Monday, September 03, 2007

Yesterday Daniel and I hit up the valley mainly to check out Candyland. It wasn't too bad temp wise until about noon, so we made the best of what little time we had. We started on the 4 star classic, "Once Upon a Time." Although not a physically demanding problem, its off the deck a bit, the feet are smears for the most part, and the crux comes at the top...all ingredients that make a heart-pounding scary classic. We both sent it, and then moved on to "Jitterbug," a link up problem that definately requires some cooler weather to be able to hold on to the slopey little rails. After realizing this, we moved on to "The Diamond," a problem with awesome, but spaced apart holds. Daniel was successful on the left exit of the problem, but I had trouble holding the big throw move out left. Quickly, the sun started to bake that problem and the valley in general, so our day was short lived. Hopefully the weather will start to cool off soon, and the fall season will be in full effect.
"Once Upon a Time"
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"Jitterbug"
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"The Diamond"
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Monday, August 27, 2007

This last weekend's Bear Valley Boulder Bash was crazy. The plan was that I was going to leave early to peep out some new boulders near Hell's Kitchen and Thomas and Brett Ashton and crew were to meet me up there for the comp. This was the plan at least. The only object not in the plan was the four fires along Hwy4 that pushed my just under 2 hour trip into 5 hours or so. Thomas got mis informed and decided to head home just before the traffic started moving so he really missed out.
So Brett and I got there about an hour and a half late. With only an hour and a half left we turned on the boosters and kicked into gear. Brett smashed out about 35 problems while I ran around and managed 43. In the end, I took first, and $200, Hans Florine second and Brett third, $50. I do want to give props to Danny for his second in the amateur division. With the time issues i didnt have any pics form the comp, didnt even unfold the pad either, but after the awards Brett, Matt Keebler, Scott Chandler, and I went back to work the "Proj". Here are some night bouldering shots I took. Enjoy. Daniel.

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Thursday, August 23, 2007

The second annual Bear Valley Bouldering Comp in Hell's Kitchen is taking place this coming saturday the 25th from 4pm-7pm. This year there will be open and beginner categories for both the men and women's divisions. For both open categories there will also be a cash prize of $200 for first, $100 for second, and $50 for third. At the end of the comp last year there was a raffle with loads of sick prizes, so I'm assuming they will be doing the same this year and let me say that I will definately be buying many tickets because the prizes last year ranged from probably 10 ropes, tons of jackets, sleeping bags, climbing gear, and the list goes on. MAS does a wonderful job of getting high quality sponsors for the event. Some of the CVBC is going, so feel free to meet us out there and have a great day of bouldering.

Here's a video of Daniel doing an FA at the Hell's Kitchen area. He named the problem G-Ma, in dedication to his Grandmother, who we later found out had passed away the day of the send. Also, if you pay close attention to the beginning of the video, you can see that G-Ma is next to the sick long-standing project at Hell's Kitchen. At possibly the V10 range or higher this problem is still waiting a send...maybe it will go down saturday...

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Last weekend the crew hit up Tuolumne Meadows...as well as...Rock Creek (another 65 miles away) for some bouldering. Tuolumne Meadows definately hosts some quality stuff, but having not bouldered there before we didn't know exactly what we were looking for. Rock Creek is an interesting place on the east side of the sierras. The boulders themselves are situated in an aspen grove next to the creek, which creates an awesome aesthetic atmosphere.
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Rock Creek - Groove and Arete
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A Boy Named Sue
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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Here's a video from last year of Daniel sending Soulslinger.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Heres a video of Daniel and Brodie rockin "Flatline" and "Lifeline" from last weekend. Sorry about the shitty quality, I cant do much with only the 100mb youtube allows.

Saturday, March 17, 2007

After nearly 2 months of absence from Yosemite, Daniel and I finally made it back. We planned on checking out some more new problems in the La Conte area. First, Daniel made quick work of "Atheletes Die Young," a classic in the area, sending it in 2 goes. After that, we made our way over to the newly developed problems. This area, located directly behind "The Shield," is host to two amazing lines. The prominent line, "Flatline," is a death-defying highball, but luckily has its crux fairly close to the ground, and has a huge shark fin like jug directly after the crux, but one still has a series of moves to go to top it out. Unfortunately, neither of us could unlock the crux, so we moved left to the other line, which isn't as high off the ground, but has a rock underneath the landing that makes some interesting falls. "Lifeline" involves a lot of sidepulls and tension, and I have to say is one of the coolest problems I've got on in the Valley. Adequate pads are a necessity on this problem. The rock in the landing zone creates somewhat of a slide, but also can create some bruised heals and tweaked ankles, as Daniel and I soon found out. Daniel came down bad on his heel three times in a row and I tweaked my ankle a bit on the "slide" rock. Even after all of this, Daniel still managed to nab a send of the problem. After hobbling back to the car, we headed to Camp 4, with no particular problems in mind. Then we decided to hit up "Battle of the Bulge," a super classic Camp 4 problem. I had tried the problem a few times on previous trips, but in all those attempts, I was never able to stick the move out to the two left-hand slopers. After a significant amount of tries, I was finally able to get the body positioning just right to stick the top of the two slopers, but was confused on what to do to get to the top after that. After a team effort of finding some different beta, it came together, and I was able to send. It was a great day with great weather, and I once again have to give mucho props the Betabase guys for the problems in the La Conte area, they are excellent!

"Flatline"
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"Lifeline"
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"Battle of the Bulge"
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Sunday, March 11, 2007

Another great weekend in Bishop! With perfect temps, Brodie and I were ready to throw down some problems. After arriving, and picking up the sweet new guidebook, we made our way to the Happy's. First we hit up Ketron Classic, a super cool problem that consists of a long deadpoint to a decent sloper, followed by a quick lunge to the finishing jug. After we both sent, Brodie was ready to do battle with his nemesis, Morning Dove White. The last few trips he had made significant progress and was ready to send. He reached a new highpoint on his first go, getting the the last pocket hold and throwing for the rail. On around his 12th go or so, he stuck the rail and was able to match, but was too pumped for the last final big throw. Next we went over to Mister Witty, a problem that consists of a few quarter size pockets on a relatively blank face. Brodie did the problem first go, making the difficult problem look simple. With the sun going down quickly, we went over to Serengeti, a problem I had tried at the very end of our last trip. I sent it in about 4 goes, right before the sun went down. The next morning we went back up to Morning Dove White, but unfortunately with no success. From there we hit up the Buttermilks and got on Fly Boy, a awesome, powerful problem that concludes with an all or nothing dyno to the top. After some bad/awkward landings and a lack of pads, neither of us sent and we moved on to a relatively new area called the Apiary. Located near the Pollen Grains, the area is host to many problems that have seen little traffic. We mainly scouted the area, tried a problem, and then went to Soul Slinger. We met some people from Pennsylvania and realizing none of us were going to send, we all walked uphill to Saigon. Saigon is just one of those problems every boulderer sees a picture of, and just from that picture, wants to climb it. I hopped on it and came agonizingly close, sticking, but not holding, the good jug that leads to the top. The next day was my birthday, and I have to say there's no better feeling than waking up on your birthday and being in Bishop. With raw fingertips, we decided to just circuit some easy problems in the Happy's. We started off doing some easy, yet super committing and classic highballs such as The Heavenly Path. From there, our day started to drift away from doing just easy problems. We hopped on Groundwater, a short 3 or 4 move powerful problem that includes yarding off a sharp crimp followed by a big throw to a good sloper. We both sent it in a few goes, and also ran into our friends from Pennsylvania again. They were looking for the classic Action Figure, so we agreed to go show them where it's located. Action Figure is a sick line that consists of starting off two good underclings, making a left hand move out to a oddly shaped hold, hitting a bad right hand intermediate, quickly deadpointing right hand again to a small two finger pocket and finishing by making a big move to a juggy sloper. After figuring out how to grab the oddly shaped hold, I dug deep and sent, thus concluding another awesome trip in Bishop!

Morning Dove White
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Mister Witty

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Fly Boy

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The Apiary Area
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Saigon

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Monday, February 26, 2007

Big update! I have just been informed on some history on bouldering in the Arboretum in Columbia. Dimitri (who gave me the info) commented on one of my posts and also wrote some stuff about the Arboretum's history in the forum at sonorapassclimbing.com. Here's his post in the forum:
"I spent a tremendous amount of time bouldering in the Arboretum from 1978 - 91. Many of the problems posted here as FA's have been done, all but one, that roof.

That traverse into the overhanging crack was done by me in 1987 and repeated by a number of people including Yabo and a handful of friends of mine from Spain. Yabo did that problem on his third go, it took me about three weeks off and on trying to get people to go there from Yosemite in order to work on it with a spot, no pads those days. The Coach was done before 1978 because it was a standard problem that got done a lot, the problem to the left got the FA by me in 1985. Also the Coach, I like that name, can be done by starting with the left hand on that pinch and is a bit harder. As you can tell I don't really care what these problems are called.

A good variation on the Triple Cracks is a start from the left edge of the boulder and traverse right climb the Triple Cracks but avoid the regular top out, go up and right to the very top, there is an obvious cone point. Then down climb the right side of that boulder until you're on the ground again. Also many of the top rope climbs were soloed in the late eighties and some of them are classic.

That roof looks really hard and no doubt it has never been done, i am sure you will find more like it. I remember some problems off the trail that goes to Columbia from the Arboretum, the landings kept us away back then, no pads! What a bunch of dumbasses we were for not inventing the crash pad, duhhh!

If I had a slide scanner I would post some photos, I have a around a hundred or more of the Arboretum bouldering including some of Kauk and other well known climbers of my generation."

He also told me that this problem below is called "Repent" put up by Dave Yerian in 1979 or 1980. Thanks Dimitri for all the great info!!!
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Sunday, February 18, 2007

"Grotto Monkey" is a 4 bolt route that is approximately 35 feet high. It is the horrible, rocky landing that is probably the reason why this potential problem was bolted in the first place. Brodie has been eyeing this route's potential to be bouldered for some time now and with some inspiration from Jason Kehl's bouldered ascents of the routes "The Fly" and "Straight Out of Squampton," attempts at bouldering "Grotto Monkey" should take place soon, weather permitting. This video is a short preview to what may go down soon.