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.

Pasty Gangsta

Puzzlebox

Temps in flag have been great, in addition to a lack of snow. We've been sessioning at PBR and some other roofs at the draw lately. Here's two videos. The first one is Phoenix Sucks #1, and the second video is Huffalufagus. I made some progress on Pink Lightning and pumped out near the end. I hit up the Anvil boulders after my Cottonwood clinical for nursing last Thursday. I climbed Mars Attacks, which is a sick compression problem on a variety of holds. It is a bit short, but the climbing is quality. I don't think I'll be revisiting the Anvils for awhile because I hate that river crossing.

Quad Crown

The Mars Roof Quad Crown is the best workout in Flagstaff. No falls = pure quad crown.

Send Train and Moe's Valley

Hueco Tanks

Serves You Right aka Full Service

I finished my month long road trip with a stop in Hueco Tanks. I've spent a lot of time here in the past, so the focus of stopping here was more so to visit friends than because of the rock climbing. I bounced back and forth between Wagon Wheel and Shindagger during my stay. Shindagger was a bit less crowded and it now has a mini skatepark called the Ollie Pad. I got to climb for 4 days during my time here and I was able to do 2 new climbs. There have been new climbs going up in the park lately such as Cut to the Quick, AKA, and Bush League. I climbed a new roof in the Gunks called Bush League. It climbs through jugs to some slopers and crimps and a compression finish. The movement is awesome, and it is surprising that it was not done sooner. I finished my longest to date project Serves You Right (aka Full Service). I have literally been trying Serves You Right since high school when it was still way above my ability level. The quality of this rock climb is what attracted me to start trying it at such a young age. All of the holds are unique as well as the movement, and it is consistent to the top. Serves You Right may be the highest quality boulder problem that I have ever done.

Starry Eyed Man

White Horned Dancer

ATX

I spent five days in Austin in early January, and climbed every single day. I drove down from the hellscape of DFW with my brother Robbie. We climbed at a massive limestone cave northwest of Austin. The next evening I climbed at the Greenbelt with my friend Grear. I had never visited this area before. I climbed on the Whipping Post and Hank's Cave. The climbs were cool, but everything was a bit overpolished due to the fact that this area is a local spot in the city. The third day I drove up to Roger's Park with Robbie to climb some easier classics. Roger's Park is one of the first areas I ever climbed at. It is characterized by tall limestone bulges with pockets. The rock quality is good, and the area is on a hill side above lake Belton. I returned to the roof the following day and finished my project Subterranean. SubT starts in a crack and climbs on pockets with the use of heel toe cams and toe hooks to gain an amazing tufa pinch feature and a throw to a massive jug. The next day I met up with Eric and climbed at Reimer's Ranch. It had been approximately 8 years since I last visited Reimer's. The last time I was there it was still owned by Milton Reimer. Today it is a Travis County park. I finished an old high school sport climbing project called Liposuction. Liposuction climbs amazing tufas out a roof to a no hands rest, then up an overhanging wall. The climbing is pumpy, but with the amount of power I have built up over the years it was relatively easy to put this old project to rest.

The South

I spent the past two and a half weeks climbing in the southeast. I spent the majority of my trip at Rocktown, a sandstone area located in northwest Georgia. Rocktown is a maze of sandstone boulders spread out with many quality moderates. There are a lot of roofs at Rocktown and the camping is free. My goal was to finish a cool roof called Tractor Traylor(turns out I was actually climbing the extension). I came close to doing this climb 3 or 4 years ago, but then the jackass southern rain prevented any further efforts. There was a large bucket at the end of the roof, but when I returned this year it had been broken off. I think that it makes the problem significantly harder and more sustained. Every time it rained on this trip I had nightmare flashbacks that I was not going to be able to finish it, but I sent the day after xmas. I couldn't have got a better xmas present than that. I climbed several moderate classics including Rescue 911, Croc Bloc, Spice, The Tooth Problem, Pythagorean Theorem, Triple Slaps, Golden Showers, and Double Trouble.

After Rocktown, I headed back to the Vapor Lock Roof at Dayton Pocket. This area is more or less a perfect example of my ideal climbing area. It's a short hike to the roof, there is a lack of crowds(I didn't see a single person all day), and the roof is massive with cool holds and pumpy climbing. I tried the crux moves of Honeycomb without high expectations, but I was able to do the moves. Apparently Tractor Traylor extension left me in great shape as I was able to do the climb in a few tries. I also did Torpedo which climbs cool rails out to a jug finish.

Photo of Honeycomb from a few years back.

I spent the last 2 days of my trip in the southeast climbing at some spots I had never been to. I visited LRC and climbed on some classic boulder problems. LRC is conveniently located close to Chattanooga and has a short hike. There is a large amount of sandstone boulders that host inspiring lines. The Wave was an awesome feature that started on jugs and climbed out a long sloper rail. Super Mario was another noteworthy problem that had fun movement, cool holds, and pockets! Tennessee Thong is an amazing boulder that has a somewhat blind throw to a massive jug. When I hit the jug my right hand came off and slapped against a wall to stop the barndoor. I haven't done a move as unique as that throw.

I headed south to Alabama to check out HP40. I drove down there after climbing in the morning at LRC, and visited a small area located outside of HP called Sumatanga. There is a good roof problem there called Melodrama that climbs good edges and pockets out the roof. I did this problem, then camped at HP for the night. In the morning, I woke up to the sound of more southern jackass rain. It wasn't raining hard, but it was my last day before heading to Texas. This rain was odd in the sense that it was more of a fog that soaked the trees, which in turn rained on the boulders. Anything that was out in the open was dry, but boulders under trees were wet. It was the strangest form of wet that I've seen. I did a quick session of some of the steeper climbs including Hammerhead, Mulletino, and Short Long.