New? Highballs in Eldo

Yesterday I climbed two really cool highballs on the big block past Midnight Frightening near the boulder with Elegant Infinite. I don't really know the name of any of the actual boulders back there. Anyway, these problems were really cool and seemed like first ascents. Well one seemed like it had never been climbed and the other has a TR anchor on it so it has perhaps been climbed but I wonder if it's been bouldered. If anyone knows anything about these two lines, I'd be psyched to hear.

The first problem I did is this rad slightly overhanging face on the side of the boulder you see when you first approach it. It's about 12ft right of a 5.13 sport climb and starts off the slab the boulder sits on. You do a slightly awkward reach out to a pocket and then take a fun big swing on crimps. From there you move up to another big edge and then you have to pull the hardest moves. The crux sequence starts with a long move to a small left hand crimp. Then you hand heel match and bring your right hand to an even worse crimp. Once established on these two tiny holds, you have to make a slightly dynamic move to the jug at the lip. It's quite scary because at that point you're probably 15ft above the landing which slopes away from the problem. The mantle is relatively easy as is the 15ft of slab that leads to the top. All in all it's a super classic line. The only thing that could take away from it is the sharpness of the two small crimps. This is Eldo though and sharp holds are fairly common. It was tough to estimate the difficulty, but it seemed like V8 or V9. I'd love to hear if the problem has been bouldered or TR'ed and if it has a name. It definitely hadn't been done in a while because there was lichen on the crux crimps. If it doesn't have a name, I was thinking of suggesting the name "Jetlag" due to my 3am wakeup the day I did it.

Chuck Fryberger was out with me and caught these two ascents for his new film The Scene which will probably come out sometime in August. Here are a few captures from the first problem.




The second problem is pretty much on the exact opposite side of the boulder. It starts with a small jump to an obvious jug. Then you head up and left through a pocket and a funky pebble crimp. It has some really cool moves through a bulge and then a high vertical face with small crimps leading to the top out jugs. A really awesome line up a beautiful sweeping part of the boulder. This one felt to be about V7 or V8 and I was thinking of calling it "Bones." Though it's obvious and seems like it must have already been done, I'm pretty sure this one is new because lots of foot holds and hand holds had lips that crumbled easily. If it had been climbed, I think these would have been cleaned up a bit. Here are a few screen captures of this problem. What a treat to climb these two problems in one day!