Well, the slideshow was a success last night. Thanks to everyone that showed up and thanks to Mountain Hardwear, La Sportiva, and Metolius for donating swag for the raffle. All in all, $305 was raised for the Access Fund.
For those that missed the show, here's a new video I put together for it. It shows some of my attempts on Iron Monkey and also includes an interesting fall. I still haven't finished this climb. Those who follow this blog probably know that I've been close for a long time. Perhaps I'll be able to pull it off this fall.
OK, I know this is lame... It's been a slow summer and I haven't posted here since my last slideshow months ago. Still I wanted to announce a show I'm giving soon. I'll be posting more content here soon as the Fall season comes into swing.
I'm giving a show 8pm this Wednesday (8/11) at Bent Gate Mountaineering in Golden, CO. If you're around, you should definitely try to make it. It will cost $5 but all the proceeds will go to the Access Fund and there will be a raffle at the end. Mountain Hardwear hooked me up with some great swag including two packs and several hats and shirts. La Sportiva donated a gift card for one free pair of shoes and some hats. To top things off, Metolius gave me some rock rings to give away along with other misc booty.
I'll be doing the show solo so it will be significantly different than the last show I did with Andy Mann and Jonathan Siegrist. I'll be showing photos and video that cronicle my progression as a climber and tell the story of how I've merged my love for trad climbing and bouldering.
Here's the full description of the show:
"Bouldering above gear: a synthesis of distant disciplines"
by Matt Wilder
Through this multimedia show I'll try to figure out why I tend to find myself far above gear with hard moves between me and safety --- a question I ask myself often. I'll begin by tracking my history as a climber following my split identity as a boulderer and a trad climber with some classic photos from my early days. The bulk of the show will highlight classic climbs and boulder problems I've established, repeated, or failed on in the past. I'll show an unseen video compilation of some of my better falls and video footage of several 5.13 and 5.14 trad climbs. The show will culminate with a personal narrative of my experience establishing two new 5.14R trad routes in the Front Range, Viceroy and Cheating Reality, accompanied by video footage and photo sequences. If time permits, I'll also talk about some of my bigwall free climbing forays in Yosemite and the magnetism which has recently been pulling my thoughts back to El Cap. At the end I'll be giving away and raffling swag from my sponsors: Mountain Hardwear, La Sportiva, and Metolius.
Everyone who's in the Boulder area should come out to the slideshow I'm giving with Andy Mann and Jonathan Siegrist at Neptune tomorrow (Thursday) at 8pm. Andy's going to be showing a sick set of photos from his collection including exposes of my two 5.14 trad FAs in the Boulder area. He'll also be showing photos from Jstar's new sport crag in RMNP and Jstar will be giving a full rundown of the place. I'll be talking some about my two routes and the experience I had on them. We're going to have a raffle with some great swag. I know Mountain Hardwear hooked up some great stuff and we have good product from other companies too. All in all it's going to be a kickin' time, so make sure you're there.
In other news, I'm still recovering from the UBC Earth Treks comp last weekend. I climbed so much and was so sore. This comp was totally sick -- such a strong field, great setting, and tons of climbing. I finished 16th which I was happy with considering I hadn't been training much and how deep the field was. I felt like I could have done a bit better on some of the problems in the semis, but that's always how comps feel unless you flash the problems. It was a ton of fun and it was great to watch the finals. Tons of action. I hear the live internet stream was great too. I think they've put some clips up on their website. Anyway, these guys are putting on pretty sick events. Check out the UBC website. Another comp that looks to be really cool is the Battle in the Bubble which is going to be an outdoor (but on plastic) comp on May 15th at the Boulder Reservoir. I'm going to be out of town for the New River Rendezvous which I'm super stocked for so I'll miss the comp here. I'm sure it's going to be a really fun time though.
Here's a video I edited of my attempts and eventual send of Masterpiece V13 in Joe's. I was trying to capture the whole process in this video. Hopefully you don't find it too redundant.
In other news, I have my "80's Rocker Hair" costume all planned for the premiere of Core. Everyone attending should dress up cause you could win some good stuff. I also got back on the Iron Monkey this weekend in Eldo. I was pleasantly surprised with how well it went and hopefully I'll be able to finally accomplish this long term project. More on the Iron Monkey to come soon.
Just wanted to remind everyone that the premiere of Core is this coming Wednesday at the Boulder Theater. Don't miss it. For those of you who can't wait, the movie is now available on Blu-ray. This is the first release of the film and it won't be available on DVD for a few more weeks. The Blu-ray version will also have some extra footage in it including the uncut Fred Nicole interview. Buy it here:
My trip to Joe's is over now and after climbing 7 out of the past 10 days, my body is in need of some serious rest. I feel very fortunate to have had such an amazing trip with perfect weather, great problems, fun ascents, and cool people to hang with. Here's a quick recap of my last days of climbing. Also, I'll try to update my Joe's beta post soon with the info I gleaned from this trip.
On Saturday, I decided not to go back to Masterpiece because my body was still sore from the many attempts on Thursday. Instead I warmed up and climbed some fun problems at the Eden area including Save Yourself which is awesome, and a fun new Huecoesque problem called Bring the Heatwole. Later in the day I tried Mask of God V13 a bit. I stuck the big gaston move out right but wasn't sure how to do the next move. I also tried the project left of Wind Below. This is an amazing line but very hard. I didn't have much psyche so I only tried it twice. It seems doable though, someone just needs to get it done. Sunday was another rest day.
On Monday, I took a slow warm up at the riverside area and then made my way up to Masterpiece. I pulled on in the middle and climbed to the top for more warm up and to practice the moves. My fingers got numb and my left arm got a slight pump that wouldn't go away. I started giving it goes from the bottom and on my second and third attempt I climbed through the crux and fell in the middle section. My heel blew off a slopey heel hook both times. On my next go though, I tried a bit harder, climbed through the middle section and sketched my way through the high finishing moves with numb fingers and waning strength. It was a real fight and I got a little lucky to pull it off. We got some great footage of the send which I'm editing now and will hopefully have up soon.
Yesterday, I wanted to get a bit of climbing in before hitting the road. I climbed the straight up from Ghost King which goes at V10. This problem was never named so we started calling it Porn King to have something to call it. I guess the problem to the left, Ghosts of War, has also been called Porn King. We figured that a problem doesn't really need two names so we stole this name for the direct problem. It's a really fun problem and has an awesome sloper at the lip. Check out video of this problem below. To end the trip, I gave a few goes on Knocking Room which broke and is now a project. The moves seem feasible but will be very hard. It involves serious crimping and I'm guessing it will check in around V13. Still a cool problem, but I can tell it won't be as classic as the pre-break Knocking Room.
Here's a recap of the problems I climbed this trip:
Ghost King V11 Ghosts of War V12 Obelisk V9 Black Dahlia V10 Dance With the Devil V7 Kill List V12 Godsend V9 G207 V7 Save Yourself V8 Bring the Heatwole V8 Masterpiece V13 Porn King V10
Past two days have been great. Today is another rest day -- definitely needed after climbing my first 4 out of 5 days. Here's a quick run down of the past two days. The first day, after warming up, I headed above the right sign area and checked out some awesome problems. First was Sunshine Daydream V6 which had some fun moves. My girlfriend Sandy sent this in a few tries which was rad. Next Justin, Noah and I worked out the moves on Dance With the Devil V7. This problem is one of the best problems in Joe's, scary but totally rad. I did it after a few attempts figuring out the top. After this I started working on Kill List, the V12 to the right that shares a similar finish. I worked out all the moves and then sent my first full try. Probably took about 10 tries in total. Kill List is also a great problem well worth the hike. With the light fading, we hiked farther up the hill and found Godsend V9. This problem is quite uncharacteristic for the area with big slopers. I flashed the problem, Justin and Noah both dispatched quickly and we made it down the hill just as it got fully dark.
Yesterday I warmed up climbing G207 V7 (which Sandy is close on) and then worked on Masterpiece V13 in the afternoon. I figured out all the beta, but was having trouble with a foot switch at the beginning of the problem. Eventually I figured out some micro beta to make the foot switch easier but at this point was too fatigued to do the full sequence. I'm really excited to go back to it tomorrow and am confident that it'll go smoothly. This problem is probably my favorite of the trip so far. Such an impressive boulder and location. On top of that the holds are amazing and the movement is really fun. I can't wait to climb it in its entirety. Fun!
Here's a video I put together of Kill List. It doesn't have the best angles, but shows the problem a bit. This is pieced together from a few tries (hence the inconsistency in the spotter's attire). We got more angles and the problem will probably go into Try Harder. For now, my goal was to just get some footage out there so people could see the problem and get psyched for it. Get up there and do it -- it's rad.
