Thursday, September 17, 2009

PBR Circuit

Puzzlebox Roof Circuit:
1. Puzzlebox X 5
2. Belly Sidepulls X 5
3. Pufferfish X 5
4. Unknown(Right of Pufferfish) X 5

It's likely that I'll be sore in the morning.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

New World


Snow storm we encountered on the way back to Flag.







Dain's Chalk

I've been climbing at The New World recently. The New World is a sick limestone canyon with a seemingly endless amount of rock and high quality boulder problems. Most of the problems here have tall, pumpy topouts and sloping landings. Limestone roofs and aretes cover the steep hillsides of the canyon. Some of the roofs have the wavy quality of limestone reminiscent of Roger's Park in Central Texas. This area was recently discovered by locals Andy Klier and Sam Tingey, and has seen a recent surge of activity with likely 30+ new problems in the last few weeks, trails being built, and landings constructed. I built a better landing for the Swordfish last Monday with the help of Pat, so that the prow can be climbed to the end. Today I established a potential new boulder problem up the hill from Swordfish. It climbs the left side of a horizontal roof with strange drip holds and pockets starting in a bad undercling. When this area was discovered there was chalk on this climb. We're going to call this climb Dain's Chalk until we found out if this is a first ascent. This area could be the rumored Dain's World. This roof is straight power, and probably holds a difficulty similar to Cosmic Tricycle at Priest Draw. Other contributors to the area include Sam Davis(who has rappelled to clean a majority of the climbs), Ana Burgos, and Joe Morgan. I encountered one of the few monsoons this season on the way back to Flagstaff. We drove through heavy rain, fog, lightning, and even snow on Lake Mary Rd. about 30-40 miles from town.

Draw Circuit

I've been circuiting the draw once a week lately.

Draw Circuit:
1. Puzzlebox
2. Belly Sidepulls
3. Cosmic Tricycle
4. Pufferfish
5. Unknown(Right of Pufferfish)
6. She Lives
7. Badass
8. Stinkyass
9. Meateater
10. Anorexic
11. Floor Pie
12. Twister
13. Left of SCW

Monday, September 7, 2009

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Mt. Evans



The Dali
Mirror Mask

Big Worm

I finally made it to Mt. Evans. I've been wanting to check this place out for a few years. The high altitude bouldering in Colorado is some of the best in North America. I climbed on a compression roof called Big Worm. This is one of the hardest problems I've ever climbed on, and it is definitely my hardest project. The stand start to Big Worm is called Mirror Mask. I climbed this problem in a few tries. The problem went down much quicker than I thought it would. I've lost less power than I had previously thought. My visit to Mt. Evans and the Park has made me super motivated to get stronger and build more power for next season. Next summer I'm going to try to find work in Colorado so I can climb at the Park and Evans for several months.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Morrison

I visited the Greatness of Morrison last night. This area is comparable to the Greatness of Nolan River in Texas. The only difference is that Nolan River is more chossy. For the most part Morrison is a greasy pile on the side of the road, but I climbed one decent line called Helicopter. The lack of a topout definitely detracted from the rock climb.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

RMNP

Eternia
Riddles in the Dark

Summer temps are here. I've been climbing at the alpine boulders of RMNP to escape the heat. Chaos Canyon is at an elevation of 10,000 feet. The Granite boulders are some of the best in the country with angles of all kinds from roof to slab. Most of the holds are skin friendly as they are flat and at a 90 degree angle with the wall. I hiked up to Eternia which involves a 3.5 mile hike uphill and through talus at elevation. Eternia is a granite roof that is similar to Hueco and the Draw. I'm psyched to do this climb, but it requires 4+ pads. I've been climbing on Riddles in the Dark. The landing is much better than 2 years ago when I was here, because there is snow to level it out. I made progress by finishing all the moves. I climbed on Whispers of Wisdom at Emerald lake. I figured out the bottom sequence, but I'm still trying to figure out the top section. The photo is of Riddles in the Dark on my first visit to the park 2 years ago.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Friday, July 10, 2009

Red Cliff





Rifle

After an epic 4th of July spent in Lander partying with the locals we went to Rifle to check out some of the best sport climbing in the states. Rifle Mountain Park is a narrow canyon with limestone cliffs lining each side. If it were not for the crowds and near proximity to the Front Range, Rifle would be one of my favorite places to sport climb. By the time Eric and I got to Rifle, our psych for sport climbing was gone. We decided to end our 2 month sport climbing trip with a long, amazing route called Feeline. I barely flashed this route as it is over 100 feet tall with technical foot moves and sidepulls on a relatively vertical wall. The picture was taken from the road. The arrow points to Eric to give an idea of how tall the climb is.