I went out to Lenville yesterday to do some climbing and video shooting for a small video that Mark is going to make if he has enough time before the comp on the 7th of March. I hadn't been out there since the late summer when I wasn't in the best of bouldering shape. Guess I am now. I had tried Moose Muscles, a V11 that Mark did, over a few days and a lot of tries but never could manage to stick the crux move for me, which turned out to be moving my feet. Yesterday was a different story, I sent the problem in a few goes this time out, bringing the total of tries on the thing to about 30 or so over 4 days.
The Porcupine Traverse is a problem that starts on the far right side of the boulder and traverses (duh!) into Standoff, a V6/7 that Mark aslo put up earlier this summer, the total problem weighing in at V9/10. Mark had been working on a link of the two, the traverse into the V11 Moose Muscles, something I heard him casually dub Porcupine Muscles. Makes sense. I had tried the traverse and Moose Muscles at least 20 times each, but was still suprised when I sent the project on my 4th try that day. Pretty psyched, since I have been training a lot lately and refining my training program, along with eating ProBars (plug, plug) and drinking Indian Creek wine, to maximize what I think is the best way to get stronger. I think it might be working, so I am pretty happy about that. I rated the new problem V11 also, as once you get the moves down from both problems, it isn't anything tricky, just putting it together. Waiting for some more people to send these to confirm the grades (McClure????, Conrad-post back of course...) and we will see how hard people think that they are.
I am really going to try and get some photos still, it is just that the place is ugly, with all of the shit colored dirty snow now, but at least it can't be any uglier than Swan Falls...haha. And some photos of some training, like campusing and stuff on the way. So all for now, I am headed to Riggins, where I jsut sent a V11 called the Goverment Warning traverse, an add on to one of McClure's problems from years ago, so maybe he can do it and confirm a grade on that as well. If not, Polinski may come down this weekend as well.
