Core Thoughts

Sonnie Trotter of Cobra Crack and other various hard trad ascent fame recently posted an article on core strength on his blog (see a link to his general blog on the right). I read it and promptly forgot about it, until seeing this NYTimes article.

Notice any differences? I thought they contradicted each other, but now I think they both support the need for a well-rounded and developed approach to core strength, except that most people screw it up, by accident or misinformation.

Jackson Falls - June 14, 2009

Climbers - Yusuf, Calvin
Weather - sh!te-ish

The weather was supposed to be good. Better than the previous weekend. High of um, 86 or so, leaving us with good climbing weather in the morning. So we arrived, high anticipation, noting it was a bit humid. Then we noticed it was seeping. We headed over to Spleef Peak to do some warmups, found it too wet, then headed over to the Gallery. That too, was damp, but doable, so I climbed Earthbound .10a, and promptly greased off at the first sloper section. Greased off a few more times, before sending the rest of it. Great start. Yusuf climbed, using some creative beta and skipped the slopers. Smart.

While Yusuf was climbing, we heard some thunder in the distance. Now Yusuf is what I would describe as a, "deliberate and measured" climber. Takes his time, analyzes his moves and uses an unhurried method. Normally works great, except it started pouring in the middle of his climb. Usually, this prompts a climber to climb faster. Not Yusuf. Finished just the way he started, never no mind any rain. :)

We then sat a bit dejectedly, waiting for the rain to stop. It didn't look good, and we started eating food and planning an exit strategy. We packed up and were headed to the rope ladder, when the sun started peeking out... ?? Determined to make a day of it, Yusuf and I found Puff .11a, 3 routes to the right of the Falls. In the book it's 2 routes to the right, but the first route must be newly bolted. Puff was miraculously dry, and Yusuf had fun putting the draws up. Somewhat thin climbing, to a nice cruxy sequence, along with the requisite Jackson slabby/slopey topout. I fell there figuring out the beta and sent next go. Yusuf then opted for Hydra .12c, immediately to the left, which we'd heard was a, "one move wonder" climb, the implication being it wasn't worth the effort. It's short; 3 bolts, maybe 40 ft tall, but it looks full value for all 40 feet. You do some work getting up there. The pockets were seeping, so Yusuf struggled to link the moves and we decided to come back in the Fall when temps were better and it was a bit drier. I, rather wisely for once, decided against that climb.

We then found Spleef Peak to be dry, so we hopped on The Garden Route .10a, which was very fun slab, and Blue Spark 5.8, also fun slab. They both felt equally hard to me, which is weird, but not surprising given my poor understanding of slab technique. Yusuf once remarked that my slab climbing consisted of some "ghetto climbing." Ugly, but it works.

By this time the humidity had rolled back in... if you've been there or are from the area, you know exactly how this feels. 3pm and we bailed. We were both a bit drained from the heat, but I still never regret getting outdoors, no matter the weather.

Captain Burke's Blog from the (former) Empire

Many of you already know that our dear Captain Edwards is over in England. I've been getting many questions about how he's doing, so I wanted to remind you of a blog Soph created. Check out the link to the right under "Our Friends" for Lord Captain, Knight OBE. His Eminence posts there regularly (in fact he just updated the blog today).

Jackson Falls - June 6, 2009

Climbers - Yusuf, Calvin

Weather - fantastic.

Yes, June 6, generally accepted as unreasonably humid and a nasty time of year to be at the Falls and outside. But we were blessed. Lucky. Both, probably. Yusuf and I traveled to the Falls and experienced a wonderful day of climbing and weather.

As usual, Yusuf was late a few minutes, but we got started without a hitch. Upon arriving, we saw only a few people in the parking lot. WTF? But we weren't going to question our blessings... we hurried down to the Gallery to start warming up. We first climbed Group Therapy, .10c (the usual), then Sore Throat, another .10c about 4 climbs to the right of Group. Fun climb, with just enough spice to make it interesting.

We discussed heading to Bursting Out by Battle Ax Tower, but logistics won out and we headed to Cro Magnon, which had a line of 5 people waiting. Nevermind. Saw Russell and Katie (from the gym), and a few other folks we knew from trips down there. Two climbs to the left of Cro Magnon is Little Johnny Jewel, .11b. At first, we thought we had the wrong climb. You really can't see any holds. It looks horribly blank.

The descr reads, "Difficult entry moves..." which felt about right. This route reminded me of all the Mt. Lemmon crimpy (pumpy) climbing. It's all on your fingertips. You start with an undercling, high step/smear, long reach to another undercling (!), thumb that, figure out something with your other hand, then attempt to staccato your other foot up. Whew. From the undercling, up left to a now visible pinch, then another smear into another undercling (!!). Alarm klaxons were now going off in my forearms and I had only climbed 1/4 of the route. It eased up, but stayed very sharp for a couple more bolts, until you hit a strange dual pocket pinch, which didn't feel quite good enough but was, and high stepped-reached to an edge. I didn't scream on this route, but I was inside. Yusuf, of course, onsighted it, then encouraged me up it.

We then took a long break, which I desperately needed. Soon after, we headed over to Snakes Roof, and took a look at some climbs. Yusuf decided on Here Come the Snakes, .12c, which has a nice face start (big moves), and continues for 3 bolts through a roof with an entry big move, then holding on for dear life (from what I could see). Yusuf styled it second go. I think the crux of this route is stick clipping the first bolt, when your only stick is a tent pole contraption. That bolt is on the roof (???) and is about 22.345743 feet high, or about 2 inches too far away, no matter how hard you try. After 10 tries, Yusuf finally managed to clip it from his perch on my shoulders.

I opted for Umbrella Girls, .12a, a Josh Portell route bolted a few years ago. It's not in the book, but rockclimbing.com has it at .12a, which might be fair. It felt easier than Everybody Needs Friends. Very nice route though. Classic Jackson slopers, with some long moves and creativity required early. The latter half has good rests and a couple power moves, but nothing harder than V2/3. It went second go, which felt good.

We met up with Lauri and Vanessa (from the gym), who had been there with friends/family camping for a few days. They were climbing the 5.8 at Royal Arch. Yusuf finished on Archangel, .10a, a nice slab I climbed with Josh and Catherine several posts ago. I tried Sunflower, .11a (I suck at slab, but .11a whatever dude). True to form, I did it bolt to bolt, with the second bolt requiring many, many, many tries, Yusuf's beta, then simple desperation, the third bolt requiring many, many tries, Yusuf's beta, then finally ghetto technique (ask Yusuf).

It wasn't the absolute best way to end the day, but I still had fun (I think) on the climb. I will be back to try it again when the temps are better for slab. Saturday, it felt harder than Galaxy 500, a .12a/b on Big Starr.

THE RED BETWEEN THE DROPS

Climbers:

Meghan, Carine, Sophie, Josh, Woody, Tony, LJohn, Yusuf, Calvin, Tall Tim, Drew

Full album of the week-end here

Chapter 1:
It was going to be 11 of us this time, a nice group involving THREE girls!. ouh ouh! the ratio is increasing! Watch out boys! 

Tony and I left the earliest on Friday, the car full of camping gear, ours and our friends'. He he we should start a guiding service! Every one knows driving to the Red is a LONG painful ride. It looks like the Irish man and I wanted to make sure it was so and some more, when we realized 50 miles beyond Lexington we actually had veered off South on Hwy 75. Don't ask...I wish I could have taken a picture of Tony's face when I asked him why the signs were saying Interstate 75 instead of 64 when we stopped wondering where the Mountain Parkway exit was. We were in fact on our merry (or not so merry) way to Alabama! Oh yeah 100 miles or so added to the drive. Fantastic. Just see for yourself.

A 6 1/2 hours drive turned into 9 hours or so, 5 tents to pitch, camping set, and yes we managed to make it to the crag for a minute, Tony determined to get at least a climb in. By that time my energy had crashed, and I resorted to my belaying "talents" only...

We came back to camp to find Josh and Woody comfortably installed on camping chairs on the flat bed of Woody's truck, sipping on beers.

Chapter 2:

I swear to you: I am done with Miguel's crowd on these holiday WE.  Getting to sleep while surrounded by drunk screaming or cussing out of their lungs is an exhausting and frustrating task.  And yes there was also dear Calvinicious waking me up at un-godly hours, looking for his (already pitched) tent...while standing right in front of it!  he he....that made me very happy as you all can imagine!

So by morning the rest of the posse had made it in, and off we were to the Muir Valley.  Perfect day, not a cloud in the sky.  Direction: de Bibliotek and Animal Crackers walls to start. 

Animal Cracker, a small slab wall seemed perfect for Meghan, Carine, and Tall Tim who had not been climbing outside much this year and needed to get their outside leading head on.  They did great there, litterally walking up the lines.  Oh yeah there was that 7 with a 10 start....

Woody, Josh and I opted to warm up there as well when Calvin, Yusuf, LJohn and Drew moved on directly to the deBibliotek, a striking overhung face which offers a series of stellar 11s and 12 (and one pumpy 10).

After playing on slabs for a while we moved on to meet the rest of the crew at deBibliotek.  The big boys were still playing on some of the long 11s on the main wall, Yusuf and Tony had moved on to the stratosphere on some incredibly small and crimpy 13 whose name is as unknown as undiscovered distant planet.

Pumpy 10 to start and play on, "The short and happy life of Francis Macomber".  Carine, and Tim getting their bearings on the Red Pump factor.

Josh, Woody, Meg and I got on a sweet 11a, "100 Years of solitude".  A classic route starting with some delicate crimpy and balancy sequences to finish on decent hold on a pumpy face.  



Woody struggled at the begining, trying to find a way to make his big fingers fit on the the tiny crimps, but the rest of the day would prove he was on his game on steeper routes. This was definitely my sent of the day as I realize all the endurance work in the gym paid off when I shook, moved, down climbed, back up, shook, for what seemed an eternity, as I was right under the anchor and totally pumped OUT.  So I sent it clipping one anchor... the European way!  The purist would say 1/2 a send...who cares...  The main thing for me was to see I hung on.  

Meg followed with brio.  Falling a couple of times at the beginning, but totally "walking" the rest of the route.  This girl is a convert!  Forget boulders!!!!

Moving on in the afternoon towards the Bone Yard, the Arsenal and finally the Solarium.

Woody was on his game flashing Bathtub Mary at the Arsenal (11a) and moving on to on-sight Air-ride Equipped, a steep beautiful 11a with a succession of small roofs and big jugs.

Here Drew and I on it. A pump feast to finish the day.

Meanwhile Yusuf, LJohn, Tony and Calvin "played on a couple of 12 to the right, which let us enjoy a couple of big whippers (LJohn, and Calvin) and epic route cleaning.  But what in the world is John pointing at? :)




A good day it was. Clouds were rolling in....
By the time we had ordered food at Miguel's the skies had opened up. And it rained, and it poured. The campsite starting to look like a marsh land. Tomorrow would be another day. We would see.

Chapter 3:

And the flood passed, and the light came.  Sunday was to be "dry" after all.  The posse had gathered back to camp, some coming from drier shelters (Meghan and Carine had retreated to a motel room, their tent being quite "moist"!).  We were to find areas which would have been sheltered from the angry skies.  This was to be a overhung routes day.  Yeahhhh!  Ah the boys were rejoicing.

Pendergrass it was.  Shady Grove first, and then probably the Playground.

Shady Grove is a very striking Amphitheater like crag.  Unless you go to the end of it and warm up on a mossy 9 and a couple 10 slab, you are on to a 10d steep warm-up to only move on to some sand bag 11, all great routes though.
This should give you an idea of the angles....

While Josh, Tall, Meghan, Carine, Woody, Drew and Calvin warmed up on the 9 and the slabs, I opted for the pumpy 10d "Girls gone Wild".... Aouch hard way to wake up!

Tony, LJohn and Calvin moved on to a sandbag 11d "Coming out party" I believe is the name, an incredible line long and soooo steep. Tony and LJohn worked out the beta, and I believe Calvin sent it. A nice feat I'll say. Woody gave it a go but he might have spent most of his energy crushing everything the day before! I had my eyes on an 11b, "Citizen Arete" a tricky pumpy line on a pretty steep face moving to an arete. It made me work, got a nice bruisy fall on it, but worked it out to the end.
By mid afternoon everyone had moved on to the Playground, a small crag 5 minutes away from Shady Grove.
There Tony put on his war face paintings and proceeded to on sight everything... in sight.

...while Calvin picked on the girls...

There is a little bit for everyone in that small crag, hence the name. From 9 to 12. Playground it is! "Capture the Flag" a nice pumpy 11b was voted by those who climbed it as the greatest line on that wall. I had my eyes on the 12a to the right of it "Crack the Whip", and climbed it twice.... no more energy to do anything else. This was a sweet short route going from 10 to 12 powerful and crimpy. SWEEETTT! Of course Tony On-sighted it as it was a mere easy 10.... But I am glad he did. That convinced me to get on it, and yes, gave it a couple of good grunts!
Good day it was. Climbing on dry rock all day after the night deluge. Our good star was right above us.

Chapter 4: Climbing in the rain.

Yes that is the magic of the Red.  The elements are not always deciding of your day.  It just influence the steepness of your daily climbs!

Waking up to a drizzle....Leaving then or climbing?  Tem Saucisson does not get pushed away by a few drops.  On to the Zoo!  Nothing really moderate there but we swore we would have time for a couple of routes before heading back West and we did!  Ahh "warming up" on overhung pumpy 80 ft. long 11s!

Two 11b "Monkey in the Middle", "Geezers go Sport", and a 12a "Hippocrite" for Calvin and Tony, would make it a day.  By the time I had reached the top of Geezers, rain turned into a downpour.  Overhung or not, I reached the last quickdraw before the anchor while taking a shower.  FUN!  Thanks god the anchor had hooks, no cleaning required.  I should have taken soap and shampoo, that would have taken care of Miguel's lack of shower.

We left under torrential rain, packing a bunch of wet body into our cars, we headed out.

Three days later my car still retained the fragrance of wet gear and smelly climbers.  YUM.  

ACCESS ALERT - DRAPER'S BLUFF, CLOSED

Those of you who have enjoyed climbing at Draper's will be saddened to read this. Eric and Kathy have been long time supporters of Southern Illinois climbing. Full text here.

Excerpt:

Just this past week, we were informed that (unbeknownst to us) the Legislature of the State of Illinois had made a significant change in the language of the Recreational Use of Land and Water Areas Act. The Act can be read in its entirety here.

Montagne Sainte Victoire, The picts.

Yes I realize I have omitted to post the pictures of our second day of climbing in the great southern France! How could I? My favorite kind of climb: SLAB! Only only slick limestone! I can only see Calvin's mouth watering. So it was back in mid April in the great site of Montagne Sainte Victoire, one of the great artist Cezanne's favorite spot. A white limestone mountain in the vicinity of Aix en Provence, a true natural canvas for the changing lights of the day.
I'll let the picts talk for themselves. Check out the little one with her red helmet

(Candice my great niece....yeah I said "great" and not just because she is a cool kid!!!!!). This was the day for a monster whipper for me. Hummm 20 footer on slab right after this stance if i well remember.... noo these feet are NOT good!

Enjoy my bro's picts.:
And mine.