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.
Today is my first rest day since I've been here. I drove out on Saturday and got in after dark so didn't get to climb at all. Sunday and Monday were perfect conditions though --- sunny but still with a bit of a chill in the air. On Sunday I climbed at New Joe's and after a long warm up Noah Kaufman and I made our way over to the Ghost King Boulder. I pulled on to the Ghosts of War V12 for a few tries to get my fingers psyched for some smaller holds. Then I down climbed from the top to check out the top out of Ghosts of War and the Ghost King V11. After watching Noah give a few burns on Ghost King, I got psyched to see how it felt. My first go was solid, but I fell releasing a toe hook because I missed the good foothold. I sent the problem on my second go. Super classic line, lots of fun. My fingers were a bit shocked from pulling hard so I took a short break before getting back on Ghosts of War. I had Noah give me some weight through the first moves of the problem so I could feel a pocket halfway up. It felt pretty bad and I dropped off. Without many expectations, I jumped on from the start to try the first moves again and just feel out the problem. I stuck the opening sequence and got my right hand into the small two finger pocket. Unsure of which feet to use and not really finding anything good, I just made a long campus to the good incut above. I stuck this and sketched my way through the sandy topout moves. It was really enjoyable to climb this problem because I had to improvise and climb in the moment. I think it went down 5th try which was really cool.
Yesterday was lots of fun too and again perfect weather. After a warm up, I went up to the Obelisk V9 with Noah and Justin Alarcon. It took a bit to figure out and get motivated for the scary finishing moves. Once figured out though, Justin and I sent the problem. Next on the list was the Black Dahlia a problem rumored to perhaps be the best V10 in Joe's. We saw it and it was pretty spectacular. The line comes out a beautiful slightly overhanging black wall with macro features but not tons of small edges and pockets. The business comes down to a long move to a sloper and then some heel hooking and toe camming to get to a decent lip hold. To surmount the lip you have to pull a long move to a good edge and then press up and over. On my flash go I stuck the long move but didn't feel the heel hook right. After a few more goes I had the problem figured out and sent on my 4th try. We got some cool footage of the problem which should make it into the long awaited "Try Harder" due out in a year or so. Psyched for more cranking tomorrow!
I'm pretty much ready for Joe's though I still have to do a bunch of packing and other things that need to be wrapped up before I leave town. Yesterday was my last day of climbing. I got out to Eldo for a short bouldering session to reaccustom my skin to sharp rock and to pull on some small crimps. I went to the Gill boulder which is right next to the road in Eldo. Surprisingly, I had never climbed on this boulder and there were some pretty fun problems to do. I managed a flash of 606 V10 and I climbed the Horan Problem from a sit to the left which felt V9ish. I also checked out Resonated V9 which is on the river nearby. That problem is awesome and I climbed it on my first try. Really fun. I was happy with the outing and feel strong and ready to get after it in Joe's. The weather is looking bad in CO Friday night and Sat. morning so I'm going to have to postpone leaving by a bit. I was going to leave late Friday, but now I'll probably wait for the weather to pass. Unfortunately, that means I probably won't get to Joe's in time to climb on Saturday. Still I'll get there soon enough and be cranking in no time. Psyched.
