Priest Draw/EoY Update

I'm still been working on Lolita at Priest Draw. I've now progressed to the point where the boulder can be segmented into 3 parts, which is where I usually am for the other lines on the roof when I haven't climbed on them for a while. Objectively, it's a good line, but I have not had a good experience due to the inconsistency of where I find the cruxes. I find it quite similar to my experience this semester, which is thankfully over. The material is good, but the presentation and experience has been all over the place. Besides constantly falling on this thing, I have also spent some time revisiting or doing new-for-me climbs. A few weeks ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to rope up headwalls for taller boulders. However, I didn't rope up for ascents of Turbid Waters or Siege of the Citadel, when it was probably better to do so. I did learn on another occasion, however. 

I also achieved my goal of wiring some sequences on the Puzzle Box roof a bit more. I was able to do R God is Neither's foot cam release sequence without doing a complicated recycle, which significantly reduces the amount of moves needed to do the problem. I was also able to finally figure out that I had been doing Cosmic Tricycle with some poor kneebar beta, and now I have a sequence that feels remarkably consistent. 

I also ended up visiting the Upside Down, and put in about 30 minutes of work on cleaning up the sequences on Demogorgon/Demodog. It's certainly a step up from some of the other boulders I have done in the Hinterlands, but it is lovely to see that the moves are not out of my conception.  

In my session last Friday, I fell at the end 3 times, due to ticking the wrong foothold that I use for a big right hand finish move. I'm quite good at getting in my own way on this roof. I also left a sign of my failure in the form of blood in the stacked mono pocket. 

I also went back to Mars roof yesterday and I regressed to falling at the toe hook. On the upside, I managed to sort out the start and make it consistent, and did the last move correctly a few times this session in isolation, so there is some progress. It's a little discouraging to regress back to something I thought I had figured out. As a reward for my troubles, I managed to rip open the skin on my left middle finger, which is due to the mono-stack pocket I need to use in my sequence, and also chunked out a sizable part of my right index sidewall in the bridge pocket. After the fiasco of burns on Lolita, I put some time in learning Suplexing Navajo, and finally did the remaining moves on the roof quite quickly. I like this one a little bit more than Lolita, as it is more straightforward. 

The last half of the fall season at Mars roof has been quite frustrating. None of the moves are all that difficult, but I do feel slightly morphologically disadvantaged on the lines I have left, so my experience will likely feel more difficult than they usually do. That being said, I feel like I'm mostly limited to my elbow tendonitis, skin, and weather. Unfortunately, I can only manage two of the three, and the tendonitis is mostly a matter of time, so I may not get a chance to finish a line on Mars roof this year, and perhaps fell just short of my goal to climb a double digit on 4 different roofs this year. In hindsight, spending time in the hinterlands during the majority of the season didn't transfer as much back to the draw as I hoped it would. 

If the roads close, I'll plan on sorting out my elbow and the rest of Mars roof early this coming year and the Puzzle Box linkups so that I'll have more fitness and power going into the spring. 

Another superstitions canyon

 I went exploring in the Superstitions with Thomas Rotchford a few weeks ago. We checked out a small canyon that seemed to have some boulders, and we found some things that could be worth cleaning. It's no fish creek, but we found some good boulders. One is a perfect 45 degree wall, with a massive start jug in the middle and some water-polished volcanic pockets and pinches that go all the way up to a slabby topout. Unfortunately, there is a lake underneath the boulder so cleaning it will have to come after the water dries up. At some point, the canyon was flooded enough that it didn't make much sense to go much further, so we had to turn around. In addition to the standout 45, there are a few other highballs and other easy climbs as well as a neat roof with a sandy landing. I hope the holds still are intact after cleaning.

I didn't take too many photos, but I also checked out an area developed by Jothan and friends near Broadway in the Superstitions the day after. The bouldering is in a classic oak-flat vertical style, but with superstitions-style blocky holds. The climbing there is tall, and we put up a nice 4-move board climb and top-roped the left side of a tall vertical boulder. I was able to top it cleanly, completing the vision done by Jothan and a visiting climber, RJ, though it's not really a true ascent until it's been bouldered. Given that the fall zone is right next to a cactus, I'm in no hurry to go back to do it until the holds are all clean. 

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45 wall. Photo by Thomas Rotchford

Shallow water soloing. Photo by Thomas Rotchford

Took a wrong turn

  

October Report

First of all, it's about 1AM, so there's probably some grammar mistakes here. 

I have been hit with a case of involuntary funemployment, so I have had a bit more time for rock climbing. The current routine that I've been implementing is climbing at Mars Roof, Puzzle box, and the hinterlands at least once a week. At Mars roof, I've been working on Lolita. I have been trying this boulder on and off for the last 2 years or so, but this is the first season where I've put in legitimate sessions dedicated to this boulder. There are several reasons to why I was so hesitant to put in work on the last two exits. 

1. The start. The typical start beta for both Lolita and Suplexing  revolve around a right hand stab to a 3-finger gaston off of a finicky left foot toe-cam. 
2. The headwall encounter. There are two typical betas- one revolves around setting a left hand to a 1-1/2 finger mono stack to a throw to a decent sloper. The other method revolves around going foot first and setting a toehook at the lip and moving your right hand to the sloper. For me, I had two troubles. The first method is very skin intensive and wouldn't be very suitable for repetition. The second method is quite finicky and is more suitable to someone who fits a larger box (i.e. longer legs), and I'm more prone to small-box beta. 

I finally decided to put in work on this after implementing some alternative start beta this spring. At the time, I was preoccupied with climbing at the burrow and the watchtower, so I did not put much time into the climb. During the fall, I was working Flesh Eater, so most of my attention was placed onto it. Now I have some more time, and I'm able to make my way over to the headwall, where I keep falling off the toehook, which I hear is quite typical. My difficulty right now with this boulder is two-fold. The first is a  snatch-like move to a good right hand pinch off of a bird beak. That move is quite difficult. The second issue is skin. Some of the holds are quite skin-intensive for me, and I am currently in the process of healing splits. I think it is quite pointless to do redpoint burns while my skin is healing, but I think it will be good to build up the fitness for this boulder problem. Last Wednesday, I reached my highpoint of setting the toehook, but my toehook slipped as I got my right hand to the sloper. But progress is still progress, regardless of how small it is. 

Toehook frustration

In order to keep up my body power, I started also climbing a bit more at Puzzle Box Roof. I typically do not climb at this roof a lot, as I opted to focus a bit more on climbing at Mars when I was climbing at the draw regularly a few years ago. Because of this, while I have done the standard lines here, I would say that I'm far away from understanding the style here. The style at this roof is big, open-handed holds, which require a lot of body tension and power, while minimizing the finger strength requirement. I'm not good at this style, so I've been coming here after my project sessions to better learn the style and dial in the lines. Currently, I've been trying to run multiple laps of the boulders here in order to build up my body power, but the most I can usually do is do the original starts, and then fall near the end. At the end of these sessions, my body is very sore, but I have hope that the fitness laps I'm trying to run will result in me improving my body power and ability to climb on sloping/non-pocket holds. Recently, I've been focused on dialing in the Cosmic Tricycle and R God is Neither as my base fitness so that when I tackle the other linkups on the roof, I will be in better shape. I hope to see some improvements as the season is coming to a close. 

In the hinterlands, I've been mostly focusing on Dermestid/Carcharodon, which is the direct exit to Flesh Eater, which climbs out the blue streaks on the left sides of the roof. The landing slopes away slightly as the roof changes to the headwall, so there is an awesome feeling of exposure. I went out there today with Bobby and I was able to negotiate the roof moves, so now the next step is to set up a rope to sort out the headwall and dial in my sequence. I feel a bit closer on this then I do with the climbing at Mars roof and Puzzle box, but I think the time that I've spent out at the Blue Ridge Reservoir has drastically improved my power-endurance. I've also spent some time at the Reservoir roof, where I was trying Swivelhip. I haven't been back since the second week of October, since rains came in and made the road very undriveable, but with the good weather, I hope I can get back out there soon to put a bit more work on it if I can lock down Dermestid or Lolita. 

Sorting out the beta on Dermestid

Swivelhip

Moss, Mars, Megalodon

Conditions are here. 

Anthony starting the send train with the flash of Moss Roof

Skyler following up the Moss Roof sendage as a warmup for another big send later that day

Anthony trying More Fitness

Send-go on More Fitness

Sizing up the jump

Working Flesh Eater during some afternoon drizzles

Flesh-eating Greens

I've been climbing a bit more recently at the Megalodon Roof, trying the Flesh-Eater. The holds and moves are quite good, climbing a bit more like a hard version of Seeker, but certaintly harder than Wrackspurts at the Burrow. I was able to do all the moves on my second session, including the topout, but I've been getting stymied by the second and third move. The sequence forces a very tight bicycle to a bad undercling, followed by a personally difficult snatch move to a jug. I will be revisiting, so I hope my luck will be better this coming session as the weather gets better. 

Navigating the head-wall on Flesh Eater

Flesh-Eater

Project

Landing is coming together

Lowball Summer

Recently I was able to do one of my projects at the Burrow, a variant of The Niffler, put up by Matt Gentile. This variant shares the same first 5 or 6 moves of Deluminator and its link into the black gaston of Seeker. However, instead of finishing up Seeker, the line links into the Sectumsempra exit, which is on the right side of the roof. I found the climbing interesting, though not as dramatic as Niffler. While there's a big huck to a jug at the end of the roof climbing portion, there is no actual headwall to ascend. Despite this, I still found it satisfying to complete a line crossing from left to right, and so I dubbed it the Hand of Glory, which is named after the severed hand used to provide light to the holder (primarily thieves). It is also a reference that the hand that does the crux move and the jug finish are the same.

Unfortunately, the video I captured of he send was not in my usual style. I ended up missing the initial gaston stab to a critical pocket when climbing to the black gaston hold. Through some miracle, I didn't end up dabbing the pads, but I would have preferred to have done the ascent in a cleaner style. 

I will try to get a repeat uploaded to my video archive at some point, but for now, I plan on climbing my other projects elsewhere. Although there are a few lines left here at the burrow to complete, I think it will do me some good to climb on something that requires a bit more commitment and power, so that will be on my agenda to try this fall. 

August

This month of August has been very slow. The heat is suffocating, and so I've resorted to night sessions out at Blue Ridge to get some projects done. There still are a few things left that I would like to do this season, but the humidity and heat has made skin conditions very difficult, and the length of the climbs means that you only get a few goes per session before a tear happens that ends the session or fatigue catches up to you that further redpoint burns are no longer feasible. On one hand, my fitness for climbing on sharp pockets is quite possibly the highest I've ever had at the cost of power. On the other, I've been falling on the same moves for a while, and the window feels like it is growing short. I'll need to climb on some shorter, punchier problems to build my power back up. 

Panel Crosser 1

Panel Crosser 2

Trying the Flesh Eater

Giving a burn on Siege of the Citadel

You can barely see it, but it can see you

Northern Arizona Roof Bouldering