Holy Boulders, So Ill - Jan 23, 2009

posted by Saucisson #3

climbers: Josh, Joe, Kerry, Yusuf, Little John, Tall Tim, Calvin

Weather: beautiful. Climbing: spectacular.

First, a shout out to the Tundra, max cab edition. That thing is effing huge. Seats 5 in comfort, along with as many crashpads as needed. You pay the penalty in gas sucking mileage.

We started out a beautiful day at the holies climbing at the Mollusk boulder. Where else? Here's shot of the Mollusk, variously rated V1-V3. Probably V1/2. The problem starts on the right side on good holds, you move left on the sloping rail and top out around where Yusuf and I are discussing something. The challenge is stepping on the scooped out part using your right foot. Fun problem.

And here's the climb in varied sequence:


As you can see, everyone smiled for the camera shots. We kept doing some warmups, while the big boys (Joe, Yusuf and Little John) worked on Con Artist V7. Feels V7 to me too, meaning I don't know what sending V7 feels like. It climbs an improbable sequence of crimps or somewhat crimps. Here is Josh attempting a send (I'm not sure what he's holding on to):

Unfortunately, noone got the send that day.

We then variously worked on some unnamed V2s - both fun and tricky (I posted about these before and here are some pics), while Joe, John, Yusuf, Josh and me all tried Shadow of a Man V5. It was pretty damp, but climbed well after some extra chalk and brushing. I was psyched to send this problem, as it felt hard for me last time... something didn't feel right about the beta then. This time, it fell after 4-5 tries. Little John and Joe both sent it after just a couple tries.
Kerry on the right V2:

And here's Josh on Shadow along with a top shot of Yusuf:


We moved around the corner and climbed Comfortably Numb V2 and the arete to the left of it (name?)... which I think was a V3-5 depending on beta. It was more heady than difficult, as it was pretty high up. Knowing we had lots of pads was very comforting. Joe, Yusuf and John also tried an inbetween problem that seemed doable but difficult, moving on small holds and at the same height as the arete. Here's Tim on Comfortably Numb:
And here's some of us on the arete (notice how happy Yusuf is to send the arete. heh).




We finished the day at the Jungle Book boulder. JB V8, was Joey's long-time project and he was psyched to climb it. After 2 years of thwarted attempts to even get to the holies, Joey sent it in style after just 4-5 tries. Dude's definitely in shape. I mostly watched because the pictured hamstring move was too much for me. Active spotting is a must on this problem.


After JB, Joe and Kerry had to leave early, but the rest of us tried Undercling King V3-6? Damn thing was hard! John did the cool but super hard undercling move, while I figured out a dynamic move to the seam up high. The topout on this thing is scary - none of us got it clean; I ended up dabbing my left foot on the tree by accident a couple times in a row and for once really resented the tree's presence. Oh well. :) Next time. We finished on Enlightenment, V3-5 (who knows with these effing ratings), a very cool problem but a bit much for the end of the day.

Great day with great people. Here's the web album.