Annual Bouldering Bash - Upper Limits Feb 7, 2009

I'm posting some pics of the comp - you can see more on facebook if you know people. haha. Our local strong females Deb, Angie and Meg placed 1, 2, and 3, respectively in Advanced (no females in Elite this year), and I have no idea who placed first in Men's. Too many guys. :)

Here are some pics, enjoy!

Fierce, pre-comp concentration:


Doug in action:


Angie, Carolyn and Gen. Only 2 are ladies. Which? I know not. haha...


And pics of the action!

Southern Smoke - Brad Weaver on .14c

Check out momentumvm.com on the right side of the blog - Joe Kinder and our own Brad Weaver have the movie posted. The climb starts inbetween Fifty Words for Pump .14b/c (the Men's Ultimate Route during the recent Petzl Roc Trip at the RRG) and Ultraperm .13c, and finishes into Ultraperm's high crux. I can't even remotely climb at those grades, but it's a nice vid + it's nice to promote a local guy.

During the vid, you hear Kinder mention it's a, "notch, or notch and a half" harder than Fifty Words. I've been noticing that alot of climbers at the high grades of bouldering or route climbing will denote a climb as hard or soft but keep it at the grade. Sounds like adding a (-) or (+) to a grade, which I thought didn't make sense. Either that, or we need to expand and/or rework the grading system?

Check it out.

Jackson Falls - Feb 8, 2009

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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.

Utah Red Rocks - Temporary Victory

Back in December, Soph posted about the impending sale and development of Utah Red Rocks. See Soph's post.

Thanks to swift responses and support, the Natural Resources Defense Council (with celebrity head Robert Redford) filed for and received a temporary restraining order. I emphasize temporary, as another hearing will be held in 2009 to determine if the TRO should be made permanent or overturned.

For those of you not interested in the legal complexities - let me summarize. This is just a brief hiatus. From here, the NRDC must submit arguments to convince the judge to make the TRO a permanent restraining order, OR, the Obama Administration must undo the sale of Red Rocks. You can follow this in more detail on the NRDC website.

As a final note - I'm usually for the preservation and responsible conservation of pristine wilderness areas. As a nation, we need to balance our energy needs against the continued exploitation of our natural resources, and I hope we can find a responsible way to do that.

Passing the Time - Updated Vid (Joe Kreidel)

Tomorrow, if I'm lucky and sane enough, I'm headed to the Holies with Joe. I know Joe's obsessed with climbing Jungle Book V8; me, just interested in being outdoors. The incipient weather keeps getting worse... could be in the 20's most of the day. Yikes.

If you're interested, here are a couple articles about climbing... this one from rockclimbing.com is a beautifully written piece answering the question every climber has on "why we climb" in the context of danger and injury. The author uses an interesting chronological narrative to make his point.

And here's another good article from Outside Magazine I found courtesy of the Narc's website on a young, but already very accomplished alpinist, Colin Haley.

Also, here are a couple good videos. In honor of Soph's friend Jim Karpowitz, the Karpowitz Slapper at E-rocks, MO. I don't know if it's named after him, but it looks like a fun problem. And here's one of Aaron Reynolds (now in Boulder), climbing Body Karate V9 in Jackson Falls (filmed/posted by the Notorious V.I.S.H.A.L). :)

Edit/Update: OK, so it's snowing today, and the weather sucks. We're maybe going on Friday (high of 49!). Keeping my fingers crossed. Soph and I met with Joe and Kerry for coffee. Here's a video from last year of Joe sending Broken Sword V4 at Mystic Bouldering, CT. It's the second to last video and Joe is the second climber starting at 1:35. Feel free to comment on his topout technique. heh.

Tucson, AZ - Gates Pass Bouldering

posted by Saucisson #3

Climbers - Angie, Joe, Calvin and Soph (picture-taker extraordinaire)

Here are some pictures from our rainy day break (Day 4). Cochise Stronghold became an impossibility with a bad forecast and we decided to head out for some hiking and some bouldering.

Joe took us to Gates Pass, a nice, scenic area 15 min away from town. Soph took some great pictures (which are in the Cacti post) and Joe, Ang and I had fun bouldering a little. We spent some time doing some established V0-V2's, then did some fun eliminates before heading over to another boulder. There, we worked on a few higher-off-the-ground problems in the V1-V4/5 range. Joe casually lapped me a few times while I struggled on a cool sideways problem.

Here are some pics. The rest of the album for the day is here.