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.

The Joy of Climbing

Sometimes, when climbing, you get that inexplicable joy. That feeling of contentment, accomplishment, thrill of completion, sheer happiness, whatever you want to call it. It doesn't matter if it's easy or hard; sometimes, it's just great.

Here are two videos that show that joy. The first is a nice 2007 video of Ethan Pringle on Iron Resolution V13 in Joshua Tree. You get the added bonus of a Michael Reardon showing (although he yaps a bit too much). I first got clued in to this video via the Narc's site.

Iron Resolution w/Interview Video by Cary Carmichael - MySpace Video

Shared via AddThis

The second is great video of a dude on The Power of Landjager V11 in Hueco Tanks. I've embedded it here. This guy's reaction is much simpler: a quiet sigh and look of contentment crosses his face upon the send.

Power of Landjager from Joshua Haynes on Vimeo.

Both reactions are priceless and both brought a smile to my face. Hope you like them as much as I did.

Jackson Falls - August 29, 2009

Climbers - Tony, Calvin
Weather - Superlative-inducing

In other news, Rob Armstrong captured the Second Annual Chili Cookoff (tm), hosted by Josh Behrends and Catherine Walsh. Rob placed first among 8 entries. There were rumors of a vote-counting controversy, but I didn't see any hanging or pregnant chads. Nice job Rob!

Also, Team Saucisson member Tony is headed back to grad school for a year of intensive study. We wish him luck as he starts on Wednesday and hope he can find some time to get out on the rock.

Early day. We saw that the weather was going to be a high of 79, with zero chance of rain, so we bolted for a day of climbing at the Promised Land. 4am had me swearing at the alarm clock, but I was packed the night before and made it to Tony's by 4:48. 5 minutes later we were on the road. 7:30 found us at the parking lot and by 8:15 we were at the Promised Land. Good start.

It was a bit humid, but I knew that moisture levels were supposed to drop throughout the day and they did. We warmed up on XOXO .10b, then moved over to Fashionably Late, .11a. I'd TR'd this years ago to clean it, and it was a very enjoyable lead. Very crimpy, a bit sustained through the crux, and a good way to wake up your forearms.

A few minutes later, we moved over to Hubba Hubba, .12a/b (sandbag?) which had thwarted attempts on our last trip around bolt 6 for Tony. Tony put up the draws, cleaned the route and polished beta. Thanking Tony, I tried the route (last time I did it bolt to bolt after bolt 3) and made it to bolt 5 before whiffing. The climbing is nice and intricate; you climb three bolts to a sidepull rest, clip the fourth bolt out right, where it begins to move diagonally right for the rest last 4 bolts. The last 4 bolts are progressively more difficult simply for endurance reasons... they're all probably V2/+ '-ish' boulder problems, albeit on a slightly overhung face and on sloper holds.

Tony redpointed it very nicely on his next try. Right before bolt 7 is a semi-good finger rail. He pulled the second-to-last crux and rested there for a few minutes. It looked like such a great rest, I thought all I had to do was make it there and recharge like Tony. Funny thing is, I didn't remember it being that good of a rest, but I figured Tony had found a better grip or foot placement. Nope. Turns out he just has more endurance and finger strength than I do. I couldn't rest on that piece of shit finger-rail to save my life.

I fell right before that bolt, and again right after, for a 2-hang try. So it went on the next try as well. Better luck next time, I suppose. Meantime, Tony tried Poseur, .12b (definite sandbag), the first route to the left of Team Honda. Poseur and its 2 brethren are on a band of striking orange rock, increasingly overhung as you negotiate the 7-8 bolts. They're also extremely dirty from lack of traffic. Tony found this out to his woe after grabbing dirt and sand bolt after bolt. With some cleaning, it looks to be a classic Promised Land route, but has several cruxes; I tried it on TR and there is a powerful crux at bolt 3, some strong moves, then a moderate crux leading you into another very powerful/balancey crux at bolt 6 or 7 (not remembering too well).

We only climbed 4 routes for a total of 6 laps, but that was enough to fry us both. Tired, but happy, we left around 3:45 and got back to St. Louis around 7:15, in time for the party at Josh's and Catherine's. Hope you had a great weekend as well!