the Cataracts

I went to the Cataract Boulders yesterday and wanted to climb this boulder:

Well, I got there and it looked a little different… it was under 3 feet of water.  The reservoir has slowly been rising for the last few weeks, but I didn’t expect it to reach the boulder.  It’d be pretty fun on a hot day, though, shallow water bouldering.  Here’s what it looked like yesterday, from a slightly different angle:

Anyway, the idea was to warm-up for a project that I’d tried a few weeks ago, so I had to find something else.  I decided to try a arete traverse that I scoped figuring it’d be an ok easy problem.  After about a half hour figuring out the beta, I realized it wasn’t going to be a V0 warm-up.  It ended up being a great V4-ish problem that I called Echoes.  It climbs just like a Little Cottonwood arete, slopey lip traverse, crappy feet, and really technical.  My favorite problem at the Cataracts so far.  I even got some decent video of it.  Hope you enjoy it.

Tomorrow, I’m heading to SD to visit family, boulder in the Black Hill, and maybe even get some golf in.  I’m super psyched for the Black Hills.  It’s a pretty nostalgic place for me since that’s where we used to always go on vacation when I was young.  I’ve gotten in a few days of roped climbing, but I haven’t really touched any of the good bouldering, so we’ll see how it goes.  I should have some vids when I get back, so stay tuned for more.

-EC