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

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.

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"

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






Mister Witty



Fly Boy





The Apiary Area



Saigon

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!!!

"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.

Last Friday Daniel and I went and checked out a new development of problems near the LeConte Memorial. Daniel tried The Shield, a problem that looks totally blank after the first few moves. We didn't have a whole lot of time to try the other amazing looking problems, but we will hopefully be back this Saturday. Props to the Betabase guys for putting up these sick lines!
The Shield

Last weekend, the crew headed out to Bishop for a weekend of pebble crushing and some cold weather. With the turkey still settling from Thanksgiving the day before, Thomas, Brodie, Erik Calef, Katie, and I rolled up to the Happys for some volcanic fun. Some of the problems that went down were the Hulk and Rio's Arete. It was good intro day to Bishop bouldering. The temps dropped into the teens at night and we slept nicely in our not so dirtbag heated hotel. Day two came with a trip to the Buttermilks. We warmed up on the King Tut boulder and saw Brodie flash a V6. I also slapped my way up a V6 as well on the boulder. From there we headed to Pain Grain which I ticked with some burly beta. The session in the Milks expanded when Adam F and Kyle the J joined us for some fun times. The highlight came towards the end of the day up across the way on Checkerboard V8. Brodie and I worked it until we were thrashed and i finally sent with the last push of energy i had. Scarry shit when you get to the last move. Try it some time. Day 3 we were back to the Happys. We startes out with a nice V3 warmup and then moved on to Gleaner V6 which saw ascents by Brodie and me. We played on the Rave, the sit is super hard, and did Mr. Happy. Others that went down were Serengetti V5 and THe Big Chicken V4. With blood on our tips and warried muscles we bade Bishop a farewell and headed out for our nice 8 hour drive home.

Before the rain rolled in yesterday, Daniel and I went up to Hell's Kitchen in Bear Valley. I had been telling him about this project right off the highway. Brodie and I went back a few weeks after the MAS comp to work it. Basically the only beta we got from that trip is that it is much harder than it looks. We couldn't get past the second move. So, Daniel hopped on the proj. He was able to establish on this awkward sidepull, but didn't get any farther than that. He suspects its in the V10 or above range and says that its an awesome line and worth investing some more time in. After some work on the project, Daniel put up a FA on an arete directly to the left of it. The start involves a burly SDS on a bad pinch and a decent sidepull. First, make a big move out left to the slopey arete, work the feet, slap up the arete, get a good toe hook, match, and throw to the finishing edge. We got video footage of it, so maybe we'll get it up on here soon. Daniel dedicated the problem to his Grandma, who we later found out passed away that morning.
The Project



Daniel's FA

The Reel Rock Tour stopped in the Valley yesterday. My Dad, Daniel, and I decided to hit that up as well as have a little session before. We went to the Crossroads boulders again, and Daniel made quick work on Crossroads Moe, sending in a few goes. Myself, on the other hand, was not so fortunate. The left exit of the problem (right exit described in previous post) involves a wicked small left hand crimp right before the last tricky momentum move to the top. Anyways, I finally figured out how to get my momentum moving in the right direction to move off the crimp, but as I was hucking for the top, my left hand popped off. This resulted in the deepest flapper I've ever had. After that we made it over to the auditorium where the show was. Klem Loskot opened by showing three short videos he made of skiing, traveling, and one climbing one that was down entirely with thousands of photos. Next Tommy Caldwell and Beth Rodden introduced the night main features Dosage 4 and First Ascent. Dosage 4 was first highlighting Sharma's route Dreamcatcher in Squamish, Lisa Rands send of the sketchy gritstone route Gaia, Shama and Graham in Hueco crushing problems, and Tommy Caldwell free climbing two El Cap routes, The Nose and Freerider, in a day. I have to point out that one of the opening clips showing Sharma on Dreamcatcher is awesome and I can't even describe it, so go check it out! The one big disappointment was the fact that the dose on Graham's Coup de Grace and boudering in Switzerland was ommitted, which was a total bummer. I have to say that the second film, First Ascent, was much better than I thought it would be. The film's main focus was following a Swiss climber, Dedier, as he worked and insane trad route in Squamish called Kobra Crack. In the end, he blows out his knee and the Canadian, Sonnie Trotter nabs the FA. All in all, both films are definately worth checking out.

The 06 bouldering season in the Valley is on! Cool temps + Great weather = Sent problems. Today Cole and I hit up Yosemite. I've wanted to check out the Crossroads boulder for some time now and today finally decided to. For those who have not been to the Crossroads boulder, drop everything and check it out. It's awesome. All the problems on it are quality stuff. We did the zeros on it and worked The Naked and Hairy Traverse V4 and Crossroads Moe V6. The traverse is quite technical and balancy and we couldn't put the together the middle sequence. Crossroads Moe proved to be one of the coolest problems I've seen. It starts on a big right slanting rail and a right hand jug. From there, get a high heel hook and paste the right foot and make a huge right hand move to a decent sloper. I was able to match the sloper and make a move out right to a really bad sloper, but couldn't do the last big bump move to the top. From there we headed to the Curry Village boulders. The first problem we did was one Cole and I had tried last year. We did the V2 stand start that is basically just a dyno, last year, but the V4 SDS was way above our ability. So naturally we wanted to redeem ourselves. I did the SDS in a couple of tries and Cole got super close a bunch of times, but just couldn't put it all together. He'll definately finish it next trip. After that I did a problem nearby called New Dehli Freight Train V4. It's basically involves a slightly overhanging lieback start to a sloper, then moves out to a right facing side-pull to a tricky mantle. For the send, I busted out a Shamu move and beached whaled that shiz. Definately an awesome day with awesome weather. Can't wait for the rest of the season.
Crossroads Moe




Cole busting to the sloper on Crossroads Moe


The Naked and Hairy Traverse



The Steep Face Dyno




New Dehli Freight Train