Lenville and 2 days at Castle

I have been saying that I would post some photos from Lenville, namely the Porcupine Boulder, and here they are finally. Conrad and I went out a bit ago, I had sent everything but this project with a teensie little Fredric Nicole crimper, and Conrad wanted to send Moose Muscles. We warmed up at the gym and then headed out, since all of the easy stuff was wet, for Conrad to send and me to get some of these photos. Here is Conrad Piper-Ruth wearing all his great photo colors on the crux move of Moose Muscles (V11)After sending Moose Muscles, Conrad set his sights on the traverse into MM, Porcupine Muscles, another super quality V11 on the same boulder that links the Porcupine Traverse V9/10 into Moose Muscles. Here he is on the crux of the traverse, a huge lockoff to a pinch that is about 5 inches wide. He makes this move so easily that the hardest part of the boulder problem becomes the last move, a huge surf out to a jug. This move to the pinch hold is in the middle of the problem and takes an immense amount of core tension.
Wet conditions in Moscow haven't allowed me or Conrad to get back out lately, but before it started raining, Jon Eastman managed to link together a series of moves at the Altar Boy Boulders called Grand Theft. I went out and gave it a few goes one day, and it is probably right on at V10. Really crimpy moves in the beginning lead to the slopey finish of Theft, V7/8. In other news, Conrad finally ticked the 5th ascent of Brass Monkey, a classic V11 in Riggins, Idaho. Congrats to him on that send, it has been a long time coming. Nice job Conrad!!

I also went down to Castle Rock to trudge through the snow to send Hearts n' Cocknballs, a super cool V10 on the Bagpiper Boulder. I think in the video that you can see how much snow is on the ground. It was almost up to my knees, and yet McClure adamantly told me on the phone that "I didn't need boots"....guess I'll bring them next time. Check out the video of me sending and then falling off of my project, The Smell of Africa, that I have yet to send in two trips now. heartbreaker of a last move that is soooo fucking hard at the end of the problem. Check http://climbidaho.com/wordpress/ for the vid. Also, if you want to see what was being done by people that aren't heavily sponsored, check out www.fredrouhling.com. He does some pretty amazing things. If you want to see something really funny, check out an interview with Andy Raether on Misty Murphy's blog, this shit is hilarious
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiLKbSKKNeg&feature=channel_page

Thats all for now, I am headed to Riggins to try and send some shit this weekend, other good news, Kaiya is climbing a little bit again after 4 weeks off for a hurt finger. Bishop in 3 weeks and then spring is here and bouldering is going to explode.