Day Tripping

I've been climbing a lot in the last week. I haven't gone on any big trips, rather I've been getting out on day trips with different partners who could make it out. I finally checked out a much talked about new crag South of Olympia. I was very impressed, it is a unique crag in that it is unlike any other rock type in the area. The closest thing I can equate it to is Elwah Wall up by Port Angeles. It is a 100ft tall sandstone crag with crazy water sculpted features like huge huecos, pockets and tufa's on a continuously overhanging wall. I went up there with two young psyched guys Nathan and Tom, who I look forward to climbing with again. The photos make it look pretty incredible and it is, but it also suffers from some very sandy holds, questionable bolting, and soft rock in places. Hopefully it will clean up nicely. I'm not sure about access, that's why I haven't included its name or location. The crag is still a work in progress, there is still a good amount of bolting and cleaning to do here. I heard Nathan bolted a sweet looking line the following day.

The Crag is the light colored rock behind me, the approach isn't too bad.

Phew! Its steep and long!

Lots of jugs and rests.

One of the better routes on the wall. A long pumpy 11c.

Fun tufa climbing, the one on the right is a 10c and the one on the left is 11a, but they felt about the same to me.

On Monday I hooked up with Chas and we climbed at a well known crag North of Seattle. This is another crag that has access issues, so I wont publish its name. I was very impressed with the crag, it had similar climbing to Little Si, but the rock had more texture, and was more consistent. I managed to onsight a classic 12a, but got worked on some harder 12's. I really wish this crag was closer to Olympia. Its probably still worth the 3 hour drive a few times more this summer.

Chas working the 12a.

The rock is as good as it looks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I stayed over at Chas' new place in Issaquah which is really nice. What is even nicer was the 20 minute drive from his place to the parking at Exit 38. If I had that commute I would be there every day. We climbed on the Far Side. Did some classics I'd done before, climbed some new routes not in the guide, I think only one was new to me, its so hard to keep track of climbs that I got on years ago.

The next day Austin and Chris were going back up there, so I joined them. We did some new routes, but spent most of the day flailing on an offwidth roof 12a. I had been on it years ago, and had vague recollections of thinking I should never get on it again. Chris seemed to like it though.

Austin climbing, Chris belaying. Can you name the climb?

Austin hanging on a cool (but hard) roof 12a at the Far Side of exit 38.

The following day was Chris' birthday so we got an early start and ticked off a bunch of routes in the Deception Wall area. I redpointed Stick Boy, which is probably the worst 12a I've ever done. Then we checked out the new(ish) Shakespeare Wall further up the hill which was pretty fun. We celebrated his birthday and his 100th route of the year with a few cold beers in the sun. It was a great day out.

I'm finally taking a much needed rest day after six days on. But I'm headed out this evening for a weekend trip to Banks Lake, I'm hoping I don't get burned too badly (by the routes and the sun). I'll leave you with a video of Chris throwing an Ondra-style hissy fit after falling off the 12a roof. (Warning: foul language).

Sends at Smith

I just got back last night from climbing for a few days down at Smith Rock in Oregon. I wasn't psyched on Smith. Squamish was my first choice, then Mazama, but because of weather we headed south. Smith turned out to be really fun and not as hot as I had feared.

Photo Op!

Austin and Little Si

I went down with Austin, who is in fine form right now. I belayed him on his first 12a at Little Si last Thursday. Since it was just the two of us and we both wanted to get on some harder lines I could finally check out Easy's Playhouse a mini-crag at the top of Red Wall with 5 routes 11d-12d. It was a bit of a brutal (by my standards) hike up there, but it was well worth it. We warmed up on a few easy 10's on Red Wall on the way up. I graciously gave Austin the onsight attempt of Boys in the Hood the excellent 11d. He didn't onsight it, it turned into a mini-project for him. He finally got the send on his 6th try that day, after agonizingly falling twice at the last throw. Austin got a video of me flashing it (at the bottom).

Austin scoping out Big Boss Man

Not a bad place to hang out

While Austin was working the 11d, I was checking out the classic 12c there Big Boss Man. I could see all the moves from the ground and thought it looked like a good contender for an onsight attempt. It is steep bouldery and short, my style. In the old guidebook it was given 12a but you had to aid up to the first bolt and start from there. The new guide has it as 12c off the ground. The first moves were powerful but on good holds. Clipping the second bolt was very strenuous on the onsight, but the first bolt was a major spinner and I really didn't want to fall on it. The crux move for me was one of those where I was sure I was coming off, but I fully committed and managed to stick the hold. From there I got a bomber but painful knee-bar for a quick shake. The last few moves were powerful but I managed to keep it together for the onsight!

It was such a good feeling to climb something hard again. My climbing confidence wasn't great and morale was low, so this was exactly what I needed. That night we met up with Tyler and Emma at Skull Hollows and celebrated with a fire.

Tuesday started out with Tyler and Emma on some easy routes, before moving on to try some 11's. Austin finished off Heresy, an old project of his. Then we headed to Phoenix Buttress which was in the shade. I finished off the crag with License to Bolt (11c) a really good route with a really hard move if you're under 5'10", Austin got the send of that one too. I also did a really fun pockety route called When Llama's Bolt (11a). And I did a "10d" thats not worth talking about.

I was pretty spent by the time Wednesday rolled around, so I asked Austin what he wanted to get on. He was psyched for Big Boss Man after feeling out the moves on Monday while cleaning the draws on toprope. So we made the big hike up again. Without a warm up he put the draws up and fell off the last hard move in classic Austin style. He rested up then sent on his second go of the day! It was really inspiring to see him climb this thing, he looked really strong! It capped off a great trip for him, he climbed 4 of his 5 hardest routes on this trip, with the other route being the 12a he did last week! He is on fire right now. Needless to say we drove home with big smiles on our faces. This trip got me re-psyched for trying hard this summer. I'm looking forward to getting on some more hard routes this weekend!

Austin took video on his cell phone of the two routes we did at Easy's Playhouse, they turned out pretty good, the routes are as fun as they look.




NC3 UW

I'm back from awesome weekend up in Seattle. I went up to compete in the University of Washington climbing competition ‘The Rain City Send’. It was the 3rd round of the NC3 competition series (my 2nd). I was feeling more confident this time, my finger has gotten a better recently, I only have to lightly tape it now. And just a couple of days beforehand I flashed a V6 and got another one really quick at the WRG, it was the first time in a while that I’ve bouldered that hard indoors, so I was feeling confident. I started out the comp strongly flashing a 910 and an 860 point problem. I then spent the next hour working some other hard problems, but to no avail. It got down to 40 minutes left, and I still only had 2 of my top 5 problems done, so I lowered the bar a bit and flashed some easier problems that probably weigh in at V4ish. I ended up with a decent top 5, but I always feel I could have done a little better. When all the scores were tallied I ended up in 8th place in Men’s Advanced. I was surprised not to finish higher, but there was a lot of strong competition. Jimmy ended up taking 2nd overall, Morgan just missed out on open finals in 4th, Kevin took 5th (I think), Sergio a new strong climber who is at Evergreen for a semester from Spain came in right behind him in 6th (I think), and Andrew put in a good performace in Men's Advanced as well. It was a really good comp, well organized with excellent setting. And best of all they had tons of prizes. I walked away with a baseball cap, a jansport backpack and pair of evolve flip flops as well as the comp t-shirt. And today amongst other purchases at REI, I scored a pair of almost new Anasazi Slippers for under $20! I’m looking forward to the next few NC3 comps, I’m hoping to compete in the one in a couple of week down at OSU.

My photos turned out pretty bad, but here’s one of Jimmy, and a video of him on the last problem in open finals, nobody got it.

Jimmy flashing the first problem in Open Finals

NC3 WWU

Yesterday I competed in the first Northwest College Climbing Competition (NC3) of the year up at Western Washington University up in Bellingham. I’m not climbing really strong right now because of my lingering finger injury, but a group of guys from Olympia were headed up so I tagged along. Chas, Morgan, Micah and I represented Evergreen. Jimmy and Kevin climbed for SPSCC, and Andrew came up with us climbing for UW. The gym up at Western is not the biggest, so it was pretty crowded with a couple hundred students from the major colleges around Washington, Oregon and Idaho. The comp reminded me a lot of the university climbing competitions I went to in the UK, there was the same excitement, team outfits and fancy dress. But in the UK there was a lot more money in it, back then our university sports association would pay for our flight and accommodation and we weren’t even that good. I think if the NC3 comps stay this well attended, they should move them to bigger gyms.

Micah deafens onlookers with his power scream



Chas almost sticks the second dyno

Morgan respresenting Evergreen in Men's Open Finals

I climbed alright, I had good strategy and got in 5 kinda hard problems. I liked the fact that they had a 30 point bonus for flashing problems, I think 4 of my top 5 were flashes. But a major criticism a lot of people had with the comp was that they didn’t allow any smearing at all! This made the problems really awkward and contrived, and the rule was really hard to enforce. I ended up taking 7th in advanced, if I were in better shape, I think I could have challenged to get top three, the standard wasn’t all that high. Chas and Andrew climbed well in advanced category as well. Micah climbed strongly but struggled to finish off the hard problems and ended up ripping up his scorecard and just climbed for fun. Jimmy, Morgan and Kevin climbed awesome in open. Jimmy and Morgan got 2 of the 3 spots in the open finals, a guy from the UW took the third spot. While they were in isolation there was a dyno comp, I entered and made it past the first round, but the next dyno’s were huge, it was really fun to watch though. Then open finals came, they were closely matched until the steep and slopey final problem, which I knew would suit Jimmy’s style. And sure enough he flashed it to win! Here’s a really badly shot video I got of it.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday, and I think I’m going to compete in some other ones throughout the NW in the next couple of months. I missed the pre-registration for the one in Spokane next weekend, but I heard from a guy from Central that Vantage is dry, so I think I know where I’m going to be next weekend if the weather holds.


Team Oly (minus Chas) at Boomers in Bellingham afterwards

What I've been up to

Summer is officially over, whether it ever arrived is still up for debate. I haven't been climbing as much recently. After my Ten Sleep trip, my parents visited from Scotland for a couple of weeks. This was their first time visiting me since I moved to Washington in 2006. We had a great time, they liked Olympia, and I showed them around the NW a bit including some places I had never visited before like Mount St Helens and the Oregon coast, both of which are beautiful. When they left, my student teaching placement started up, and I've been busy with that since. I'm at a High School in Tacoma, which has been difficult at times, but I'm really enjoying the experience. I did manage to get out a couple of weekends ago to Leavenworth bouldering which was a lot of fun. My bouldering strength is not what it should be, but I just renewed my membership to the Warehouse, so that should improve soon. I'm probably not going to get out as much this fall since I'll be pretty busy, but I'm getting out climbing at Vantage tomorrow, and I wouldn't miss The South Sound Pull Down for anything. Below are a couple of photos from Leavenworth, a shot I forgot to include from Ten Sleep, and a funny video from Ten Sleep.

Jimmy takes it to a whole new level on The Practitioner



Laura works a sweet V4 The Lobster



Totally Flashed this photo. Ten Sleep, we'll be back!



Colombia Video

I was looking through my Colombia photos and couldn't help but laugh when I watched this video clip. Its a little video I took of me, my brother, my sister and my little cousin Nicholas playing about in the pool in Colombia. One of those priceless moments where I was glad I had my camera out!

Bishop Videos

Here's a few videos that I took on my little camera, they're not the best quality but they give you a flavor of some of the problems we tried.

Me on Seven Spanish Angels a V6 that I did on my first day. Its a really cool problem climbing up an overhanging wall on slopers and crimps with a dyno or jump to a huge jug on the lip.

Micah getting really close on Cayla (V7) at the Druid Stones. This problem was absolutely beautiful, he makes the moves look a lot easier than they actually are.

Some guy on Checkerboard (V8), we tried it but kept falling off at the same point, its really crimpy.

Some other guy on Solitaire (V8) a two move power problem, Micah also got pretty close on this one.

George repeating Rene (V5) a cool thin overhanging wall on small sharp pockets. I got lucky on this one and managed to flash it.

Callum sending The Beekeeper (hard V6), a really long and high climb, he topped it out but he spent about 3 minutes on the top part so I didn't film it all. Micah got a good video of it too.

Beer can crushing (V8?), harder than it looks. I didn't manage the flash.

Seattle Bouldering Competition

This weekend Laura and I traveled up to Seattle for the annual bouldering competition at Stone Gardens. It’s the biggest climbing competition in the state, climbers from all over the north-west made the trip, and we had competed the previous two years so didn’t want to miss it. A lot of the climbing team from the warehouse came up as well and did really well. Jimmy did awesome winning the men’s advanced category, and would have qualified for the open men’s finals if he had entered that category. I was pretty happy with my performance, I came in 13^th in the male advanced category which was a big improvement on my 27^th place last year. Laura did really well finishing 8^th in her category, improving again on her result from last year. So overall it was a good day for everyone.

We stuck around for the open finals at the end, where the best of the climbers compete for the big prizes. The problems were really well set and looked really hard, and most importantly separated the field well. Nobody had sent the final men’s problem, until Sean McColl who qualified first tried it finally. It was awesome to see Sean McColl who is a pro climber and former World Champion from Vancouver climb. We had met him in Ceuse France over the summer trying some really hard routes so we knew what he was capable of. He made the final problem look easy, and put on a show for the audience. Here's a video I got of him flashing it, where I think you can get a feel of the atmosphere in the gym as he sent it.

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

Old Video

I was looking through my laptop and came across this old video of me climbing from back in 05. I thought it would be cool to put it up here. It’s a video of me soloing a route called Nijinski at Auchinstarry Quarry, Scotland. The route is graded E5 6a, which for those of you who don’t know translates to about 6c+ climbing or 11c X, which was pretty much my limit at the time. The E grade takes into account the difficulty and seriousness of the climbing, 6c+ climbing is at the low end of difficulty for an E5 climb, but it is very hard to protect, so it’s a very dangerous climb. It is possible to get some marginal pieces of gear in, my friend George did it a year later and managed to fiddle in some weighed down RP’s and a skyhook, but these are more for psychological aid since they probably wouldn’t hold a fall. I decided to solo it because I didn’t think the gear would hold, and more importantly I didn’t want to hang around up there and get scared trying to fiddle in some gear. In this sense it was probably safer for me just to go for the solo.

I had first toproped this climb much earlier, before I was capable of climbing it cleanly, but it had stuck in my mind as something I always wanted to go back to and lead/solo. Once I had managed to toprope it cleanly, I knew it was only a matter of managing the mental aspect of the climb. I did this in May 2005 at a time when I was really trying to push my trad grades. In the space of just a few months I had gone from being an E1 (5.10a) trad climber to onsighting E3 (5.10+) and redpointing E4 (5.11+), so the next logical step was to go for an E5. On the day of the climb I had toproped the climb a couple of times before to make sure I was absolutely solid on it, the crux of the route is at about ¾ height where it is very precarious balancy climbing. A fall from that height would be very serious. The footage is not amazing, but I think you can still feel the tension of the day.

Watching the video even now makes my hands sweat. This was definitely the peak of my dangerous climbing phase, I went on to climb other hard routes up to E5, but they were a lot safer. I think I realized when I topped out that I couldn’t do something like this again. I felt some of best and worst feelings I had ever experienced climbing this route, I’ve never felt so involved in a route as I did with this one. I don’t regret climbing this route, but this type of climbing is definitely in my past now, I won’t be trying anything as dangerous as this again.

A couple of Kalymnos videos

Im not in Kalymnos anymore, but I still can't stop blogging about it. I've found a good cheap internet connection here in Turkey so here are a couple of videos I took ın Kalymnos that İ wasn't able to upload there.

The first one is of the Deep Water Soloing Whitey and İ found near Dolphin Bay in Kalymnos, its just a small area, not too high, but we found some good hard climbing there. Did I fall or jump? You decide.

This is a video of the very last climb I tried in Kalymnos on my last day. Its a 7c roof climb thats only 6 bolts long or so. I managed it all except for this one crux move, I've never done a route like it before.

Turkey is a lot of fun, i'm glad we chose to come here, we,ve done a lot of routes, but mostly easy stuff, but we've stıll got a few days of clımbing left. I'll blog agaın soon...

Preparation for the Big Trip

With our jobs quit and our lease almost up, Laura and I decided to do one more trip before we headed off on the big one to Europe. Our ever faithful climbing partner Micah was eager to climb too, so we headed back to our favourite haunt - Leavenworth.

The Sit Start to Spongebob Squarepad -V5

When we arrived at Leavenworth we were please to find it in perfect conditions, warm and sunny but with some snow still on the ground. We headed up to Mad Meadows to try some problems we hadn't done up there before. The boulders up there are top quality. Laura impressed us with a couple of proud V3s that were no pushover, particularly the great arete of Spongebob Squarepad, which is quite committing. Micah and I worked out the sit-start of this problem which we were surprised wasn't in the guide, since its a top quality problem and only went at about V5. Its got to be one of the best V5's in Leavenworth (see photo). Micah then made an impressive flash of The Hole V6. I couldn't quite make the span using Micahs beta, so I figured out my own technical sequence using an intermediate crimp, and sent it soon afterwards.

Pretty Boy -V7

It was a similar case when we tried Pretty Boy, an excellent V7 further up the valley. Micah quickly dispatched it using his basketball skills to jump to the crimp. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't stick the crimp (as I demonstrate in the photo above), so I figured out a sneaky highfoot and technical layback to reach through to the crimp statically. We then walked up the hill to do Pretty Girl V3 and Pretty Woman V5, two top class problems on perfect rock. To top off an already great day, Micah managed a quick send of Scrambled Eggs V8. He was climbing strong, he stuck the hard crimpy moves, and held it together on the heady topout. I tried this problem quite a lot but couldn't keep the body tension.

Me on Pretty Woman - V5

With the campsites closed cause they were buried in snow, we were glad to be spending the night at my friend Miles' house in nearby Ellensburg, where he cooked us up some nice enchiladas, thanks Miles. But I obviously hadn't leaned my lesson in Squamish last summer that the words 'box' and 'wine' don't go well together, and I was paying for it the next morning. We spent most of the day at the Forestlands where we had plenty to work on. Laura came agonisingly close on The Real Thing probably the best V4 in the northwest (yes that's right), but it'll still be there when we come back. And I finally stuck the big move on The Shield V7, only to fall off the slopey topout. But it was such a great trip it didn't really matter.

Micah repeating The Shield -V7

Once again Leavenworth didn't disappoint. Thanks again Micah for hauling our asses out there. In a few days Laura and I will arrive in Scotland for the start of our 18 week European adventure! First stop Scotland, then Fontainebleau, then Kalymnos, then ... well you'll have to keep reading to find out!

Youtube Videos

I haven't made it out climbing in a while now, February weather in the North-West sucks. Luckily for me, Jimmy and Micah have put together some videos from trips last year to keep me psyched. The first one is by Jimmy, the rest are by Micah.

This is of Me, Nick, Micah, Whitey and Jimmy trying a V6 at Goldbar (near Seattle) last August.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl8rlucwbx8

Micah doing some of the classics up at Squamish in September, i'm a very excited spotter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xGVcxZA2yg

-From our trip down to Bishop in December.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV-cVYJn6I4

-A day trip exploring the Little Si boulders and Rattlesnake Lake near North Bend in December.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmaBiIsveXE

I'm quite impressed with all the videos, they're not professional quality, but they're very good for first time effort. Hopefully this year we'll get some better footage and make some sick videos!

Bishop!

Last week Laura, Micah and I made our eagerly awaited pilgrimage to the bouldering mecca that is Bishop California. We left Olympia on Monday afternoon and 20 hours and a few energy drinks later we pulled up to The Pit Campground near the Happy Boulders, pitched our tents had a quick bite to eat and headed out to the boulders! The Happy boulders area is basically a mini canyon in a volcanic tableland, with a jumble of free-standing boulders in the middle and on the sides of the canyon. The boulders have a good range of lowballs and highballs, with nearly all perfect sandy landings and are heavily featured with pockets and huecos. When we first entered the canyon and all the chalked up boulders came into view we were overwhelmed. We ran around exploring the overhanging faces and running up to the top of the boulders to get better views. After a quick warm up we found ourselves at the Central Happiness area, the epicenter of the happy boulders. There was a large crowd there with several mats under The Hulk (V6), there was even some guys with a tripod filming. Then some guy shouted out to me ‘dude, I see you everywhere’ he was from Tacoma and had seen me around at Smith and Little Si. I have to admit it felt pretty good being recognized in Bishop, it just goes to show it’s a small world in the climbing community.

Laura on the excellent Solarium V3

There was a long line on The Hulk, everyone seemed to be falling of the big crux cross-though move. I watched a few people on it to get the beta and waited my turn in line. From the sit I got through the first few moves, but the cross-through move felt pretty burly to me and I quickly found myself on my ass on a large pile of pads. I talked Micah into trying it knowing it would suit him down to a tee. He made it look easy and cruised though the crux move, only to fall off the next move hitting the wrong part of the next hold. He got it with ease 2nd go impressing everyone else who was trying it. We also did the awesome Solarium nearby which has to be one of the best V3’s I’ve ever done. Technical vertical moves up to a punch for a jug on the lip, then finishing on great jugs. Laura came agonisingly close to latching the jug, but came off from the crux move again and again. Eventually we decided to move on and explore more of the canyon. We were really impressed with the quality of the problems and how densely packed the area was. Pretty soon we were jumping on anything and everything we saw, trying to flash as much as possible. Micah and I searched around for some good looking harder problems to try to work. We got on Disco Diva a classic V8 featured in the best climbing movie ever - West Coast Gimps. It starts low on a thread in a large hueco, then goes up a steep wall with big moves on crimps up to another hueco and the top. After working it for half an hour or so, I figured out good beta that got me through the first 4 crimpy moves, then you have to make a big throw a sloping hueco. I couldn’t even get close on this move so we decided to save our energy for other problems. On our way back down the canyon, we spotted a well chalked up hard looking line. A quick look in the guidebook showed it to be a V7 called Froz. It starts low in good pockets with a heel hook, then you make hard crimpy moves up left and snatch for a good right hand sidepull crimp. From here you turn the right heel into a toe and make a hard throw way out left to a decent pinch on the arete, you then get another heel on and slap up on opposing holds then one last lunge up left to a good hold and top-out. It sounds like a lot of moves but its actually quite a short problem compared with some of the other boulders. Its cramped and crimpy just my style. After 20 minutes of refining the sequence I latched the big throw to the pinch. Then pop, my right hand greased off the crimp. I thought that was my go on it, but I knew I could get through those moves again, so I took a minute then got back on it and dispatched it. YES! Bishop V7! I had completed my goal for the week in the first day. Micah didn’t really like the cramped nature of the route, so we decided to call it a day it was getting dark and cold. Back at the campsite we got a fire and some food on, it was getting cold really fast. As soon as the fire died down we got straight in our tents and tried to get some much deserved sleep. The next morning I woke to find out that Micah couldn’t handle the cold, and had perished during the night…only kidding, he got really cold so bailed and booked a room in the Motel 6 in town for the rest of the week. Fair enough, he was rested and ready for the next day at the Buttermilks.

The Buttermilks

The Buttermilks is a couple thousand feet higher in elevation and it was cloudy, so it was pretty chilly. We drove up the dirt road and parked right across from the giant Grandpa Peabody boulder. We were immediately drawn to the classic steep problem Evilution. I stood up on the cheat stone (pile) and felt the first holds, not bad I thought, then I saw how far it was to the next holds. At that point a friendly guy from Truckee came up and started telling me the beta, I guess I look like a V12 climber. I quickly explained to him I wasn’t quite climbing that grade. He gave us some good recommendations for some problems for us to try. The first boulder we climbed on was the Green Wall boulder, a midget boulder compared to the rest of them, but it felt plenty tall to me. We did a tough V2 on the left side of the boulder, then after a few tries I finally got the crux high step and sent Green Wall Center a cool V6. We walked around some other boulders, but unlike the Happies it’s a bit of a walk between each boulder. Micah and I then decided to try the super-classic High Plains Drifter (V7) which must be one of the best problems of its grade in the world. We worked it with a Quebecois guy, we were struggling to do the first move off the ground, then I figured out it was easier to just campus it. The first few moves are really good, once you hit the first crimp, you get your heel up to the starting hold, then make couple powerful moves out right on good positive crimps. You then have to reposition your feet and get a big incut right hand crimp, then throw up high left to an open hand sidepull and make a couple more moves on grainy slopers up to thank god jugs, and a 5.6 (or so they say) highball top-out. I didn’t manage to get it in the end, but its something I’d definitely like to go back for. Here’s a video of me getting to my highpoint.

High Plains Drifter V7 (almost)

Next we walked over to the cave area, there were some guys trying The Buttermilker (V12/13) which was cool to see. We did Inner Sanctum (V2) and Micah worked on a doable looking V8 on nasty slopers and huecos called Gleaming the Cube. I tried it but I couldn’t pull of the ground. The guide said ‘a high start from the better slopers is an excellent V6’ so decided to try that. I managed to pull off the slopers into the big hueco, and before I knew it I'd flashed it! It was only my second V6 flash ever, I was really pleased! Meanwhile Laura was struggling on the Buttermilk Stem a classic V1. Micah and I walked up thinking, ha we’ll show her hows it done, ten minutes later we were still on the ground and stumped. Eventually we figured out some tricky beta for getting off the ground, and we all sent it, but a redpoint of a V1 isn’t going to look good on the scorecard! We walked around the boulders for a while longer, but it was feeling a bit cold to put our shoes back on. So we gladly took Micah up on his offer of dossing on the floor of the motel room. Warm showers, cable tv, and a mini fridge to keep your beer cool, what more could you ask for.?

Dom on Buttermilk Stem V1

The next morning we were feeling a lot more refreshed after a good nights sleep. We decided to check out the Sad Boulders, just down the road from the Happies. We got there pretty early and had the place to ourselves apart from an English couple. On first appearance the Sads is just like the Happies except for the the obvious lack of crowds. It’s a lot more jumbled and harder to navigate though, we walked past quite a few boulders before we finally recognised an area from the guide. There are a few gems that should be sought out, but there is a higher proportion of chossy-looking problem than the Happies which I guess is what puts people off. One of the gems we found was a awesome looking V6 Rio’s Crack. Its an undercut boulder with a diagonal finger crack cutting right across the face, its basically big moves between shallow finger locks with very poor feet. Micah tried it first but struggled and made it look pretty hard. I got on it and managed the first moves into the finger locks, got a tenuous heel on, then snatched up higher in the crack, I got my feet high on some decent smears and reached up and latched a bomber ring lock, from there I just had to reach up and top-out. Nice, another V6 flash! We checked out some other stuff further up the canyon, but we weren’t that impressed so we decided to sack it back to the Happies. The Happies were buzzing, but it was cool to get some psyche from other groups around, there were some guys who were doing some filming on Serengeti (V5) and they offered a their pads and beta on it. Micah waved away their offers of beta and flashed it anyways. I fell off a couple times trying it Micah's way, then used their beta and got it, it was really good! We lazily did another few things at the Happies, and found some other cool problems to try the next day.

Micah trying a V7 at the Happies

On Friday we headed back to the Happies, and started out in the headbanger cave and managed to flash everything in it (the hardest problem is V4). We were starting to feel pretty comfortable at the Happies now. Micah and I decided to try something a little harder, we found Rave a 3 star V7. It is quite a long problem, it starts out with a hard move to get off the ground where you have to deadpoint a small crimp, then a big out left to a decent shelf. From here its V5 to the top, but still not easy, you have to throw a heel up high and reach up and use two bad slopers, rock over into a shallow gaston and stand up to reach a good heuco. After working it for a while I had the V5 stand start wired, but couldn’t do the first move off the ground. Micah on the other hand could do the sit start almost every time but couldn’t keep it together on the easier upper part. After failing on it repeatedly for about an hour we decided to move on. Its definitely something I’d like to come back to though. We tried some easier problems and goofed around a bit, (see photo below) then Micah decided to try a V6 he liked just next Morning Dove White. My skin was pretty sore by this point so I didn’t try it. But Micah soon got it by means of a cunning drop knee. He was pleased with his 2nd V6 of the trip. But it was getting late and time to go back to the motel.

Micah at the Happies

On Saturday, we packed up our stuff from the motel and headed back out to the Buttlermillks for our last day. The skies were blue and it was warm and sunny, which was a nice change from the last time at the Buttermilks. We headed straight to the Iron Man Traverse, the iconic buttermilk problem. Its one of the few problems in the Buttermilks that isn't highball, and the holds are all skin friendly which I'm sure adds to its popularity. I got psyched and went for the flash. It starts out on a big rail with good feet, then the further right you traverse the smaller the holds get. There is one good incut hold about 3/4 of the way along, then the feet disappear and you have to heel hook and use crimps. Then just about when you're ready to come off you have to lunge out right to a jug on the lip and try to top out with style. I managed to flash it just, but i made a bit of a mess of the top out and it was a bit scrappy.

Micah on Iron Man Traverse V4

Micah struggled on the finish, the culmination of a 5 days bouldering was starting to catch up with him. He gave it a few goes but eventually moved on, we did a few other things in the area on the King Tut boulder and Bowling Pin. My favorite of the day was the excellent Bowling Pin Arete, which somehow only gets 1 star in the guide. Here's a video of it.

The Bowling Pin Arete V4 flash

Before we left, Micah wanted to get back on Iron Man, he knew he couldn't go home with this unfinished business. He refined his sequence and sent it with style, then did again for fun before we had to hit the long road back home.
Heading back home we talked about about the highs and the lows of the trip. Micah said having been to a world class venue like Bishop he rates Leavenworth even higher now. And Laura said she has a new found appreciation of the lowballs at Squamish. Nevertheless we all agreed that Bishop is an amazing place and vowed to return sometime. Having climbed on such quality problems I feel like every other place I visit will pale in comparison. But who knows? The next entry in my blog will most likely be from Scotland!

Laura and Dom at the Buttermilks

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!

SDS Holmboy Video

Here's a video Micah took of me repeating the Sit Down Start to Holmboy a V6 at Squamish in September. It might take a while to load.