Dangling with a View: Roof Shenanigans: the Draw, Underhill, and Bobcat's

A lot has happened since Friday, so this will be longer than usual. I spent the past three days up in Flagstaff, doing the usual, which is wandering around the forest and doing a lot of upside down shenanigans.

Friday

All of this started with Noah convincing me to come up and camp with him and Ryan on Friday while they worked on their projects at the draw. Ryan, Noah, and I have an ongoing bet where we each picked a project that we thought would take us an equivalent amount of time to send, and the first one who would send would get AYCE sushi paid by the person who sent last. Ryan picked Badass, Noah picked Anorexic Sacrifice, and I picked The Girl. Since I already held up my end of the bargain, the bet is now between Noah and Ryan on who would do their projects first. Due to timing, we ended up first going to the Anorexic Roof, where we all warmed up/climbed on Anorexic Sacrifice. Noah and Ryan both made some good links, while I flailed around on both Carnivore & Carnivore Direct. Progress is slow, but steady. I'm still unable to stick the rodeo jump, but I have some microbeta from Josh Denham who mentioned a slight pull on the right hand would help control the swing, so that's what I'm going to try. I also decided to give the toehook method on the exit of Carnivore a try, inspired by a video from Sam T. and Matt G.

Attempting the toehook method on Carnivore. It feels close, but disaster struck when the left foot hit my right ankle, dislodging the toehook.

We then headed over to Badass, where we met up with Joe Durling who was trying Stinky Ass, and we all climbed on the various lines. Both Badass and Anorexic have been receiving a lot of attention lately. I tried linking up the start of Big Block into the ending of Blockhead. Unfortunately due to a bicep cramp I sustained from earlier in the session (seriously, what is up with that??), I was unable to stick the last toss before the topout. I'm unsure of the difficulty, but more than likely not much harder than Stinky Ass.

We then ended the day with some debauchery at the Bat Cave where I was convinced to attempt the worst beer lap of all time on Ultramega. It was the worst for two reasons: 1) I can't chug, and 2) I didn't crush the can. There's always another day. Here's a picture of an attempt at making a skewer for a hotdog out of some random stick at the campsite.

A fragrantly bearded dude trying to figure out how to make this work

The terrible chugging technique and questionable beta makes it 5.12a now. The carbonation sucks.

Saturday

I had a very short session on Saturday with Bobby, Josh, and Skyler at Underhill. It was a decent day, as we had all made progress on our projects. I worked on Hockety Pockety with Skyler, while Josh gave send goes on Clampdown, the king line on this roof, and Bobby took down Second Breakfast, a line established by Hunter Damiani that has a consequential ending. Surprisingly, I was able to do all the moves of Hockety in a few goes, sans the topout, since it was very sandy and dirty when I got there. I will be making a return trip to clean up the start moves, clean the top, and then get it done.

Roof section

Headwall section and almost kicking Bobby into the canyon

Here's a picture of Bobby putting on a clinic, way to get it done!

Having the best meal of the day, twice? Sign me up!

I then met up with Noah, Kim, and Ryan for some water sports. Paddleboarding is dope, I think I'm going to get one. Noah, Kim, and I then set up camp, made food, drinks, and had way too many snacks.

Sunday

On Sunday, I parted ways with Kim and Noah, who were going to the Pit, where Kim was going to try her project, The Abyss. I'll spoil it here, she sent it packing home! Way to go!

I met up with Bobby and Christina, and we drove a long way east of Flagstaff into the red desert, and then up into the Sitgreaves National Forest.

Looks like another roof in the distance

After quite a strenuous descent into the canyon, and witnessing the massive crown jewel known as Blimp Roof, we found our way into the Bobcat's Den, first found and established by John Cooper and Patrick Fitts more than a decade ago. The roof reminds me of a combination of the pockets of Mars Roof with some compression elements of Don't peace me out, Jimmy Symans, a compression boulder on edges at the Draw. There were five main lines there, starting with Emergence of the Herd on the left side of the roof, and then Remnants of the Herd, Wapiti Cave, Remnants of the Acid (a low start of Remnants of the Herd), and the king line The Elk Graveyard. I believe there is an undone project here, the Elks on Acid Project, which links up The Elk Graveyard and Remnants of the Acid.

I'm quite psyched on this cave, as the climbs are different enough from the draw climbs, while still having some base in the pocket dangling. I feel like there are a few other lines left. It would need further inspection, but I would imagine that there's a a line starting from the left on Emergence of the Herd that climbs into Wapiti Cave. If it's possible to just climb through a line of holds, without traversing the lip, it would be an amazing project.

In the meanwhile, we were able to satch up Wapiti Cave, got to work on Remnants of the Herd (I'm bringing sunglasses so the sun doesn't blind me again), and I started scoping out moves on Elk Graveyard. It's quite a good climb, feels much more difficult than the climbs on Mars Roof, but I imagine that with fresher skin and more familiarity with the moves, it will go. After that, then the bigger lines. Unfortunately, one of the holds on Emergence of the Herd has a burgeoning wasp nest, so that will need to go.

Feels nice to have a few lines to be psyched on again!