Jackson Falls/The Holies - Day Trip, Dec 2009

So I'm looking at the weather for New Years weekend, and it sucks. Highs are only in the 20's. I've tried climbing in the low 30's and that was a challenge. I think climbing in 20 degree temps is not exactly ideal. Arkansas is the same as So Ill... but HP40 is in the low 40's, which might be good, but is further than we wanted to travel. Unsure what to do.

In other news, Joey K of Team Tuesday is headed up for a brief visit, so we're looking forward to his arrival and heading out for some local climbing while he's around.

Here's a video of Topher's send of Bagpiper V5 at the Falls. Bagpiper has the distinction of being the first boulder problem put up at the Falls (correct me anyone?) and is on the side of the Yosemite Slab Boulder. It's a bit tall at the top. I apologize for the grainy quality, but I didn't realize the camera was at such a low setting. Props to Topher for the only send of the day and for the novel way of warming up his fingers. ;)

From Jackson Falls bouldering 12-7-09

From Jackson Falls bouldering 12-7-09

We messed around on THC V3, which Steve posted in the vid below, then worked on OBD V6, which seems quite difficult. I could do most of the moves and just need a little more work on the transition in the middle before topping out. Here are some pics.

The following weekend, which is last weekend (Dec 20), Steve, Topher, Chad and I headed to the Holies and did some climbing there. We variously repeated and worked on Shadow of a Man V5 and then tried Trillium (sp?) V7 while Topher and Steve worked Jungle Book V8.

I've posted about JB before, and it's a cool problem but my hamstring prevents me from even trying that. Trillium starts with two sloper-pinches and a shoulder level right-heel/toe cam. You bump your right had to a sloper, bump again to a small crimp, then set your left foot and pop your left hand to a decent crimp (couldn't do that move). Steve/Topher did that move nicely. With your right foot still wedged, you then pull hard and go right-handed to what looks like a pretty crappy sloper, then fight your way to the top. None of us managed to latch onto the sloper, so it remains a project. Tough moves and it's nice to have good spotters so you don't biff your head because your foot is stuck. I don't have pics, as the video we took came out pretty grainy. Maybe Steve can salvage something from it.

Finally - there's a trip to One Horse Gap we took a few weekends ago, but that was a rained out disaster. Gotta have one of those every now and then.

From One Horse Gap 12-14-09

While we couldn't climb much because everything was wet, it was impressive to see the amount of boulders and the sheer size of some of them at OHG. Some of the rock is chossy, but with some cleaning and some work, there are lots of problems to establish. Here are some pics from that trip - we ended up working on Drop Zone V6 for a while.