Summer is Here!

Posted on July 11, 2010 | Leave a comment

Here’s a few bullet points from the last few weeks.

-Went to the Black Hills of SD and fell off the last move of Orange Roughy, a super classic V6, after two days of work.  Didn’t send a single problem besides my warm-ups.  Really psyched on the bouldering there and I will be back for the better temps in the fall.

-Roped up outside for the first time since October (9 months!) and just about gave up twice on a 5.8 at Natural Bridge, but I made it, barely.  Pumped out half-way up a four bolt 5.10… on top rope.  Yep, I’m in awesome rope climbing shape.  It was still a fun day climbing with Jenn while she was on vacation from the hustle and bustle of NYC.

-Matt showed Ho and I a new bouldering area in the TRs today.  CRAZY HUGE BOULDERS!!!  A dozen house sized boulders in a small area.  I’m not talking 15 footers, real house sized boulders… some 40 feet tall.   Some comparable to the Grandpa Peabody in Bishop.  Way better than the Cataracts and N. Willow Boulders, but probably about an hour farther away, including a semi-rough hike.    We did about 10 new problems, with each of us getting the FA of an excellent problem.  I got pretty good video of the best 3 problems and I’ll post it up in a couple of days.  For now here’s a pic of Matt on a new semi-highball.  It’s only V1/2 to the lip, but the mantle is the crux (I didn’t even try the mantle).

-Lastly, for those curious, my knee has been doing really well.  I’ve been climbing on it, and doing everything else, just fine for about a month now.   The only thing I’ve been avoiding is heel-hooks like the one that caused it (right foot, toes pointing in), which is a pretty rare maneuver.

EC

Leave a comment

Posted in Natty Bridge, SD, Tobacco Roots, Torn Meniscus

the Cataracts

Posted on June 24, 2010 | 1 comment

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

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

the Narnia Cave

Posted on June 15, 2010 | Leave a comment

On Sunday Holmer, Joe and myself headed out to Yankee Jim.  The mission was to head up to a overhanging cave that I’d discovered a couple years ago and put up some new lines.  I was a little nervous for two reasons: 1.  It’s a bitch of a hike to get up to the cave.  I’m guessing it’s not more than a mile, but it took us a solid 45 minutes, mostly straight up hill.  2.  I wasn’t sure how good the cave would actually be, and I thought it might end up being a complete waste of time.  I remembered seeing two potential lines of holds on the wall, one easier on the left and the other harder on the right with about 10-15 of blank rock between them.

Well, it turns out I was wrong, the whole thing is covered in holds.  The cave is about 30 feet long, 10-12 feet high, and overhangs about 30 degrees.  There’s potentially 6 straight up lines and countless variations, mostly really hard (V7 and up).  It’s Yankee Jim’s version of the Antelope Boulder (Cody – see previous post’s vid), with obvious straight up problems and enough holds between them to make a lot of link-ups.  We ended up doing 4 lines on it.  I did a crappy V2 arete, which is the easiest and the worst line (by far) in the cave.  We all did the joint FA on a cool V4 dyno problem “Five Foot Punch.”  I did it from a higher hold, writing off the lower start as bunchy and not worth doing, but fortunately I had Joe and Holmer there to show me the error of my way.  The low start adds another fun move to this great problem and was definitely the obvious start.

Next up, Joe decided to try a little harder and added a couple cool problems on the right side of the cave, Big Crimpin’ V8 and Lunge Left V6/7.  Joe was definitely the hero of the day: he sent two new, hard problems, he cleared out all of the thistle bushes from the landing zone in the cave and he saved my ass (literally) when I botched one of the last moves of Five Foot Punch without a pad under me.  Thanks again Joe!  I think Holmer got all the moves on Big Crimpin’, but couldn’t get the link going.  Musta been the altitude!  Next trip for sure.

I made a vid of Joe doing the 3 good problems that were put up.  It’s definitely not the best quality footage I’ve got, but I think it’s gives a general feel of the new steepnes, the Narnia Cave.  FYI: Joe and Holmer were joking that the area should be called Narnia, so that’s how I came up with the name.

I’d give directions to the Narnia Cave but they’re kind of useless without someone who’s been there.  You may find it eventually, but there’s no easy directions straight to it.  I’m guessing we’ll make another trip up there sometime this year, so let me know if you want in and I’ll show you where it is.  Enjoy!

-EC

Leave a comment

Posted in Yankee Jim Canyon