Nick of Time

Ben and Max have been raving about this line they checked out at Ute Valley the other day. Being a skeptic of anything Ben Snyder finds cool and hesitant to spend an afternoon at Ute Valley (substitute here any number of other Crumblewood-esk spots) it took some convincing. I ended up heading over there with Tim today after class to meet up with Nick, Ander, and Max. The moves are of a very high caliber, reminisant of some of the cooler Hueco roof climbs, but the poor rock quality and proximity to the ground bring the overall quality of this climb down. I wandered off for a bit but got drawn back in as Nick dialed the moves in and started coming very close. Nick nabbed the first ascent, calling it Nick of Time (V6), and shortly after I got the second ascent. A little bit later, Ander managed the third.

Yes, its really that good!

So I have been trying to explain to my friends how good the climbs and quality of rock in Washington really is and I think I finally figured out how to say it best: Gold Bar makes Mt Evans look like Ute Pass. The granite in Washington has this amazing fine grained texture to it that is unlike any other granite I have been on. It is grippy without one ever having to focus on hitting crystals correctly. Below is Damien at the end of Rosbongo on the Five Star boulder. The Five Star boulder is a true world class bloc. I would rank it among the Dali Wall, the Mushroom boulder, and the They Call Him Jordan bloc for quantity of quality climbs.

War of God Video

To continue my Thanksgiving break media onslaught, here is a crappy video of me doing War of God (V7) at Gold Bar. Hopefully, I will be able to get some more storage space on the Colorado College server and put up higher quality versions of this video and Max on Megaladon. Stay tuned.

Gold Bar Video

Spent some time last night editing some of the video that we took over the last week. I am using quicktime videos cause I think the quality is higher but if things are not working out I can throw it on YouTube. Here are Large (28 MB) and Small (12 MB) versions of a couple climbs in Gold Bar, Washington.

Early Morning Sesh

Today Bryan and I woke up at 5:30 and headed to Gold Bar. We arrived at the Equinox boulder at 7:45 just as it was warming up to a climbable temp. I went to work on Twisted and had my beta dialed in pretty quick. After falling a few times up high on the easier moves, I was able to put everything together and send. It is hard to describe how good this climb really is, but I will say this: the rock is better than anything I have climbed on in Colorado. Next, Bryan and I tried Equinox a little but I was not very motivated and we decided to move on. We played around on some other classic lines but decided to go get on some new things we have never tried before. We went to this line that Joel put up on this immaculate overhanging face. The problem turned out to be pretty hard and we decided to move up. We tried two other more moderate problems but both were located in the forest and were a little wet so neither ended up going. Here are some pictures of Equinox and Joel's line. Twisted video to come.

The Green Goblin

Here is an unedited video of Johnny G doing the Green Goblin in the upper forest of Gold Bar, Washington. High quality quicktime version to come.

Back in Washington

Thanksgiving day seshwan at Gold Bar. Boyko, Patrick, Damien, and I woke up at 6:30 as to be back in Seattle for our various dinner plans. We went up to the clear cut area in the morning when it was cold and got on a few problems before meeting up with Cole and Johnny G and heading to the Green Goblin. Boyko had a rad day, doing Equinox (V11), The Green Goblin (V11), Dave's Problem (V10), and The Ta Ta Box (V10). The following photos are Twisted, Equinox, The Rubix Cube, and Mt Index across the valley.

Battle At Kruger!

Statements of the Day

Day Light Savings = Lame
Vasya climbing Jaws II = Sick
Everybody's a Victim = 5.13b
Trail Running = Me out of Breath
Uncivilized = Harder than Old Gaurd Sit

No, we did not actually climb any