Joe's Valley

I'm back in Flag after a week long trip to Joe's Valley. It was a much needed vacation from nursing school. It was nice to get a change of pace and climb on sandstone, as well as take a break from training for the Rocklands. I got to test out my new tent. It is a huge four person Big Agnes car camping tent, with an additional vestibule that forms a convenient kitchen with seating space.

I repeated many classics including Kill by Numbers, Stand-up Comedian, Planet of the Apes, Low Tide, and the Angler. I did some new classics including Maxipad and the Riverside traverse. The Riverside Traverse is fun and exciting as half of the traverse is above the river. It is an excellent warm up spot.

I finished off a few old projects on my trip. I managed a first try ascent of Resident Evil that I tried a few years back. I climbed on a full value boulder problem called Beyond Life. I surprised myself and sent second try in good style by keeping my feet on for the entire problem. Beyond Life climbs a beautiful overhanging face with a variety of holds including jugs, slopers, sidepulls, crimps, and even a mono pocket.

I continued trying a new climb called Strongbad. It is a roof located at the six mile marker in the left fork. At the mile marker there is a pull out to park in. Turn around so you are facing down canyon and scramble up to a boulder that forms a triangular point up on a hillside on the left side of the road. The climb is down in a cave. Strongbad climbs the roof to a crux move spanning a prow, followed by climbing on the lip to a jagged arete. It is an intense technical climb that uses a variety of techniques including toe hooks, heel hooks, heel toe cams, knee scums, and precise foot work. The crux revolves around a heel smear that forms a heel toe cam for the right foot, and a left foot posted on a small foothold in the roof. The crux move is a long huck for a bad sloper. It was first done by Rocco Bocchicchio a few years back. I was able to send the problem on one of my last attempts before returning to Flag. This may have been the second ascent. I captured video of Resident Evil and Strongbad. The Strongbad video is spliced together with 3 sections to give a better idea of the climb. This deviates away from my norm of one cut videos, but it provides a better viewing experience as well as beta for anyone wanting to try the climb.

Strongbad from John Cooper on Vimeo.

Resident Evil from John Cooper on Vimeo.

Egyptian Sector

I added a new circuit to my regimen at the Egyptian Sector. I captured video of Floorpie, Lumberjack, Saltine Crack Whore, and Action Deluxe (aka the Egyptian). I do this circuit in addition to Pasty Gangster and the Quad Crown.









I participated in a competition for the first time since high school. I competed in the Battle in the Fish Bowl Bouldering Competition (FBBC) at the NAU climbing wall. The more difficult advanced problems were set poorly (meaning that the setters simply put heinous holds far apart with inadequate feet without trying the moves or fore running), but the problems in the easier range were well set. This limitation turned the redpoint format into essentially a flash comp. Overall, the event was well organized and ran smoothly. However, the prizes could have been assigned to each place, instead of on a first come first serve basis starting with the beginner categories. There was a strong field of competitors and surprisingly large turnout in advanced. I placed 2nd in the advanced category.

Priest Draw and Sedona

I have been climbing quite a bit lately. I finished off another long term project at Priest Draw called Pink Lightning. I have been trying it on and off for the past few years. It is superb movement and long, but the fact that it is a link-up takes away from the quality a bit. Nonetheless it is 10 miles from my house so it was a fun project to work on, and use to increase my fitness. I finished off another project called Action Deluxe (aka The Egyptian). This climb is not as good as it looks. It is unique in the fact that it has double gastons in a roof requiring quite a bit of shoulder power and core to do the feet first finish in the water runnel.

I have been doing a lot of circuiting at the draw to improve my fitness. I graduated to doing the pure octo-crown, which is the quad crown twice in one session without falling. I put together another circuit in the Egyptian sector consisting of Action Deluxe, Pasty Gangster, Saltine Crack Whore, Big Ed's Flying Saucer, the climb to the right of Pasty Gangster, Floor pie, Twister, Twister Direct, and the Lumberjack start to Floor pie.

Yesterday I went down to Sedona with Matt to get reacquainted with sandstone for my upcoming Joe's Valley trip in one week. I visited Grasshopper Point and climbed at the Bikini Wall. I fell off the mantle of Viva la Revolution. I flashed Berlin, and then repeated it in good style for video. I repeated Beast from the East, which felt much easier than when I originally did it last spring. It is nice to see the progression from year to year. This is something I experienced on my winter road trip when I finished some projects from when high school and 4 years back. We attempted to cross the river to Stuff Shootin, but the river was too high due to the snow melt from the small recent storm in Flagstaff. We did a small compression block called Happy Puppies, which was not as classic as it had been described to Matt. Honestly, it was not worth the walk to do this climb.





Running a lap on Pasty Gangster.


Trying Action Deluxe (aka The Egyptian) on a miserable snowy day a few sessions prior to the send.