Middle Fork Bouldering

Throughout the summer a group of boulderers from Olympia have been developing a new bouldering area near north bend. I finally checked it out yesterday with my roommate Jeremy who has done a lot of the fa's there, and Boon. I was impressed, the rock quality is great, and it is in a beautiful setting.

The majority of the developed problems are easy to moderate, which is great for me since I'm not in the best bouldering shape right now. Jeremy toured us around the rat-trap boulders, the cave area boulders, bean slug boulder, roadside boulder and other boulders that I forget the name of. Given its proximity to Seattle, and the quality of the problems, I can see this area getting pretty popular once the word gets out. Chase, one of the main developers put the blog www.northbendbouldering.blogspot.com together which has a lot of photos and gives a bit of the background of the development.

Dry Spell

The blog has gone a bit quiet recently. I'd like to say its because I've been too busy climbing to update, but the truth is that I've had a bit of a dry spell of late. I know its not really an excuse, but I have been absolutely loving teaching, and giving it my all pulling long hours has left me exhausted on the weekends. Its been just too hard to consider a weekend trip to Smith or Vantage. People have told me that its been one of the driest Falls in recent memory, but I just haven't had the time/energy to enjoy it. Hopefully I will be able to find a better balance this upcoming winter/spring.

I have managed one day out recently though. It was a crisp, clear Saturday in December, and Jeremy, Derik, David and myself headed up to test the friction at Gold Bar. I've always been skeptical of those who swear by bouldering in near-freezing conditions, but I've got to say, after this trip I might be a convert. I had been thinking about a certain couple of V6's on the Five Star Boulder ever since I was last there back in 07 (wow i feel like an old man saying things like that). My goal was to climb at least one of them. It was too cold to consider warming up, plus the boulder doesn't really have any warm ups, so I got straight on Green Padded Ass. The starting sloper rails felt like jugs with the cold crystals gripping into my dry skin. As I climbed higher the slopers got worse, my feet cut off, but there was no way my hands were losing contact with the rock, then I was topping it out on icy jugs. My first climb of the day, and I'd already met my goal. I almost sent Five Star Arete as well, but the finish jug was a little too damp to allow me to hold the swing. We then moved on to the river boulders at Index, my first time there and I was impressed. I got on the excellent Leggo my Eggo, and some river polished boulders that were HARD! It was fun taking turn and sessioning with the guys. I'm looking forward to getting back to these areas, especially since I now know that Green Padded Ass actually starts with a V0 sit-start, so I can't quite add it to my scorecard just yet. I'll just have to make sure I get back out there in equally cold conditions, otherwise I might have to try a bit harder.

Jeremy floating up the Five Star Arete, the rock is as good as it looks!

The hold just above his right hand was just damp enough to shut us down.

 

The picturesque, but deceptively hard River boulders. It is waay colder than Derik's and David's attire suggests.

The ever faithful Sasha! The river wasn't too cold for her.

Procrastinating at Leavenworth

I probably should have stayed home and done school work this weekend, but its hard to say no to a ride out to Leavenworth. We headed out Friday night and barely managed to get a spot at the free camping spot, it was packed. On Saturday we met up with Jeremy and Derik, and later Lisa as well which made for a good group sending psyche. Laura sent another V4, The Real Thing a long term project of her's that she made look pretty easy this time, and also a great tall V3 Arrested Development. The highlight of my trip was sending The Cattleguard Arete only my third V8 at Leavenworth to date. To be honest it didn't feel that hard, but then again it repelled the efforts of Jeremy, Derik and Lisa and they're no slouches. I think it just fit my style/size well. Saturday night we met up with Whitey at the campsite, and we played a game of whiffle (sp?) ball with some other climbers, we totally kicked ass. On Sunday my skin and energy was low, but I did manage to squeeze out a redpoint of The Physical a tough V4 that I had tried previously, it was nice to put that one to rest. Right now its time to hit the books, I don't think I'll be getting out again for a couple of weeks until school gets out for summer. Derik sticks the crux match but can't finish off the Cattleguard Arete V8

Whitey on Fedge a cool V2 highball slab

Micah reaches precariously near the top of Bad Moon Rising perhaps the best slab problem I've climbed

LW

Sorry for the delay in this blog post, but some of us have jobs ;) (at least for a little while longer!)


Last Saturday Micah, Jimmy and Me headed out to Leavenworth for our first bouldering trip of the year! A lot of impressive stuff went down, Jimmy and Micah picked up right where they left off last year and sent a few V8's and a V9, see their blog for more details. Lisa impressed us all with an amazing send of The Lonely Fish V9!!! To put it into perspective before Saturday her hardest send was a V4! I actually got close to flashing the Lonely Fish, but it wasn't meant to be. I'll definately be back for it though. I managed to send Cruise Control a sweet V6 at Forestland though which I really liked. And I repeated some great problems V5 and below. We also met Jeremy out there and he sent his first V5's; One Summer, and Arrested Development Variation. But enough about grades, here's some photos I'll let them tell the story of our weekend.

Lisa on Arrested Development a fun highball at Forestlands that feels a whole lot easier with a bunch on pads down.

Jimmy negotiates his way up the technical corner of Pretty Girl at the Pretty Boulders. Contender for best problem in Leavenworth?

Jimmy denied by the slopers on Pretty Woman on his flash attempt.

Lisa focusses on the big throw on The Lonely Fish.

Micah slaps slick slopers at Swiftwater.

Jimmy commits and latches the jug of Pretty Hate Machine.

Lisa on a possible FA in Upper Forestlands on a really sweet boulder.

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Smith

This weekend we finally got out on a climbing trip down to Smith Rocks, Oregon. We were debating cancelling the trip when we heard the reports on some weather sites forecasting a 90% chance of precipitation on Saturday (FYI, when checking Smith weather, weather.gov is way more accurate than weather.com). But our faith was justified with dry and and at times sunny weather. Laura, Jimmy, Jeremy and I all crammed into our Honda with all our stuff on Friday after work. We were pleasantly surprised to wake up on Saturday morning to no rain, so we made the most of it and got out to the park early, we left Skull Hollows campsite before 8am, which is a new record for me I think. We met up with Nick and Scott at the parking lot, it was great to see them again they are always fun to climb with, it had been too long since we had last gotten together. We headed down to Picnic Lunch Wall which we had all to ourselves. We started out on a 10a and 10b that go up huecos and a slab, they were a lot of fun. Jimmy got tired of waiting for his turn to climb, so he hopped straight on Five Easy Pieces a 5.12a I had done previously and recommended to him. He proceeded to cruise it onsight, showing how much he had improved since last time he was here. Jeremy also made an impressive start to the trip, it was his first time at Smith and only his second time climbing routes outdoors, he got straight on the sharp end with an impressive flash on Teddy Bear's Picnic the 10b, which even I found a little scary. Scott toproped both the 10a and b clean for a good start to his trip. I tried a 12a to the right called Appian Way. It looked like a lot of fun, it had a bouldery start which you could protect by stick clipping the high first bolt, then it looked like easier ground to the top. It turned out to be a lot harder than I expected though, and I ended up dogging through the start. Its a great 12a to try if you like pinches and laybacks, and its very safe.

Walking into the park on Saturday morning

Jimmy onsighting Five Easy Pieces

Once we were done with that area, we decided to chase the sun so moved over to Morning Glory Wall. I repeated a few of the classics lines like nine gallon buckets (10c), cool ranch flavor (11b). Laura did really well on cool ranch flavor on TR, she did the crux with a lot more style than any of us guys could muster. I wasn't feeling the vibe to try anything hard really, I was just happy to be out on rock in the sun. We drifted over to the Dihedrals, where I decided to give Chain Reaction another try, I had tried it once before, but it just didn't click then. This time I hung and figured out the moves, with helpful beta from Nick and Ryan a local climber, it felt a whole lot more doable. I even figured out a different sequence after the lip, where I heelhooked the 'monkey bar' jug and rocked over to the finishing jug. Its really powerful though, so I didn't really have it in me to give it a good redpoint burn. But now that I know the beta I feel pretty confident for next time.

See it was sunny for a while

Nick on Chain Reaction

We finished off the day doing some fun moderates on the Pheonix Buttress, I really like the rock here, it is sharper with good holds, and some fun pocket pulling. I egged Nick and Jimmy to do a run-out 10d there, they both did it, but thought it was way scary. I then wished I hadn't recommended it when it came my turn to lead it, but I managed to keep my cool and finished it off, I think it was one of my favorite routes of the trip. All in all I got 9 and a half routes done that day, which I'm really happy about considering I was worried about not being able to climb cause of the rain. That night we returned to the Skull Hollows and finished off the day with a few cold PBR's around the campfire.

Laura on Bunnyface

Scott on the sharp end at the Pheonix Buttress

The next morning we rolled up to Smith and it felt a bit colder with a bit of a breeze, a local climber Teagan offered to show us around Northern Point, a smaller area with basalt sport routes that is sheltered from the wind . This crag has a totally different feel to the main areas at Smith, because of the different type of rock, and the style of the routes. It was a really beautiful place to climb, with tan and gray streaked rocks. It reminded me of the sport routes at Vantage, but of a much higher quality. I did a couple of 10c's and an 11a which were really fun before the drizzle started. Jimmy managed another 12a onsight right when it started raining. We decided to pack it up and head back up the road a bit earlier since it looked like everything was getting wet. But Northern Point is definitely somewhere I'd return to. We stopped off at a Mexican place in Madras before we started the long drive back. It was great to get back down to Smith. Although I didn't get to check out a lot of the areas I had hoped to, it was still great to be outside climbing with friends again. I'd really like to make it back to Smith at least once more before the summer heat comes. There's certainly enough stuff there for me to try now.

Me at Northern Point on Sunday

Dyno Comp and the last trip of the year

I had a pretty good weekend, on Saturday the Warehouse Rock Gym had a party to celebrate their 4th birthday, there was a cool slide show by Jim Yoder, Jimmy showed his climbing movie on the big screen and there was a dyno comp. Jimmy set all the dyno's. At first glance I thought he had set them way too hard and no one would send them, but it turned out that they were doable and a lot of fun. Me, Jimmy, and Whitey all completed 6 out of the7 (dyno #7 was huge!) Jimmy and Whitey did them with less falls than me. Here are a couple of videos I took of the dynos, the first is a short one of me almost latching the jug on a running start, and the second is of whitey doing dyno #4.

On Saturday we decided to take advantage of the break in the weather and head out for one last climbing trip before the snow, a day trip bouldering out at Leavenworth. Micah drove and we had a full car, Me, Laura, Jimmy and Jeremy. With gas so cheap right now and the car so full gas money was a fraction of what it cost us a couple months ago. We met up with some guys from Evergreen as the so there were 9 of us in total. When we arrived at Forestland it was cool, probably in the high 40s, and very misty, we thought it might burn off later in the day but it was just like for pretty much the whole day. We warmed up with a few of the classics at Forestland, Breadline (V0), The Real Thing (V4), Feel the Pinch (V4) and I did One Summer from the crouch start for the first time which goes at V6. The friction was so good it was hard to fall off. Well it wasn't that good I guess, cause I did manage to fall off The Shield (V7) and some other stuff a bunch of times . Jimmy made impressive sends of The Bedroom Bully (V8) and Busted which is a hard V8 now that the big flake has broken off. I'm keen to get back on those two problems again in the spring, cause I'm fairly close. We headed up to Upper Forestland and took our turns of some of the classics like Fedge, Lovage, The Physical, Sunny and Cheap and Funny and Cheap (all V2-4). It was fun to be climbing in a big group and giving encouragement to everyone trying the problems, it certainly turned what could have been a misty gloomy day into a fun time. Below is a video of me repeating Lovage (V3).

We finished off the day in the Scrambled Eggs area where I wanted to get back on the V8 I had come so close to completing last trip. But my skin was too thin by this point and the crimps hurt too much to really try hard, so I was content to leave this one until spring as well. I did do a couple of V3's there which were a lot fun. It was great to be out climbing at Leavenworth in November, I didn't really expect to get out so it felt like a bonus. Now I have to brace myself for a long winter of climbing indoors, and hope that I remain uninjured and strong for spring.

Jesse on Twisted Stone (V3)

Laura showing the boys how its done