Thursday, March 19, 2009

What to do in the event of an Epic

After 4 climbing days in Bishop, Tammy, Kaiya and Steff have all sent some shit, Tammy fired a send of Gleaming the Cube, a tenuous, powerful V8 in the Milks, Kaiya and Steff both sent Perfectly Chicken (V5), and I have now fallen off the last move of the Buttermilker 9 times. I have the bottom section wired, but I keep hitting that last hold a little off, and by that time don't have the pull to core up and pull in and kick that right foot on. Taking a rest day today, and getting out early tomorrow morning, so hopefully the temps will be good, and I will have enough strength to send that rig. For now, here is a vid of one go where I am oh so close to sticking...after tomorrow I should have some vid of the send...

Monday, March 16, 2009

Bishop Update

So we (Tammy McClure, Kaiya and myself landed in Bishop after a wonderful bracelet making filled, casino food eating 9 hour drive on Friday. We hung with Mike and Tammy before leaving Boise, and I vowed to avenge Mike's tendon pulley by trying to find a kneebar on every climb, and send the Buttermilker at last.

Day 1 started out really well for all, went up to the Happies and were basking in the sun in minutes. Tammy sent Safesurfer, a big move problem that had given her trouble the last time, Kaiya sent a problem right next to Redrum, both V3, and then went to work on some harder stuff. Tammy came painfully close on Son of Cladius Rufus, a V5 traverse on the Safesurfer boulder, and Kaiya stuck all the moves on what she called the "anti-Kaiya", Ketron Classic. Its a V4 that involves big thuggy moves to pretty good holds, but all slopey with a lot of tension required, and nothing to crimp!! Disco Diva V8

I sent some stuff that I never had before, and had felt really hard before, like Disco Diva, and Redrum (from the stand, the sit is a chossy shitpile), as well as helping figure out beta for Kaiya and Tammy all day. Steff Carter from Hailey, Idaho pulled in on Saturday night, driving from Twin Falls to meet us.Kaiya sending Perfectly Chicken, V5

Sunday morning, the sending really started to heat up, Steff, Tammy and Kaiya and I all warmed up for a long time, I sent Rib Direct, a V8 that I had tried before and this year it felt piss easy, PROGRESSION!! So psyched, when I walked up to the Buttermilker, pulled on and did all of the moves and fell off the sloper FIRST GO. Sick. Worked on sticking all the moves for a while, then went to the Smooth Shrimp boulder to try Perfectly Chicken. Kaiya and Tammy had tried this before, Steff's first time to Bishop so she was psyched just to start grabbing holds. After a few goes, Tammy sent the V5, and the WAAYYY harder downclimb, and Kaiya and Steff were coming really close.
Tammy McClure on Perfectly Chicken

Off to the Hunk, a left rising 30 foot slab. Kaiya and Steff both sent the techy slab, and then were a little freaked that they had to down climb the slightly easier 35 foot slab to get down. Steff Carter shortly after topping out the Hunk, V2, 35 slab

Back over to the Buttermilker, stuck all the way to the sloper right before the last move, and greased off. So psyched that I could get that far in really shitty conditions though. We ended up back over by the Smooth Shrimp boulder, where Tammy decided to "mess around" on Smooth Shrimp, a V6 traverse that starts the same place as Perfectly Chicken and heads up and left. After 2 goes, she fell off the last hard move and decided to take a little break. About that time, Kaiya decided to shoe up and fired the V5, Perfectly Chicken, first go. She was really happy, since she is coming off and injury in early Feb, and was worried that she was really weak and wouldn't send anything harder than V2 the whole trip.

This morning, I warmed up, as the girls (the harem, as I fondly call them) were all taking a restie for the day, and went straight to the Buttermilker. After a few warm up goes, I stuck the sloper, which was the hardest move for me at Thanksgiving, and was making the last move when my left hand popped off the sloper out of nowhere. FUCKER!!!!!!!!!! So psyched now, resting for the rest of today and going to send tomorrow morning, I just ran out of big muscle power for the day and after Hueco, I learned a lot about sending hard in a week from Mike M., so I am trying to adhere to his methods here in Bishop. Hopefully tomorrows post will have a little vid of me sending, and Steff doing Go Granny Go, till then....