ROCK INTIMACY

Need not to comment.....

Enjoy.

GAIA - English Grit Climbing

All hail her Majesty. It's a wet, windy day in St. Louis. Instead of going to the Holies, I've opted to stay inside. Lotta work to do, for once.

Check out this vid from UKclimbing. There's been a lot of press about Grit climbing recently, with some kids from the US doing some famous routes over the pond. I'm sure you've seen the old/new videos of Gaia - the famous Johnny Dawes E8 6c balls to the wall climb featured in one of the Dosage flicks (Lisa Rands) and most famous for the leg-breaking fall of Jean-Minh Trin-Thieu.

This is a top-down vid of George Ullrich attempting a flash. Gaia is a route I would NEVER climb, even if it were around the corner. Look at the fall this guy takes... unbelievable. My gut lurched in sympathy when the fear monkey started clutching George's back.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=1542 (scroll down)

UTAH RED ROCK FOR SALE?

So it is not enough to have senator seats for sale these days, looks like the great South Western Wilderness is for sale as well (or at least part of it.)
Go to this link of the NRDC (National Resources Defense Council) for the article.

And please add your voice to stop this.

Anyone who has been to that area of the States knows how incredibly special it is.

This is a place that has inspired me along the years.  I would hate to see it invaded by oil companies.

The Holies - Dec 13, 2008

posted by Saucisson #3

climbers - Yusuf, Paul and Calvin

Ah yes, the Holy Boulders in So Ill. Much has been said about them, so I was very interested in going. Private land, a dubious writeup in Rock and Ice (or was it Climbing?) and numerous failed attempts to go had me salivating. Sort of.

It's a good thing Paul was with us, because there's no known topo of the place, and Yusuf and I would have gotten lost for sure trying to find it.

The Holies are pretty good. I didn't get to climb enough to make a solid comment about them, but what problems I did climb were great. I just didn't have enough time. We started out at the Mollusk boulder - V1 warmup. Scariest warmup of my life, but super cool problem. You negotiate a sloping rail to the left, with the topout involving a slick scoop feature.

Yusuf worked Con Artist V6-7?, which starts and continues on very, very thin seams. Someone noted that the Con Artist, when sent, was a problem you didn't really know how you sent, you just did, then probably would never be able to repeat. I can see why.

We moved on to a couple of other neat V2's up from Shadow of a Man V5 - which climbs a fun arete/face. Didn't get Shadow though. We moved around the corner (same boulder) to a thin slabby problem (name?) that climbs a faint crack going up the boulder to a small ledge before topping out. That shut us down too. Not a lot of success so far on the Shadow boulder. Continuing around the corner from there, we skipped the arete V5 climb and did Comfortably Numb V2 - razor sharp crimps to start, then easier crimps, to a bigger move to the top. Very fun, and felt a little high.

We then moved on to Jungle Book V8. I'd heard about this problem for a while - most notably from Joe Kreidel. It involves a massive swing that you have to control while sort of double-gaston-ing on an arete. It's wild, beautiful and inspiring.

Here's a video of Jason Kehl doing it - at least it might be him pre-dreads. Notice the heel/toe hook, the spread out holds and the controlled swing. Those hand holds are not very good to control a swing like that. The vid's deceiving that way. :)

Yusuf and this dude from Canada worked it for a while. It's cool watching people trying to control the swing. You have to really actively spot the climber - the first time, Yusuf startled me with how far he flew off the boulder, but I managed to guide him to a crashpad. After that, I knew what to expect.

We then moved a few boulders right and I climbed Enlightenment V5 in a few tries. Paul decided to chill at this point and call it a day. I think I could have flashed it, but I got a case of tightened sphincter topping out and bailed. Fun, but not as cool as the other problems we did. Next to it is Onyx V6, way harder. Yusuf and I worked on that but didn't send. You start on a high right foot, good hands spread apart. Back flag your left foot behind the right, bump left hand to good pinch, move right hand to semi-good crimp, then look up and extend high for a crimp. Couldn't do that extension move, although I tried it several times. Oh well.

We wrapped up with a few more attempts on Con Artist, then headed out for the day. Nice day of bouldering.

For fun, here's another one of Kehl doing God Module V11? at HP40. I've looked at this problem, but it's out of my pay grade.

Aborted Attempts

posted by #3

It's still crappy weather. Yusuf and I've tried to head out to the Holies in So Ill a few times now, but have been thwarted by cold. Instead, I've decided to post some (as I find them) nice TR's.

Here's one from rockclimbing.com - a 12 hour run of climbs in Linville, North Carolina.

Updated 12-12-08
Here's another, written by someone who seems to be an Euro, about climbing in Kalymnos, Greece.

BTW, the weather looks... possible... tomorrow. Might get to head out.



Oh, and here's a random idea for Xmas gifts: custom chalkbags - you can choose your designs and support a worthy cause (esp if you like animals). Check it out: www.emmasews.com/WPages/chalkbag.htm