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

Old Foam?

Anyone have any old crash pads they would be willing to donate to the awesome cause of biulding a sweet dorm room crash pad couch? The more shitty / soft soft soft / blown out the better!

Props

Ander made two weekday trips to Mt Evans this week in hope of sending his late season project The Dali. Despite a large flapper from his first visit this week, Ander sent it yesterday second try. Congrads man, a sick climb and even prouder to be your first of the grade!

Random Photo Posting

Good news: Ute Pass is starting to come into season and maybe soon the Daddy Fat Sacks holds will no longer feel impossible to grab. Bad news: I somehow tweaked something in both my middle and ring finger and cannot climb right now. Hopefully it will heal quickly. For now here are two pictures of Julia Sick at the Pass

Late Season Mission to Area D

After a long and tiring session in Clear Creek on Friday, a whole crew of CC kids headed up to Mt Evans to wake up early Saturday morning. I decided that any possibility of reaching the rumored greatness of the Area D blocs would be worthwhile. And I cannot say I was the least bit disappointed. I think I can actually go as far as to say that it may be the single most amazing climbing place I have ever been too. Four amazing lines each up the center of an overhanging face each with no other way to the top peached high in the valley overlooking the lower Chicago Lake. Despite a little wind, we had a gorgeous day that was even a little hot at times. Amazing for October. We finished our day by hiking down to Area A and everyone sessioned a little more. I slacked a little on taking shots cause I was so blown away by everything I saw but here are a few.

Summit Lake

Tallus below the Black Wall far above Area D

Ben on an unknown problem above Area D

Ben attempting a very hard undone roof

Ander on Slander

Sport Climbing!!!???!!!

So I know my blog is usually about bouldering but just wanted to say that I am psyched to have sent my first 5.13b/c, Spray, at Elevenmile Canyon today. This is a a full four grades harder than I have ever climbed on a rope. Should I follow Ethans logic on Realization it would make Spray 12c or 12d. Maybe I have enough endurance now not to fall off the last move of Bushpilot cause I am pumped.

Cold Cold Climbing

The first block break of this year consisted of two days at Mt Evans and two days at RMNP. Old and new faces abounded and were generally friendly. Dan, Larissa, Ander and myself arrived at Evans on Thursday morning and packed in out stuff to camp overnight. Thursday was an amazingly beautiful day, probably one of the nicest I have experienced in the apline. Crisp temps along with a nice breeze made the clear blue skies still amazing for climbing. Everyone worked lots of stuff and I managed to come away with a send of the Mirrormask Stand. Paul attemped to climb the Dali wall in a day and in the process climbed Clear Blue Skies and No More Greener Grasses first go and Mental Masterbation second go. I worked No More Greener Grasses with Herm and Brian Capps for a while. Lynn Hill also showed up for a while and proved to all of us she still knows how to climb better than the rest of us combined. A true technician of style and form. The next day the skies had clouded over and the winds picked up but things remained dry. I had been eyeing the line Peasants into Leaders that Ben Scott had put up earlier this summer since I first visited Evans before school started and decided today was my last chance to attempt it before spending the next eight months regretting not trying it at least. After two falls from around 15 feet I managed to complete it to my great joy (and my spotters, thanks Ander for the body check to the pads on fall two). The climb is a true five star line and is one of the most amazing sends I have had. The next day at RMNP proved to be poor for climbing but after sticking it out under Tommy's Arete for 4 hours (I kid you not) durring rain, snow, and hale the skies cleared for long enough for Ander to do it. He was psyched and we quickly tried a few other things before wet looking clouds lead us to retreat for the day. The next morning was another amazingly clear day but Choas had been hit hard with a storm overnight. Most of the climbs were either wet or iced over. As we arrived we were met by four Jason Kehl and Abby Smith retreating due to the conditons. I did a problem that Paul said Dave put up that goes into the end of Freaks, it was sharp but still enjoyable. I spent the rest of my day working Bushpilot, falling off the last move a number of times. More ropes I guess. A strong crew of people from England also showed up. Si Moore made impressive progress on Freaks and I would not be surprised if he sent, assuming conditions do not get any worse. Dave Graham was also present to tell everyone that even though he was wearing layers and layers of clothes, it was not nearly as cold as Maine. On our way back down from Upper after looking at Jade, we were greeted by the angry cursings of JE echoing through the Canyon as he made negative progress on the Automator. GO POSITIVITY, GET PSYCHED!

P.S. probably the longest post ever written by anyone so if you made it this far give yourself a pat on the back

Block Break One Pictures

JJ demanded a 12 photo update from the last four days of alpine bouldering to make up for my recent decision to start sport climbing again. Well, I had plenty of sweet pictures but he shall only receive 11 shots. Details of the break to come soon.

Ander on the Dali

Lee Payne on All Dogs Go to Evans

Ander on the start of All Dogs go to Evans

Paul sticks the "easy" move for him of Ode to the Modern Man

Ander sticks the last move of Autobot despite copious amounts of glare

A snowy and cold Upper Chaos Canyon from Jade

Brian Capps on No More Greener Grasses

Ander on the Mirrormask Stand

Larissa on the Chocolate Croissant

Dan on the Bierstadt Boulder Slab

Me on Peasants into Leaders. Dan Dalton Photo.

11mile Session

Went to Elevenmile with Byron, JJ, and a crew of Denver peeps. Good energy and psyched which resulted in many things getting attempted/sent. Justin made a first boot of doom ascent of a 5.10 to the right of the Spray wall. Things got a little cruxy before the first bolt had been clipped due to the left foot boot factor but all turned out well. I messed around on Spray on and off all day and feel like it could go when my endurance improves a little. Smoke Signals also saw two more ascents and I did a sweet first ascent of a scary yet easy problem uphill from Chill Style. Check Byron's blog for video of it shortly.

A Weekend At Evans

Ander, Tim, and I snuck away from the CC scene for a weekend in the mountains. We drove up to Evans early Saturday morning carring full pads and backpacks. We got on all the classic stuff of Area A on Saturday. Temps and conditions were idea and it was clear that fall had begun up in the apline areas. Ander and I did Pat's Arete and I was able to repeat Bierstadt, which felt signifigantly easier than the first time I did it. I also did Ludder's Pinch, which, at least for me, took as much effort as Bierstadt. The highlight of Saturday was figuring out the moves on Mirrormask, which has to be one of the more fun problems at Evans, especially considering how closed in it is. Sunday was unfortenatly pretty wet and we ended up have a shorter day at Evans and stopped at the Millenium boulder on the way back to Colorado Springs. Things felt gressy there but it got everyones energy up on the place for when temps start to cool off.

Elevenmile

Team Psyched, aka Team Burgle, aka Ander and me made a trip out to Elevenmile on Thursday for a little bouldering and sport climbing. We got on Smoke Signals after a key foot broke and neither one us were able to do it. I also tried Chill Style and Chill Style left, which did not go very well. Next we headed to the Spray Wall were Ander had some unfinished business on the Spray Boulder. After working the complete line up the arete on the boulder for a while, we moved to some endurance climbing. Ander feel at the very last hard move on the cave problem, which resulted in a plethora of cursing and anger while I fondled the Anger Management holds and decided I did not want to pull on them today. Towards the end I decided to try Spray, which went decently. I did all the moves but the hard throw at the end. This weekend is my last weekend or doing purely bouldering. The current Rodellar video on Momentum has made me come to the conclusion that all I want to do is sport climb, so it is off to train some endurance. And yes I know, the second photo is a bit of a Ladzinski shot rip off, just not as sick.

Back at the Pass

We were going to head to Evans Area D yesterday but bad weather and lot of school work took that plan out of the picture. We decided to head to the bridge in Manitou but just before arriving realized we had no rope. Instead we headed to Ute Pass, even though we also did not have any crash pads. We mostly goofed off on some lowballs but some of the long standing projects of the Pass should be going down soon.

Mt Evans Shots

I did not take too many shots over the last week, mostly due to not wanting to haul around 10 pounds of camera stuff in a crash pad without backpack straps but here are a few shots of Dave and Simon on Silverback, Brian on Hallow Deception, and Simon on Gorillas in the Mist.