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"





"Lifeline"





"Battle of the Bulge"