This is the long awaited much promised video from the Grandjean boulders in the Sawtooths. Jeff Smith on Milk Roof Variation V8 and Wild Raspberry V6/7 and myself on the Prow and Crossing the Boundary.
A few words about the climbing: Milk Roof is amazing. Mike McClure put this problem up and I ended up figuring out a different sequence that completely changes the problem/grade. A difference of one move and 3 grades, the version that he authored is a much more powerful and complete line of the roof. Wild Raspberry is essentially two big moves on 1/2 pad flat edges. Mantle a heel hook and grab a good crimp, switch it to a toe and rock up to a good right hand gaston then jump to the lip, or if you are tall enough just reach up and grab it.
The Prow is the best problem I did all summer. Aside from the questionable rock quality (all the holds are solid as of now and will clean up further with more traffic) it is one of the best climbs in the state. Mike McClure plucked the gem of the area with this one. Big moves on good holds with good feet to an all out pogo dyno to a giant sloping jug. Heady yet easy topout at around 20′ makes this boulder the total package that we as climbers look for upon finding new boulders. The last climb in the video marked a milestone for myself. Every move of that problem is hard, foot moves and hand moves alike. The days I would work on it made me realize that I had never done such a physically demanding problem. Ever. I would hike the 51/2 miles out and feel like I had been beaten up. Over the course of 5 days I hiked almost 80 miles to send that problem, the first thing that I have ever done that I would consider V13. The last thing that took me that long was my very first V11, Brass Monkey that I did over 3 years ago in Riggins. Crossing the Boundary is what it is called. The rock quality is bullet granite, the holds are perfect and the climbing is amazing, compression at it finest. Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Success!
As I have been since returning from Colorado and starting school, I again hiked up to the boulders out of Grandjean on Saturday to try and send my project. Monday, Jeff and I went up and I came really close, or so I thought, and needed a rope to finish cleaning the 20 feet of slab that accompanied sending the "Sawtooth Super Project". I have a habit of wearing my running shoes to clean techy slabs and figure out the beta, hoping it will feel easier in climbing shoes. Here I am on a rope, 20 feet up trying to suss out the beta for the slab section.
Over the course of the four other days that I had worked the problem, I had never been able to stick jump move, something that was troubling me. I don't care how hard moves are, as long as I have done them one time, I know it is possible and can do it on the go. This move involved holding a swing with the right hand on a good pinch and the left essentially on nothing but a flat wall. As you swing out, the right becomes good and the left bad, and on the in-swing I was falling as the right hand becomes a nothing and the left good again. Probably tried that one move almost 100 times and had not done it.
You can see how poor the left hand is before the throw is over, and as I swung out to the left it got worse. I tried the move over and over again, coming really close to sticking it but always falling on the in swing, finally deciding to look for some different beta. Jeff had been pointing out this "pinch" which was really no more than a spike for your thumb and the flat wall. I tried the move to the jug from that and decided after only one try it was the way I would have to do the climb. To get to the pinch was the issue. It added 3 moves at the end of the hardest part of the problem, and then the 5.13- slab that I would have to climb. I managed to do all of the moves, and ran out of energy, already talking about "next time I will bring another pad...". Jeff wanted to work the Prow, a very nice V10 that Mike McClure established earlier this summer. We went down there and he tried moves and linked most of them together over the course of an hour or so.
I thought about it and decided to walk up the hill and give the thing one more good attempt for the day. I was tired, there was a hole in my ring finger from the newly discovered beta sequence and I really didn't think I could do it. With the added moves I was starting to question if it was possible for me to send this thing. Laced up my Dragons, took off the sweater and shirt and pulled on, promptly falling 2 moves in. The temps had dropped to around 50, and the holds felt as good as they ever had. I chalked, got psyched and pulled on again. Everything clicked, all the heel placements for the right foot were good and held, and I trusted my left toe hook and bumped my left hand up the arete all the way to the top. Pasted the left foot and jumped, catching the spike perfectly. For just an instant, I thought I was going to fall, so I yelled louder, got my feet up and held the swing. A few hard moves to get around the corner onto the slab and I had done it! I quickly traversed the slab and it was done, I had finally sent. I had just made the first ascent of Crossing the Boundary. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. Not only is it the hardest moves, but I hiked roughly 75 miles over 5 days in the process. It is 5.5 miles from the car to the boulders, making it even more of a mental battle than anything else.
I have some other shots of the climb, in somewhat of the order they go in. Enjoy!
Over the course of the four other days that I had worked the problem, I had never been able to stick jump move, something that was troubling me. I don't care how hard moves are, as long as I have done them one time, I know it is possible and can do it on the go. This move involved holding a swing with the right hand on a good pinch and the left essentially on nothing but a flat wall. As you swing out, the right becomes good and the left bad, and on the in-swing I was falling as the right hand becomes a nothing and the left good again. Probably tried that one move almost 100 times and had not done it.
You can see how poor the left hand is before the throw is over, and as I swung out to the left it got worse. I tried the move over and over again, coming really close to sticking it but always falling on the in swing, finally deciding to look for some different beta. Jeff had been pointing out this "pinch" which was really no more than a spike for your thumb and the flat wall. I tried the move to the jug from that and decided after only one try it was the way I would have to do the climb. To get to the pinch was the issue. It added 3 moves at the end of the hardest part of the problem, and then the 5.13- slab that I would have to climb. I managed to do all of the moves, and ran out of energy, already talking about "next time I will bring another pad...". Jeff wanted to work the Prow, a very nice V10 that Mike McClure established earlier this summer. We went down there and he tried moves and linked most of them together over the course of an hour or so.
I thought about it and decided to walk up the hill and give the thing one more good attempt for the day. I was tired, there was a hole in my ring finger from the newly discovered beta sequence and I really didn't think I could do it. With the added moves I was starting to question if it was possible for me to send this thing. Laced up my Dragons, took off the sweater and shirt and pulled on, promptly falling 2 moves in. The temps had dropped to around 50, and the holds felt as good as they ever had. I chalked, got psyched and pulled on again. Everything clicked, all the heel placements for the right foot were good and held, and I trusted my left toe hook and bumped my left hand up the arete all the way to the top. Pasted the left foot and jumped, catching the spike perfectly. For just an instant, I thought I was going to fall, so I yelled louder, got my feet up and held the swing. A few hard moves to get around the corner onto the slab and I had done it! I quickly traversed the slab and it was done, I had finally sent. I had just made the first ascent of Crossing the Boundary. It is the hardest thing I have ever done. Not only is it the hardest moves, but I hiked roughly 75 miles over 5 days in the process. It is 5.5 miles from the car to the boulders, making it even more of a mental battle than anything else.
I have some other shots of the climb, in somewhat of the order they go in. Enjoy!
Monday, August 23, 2010
Rocky, Lincoln Lake and the Fall
The beautiful view of Lincoln Lake aka Wolverineland at 12000 feet
Matt Fultz and I concluded our trip to Colorado with a day at Lincoln Lake, an area high in the Mt. Evans/Arapaho Forest area southwest of Boulder, and a final day at the Park. Catching almost perfect weather save one rainy day, we both managed to send some things we wanted to and also fail on others, leaving projects for another time.
As has become a certainty, I captured some moments of people's try hard and was left with none of my own, but here are the best of the photos that I took while milling about waiting for MY time to shine.
Ryan Young, Skipper Roof
A butterfly on my shorts
Matt Fultz, Top Notch
Top Notch
With school starting, I am embarking on a mission to finish my geology degree in as few semesters as possible...and climb at the same time. As always, training for trips that I take and using the trips as training for the coming season in Idaho. Five big projects loom in front of me, one I have tried for three years, another I have yet to try and still know is hard. Juggling climbing, training, school and a new job as the head coach of the climbing teams at the Front will be a difficult task, and I am prepared to be busy for the next few months as I make time for everything to be done to the fullest of my abilities.
For now, this last photo of Lincoln Lake at dark before we hiked out(and had the subsequent near heart-attack) last Friday night will have to tide you over until I go to the Sawtooths to try and send a project this weekend.
Matt Fultz and I concluded our trip to Colorado with a day at Lincoln Lake, an area high in the Mt. Evans/Arapaho Forest area southwest of Boulder, and a final day at the Park. Catching almost perfect weather save one rainy day, we both managed to send some things we wanted to and also fail on others, leaving projects for another time.
As has become a certainty, I captured some moments of people's try hard and was left with none of my own, but here are the best of the photos that I took while milling about waiting for MY time to shine.
Ryan Young, Skipper Roof
A butterfly on my shorts
Matt Fultz, Top Notch
Top Notch
With school starting, I am embarking on a mission to finish my geology degree in as few semesters as possible...and climb at the same time. As always, training for trips that I take and using the trips as training for the coming season in Idaho. Five big projects loom in front of me, one I have tried for three years, another I have yet to try and still know is hard. Juggling climbing, training, school and a new job as the head coach of the climbing teams at the Front will be a difficult task, and I am prepared to be busy for the next few months as I make time for everything to be done to the fullest of my abilities.
For now, this last photo of Lincoln Lake at dark before we hiked out(and had the subsequent near heart-attack) last Friday night will have to tide you over until I go to the Sawtooths to try and send a project this weekend.
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