MOONLIGHT BUTTRESS!!!

I waited to post about the best for last.  On Monday of last week, Tim and I climbed Moonlight Buttress (1200 feet, 5.12d) on the Northwest Face of Angel's Landing in Zion.  Wes started around 9 am and each climbed the first four pitches (5.8, 5.10. 5.11c, 5.12b) cleanly and all free alternating leads starting with Tim.  Each of the next five 5.12 pitches were climbed free but not cleanly redpointed.  We topped out sometime after six more worked than either of us have ever been and hiked up to the top of Angel's Landing before going back to the car for a big meal and a lot of water.

Moonlight Buttress takes the center of the prominent buttress in this photo.  Pitches 4 through 11 are all on one continuous crack size that does not vary any more than a couple cam sizes the whole time.

Its a bit hard to see but the person below the roof is me at the hanging belay situated at the base of Pitch 7 and Tim just getting to the next ledge at the end of that pitch.

Moe's Valley

We had some car troubles in the middle of our trip and, while at the mechanics, were invited to a dessert party outside of Zion that was a fundraiser for a woman to ride two horses from the tip of Scotland to the tip of England and write a book about it.  We decided that we would go bouldering at Moe's for the morning and afternoon and then make our way to Springdale to eat some treats.  While Moe's disappointed me a bit, the desserts came trough and it was fun to eat as much sweet stuff as you can after camping for 10 days.

Country Boy

Here is Brian Rhodes on Country Boy (5.12+).  This route had a sharp, difficult crux near the bottom, shown in the first three pictures, to a pumpy and hard to read arete/compression section at the top.  Tim and I never got on this but it would be one of the first things I would want to try when I return to Gorilla Cliffs.

Warm Up Route

Here is Tim sending Warm-Up Route (5.12+) at the Gorilla Cliffs.  This short three bolt route is very technical on amazing grey and gold rock and it probably better described as a V6 to a V4.  It is just to the right of Boone Speed's The Present.

Zion and St George

Next it was off to Zion to do a bit of backpacking.  We headed to Kolob Canyons, which was some of the most beautiful terrain I have ever seen.  We found some truly AMAZING boulders in the backcountry.  Everything from compression blocks over the river to crimp lines up amazing 20 foot aretes.  We had some good sessions but did not top anything out.  Next, it was off to the Saint George area, where Ben Tim and I met up with Lauren and Brian for some pulling on immaculate limestone.  We spent a day and a half at Gorilla Cliffs and a day and a half at the Cathederal / Wailing Wall.  These are some of the best sport crags and I have ever been to and I would love to return one day.

The view from one of our camps in Zion Canyon

Pierre and I chilling at the Gorilla Cliffs

Sunset from Highway 91 near the Cathedral

Lauren warming up on an amazing 11c

Children of the Corn

One of the things Tim and I were most excited for in Ibex was trying Children of the Corn (5.13a). This route gained some fame when Tim Kemple soloed this and in the process made himself sound and look a bit foolish (in my opinion) during a section of Dosage 3.  It is essentially a very steep crack of almost every size with reasonable jams that has a face climbing section at the top that is hard cause you are pumped.  While we did all the moves, neither one of us sent. But we certainly had a great time trying such an overhanging trad route.  Here are some photos.

Red Monster

Our first stop of Spring Break was Ibex.  It was particularly windy, but everyone had an awesome time and Ibex got the approval the group, most of whom had not been there before.  I climbed on Bruce Lee for a bit but never came super close to sticking the crux left arm bump.  Here are a few photos.

Gripped Photo Sequence

I am happy to share that I recently got a sequence of photos published in the Canadian magazine Gripped. This marks the first time I have had something printed in a major climbing publication and I am very excited about it.  The sequence is of my good friend Bryan Boyko doing the Index classic Lego My Ego last summer, shortly before crushing his left ring finger off in a canary accident in Alaska.  I am very excited for Bryan, as his finger had recovered very well and he has started climbing again in the last couple months.

Updated: Ute Pass

On Friday, Byron, Brian, Than and I met up at Ute Pass to get a short afternoon session in.  The weather had temporarily turned cold, and between snow flurries, we got some great climbing in.  After two years without trying it, Byron did Bloody Arete Stand (V8) first go without warming up.  Despite the sit move being left arm intensive, I convinced Byron to try it.  He only gave it two goes but came very, very close to sticking the move.  Next, we headed over to The Gusher (V11).  I sent this one two years ago but was not able to pull a repeat off today.  We then moved our attention to a line I put up to the right called Beyond the Clouds (V10) .  I would say this is top three lines at the pass (along with Bloody Arete Sit and The Green Lantern) but despite this, it has not seen a second ascent from the sit.  We worked it for a while and out of no where Than pulled off the third ascent of the stand, Above the Cloud (V7).  Below is a video of the days happenings.

Project Wall and other updates

Things have been good in the So Co recently.  The weather has been a bit on the warm side but we have still been getting out a lot.  We have been working on some nice projects up in the Splatte.  Below is a video of a nice block I found a bit ago.  The center face is about 18 feet tall and 15 feet wide with a beautiful line right up it.  All the moves have gone but no one has linked it together yet.  Probably around V8.  There is also a nice climb moving out left from the same start that is a bit easier, maybe V7, which has also not gone.  You can also watch this video in high definition here. In other news, Tim, Nathan and I went back to Triple Exposure today and Tim had a good link from the ground into the crux of the crack.  I got some great telephoto video from across the way and coupled with a good continuos shot from above on a rope and I will have the material to put a nice piece together on the climb.

Five Ten Treasure Hunt

Check out Five Ten's website for more information.

Updates

          Been climbing outside a lot recently.  The theme has been exploration and I have put a number of off trail miles on my Freerunners. I am continually impressed at how comfortable and versatile this shoe is.  I can do everything from long trail hikes, to tricky talus jumping, to warming up in them.  The difficulty of much of Southern Colorado is getting close enough to a boulder to actually be able to see it.  Much of the time, the forest hides even the largest of blocks and it is very energy consuming chasing every potential lead you think you might see.  Byron, Brian Rhodes and I went to Elevenmile on Sunday to do a bit of exploration and cleaning.  We brushed up a large 15 footer that I found last week and climbed two lines to the lip but no one had it in them to turn the lip with the horrid landing.  With a few more pads it should go and you can expect a media update when it does.

          Then on Tuesday, Tim and I went to Garden of the Gods to try Triple Exposure.  Neither one of us had been on it and were both eager to see what it was like.  The first pitch was not quiet as chossy and everyone had said and the second pitch was perfect, powerful fingers.  I would like to avoid the hanging belay between the two pitches and do the route in the style that Brian did this summer, which goes at 5.13a.  Here is a photo of Brian on it, courtesy of Keith Ladzinski's website.

New Link

Check out the new link I have added on the right.  It is to my buddy Dave Jones' (aka Lordscience) website.  He is an awesome artist and super psyched climber.  Check it!

New Crack Boulder

A bit further down canyon from the new 45 line I found is this boulder.  Its about a 10 foot tall crack.  The first 5 feet are tight hands then it moves to bad fingers at the back of a wide offwidth that one must grovel to the top of to get another reasonable hand jam before moving left onto some faces holds to pull your body out of the depths of the crack.  Cool moves on a few painful locks.  FA goes to Tim Gibson at around V5.

Chill Style Left

Nathan finished off Chill Style Left on Friday also.  He used very different beta from how I did it and eliminated a number of hard moves.  We thought it was around V8.

Smoke Signals

Both Nathan and Tim sent Smoke Signals (V7) at Elevenmile quickly on Friday.  Nathan used the standard beta of throwing to the lip off of the last reasonable sloper with your feet low while Tim came up with some crack technique to static through the crux.  With the thin (and painful) handjams, Tim said it felt around V4.

Updated: Elevenmile Project

Byron, Brian and I went back to this guy on Sunday afternoon.  It was the third time I have looked at it but I still have not tried it.  It is eight feet of 45 to 6 more of vert on small incuts. Based on established things I have seen of a similar angle and hold size, this one has to be at least V12 or V13.   If anyone is interested I will take you to this guy.

Elevenmile

Yesterday Byron and I went up to Elevenmile with the intent on exploring a bit.  The warm weather has not allowed the normal ice bridges over the river to form and therefore changed our plans.  We went up this not so promising hillside and ended up finding a number of reasonable blocks.  The rock quality varied from good quality to normal crumbly splatte rock.  I did find one particularly nice line up a swooping wall that changed angles from 45 to about 15 degrees.  The block is about 12 feet tall and climbs on small incuts.  It probably clocks in somewhere in the V10 range.  After telling Byron about it, we tried to head back only to get disoriented.  We walked in circles for a while but never located it again.  I plan on returning soon to climb on this guy, hopefully with better luck finding it.

Hueco Rock Rodeo

Having not been to Hueco for two years it was super sweet to return, even if it was only for a long weekend.  The Hueco Rock Rodeo is coming up in two weekends and, as usual, should be lots of fun.  I climbed in the Rock Rodeo four years ago and had a great time and plan on heading down for a three day weekend to participate again this year.  There will be lots of great climbing to be had, sweet Five Ten shoe demos, and of corse a rocking after-party.  Hope to see you all there.

Hueco Tanks Continued

Since it was everyone but my first time to Hueco Tanks, we toured all of the classic stuff in the first couple days.  I had not climbed in two weeks and both my knee and pinkie were usable for the first time in a while, which was very exciting for me.  My trip consisted of repeating a lot of classics I had already done and trying a lot of the cool hard lines I have always looked at.  I got on Right Martini, Chablanke, Diaphanous Sea, Power of Landjager, Full Monty and Dark Age all for the first time.  I did not send any of them but it felt good to get on hard climbs again and make progress on them. Below is me on Baby Martini.  I have done the line before but fell matching the finishing jug on this trip at the end of the day.  Shortly after this my camera ran out of battery and I was not able to get any more photos. 

See Spot Run

We had an excellent crew of dudes on our Block Break from school this last five days.  Nathan Tim and I headed out and picked up Dane in Albuquerque then Blake at the El Paso airport.  We spent our first day on North Mountain.  The highlights of the day was Dane sending his first V5, Lobster Claw, Nathan's flash of See Spot Run, and my blind football throw and Tim's subsequent catch between two corridors where we could not see each other.  Shown below is Tim working the moves out of See Spot Run.

Updates

Sorry I have not posted too much recently.  Between my pinkie and knee, climbing has not been a great option.  Tonight I leave for 10 days in Hawaii for my Volcanology class.  We will be on the Big Island, mostly around Volcano National Park, but should get to see a good chunk of the island.  I return next Wednesday and immediately head down to Hueco for five days.  It will be the first time I have climbed on problems not graded by myself or others I climb with and I am very curious to see how things feel.  My knee should be better by then and I will also be able to use my left pinkie again.  I will post a bunch upon returning to the Springs.

New Look

Another Injury

Just as my pinkie is starting to feel better it seems that I may have seriously injured my knee.  Ander, Byron and I went to the Winter OR Trade Show with no music but the radio so we went to make a quick stop at a record store on the way out of Salt Lake when I slipped on some ice running around a corner.  At full speed, my right knee plowed into a cement curb and it immediately began to swell up. Shown below is my knee this afternoon.  I plan on seeing a doctor tomorrow.

Updates

Ander got into town at 4 am this morning.  Headed out somewhere after class today then tomorrow we are headed to Utah for the winter Outdoor Retailer show.  Hopefully we can squeeze in some time in Little Cottonwood before spending the day at Joe's on Sunday.

Winter Session at Ute Pass

Corridor Blocks

Yeah, so my finger is broken but I am starting my recovery period after this weekend in an attempt to finish up some business. Today, Byron, Noah and I went to Elevenmile to try our luck at some new lines. A while back, Byron spotted a huge, yet hard to spot arete in some talus about the road in Elevenmile Canyon.  We stopped to take a look and upon realizing the 40+ foot monster with a horrible landing was actually a death route, we started walking around to see what else may be laying around.  It turned out that we did find a few hidden gems, with climbs that were very reminiscent of Mt Evans.  Media has been slowly leaking out onto the web of this area since it was first found so here it is, a video of the goods.

Looking to do a bit of a warm up, I brushed up the first line in the video and quickly made the first ascent at around V2.  Due to the reachy beta that both Noah and I used, I named the problem Snoop Style, in reference to the lankiness that Snoop Dog is.  Just to the right of this problem is a highly featured wall that will yield a number of cool moderates in the V7 range but we were not able to unlock them as daylight faded.  However, the main attraction is a stunning arete that has been dubbed the Gin and Juice project.  Imagine a steeper Bloody Arete with a much worse landing.  The problem revolves around a huge move to the lip off of a horrible wrap.  I am starting to think the stand alone might be V10.  There is also a clear sit, with even worse pinches and wraps moving into the stand holds, which will most definitely be southern Colorado's hardest when it goes.

Broken Finger

I got a call from my doctor today.  Turns out my left pinkie is broken and I cannot climb for one month.  SUPER BUMMED...

Wintery Conditions

While Seattle warmed up and everything got wet, Colorado Springs stayed cold and despite icicles and snow on many problems up at the Pass yesterday, the rock was dry and crisp underneath.  I cleaned off all the ice that was over the top out of the Talledega Nights project and chalked it up.  I plan on heading up to the Pass again tomorrow to either try Talledega Nights or the Horseshoe Stratler.

Erie lighting just after sunset.

Icicles sticking to the lip of the Talledega Nights boulder.  The line starts on the left side of the jug and moves up and right on stupidly small crimps using a large heel hook.  While I have topped the problem out from a good incut below the lip at around V6 and Ben Snyder made it to this same hold from the start only to fall trying to top out in the rain, this problem has not seen a first ascent after three years of effort.

In the SoCo...

Just arrived back in Colorado Springs. PSYCHED PSYCHED PSYCHED! I have not touched rock in two weeks and am on the verge of freaking out. Going out climbing with Byron tomorrow. Updates to come.