Jumping on the Sending Train

On Saturday Micah, Tony, Laura and I made an extreme day trip (3 and a half hours each way) back out to Levenworth to go bouldering. The forecast was excellent, cool and sunny. We got there around 10am, it was pretty cold when we stepped out of the car, but the sun came out and it started to warm up. We went to Barney's Rubble first, a small roadside area with a few great problems, and warmed up on some V1 and 2 slabs. I decided to get back on The Rubb' Dyno, the V8 I got so close on a couple of weeks ago but fell off and hurt myself on. Its such a nice problem, technical and thin, then an improbbable lunge to the lip, it doesn't feel doable until you go for it, and you really have to go for it. I gave it a few goes to get into the feel of it and to remeber the movement. Then Laura climbed on top of the boulder, to get a video of it. Click on the video below to see how I did. (you might want to turn the volume down)

As you can tell I was fairly pleased, it was my first ever V8! Once that was in the bag, we headed up the hill to forestlands were we basked in the sun and I basked in my glory.

The 2 main boulders in Lower Forestland are made for climbing, they're perfect in every sense. Pristine featured granite, perfect height (tall, but not too tall) and perfect landings. Laura and Tony worked The Real Thing, an awesome technical V4. Tony got it after a few tries while Laura got close, but will have to wait til next time. And Micah made the crouch start to One Summer which goes at V6 look easy, its not easy I tried it. I got back on The Shield, the V7 I got so close on before, but still couldn't latch the big move. Here's a photo of me almost latching it.

Dom on The Shield V7

We then went around the corner and tried a hard V4 Feel the Pinch which took me a few goes. We met a guy from Seattle called Ryan, and invited him to climb with us for the rest of the day, he had a couple pads which were very welcome. Micah and I worked on a sweet V8 called Busted. We had seen a video of it on youtube and thought it looked doable, so we got to work on it. It goes up a tall fat arete, with lots of dynamic slapping on generally good holds. It starts off on a flexing flake, then you slap around the corner to good open hand slopers, bump the right hand up to a good sidepull crimp, throw a left heel on, and work up the arete, you have to bring your feet up high and make a cruxy throw up left to a good incut, from there you just have to keep it together and finish up a V3. We played around it for a while and manged to do each of the moves individually. This'll go! We thought, and started to get excited! Micah was able to link the moves a lot better than me, this problem really suited his style, i knew it was only a matter of time before he sent it. And he did, after working it for only about 20 minutes he was standing on top, it was his first V8 as well! It was definitely a good day. Micah was really encouraging me to do it as well, I wasn't so sure, I was having trouble with getting my feet up and making that last throw. I rested and gave it a good attempt, I got up to the throw and stuck it! YES! I thought, but my hand was slipping, I need to match, I brought my other hand across but I was off, NO! I thought I had it, I got soo close but that's the way it goes. I rested some more, but wasn't sure if I would try it again. The Forestland started to get busy, a big group of young guys from the Vertical World team in Seattle turned up and a couple other groups. This was the busiest I'd ever seen it here. With the extra audience, I decided to give it another go. I got really psyched, got up to the crux and blam! I stuck the hold, I got it good, there was no way I was coming off this time, I matched and worked up the arete to the slopey top-out, YES! my second ever V8, both in the same day. Here is a photo of it, and a link to the youtube video of it if anyones interested. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmRZsVD3dSs Busted is the one about 1.10 minutes into the video.

Dom on Busted V8

Fresh off that success we headed up another couple minutes to upper Forestlands. We started on some easier stuff, Laura flashed a highball V2 slab called Fedge. She made it look pretty easy, so I got on it, but man it was scary at the top, I had to top out, there was no coming down and it was too high to jump. Micah and I were thinking of getting on a highball V6 called The Ruminator, but upon seeing it in person we decided against it. Its a 45 degree overhanging crack with good holds, but above a terrible landing and a sketchy top-out at 30 feet. Think Evilution but with jugs above a bad bad landing. Just when we were about to move on the Vertical World guys came over and asked us if we wanted to combine our mats and go for it. We kind of shrugged, but i guess they took that as a yes and started putting down mats. I think we had 9 mats down in total but even then a fall from the lip was unthinkable. We all stood around hoping someone else would go for it first, then Micah decided to bite the bullet and got on it. He muscled his way through the first moves getting higher and higher, the rest of us ran around frantically rearranging mats as he went up. He made a couple sketchy moves at the top and was over the lip. I think all us spotters down below were more relived than him. It was a very proud send, and only his second ever V6 flash! He started off a sending train. One by one each of the Seattle guys cooly took their turn and flashed it. It was very impressive, but keep in mind these guys are climbing V9+. It came round to my turn after half a dozen or so of them had done it, I surprised myself and got through the beginning tough moves, I think I was hoping I'd fall off low down. But I was too pumped, and I was too much of a wussy to finish it off so I dropped off from a jug, i think i made the right decision a fall from the lip would have been horrible.

Laura flashing Fedge a highball V2 slab

We decided to get on some lowball stuff after that, and did some easy slab which were a lot of fun. We finished off the day with a visit to the Straightaway boulders, which are really cool. it was a great day for everyone, but it'll go down as an especially historic day for me breaking into the V8's!

King Lines and Committed Movie Reviews

I rushed home from work yesterday to find my package from bouldering.com had arrived, the 2 climbing dvd's I ordered. So I called up some friends and invited them over for the Olympia premiere of the most eagerly awaited climbing movies of the year, King Lines and Committed.

We decided to watch King Lines first. What a movie! Straight off the bat, our jaws were on the floor. Amazing cinematography, stunning routes and Chris Sharma! What more could you ask for? It was obvious that this movie had a large budget, from the private planes with bids eye views of the crags, and flashy camera effects. But I didn't realize how much of a sharmafest this movie was going to be. It is all about Sharma, it even has him doing trad! They show a few other climbers but only breif clips when they're climbing with him. Not that I mind that being a big Sharma fan. Going into the movie i was a bit worried it would just be another dosage movie cut to fit together, but that wasn't the case at all. The theme of Sharma searching out 'King Lines' worked well and it was really smooth. But it does lead to some awkward moments. There's one part where it looks like the filmmakers told Sharma to stand up on the podium next to the winners of bouldering comp in Spain even though it looks like he didn't win. And when Pringle tops out on the FA of a Butermilk highball ahead of Sharma, you almost feel like he didn't read the script to the movie. The only 'fast forward' part might be the Venezuela section which dragged on a bit. It seemed like they put so much money and effort into going there then when it rained they felt they had to use the footage anyway. One part of the movie I thought didn't really fit was the blatent advertising for Evolve half way through when they try to show Chris helping design new climbing shoes, but it comes accross as fake, and just put in there to please the sponsors. But apart from that the rest of the movie was first class. The highlight of the movie for me had to be the footage of Sharma working his project at Mt Clark, its really mindblowing. When the credits came we burst out in aplause. A sign of a good climbing movie is if you can watch it over and over again and still get psyched, i've already watched it twice and I've barely had it for 24 hours. Its definately up there with West Coast Gimps as a contender for my favourite climbing movie.


I almost felt it a bit unfair to watch Committed straight afterwards. But we were psyched so we put it on. The contrast between the two movies was obvious. The energy level went down when we watched Committed and there was a lot of conversation going on while we watched it which shows it wasn't really engrossing. When compared with King Lines it seems in a totally different league, it didn't have the polish of a high budget movie, but even simple things like not having the whole climb in shot took away from my enjoyment of the movie. I think the biggest detraction though was the poor commentary. In King Lines Sharma did narration where necessary but it was kept to a minimum, whereas in Committed the narration almost gave it a documentary-like feel, and at times it felt like they were dumbing it down explaining some climbing terms. It also became a bit of a distraction at times, in King Lines they would just show Sharma screaming his way up a climb with good music in the background whereas in Committed you've got a rather dull commentary that makes it hard to get psyched even though the footage was gripping. There was some great footage captured for the movie. James Pearson on The Promise was awesome, but it was over too soon. And my favourite scene was of Jude Spanken onsighting the E6 in Wales. One aspect that the hotaches guys did well in E11 was showing the buildup to the climb and a bit of the background of the climber. But in Committed that was missing, it would have been more interesting for the climbers to describe the the climb themselves in their own words rather than the over the top narration. For all this criticism i did enjoy committed a lot, i just don't think it lived up to my high expectations, especially with such a great trailer. I'm glad i bought the DVD and I'm already eager for the next installment of Committed.

Oh and the extras are pretty good on both DVDs. The 'Keen Youth' extra on Committed is really cool, too bad there was not more like this. And on King Lines you get to see other people like Dave Graham and Jibe Tribout climb hard in the Additional Footage section. And the outtakes are pretty hilarious especially the part with Dave Graham rambling on about being a climbing superhero or something like that.

Return to Leavenworth

This weekend Laura Micah and I made the three and half hour drive out to Leavenworth again. The weather this weekend was much better than last, it got up into the 70's and sunny all weekend. First off we went up to the Clamshell Cave area, where we warmed up on a few easier climbs, the best being a V3 called Crimp, Crimp, Slap, Throw. And Micah and I also flashed an easy V4 next to it.

Dom setting up for the throw on Crimp, Crimp, Slap, Thow V3

Next we headed down to Barneys Rubble a new (to us) area. On the south side of the road we found a cool V5 that goes up a small dihedral on a tall boulder, I got it second go after figuring out the beta, it was a lot of fun. Then we checked out the boulder on the beach that had a V7 and a V8 on it. The V7 was slopey and powerful, we spent a lot of time falling off of it and probably wasted too much time on it. The only other chalk on the boulder didn't seem to match the description of the V8 on the boulder, but we tried it anyway. It started on some slopers, then campused up to a good slot then a crimp then finished up on jugs to top out. After a few goes I stuck the first crux move then cruised up to finish. Micah got really excited thinking I'd done my first V8, but I'm pretty sure the V8 is just to the right and this is a problem not in the guide, it felt more like V5. Micah got it straight afterwards and agreed with the V5 grade. I put it on my scorecard as 'Sandy Campus' not very original I know.

Laura on Cleaver Crack V0

We then headed over the road to the north part of Barneys Rubble, where we worked on a cool looking problem called The Rubb' Dyno V8. It starts off on a crimpy sidepull on a slabby/vertical wall, you cross through to tiny credit card crimps, and tiptoe your feet over on even smaller footholds, where you have to stand up and jump diagonally up and right to the juggy finishing rail. It looks easy but then you get on it and realize how small the holds are. After working it for a while I got to the dyno position and to my surprise I was able to slap just below the jug. I decided to really go for it, and gave it everything. I got up and latched the jug! I got my whole hand on it, then I felt my feet swing from under me and the momentum took me flying off. I managed to clear both mats and spotters and landed hard on the boulders downhill. I banged my knee pretty bad, but was more disappointed about getting so close on what should have been my first V8. I got back on it, but couldn't commit to the last move, and by that point the sharp crimpers had given a bloody flapper on one of my tips. So I hobbled on to the next problem. As a consolation Micah and I both flashed a V6, our first V6 flash for both of us. The problem was a sit start with a lot of chalked holds up a short wall to a tricky top out. Micah studied the holds for a while. Then managed to lock off and skip half the holds and did well to keep his cool on the top out. Micah's beta worked really well for me but it was still a struggle, but with a bit of encouragement I managed to grovel over the top. It was good to have at least one hard send in the bank from this trip.

With fading daylight we quickly drove down to the road for one more area, The Sword. At the first boulder in the sword laura made a proud flash of a V3, a technical slabby highball, her foot popped right near the top, but she held the barn door and topped out for only her second V3 flash. In the Sword area had some cool looking problems but they were mostly highballs, some of them way highball. Micah threw himself at a jumpy V7. But it was getting dark, so we did a V2 then headed into town for dinner.

Micah working Cattlegueard Arete at Mountain Home Road

The next day I woke up with a sore leg but some skin left on most of my fingers, so felt optimistic about getting stuff sent. We checked out the JY boulders, which were cool but pretty rough, it was tough to get used to it. We all flashed a V2 there, but weren't so successful with the rest of the stuff so we decided to go to a different area. We went to Mountain Home Road which lies apart from the rest of the boulders a few miles drive away. It has a much different feel than the Icicle or Tumwater canyons. Its out in the open on the side of a hill, and feels quite remote. We felt pretty exposed when we were told by some other boulderers to watch out for hunters, who were hunting cougars and black bear on the same hill. We didn't know what to be more weary of the hunters or the cougars and bears! The boulders here are more like Squamish granite, very rough on the skin and not many features. And the ratings here for the most part felt pretty stout, I got shut down on a V1 slab here, but Laura managed to flash it, so I guess it couldn't have been that hard. I did manage a couple of 3's and a 4 but by this point my skin was too sore to pull down hard on small crimps. Laura also managed a V3 here second go, she could have flashed it but I might have given her bad beta, oops! We decided just to head back from here since we were all feeling a little sore and weak at this point. It wasn't quite the sendfest weekend we were hoping for, but you can't complain about a weekend in the sun in a beautiful place like Leavenworth.

Rainy October Weekend

Fall has definitely arrived here in the Pacific Northwest, the rain poured and the prospect for climbing outside didn't look good. Perfect timing then for the first annual South Sound Pull Down, the eagerly awaited climbing competition here in Olympia.

The warehouse crew Steven, Daniel, Nick, Jimmy etc. did a great job of stripping all the bouldering walls and setting 55 problems the day before. They were hoping for 30-40 entrants, but with the bad weather a total of 65 turned up, which was a great turnout. Despite Nick and Jimmy setting problems there was still a strong field in the male advanced category. The favourite going into the competition had to be Micah, who is on fire both in routes and bouldering at the moment, and has a good taste for plastic from working at the evergreen wall. Then there was George and Whitey having climbed indoors all summer and looking very strong. Then there was me, who apart from the past 2 weeks hadn't climbed indoors all summer. Plus any unknowns who might come to the comp. Unfortunately Laura had to work that day, so couldn't compete, but would have certainly finished highly in the womans category.

A busy day at the Warehouse

At 2pm the climbing started, everyone got off to a good start with some big cheers for George and Whitey for sending some hard stuff early on. Micah was a little worried after struggling on some problems he should have done with ease. After flashing a couple moderate problems. I decided to try some harder problems, and flashed a 590. I was really pleased with the flash and thought that might just put me ahead of the rest of the crowd. But soon after George and Micah also flashed it easily and whitey got it second go. Uh oh, I thought these guys are strong! Next up was a crimpy 600 which Micah cooly flashed, he was back on his game. I managed to flash it straight after him using his beta. I was in a good position at this point.

Each competitors top 5 highest scoring climbs would count towards their overall score, with a 5 point deduction for each fall. At this point I had 5 climbs rated 530 and up, with just one fall. As far as I could tell I was just ahead of the pack having done all the same problems but with less falls. There was only half an hour left. There was one hard crimpy problem worth 610 points that I tried at the start which I thought might just go. I knew it was my style, technical balancy and crimpy. I got on it. I got past the first crimpy moves, got my feet up, stemmed and matched on the last slopey crimps. I could see the finishing jug, I lunged and latched it, YES! Everyone cheered, there were more people watching than I thought. I knew that would probably be the winning send. In the last few minutes a lot of people tried the problem but no one else succeded, even in the comp after hours no one could get it. With that climb done I handed in my scorecard. Once the scored were tallied the results came out as the following:

1st Dom 2905

2nd Micah 2840

3rd David 2810

4th George 2800

5th Whitey 2755

Dom latches the finishing jug that wins the comp

Its was a great comp and credit should go to the staff at the warehouse for putting it on, I'm looking forward to the next one already.

To top off a great weekend I went out to Little Si with Nick the next day and sent Technorigine a 12c (7b+). I had been climbing well at Little Si recently, I got a 12b (7b) second go last week and flashed another 12b the time before, so I thought I should try something a bit harder. Technorigine is one of the classics of the crag, it's a 30m route that goes right up the middle of World Wall One, overhanging just enough so that it stayed dry even though it was pouring rain. It starts up Aborigine a great 11b (6c+), just after the chains it busts straight into a tricky V4 crux, and from there its another 3 clips of airy steep climbing on big holds over an awesome exposed bulge. I had played on the route a few times before, but never really tried it seriously. On Sunday, I surprised myself by cruising the crux first go then I hung and figured out the sequence above. I dispatched it send go of the day. I got through the crux smoothly again, then got in the zone and cruised the top part, it was so much fun. I clipped the chains leaned back and got soaked from the rain getting lowered down, it was great. Nick did well considering it was his first time on the route, he managed to link past the crux, now he just has to finish off the top section. Its probably my new favorite route at Little Si. Having done this route so quickly its given me renewed confidence for what else I can do there. The Little Si season is not quite over yet!