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....

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Climbers from all over the country converged on Moscow, Idaho at the UofI Climbing Gym on March 7th to strut their stuff on the routes set by Randy Hill and Mike McClure. People as far away as New York and Alaska participated in the weekend of crimping, slapping slopers, pinching and hopefully sending...here are the results.

Palouse Climbing Festival 2009
















Open Men's Qualifiers
Masters




Conrad Piper-Ruth 4075 1
Jeff Crawford 3250 2




Mark Polinski 3850 2
Vaiden Bloch 1075 1




Mike Bockino 3825 3








Beau Stuart 3300 4
Intermediate Men's




Ricky Lovejoy 2300
Zach Spielman 2525 1




Mike Spaulding 2225
Earl McAlister 2375 2





Jacob Johns 2300 3





Sean Conner 2300 4








Jonathan Lipke 2025 5




Open Men's Finals
Seth Allen 1900 6




Mike Bockino 1
Joey Machala 1675 7




Mark Polinski 2
Chris Raver 1650 8




Conrad Piper-Ruth 3
Javier Sparks 1625 9




Beau Stuart 4
Sam Horack 1600 10








Derek Vance 1500 11




Open Women's Qualifiers
Mark Kinney 1300 12




Tammy McClure 2550 1
Ryan Mann 1200 13




Leanne Leedy 2025 2
Andrew Caraballo 1125 14




Stephanie Carter 1975 3
Cameron Long 1050 15




Sarah Moeser 1725 4
Elijah Forbes 1025 16








Tom Saylor 600 17




Open Women's Finals
Jesse Kappmeyer 550 18




Tammy McClure 1
Hunter Bloch 0 injured




Leanne Leedy 2








Stephanie Carter 3
Recreational Men's




Sarah Moeser 4
Ryan Zimmer 1250 1








Mark Nickodemus 1200 2




Intermediate Women's
Leighton Bloch 975 3




Allison Neterer 1350 1
Tim Caldwell 800 4




Elise Clausen 1350 2








Molly Marineau 1075 3
Recreational Women's




Kristen Pilcher 375 4
Brandy Davis 1000 1




Janette Rounds 325 5
Kate Nicely 925 2




Ashley Galand 0 6
Elle Piere 775 3








Chau Tran 725 4




Men's Advanced





Alex Rice 3575 1








Arthur Debowski 3475 2
Women's Advanced




Derek Foote 3400 3
Heidi Hugunin 2100 1




Steve Dodd 3400 3
Katie Lovelace 1025 2




Andy Gonzalez 3325 4








Mitch Odom 3225 5








Zach Markiss 3225 6








Mark Irving 3125 7








Ryan Guerra 3100 8








Jacob Dolence 2975 9








Robert Rebich 2975 10








Dan Foreman 2900 11








Andrew Connelly 2850 12








Mike Lafferty 2825 13








Brock Axthelm 2525 14








Alex Oberlindacher 1000 15