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.

Swan Falls/Indian Creek Weekend

So yeah, the weather in the inland northwest has been less than optimal I guess one could say. Pretty hard to go bouldering when all the boulders are wet. And your girlfriend/climbing partner is injured=doesn't want to stand in the 35 degree wind for no reason (I can't figure out why). Kaiya did some sort of damage to her left ring finger two weeks ago, and she has been sidelined ever since. Frustrating as many of us know, but props to her for still going to the gym and trying to stay in shape as best as you can when not climbing. Regretfully, she now can't compete in the Palouse Climbing Fest '09, climbing for the first time in 4 weeks in a comp is not the best idea. I guess waiting another week to climb in Bishop isn't that much of a sacrifice....back to the subject at hand.

Swan Falls. Pending on who you talk to, Swan is either a great place or a shithole. I leave it up to the climber to make the decision for themselves. I personally like it mostly because I know what it is like to not have any bouldering right near Moscow, so if I had some less than stellar quality lines I would needless to say, be pretty psyched. The sheer amount of rock at Swan Falls is incredible, the only issue is sifting through the thousands of blocks to find the good ones. Mike McClure has been doing that for years now, and I reap the benefits every time I visit. As you can see from the photo, there is a ton of rock there, it is just that some of the boulders are pretty small. But for every 10 problems that are lowball, you get one Death Proof, and that shit is worth it completely. Over the two days that we went out, Craig and I both did all of the same problems, him first on Saturday, and me first on Sunday.

First we went up to Boys to Men SDS, a V10 that Craig had worked on the day before and within a couple hours had all the beta figured out and sent. Here is Craig Hurst, just after sticking the crux of Boys to Men SDS at Swan. The line starts all the way at the bottom right of the boulder and links to the top left, rad movement to a really cool pinch. Here is Mike McClure sticking the move to the pinch...So over the weekend, Craig and I both sent Boys to Men SDS and Death Proof (both V10), Ghost Hospital (V11), Rex Kwan Do (V9) and the Inbred Traverse (V7/8). McClure sent the Boys to Men SDS as well, and he had previously done all of the other problems, getting the FA of Death Proof, a rad sloper problem up on the hill in the talus field. A great weekend filled with good friends and climbing. Although she has to work the tasting room on the weekends, Tammy McClure managed to make it out to Swan for a while both days as well. Tammy is working the Inbred Traverse as well, and by the looks of it she will send soon. Here she is making the beginning look like a walk in the park.I am going to try and get out this weekend, maybe go to Riggins or up to Tum Tum, a small grantie bouldering area northwest of Spokane WA. Still waiting for another dry day to go out and shoot some photos of the Porcupine boulder, finally get some shots of that up for ya'll. In the meantime, check out the vid of the weekend at climbidaho, http://vimeo.com/3170790?pg=embed&sec=3170790

Peace out, happy climbing

Lenville Road Bouldering

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.