NIAD - Nose in a Day

By Mark Hudon, age 54, and apparently quite the climber back in the day.

Read this excellent TR if you have a few min.

The Red, November 6 - 8, 2009 (UPDATE - Day 3)

Climbers - Yusuf, Little John, Calvin
Weather - Crisp, Clear and Cold... and then a bit warm

It was a weekend of fun tries. Sometimes, you don't send. John and I drove down to meet Yusuf at the Red. Yusuf had already been there for several days and had already sent Tuskan Raider .12d at The Dark Side. We got there at 2am Friday morning, setup our tent and quickly crashed for the night. A few minutes later, I heard a car approach; little did I know it was Yoli and Christian, freshly married and returned from a honeymoon/wedding in Hawaii. Congrats!

Day 1 was Friday. We awoke to a brilliant blue sky, but very cold temps. We ate breakfast quickly and headed to the Sanctuary in Muir Valley. John's project was Jesus Wept, .12d, a brilliant climb starting on a slight overhang and moving into precision vertical climbing at the crux.

Yusuf started with a beta run on Prometheus Unbound, .13a, one of his mini-goals for his trip. PU starts to the left of JW, but looks heinous, with a variety of difficult pockets, sidepulls and devious cruxes. After sussing beta, Yusuf lowered and John gave a strong attempt on JW. Our plan was for a beta run, but he felt good and progressed through the lower crux to the high crux that involves moving from a right two (or three) finger pocket, a left 1 pad crimp to stabbing to a right mono. Yusuf claimed you could stack your fingers into this mono, but I couldn't manage that. John fell at the high crux, but felt pretty good.

I then tried JW (what the eff, the draws are already there, I thought). The lower crux involves a good left-handed crimp, and a pretty small right-handed crimp, angled the wrong way (to the left). You step both feet pretty high, and swing through to a hard deadpoint to a good pocket with your right hand. If you're not careful, your feet cut, but it's a good hold. After this, it's moderate .11 climbing to a very good rest, then .10 climbing to the high crux. I basically climbed it bolt to bolt, and thought, this is a bit beyond me.

Yusuf then promptly sent PU, skipping a high bolt for some spicy climbing! Nice job dude. That inspired John and I, so we geared up for a strong burn. John fell at the high crux again, after looking very strong. I surprised myself by climbing almost to the high crux, then finishing the climb after a brief rest. 1-hang on my second try, I thought I might have a chance to send that day.

Well, I thought. John looked strong on his third try, but fell at the same spot. I fell at the low crux a few times, and knew I was out of gas. Yusuf then worked on Triple Sec, .13a (soft?) to the right of JW, and we called it a day.

Day 2 started as another brilliant day at Solar Collector, a popular winter crag. Solar is studded with massive huecos throughout the wall, which is really weird looking, but striking all the same. It's also gang-banged by all the climbers looking to warm up for the Gold Coast and Dark Side climbs. It was a bit too hot to be there, but we had a good time, starting with Super Pinch, .10d (hard?), and moving steadily to the right. Solar is home to some of the best .11's in the Gorge - see Ethics Police and Buddha Hole, .11d. Our intent was Blue Eyed Honkey Jesus, .12c, but I knew very early on that was out of the question. You know those days where your arms tell you ahead of time that you're not sending anything hard. No sir.

John and I both sent BH, which has some great climbing. Yusuf got a bit of beta on BEHJ, fell early by accident, lowered, and promptly sent. Nice. John then flashed Supafly, .12b (soft?), making it look like a stroll in the park. Very nice! I biffed somewhere in the middle, and struggled to finish, gasping for air.

We then headed to the Darkside for a bit of reconnaisance; John worked Tuskan Raider, and I decided I was recovered enough to try Mama Benson, .12a, something I'd tried a long time ago. The high crux is a couple of long moves to small crimps, and I predictably fell there. Still, it was fun to try. :)

Day 3 was our last day. Another fine start, with temps even warmer than before. Yusuf took a rest day in preparation for an assault on The Force, .13a for Monday. We headed to the Gallery to check out Mosaic, .12c. After warming up a bit, I gave it a recon burn and hung draws. The route starts with a small scramble, then a minor crux leading into an overhung but moderate, say .10+ section to the 5th bolt. You get a great rest here.

Moving out of this, you criss-cross left-right, from a good sidepull to a bad right hand, move up to some bad slopey crimps (clip), then move hard left to a very good finger-sized sidepull (left). It gets both delicate and powerful here: you have to grab a bad right hand hold to move your left hand up to the positive top of the sidepull, and stab to a good two-finger pocket. Good footwork really helps. From here, it's a hard clip, then two worse holds lead to some high stepping into a left-hand undercling, which is the so-called crux. I think everything from the 6th bolt to the end is one big red-point crux, with no super hard single move. It really burns your forearms to make it though. I made good progress and one-fell on my third try. John manned up and hiked it second go!

That was a common theme for the weekend; I struggled with endurance and power. John simply got stronger and stronger as the days went by. After encouraging me on my 3rd try, he hopped on the .11d left of Mosaic and flashed it as a parting gift to himself. Nicely done.

We got back late to St. Louis Sunday night, happy the weather was so great and thankful to be outdoors for another great fall weekend. I took away a couple lessons: 1. I need to train more to do well at the Red if I expect to do better on mid-hard 12's and 2. Training is no longer just climbing a couple hours at the gym. I need to work on finger strength (read: hangboard) and forearm endurance, no easy thing in a gym only 32 feet tall. At the end, I'm still having great fun, so I'm looking forward to more great times outside!

Progression Video - Demencia Senil

OK, so BigUp pulled the video by complaining about copyright. Reasonable, I guess.

In the spirit of Progression posts, here's an extended video blog of Patxi Usobiaga - there was a clip of him doing his crazy training in Progression (from Bjorn Pohl's website):

VIDEO BLOG2- del panel a Mugarra from patxi usobiaga on Vimeo.

Via Videoclimb and from BigUP, Sharma on a 40-50 ft 5.15a route (short clip from the new Progression movie). I saw this at the Reelrock Film Tour at the Red a few weekends ago. Horrible two-finger pockets and mono's, that remind me of Action Direct (Gullich's .14d masterpiece):



Speaking of AD, here's a brilliant video floating around the interwebs of Rich Simpson training and climbing it:

Obsession from Chris Doyle on Vimeo.

It's the Fall!!!

I have some pics to come. Just got back from the Red and I've gotten some pics from our recent bouldering day at the Beach and Graveyard.

A thousand thanks to the organizers of the Rocktoberfest at the Gorge. Facebook the RRGCC and donate to the cause!

Bouldering at HCR (& the 24HHH comp)

Climbers - Yusuf, Chad and Calvin
Weather - fantastic


In other news being posted around the web, the 24 Hours of Horseshoe Hell 2009 edition has come and gone. Congrats to all the participants and thanks to all the volunteers (I guess I'm thanking myself). This is Jon & Russell, who both did great at the comp:

I had a good time volunteering and want to compliment Andy Chasteen and Beka especially for putting on a great event and staying up to make sure it ran smoothly. By the way, the new Arkansas guidebook by Cole Fennel is just fantastic. I got the chance to look through one and highly recommend it. I'm going to buy one soon and hopefully go to some other areas I had no clue existed (maybe the locals won't be so happy about the book).

We arrived a day early on Thursday night and decided to get some bouldering in. Friday morning started as a brilliantly blue day and we made the most of it. I even got to break my streak of bad climbing weather (finally!). We started at the South Idahos, and my lack of a climbing book is going to hinder me, but we started at the big boulder which I'll call the Dig Dug boulder, for lack of a better name.

The far right holds a warmup V1, the far left a warmup V2. To the left of the V1 is a V3. Here's Chad working on it:


To the right of the V2 (this is on the left side of the boulder), is Dig Dug, a "classic" V4. DD is very fun and I enjoyed it. We tried a couple variations and V4 seemed right on. Afterwards, we moved on to War Bonnet V5, which is a great problem. I heard War Bonnet used to be V4, but the new guide has it at V5. I'm shitty at grading, so either seems right to me. Yusuf and I sent this after working out some beta (go left? go right? try both?). It has a nice overhanging crimpy start, with a strong move to some good slopers and has a satisfying topout. We then tried Crescent, a tricky slab V3. Noone got an ascent and we all blamed the weather. Works for me. Yusuf found a cool variation starting from the right of Crescent and leading into the big sidepull; also no sends, and seems about the same grade. Anyone try it? Yusuf on Crescent:


From there, we did a very nice V2 just down from Crescent; it starts low on crimps and has a couple long moves - the holds almost look manufactured they are so nice! I don't know the name of this one either, sorry. From there, we looked around for some climbs and decided on the Idahos. We had trouble identifying the climbs and did a weird V4 variation to what we thought was a V7, then did the standstart on Moondye V5 on the left side of the boulder. The full Moondye is V9 and looks cool but incredibly difficult. The standstart alone took Yusuf multiple tries to send (no sending from moi) and involves some compression moves on sidepull crimps. Whenever I think a gym problem is too weird, I always have to remind myself that problems like Moondye also exist outdoors.

That pretty much ended the day. Saturday morning found us at the North Forty. We started at the Warmup boulder on a highball V0, which was fun but a bit scary. After that was the Tang (?) boulder, home to Orb Weaver V7. Described as solid for the grade, OW starts on a layback flake, moves right into a crimpy undercling, and requires a strong core and good footwork to traverse right into tough crimps before topping out. I got to the undercling but couldn't make it past into the crimps. Yusuf fell going into the crimps multiple times. Tough but very cool. We tried a V2 warmup variation to the left and Yusuf worked on some heinous compression problem with bad slopers to the right along with some dudes already there. We had full sunlight by then, and that made it hard to stick some holds.

I talked Chad and Yusuf into going to the Leatherface boulder (I it has another name) where I hopped on the V4 and then worked on Leatherface. Me on Leatherface V7:


Leatherface is a horizontal crimp climb that demands good footwork and some dynamic movement. I pieced all the moves together and made a valiant effort on my one send attempt, but didn't have time to try again before needing to leave for my first volunteer shift that night. Fracknabit!! It'll wait for a return trip. Yusuf finished by working on the Honeycomb Traverse V6 - which is quite long and we called it a day.

After watching and interacting with several climbers from other states (I even met some from the DC area), I think I'm getting the itch to try the comp again next year. We'll see. The rest of the pics are here.

The Red (River Gorge) - Labor Day weekend

Climbers - Tall Tim, Carine, Doug, Angie and Calvin
Weather - good, bad, then ugly

First, a big shoutout for Deb's awesome power cookies. Doug also makes a mean banana bread. That couple can flat out bake, yo.

Day 1, Saturday. Weather: Good.
We made good time Friday night to get to Lago Linda's around 1:30am local time. The highlight of the roadtrip was passing a burning van; literally engulfed in flames, with people standing not 20 feet away and the cops just sitting there letting cars go by. The gas tank looked ready to explode in about 30 seconds, but I guess the cops had it under control.


Saturday morning we headed to the PMRP, parked at Sore Heel and headed to Rival Wall. Doug and I started on Days of Thunder 5.9, while Carine, Tim and Angie put up the draws on Rorschach Inkblot Test 5.8+. It gets the '+' for having an awful waisthigh shelf-start. Other than that, fun 5.8. Next to RIT is Monobrow .10a, which climbs crimps and uses an arete. Deserves at least 4 stars for tricky and intricate climbing. Tim did a great job leading and Angie and Carine TR'd. Doug and I also tried Lobster Claw, .12a. LC is a heavily pocketed vertical wall. It had a bail biner at the third draw, so we figured what the heck, if we can't send, then at least we have an easy way down. Turns out it was way fun; we both sent second go after beta burns. I think Doug could have flashed it but decided to 'fall' in the easy mid-10 part just to make me feel better. Thanks Doug!

Rival also has two long and fun .10c's: Delayed Gratification and Hatfield. Both are about 80 feet long and 'slightly pumpy.' Slightly my arse. After we put the draws up, Tim, Carine and Angie had fun climbing these.




















Day 2, Sunday. Weather: Bad


Sunday we headed over to the Gallery. The Gallery is home to 27 years of climbing 5.8, described as 'the best 5.8 in the Gorge.' Bold claim. I can't really evaluate it because I had to clean it in the rain. :) Angie and Tim took turns leading it, but Carine didn't get a chance due to sore fingers. We had enough time to also put up Murano .10b and Johnny B. Good, .11a (very soft), but the heavens opened right around noon. We sat under the cliff getting soggified until we decided on a dignified exit.

After heading back to the campsite, we talked over our options and decided to stop by Roadside (yes, our old rainy day standby) for a quick burn on Tic-Tac-Toe, .12b. Tim, Carine and Angie had declared themselves climbed out, so Doug and I tried this one.

TTT is a 4 bolt 60 foot climb, so it feels a little heady, but the climbing is juggy and pumpy and not too bad until the last bolt. Here, you probably have something like a V3/4 crux guarding the anchors. Doug returned the favor and worked beta out until finding a sequence and shared with me. Pumpy bastard (the climb, not Doug). We tried for a redpoint second go, but we didn't make it. Miguel's pizza afterwards made up for the lack of sending. :)

Day 3, Monday. Weather: Ugly.
Monday, we headed back to the Gallery to try and give Tim and Carine another chance on 27 Years. I didn't mention that the lines had been awful on Sunday. The word is out on 27 years, and however the climb actually is (it's good, but I didn't think it was I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E; okay, maybe I'm a cynic), people want to try it because it gets 5 stars in the guidebook. While that was being climbed, Doug and I put up A Brief History of Climb .10c and The King Lives On, .10b. Click on The King and check out the picture - I swear it looks right out of Jackson Falls. Climbs like it too. Me like. Very much. Doug too.
Look:


Angie decided to lead Murano, .10b and was having a great time until the heavens decided to open back up. That effectively ended our day. Carine and Tim both tried A Brief History of Climb on TR, and Doug graciously cleaned it. I used an existing bail biner to clean Murano and we packed up and headed out.

It was a partially soggy weekend, but we had a great time nonetheless. I hope to get back soon and try Different Strokes, .11c (supposed to be very atypical climbing for the Red and Mosaic). Here are the rest of the pics.

The Beach - Sept 13, 2009

Climbers: Chad Tenbroek, Calvin
Weather: Breezy and Nice

I forgot to update the blog on our recent trip to the Red 2 weekends ago. I'll get that up soon.

Yesterday, Chad and I drove down to "The Beach," a little collection of isolated boulders on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. It's not far from The Holies (which are now closed for the same reason Draper's Bluff got shutdown) or some other local bouldering spots.

We didn't climb at the Gallery, which is about 10 minutes away up the banks, but spent most of our day on the Sex on the Beach boulder. This is a house-sized boulder with problems all along the edges. Due to shifting water and sands, the starts were several feet higher than listed in Matt Bliss's guidebook, but we managed. :)

On the side facing the water are two face problems, the one on the left V0?. You start on a left pocket and jump to get your right hand into a crack/side-pull feature. I understand that higher sand makes for an easier start. To the right of this problem is a V1/2(?) with good face climbing moves. It's to the left of Jimbo and I understand it's not in Matt's book. Both had fun topouts.

Immediately to the right is Jimbo, V4. Probably the most fun I had. You start on good crimps, work your way up out a small roof and have to dyno (not really dyno, but definitely a big move) to a hard to see right-handed incut on the lip of the quasi-roof. Get your feet back on, move your left hand up and match on a slopey rail. Also good. Here, it gets a little harder: you bring your feet up and deadpoint to a right hand feature. The rock is rounded here in classic So-Ill style so you have to figure out blind feet placement, match and fight your way up a little. The second time was much easier than the first. Chad and I worked on this problem and had great fun.

Next was Sex on the Beach, V6 (soft?), to the right of Jimbo. Following a slightly steeper part of the roof, it's almost like Jimbo, except with longer moves and a couple harder to use holds. I got my beta wrong the first few times, then used a nice righthand hold I'd missed (assumed it was for the next problem since it was kinda far away) and sent it. There's a similar deadpoint move up top, but it's a bit further away albeit easier to use once you latch on to it. Chad skipped SOTB because of a left arm injury, and we had fun climbing Jimbo.

I don't have any pics b/c I forgot the camera, but the Beach is pretty scenic for So Ill. The river didn't smell too bad and a constant breeze kept things nice and cool. We got to wave at barges going by and the view from the top of the boulder is cool. We'll probably head back someday to check on the Gallery area, but this was a nice, short day.