Payin' the Price

So the "potatards" were out in full force the last few days at Castle Rock. On Friday, Mike, Tammy, Kaiya and I walked through a blizzard to get to the Taco Cave. For those of you who have had the privilege of climbing at Castle, the snow was coming down so hard that from the parking lot, the Comp Wall was invisible through the sheets of snow.



Turned out to be a rewarding trip of postholing the mile up to the cave. I managed a third go send of the Smell of Africa, and then was pleasantly suprised when I did all of the moves of Columbian Bowtie, a Anthony Txertudi problem that I couldn't grunt out a single move on the year before.

Tammy and Kaiya started the day working the Smell, a fantastic problem that has it all; burly opening moves that lead to a tall, spicy and committing topout. Tammy has continued to crush since her return from the trip to the south, looking like she has been able to blend the power and technique better than ever, resulting in making moves look incredibly easy.



Three days later, we were headed back with hopes of better weather, only to be greeted with more snow and a brisk wind that chilled to the bones. The hike up warmed up the body, but warming up the climbing muscles and the fingers proved to be difficult. I had high hopes of sending Columbian Bowtie, but after three tries of falling trying to do a finger pullup with my right hand and once falling off the jug, regression began. Mike McClure urged me to try Jared's Roof Right, a cool little problem that I ended up sending first go. It climbs the bottom of JR, and then busts out right to a full on mantle at the lip. Cool problem that felt good to send something that day.

The highlight of the trip was by far Tammy's send of Jared's Roof stand. She had worked it for much of last season, scared of the potential death fall at the topout (haha), but after pressing out the mantle a couple of times, Tammy took a short rest and then walked the problem. Look for the video soon on Climbidaho. Congrats to Tammy, nice work!!

Kaiya found another cool problem to send the next trip: Tacos for Two. She came off the last move on her best go of the day, and like me, began the regression period shortly thereafter.



Next go for sure...