Forest roads finally opened up, so it means that we can start getting out to all the roofs, those in the draw, and not.
I spent the weekend doing both. On Saturday, I initially planned on just hitting up Bad Ass to finish off Blockhead, but plans changed as usual. Instead, I hit up Super Roof with Tian for his first time to the roof, and met up again with Noah, who brought along Paul, Kim, and Tina, who never bouldered outside before. Luckily, Super Roof has plenty of easy limestone boulders to move around on for a newbie so there's something for everyone. I ended up treating Saturday as a fitness day, as I was able to climb Super Roof about 4-5 times, and then did Ultramega with no pads. We then headed over to Bad Ass with some beers, where I redeemed myself from last week by doing Bad Ass and Stinky Ass first go. By then, light was fading, so I spent about 10 minutes climbing on Blockhead, and I gave it a hail-mary go from the start. It didn't go, but I got a new high-point, so it wasn't a total bust.
Since it was Tian's birthday, we decided to treat him to Diablo Burger for dinner, since everyone deserves a nice meal on their birthday and then Tian and I went back to camp. We talked a bit about a book he was reading by Rick Rubin, The Creative Act, and it piqued my interest quite a bit that I decided to get the book for myself to take a gander at. According to Tian, halfway through the night, some cops decided to stop by and shine a light in my car, but I guess I got so wrecked from climbing so much I didn't notice (or I was turned the other way). They then moved on. Weird. I slept pretty well that night, so I guess in order for me to get a good rest, I just have to climb and be active for like 8 hours.
The next day, I was supposed to meet up with Bobby and some other folks (Anthony Lara, Noah Kiser, and Jake) to check out the revenant and rolling roofs on the rim. However, before that, I hit up Mars Roof with Tian to climb a bit on the Girl, one of the 4 lines on mars roof, and one of my main projects this season. It has been a while since I climbed on this, so I was surprised to still remember where all the holds were. I guess it's true, once you learn to ride a bike, you never forget.
The Bike, haha, get it?
Still got it!
Surprisingly, I was able to find out new beta for a personal crux, which was finding a way to end up with my left hand in a two finger pocket, and my right on a nice, high sidepull in preparation for the big slap out left. Last season, I ended up removing my right foot from the heart-shaped cam and decided to slot it in to a pocket akin to the cam on Bad Ass. It was always quite precarious for me, as I felt that it forced a really fast come-in move for my right hand. This time, I decided to keep my right foot in the heart-shape cam and to my surprise, it just worked. I was also able to stick the toss to the sloper for the first time in isolation, so Sunday marked the first time where I was able to do all the moves of the climb across different sessions.
As easy as 1-2-3
Afterwards, I headed over to the rim to meet up with the rest of the crew as Tian decided to call it a day and head back to Phoenix. I'm learning that I really do enjoy climbing and hanging out with people, so I'm going to work on asking more people to climb and hangout. The drive to I87 from Flagstaff was super pretty. Due the snowfall, both lower and upper Lake Mary were full so it was a good sight for sore eyes.
Revenant and Rolling roof were sick. Most of the roofs at the draw are low, but the ones out here are tall and proud. In similar style with other hinterland roofs, there's a short roof section which then ends up with the climber airing out a easier top-out above the pads. Shoutout to Wilson Cutbirth for finding this one! I climbed a bit on Rolling Roof, FA'd by roof wizard Matt G, and it was pretty cool. Noah and Anthony were able to top out Rolling Roof, while Bobby got close. I was quite tired from all the climbing I did that morning and yesterday, so I spent some time trying to get photos.
Bobby on Rolling Roof
Pulling the lip of Rolling Roof. PC: Jake
I do wish there was more roof climbing than vert climbing, but I'll work my way up to it. I did end up eyeing a line to the right of the roof which looks like it could traverse the entire length of the cave, and then airs out. I like the idea of that line better, more upside-down time than up. I think I'll need to work my way up to it though. Maybe Bobcat's first?
Climbing on a long traverse (potentially undone) from the right side of Rolling Roof
Revenant Roof was a whole other story. Revenant is to the right of Rolling Roof. Besides Noah, who sent, I was the closest to finishing off the V8 on Revenant Roof. I'm unsure of the name, but it climbs out some amazing underclings to a nice two finger pocket that is reminiscent of the stinky ass. It then does a massive throw to a beautiful jug and you end up doing some foot-first finishes to a relatively chill, but airy, topout. This one is reminiscent of Tony's Roof and I enjoyed this one much more than Rolling Roof. Even though I was tired, I was able to do the climb in two halves. I hope to come back soon to give it a proper go as well as work some of the other longer, mega lines on it and the other stuff in the woods.
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