Sunday, March 22, 2015

Joes Valley!!

Had the pleasure of spending a week in Joes Valley over spring break with the legendary Eric palmer and Cooper. Got to climb on some epic boulders and a lot of classics. Overall, it was a pretty productive week; however only two of the days I climbed I actually topped some hard stuff.

Day 1 of sending:

We Call Him Michael (V10)- this was the first boulder I tried and I took er down 3rd go. Climb revolves around locking down two good crimps at the start, and finishing a V8. Actually felt pretty soft, I think this climb will be downgraded in the future.

Fingerhut (V10)- I really really wanted to flash this one, cause I knew it fit me super well. I got a little excited and didn't hit the first hold right. Then rapid fired the climb until I sent, took about five tries. This boulder is very aesthetic and super fun to climb, the only part that sucks is down-climbing the topout.

Day 2 of sending:

Big Joe Left (V11)- I had tried this boulder a year ago on my last spring and got shut down pretty hard. This trip I was able to complete all the moves in one session. After falling on the last move 3 times, I took a rest day. The following morning I came back and took it down second go. This climb was really fun for me, it required lots of tension on good incut crimps then two powerful moves on pinches to get to the finishing jug.

Mass Hysteria (V11)- This climb is an obvious sit start to an established V9 called Hooters. The climb is on a beautiful black and orange vertical section of wall and every hold is a small incut crimp.   This climb fit me extremely well because it didn't require any core strength, just heinous crimp abilities. It took me about 15 minutes and 10 goes to send this one.

Freak (V10)- Palmer and Cooper wanted to night sesh Planet of the Apes and Chips so I tagged along. After Palmer took down planet, we moved on to the resident evil boulder. I went straight to Freak, which is on the backside of the boulder; the crux of this climb is the first 3 moves. You have to make a big reach to very small incut crimp then keep some serious body tension to gain the next few holds. This climb took a lot of effort, and it felt like one of the harder V10's at joes. I thought it was almost a grade harder than fingerhut.

Two-Finger Variation (V9)- This rig is right next to Freak and has a very similar style (tension). The last move is a really precise deadpoint to a jug pocket, and I feel at this move a few times. After 15 minutes of effort I finally stuck the finish jug and topped the boulder.


Stay tuned for pictures and some videos from the trip!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

A Day at Lory

After almost two weeks of snow, the sun finally decided to show its face for long enough to dry out the boulders. So I took a trip to lory state park with Jake Atkinson, Peter Hurtgen, Laren Cypers and Brett Hoffman. The first boulder we did was called Last Resort (V5) put up by local strongman Will Lemaire. I then when on to try Triton (V11/12) that has a really sharp/crimpy start then reachy moves on slopers for the finish. I managed to do the climb in two sections on my first day on it, so I was really psyched about that. I think I will be able to complete it soon, however I have a hundred other projects I need to do as well. Next I tried the Brick Pinch (V11), this climb involves a really powerful start section followed by a crux move to a tiny two finger tooth. Once you stick the tooth you have to one more hard move to a terrible edge. I was really happy to make a one day ascent of this climb, especially since it seen very few repeats since Sean Drolet put it up. We finished the day on an epic V8 highball called Childbirth, I got pretty close but the top was a little wet and the down climb was totally iced over. Check out my youtube channel athttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6tOWVJewtOtXmLlV9IBHKQ, I will be uploading my send of Brick Pinch very soon!

Brick Pinch