a great lip traverse project on the same boulder, which I have yet to try.

Chad Greedy is always psyched. The Dracula Project photo Brian Camp

The Dracula Project photo Brian Camp