Smith Rocks!

Last weekend Laura, Nick and I got down to Smith Rock in Oregon. One of the premier sport climbing venues in the country. It was the first time down there this fall for Laura and I, but Nick had been down a few weekends before and sent his long term project the Smith classic Chain Reaction. It was his first 12c (7b+) and since my last visit in March my redpoint level had increased from 12b to 12d, so we were pretty excited to get on some new hard things. Our photographer Micah wasn't with us this trip so most of these photos are from earlier this year, apart from the last one Nick took on his cell phone.

Morning Glory Wall

We drove down after work on Friday, and 5 hours later we had met up with our friends Philip and Ryan from Oregon huddling around the campfire at the Skull Hollows campground. It got pretty cold, well below freezing, but we prepared and wore a lot of clothes. Saturday morning once the sun came out it got pretty warm, and we were shedding our layers fast. I was surprised how warm it was there still, in the high 60's in the shade, and it made climbing in the sun hard.

Laura on a route in the Chritian Brothers area

We got out to the park pretty quick and Laura and I warmed on the easy classics at Morning Glory Wall, Five Gallon Buckets 5.8, Light on the Path 5.10a (6a), which we both led. I wanted to up the level a bit and get on Nine Gallon Buckets or Magic Light, but they both has queues, so I hopped on the route to right of Nine Gallon called Cool Ranch Flavor, I was told it was 11a (6c) to the first chains, then 12a (7a+) to the top chains. It was a fun route and I climbed it pretty smooth, I got to the first chains still feeling pretty good, and there was hanging draws on the top part so I shouted down to Laura that I was going for the extension. After the chains the climbing turns into to typical Smith crimping on small holds, but no really hard moves just sustained, I kept the momentum going and before I knew it I was at the chains. Nice a 12a onsight! That was a good start to the trip. We hung around on Morning Glory a while longer and got a couple of laps on Nine Gallon Buckets (10c) before it got too hot, then found some shade. Over in the Christian Brothers Philip led Dreamin the super scary 12a which goes up this huge runout slab, a fall on this would be bad. Nick toproped it clean but didn't feel up for the lead. From there Laura and I headed down to do the classic Smith 10b Barbeque the Pope. We had wanted to get on it for a long time but it always seemed to be busy. This time no one was on it, so we took our chance. We got out our brand new stick clip for the first clip. But it didn't quite reach, the first clip is high! I managed to clip it by climbing up the first moves and clipping from there. I didn't enjoy the route at all though. I know it's a classic but that doesn't mean its good. In fact at smith it usually means its polished and scary runout. I got up it and put it on a toprope for laura, she was glad she decided not to lead it. We headed back to find the rest of the guys. Nick was going for the onsight of a tall dihedrals arête called Vision. He came off at the crux slapping around the arête on bad holds. He clipped the chains, and came down feeling pretty good about it, he thought it felt pretty easy for a 12d, then I told him it was only a 12b! I went for the flash, but even with Nick's beta I came off at the crux, I blame my shoes. I didn't want to go for the redpoint it felt pretty hard, and scary up top. But Nick went for it again and came pretty close, but came off at the crux again, he stripped the route and we moved on.

Laura on Shipwreck Wall

On Sunday we got out pretty early again and warmed with a couple of routes on Morning Glory Wall. I did Cool Ranch Flavor again to put the draws up for nick to try. He got past the first chains but came off on the upper section, he hung around, figured out the sequence and dispatched it second go, which was made even harder by the heat. Dreamin was in the shade, so Nick decided to get back on it. He looked focused and kept his cool on the run outs and clipped the chains, it was very impressive. I hopped on it on toprope but I don't think I'll be leading it anytime soon, its way scary. Good Job Nick! We were thinking of walking over Asterix Pass to the back side, but we weren't really feeling psyched. So we got on Balshphemy a new 11a on the Christian Brothers. It's a really sweet climb, I'd done it before but I'd definitely do it again. Its very un-smith like, very technical with no positive holds at the crux.

The Dihedrals

We then decided to head to the other side of the park, to Picnic Lunch Wall to check out a climb we'd heard about called Five Easy Pieces. We weren't sure where exactly it was cause it wasn't in our guide, so we got on a cool looking climb that had the most chalk on it. Nick started up it but had to hang to figure out the sequence, as he was on it a local named Calvin came over and confirmed to us that it was in fact Five Easy Pieces. Laura had a go on toprope and Calvin hopped on it as well, then it was my turn. It starts out on really featured rock, a cool tufa feature, then up through pockets and a couple of deep mono's before you have to step left and go up on opposing sidepulls. At this point you're above the last bolt, and you have to make a burly move up to a juggy hueco. I knew I had to do the move one way or another to get the draws out so I thought I might as well go for the flash and committed to the move. I latched it, I had 3 more bolts to go before the chains with no rests. It was a fight, but I kept it together and used my last reserves of energy to get to the top. I was psyched to flash this as my last climb of the trip it, it was a really cool climb to finish of a really cool weekend.

Laura Me and Nick at the end of the weekend

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!

Leavenworth Bouldering

This weekend Laura Micah and I made the drive out to Leavenworth to check out the bouldering there. The new bouldering guide (which is excellent) just came out this summer which really opens the areas up, so there was no more excuses for not checking it out. I'd heard from different sources that Leavenworth had the best bouldering in the north-west, even better than Squamish, but I'm a big fan of Squamish bouldering so I was skeptical.

The Pimpsqueek Boulder

We hit icicle canyon on Friday night with about 15 minutes of daylight left, so we jumped on the first boulder we saw from the road. It was the fridge boulder, one of the best in the canyon in my opinion. Micah coolly flashed the fridge center (V4) and soon after dispatched the fridge right, a sandbag at V4. I flashed Jumping Spiders, a one move V4, and in the dark Micah sent the Lizard V5. Not bad for a half-hour session. We met Tony and Adam at the campsite, who were in Leavenworth doing trad, and got psyched for the next days bouldering.

Micah on Crimpsqueek V7

On Saturday we started out at mad meadows, with some moderates, we all did a cool V2 called The Scoop which has some of the best holds I've seen on granite. Micah flashed The Crimp V5, without using the crimp he just locked off from the starting hold to the arête, I sent it a bit later using the crimp. We both flashed The Ampitheater V4 negotiating the tricky mantle. Then went over to the Pimpsqueek boulder which is one of the most obvious lines I've ever seen. Unfortunately Pimpsqueek (V9) was a little to high and hard for us to try seriously, but Micah came agonizingly close on Crimpsqueek (V7) which we'll have to go back to. We did a few more problems, The Hueco Problem (V1) which has amazing huge granite huecos. And Laura made her first ever V3 flash, Drugstore Cowboy, a really cool steep pumpfest.

Laura Flashing Drugstore Cowboy V3

We had lunch and hit up a different area called Forestlands. This area has perfect boulders with even better landings. We did The Real Thing (V4) and a few other crimpy classics. Then got on The Sheild, an amazing 6ft? dyno. After finding the right feet, Micah latched the hold and topped it out for his first ever V7. To say he was pleased would be an understatement. I slapped the hold so many times, but never held it, ahh well theres always next time. Micah also sent a V6 on the other side of the boulder, and Laura flashed a stout V2 called Sunny and Steep. Fearing a lack of daylight, we quickly moved on to a new area Twisted tree where Micah and I worked Mr Leftist, a hard V6. After working out the cruxy mantle Micah sent it, but I fell off the last hold twice. I gues it just wasn't my day.

Dom and Laura having lunch on the beach

Sunday we went to Tumwater Canyon and checked out a few of the areas there but we were were a lot more selective in what we tried due to our lack of skin and sore muscles. We did a few fontainebleu-esque slabs and technical problems on the smooth granite of swiftwater north the best being Un-obvious (V3). And Micah pulled another hard climb out of the bag, with a quick send of the steep and powerful Raging Bull (V7). We took a leisurely lunch and siesta in the sun on the beach. Then did a few more climbs, I flashed The Fin a classic V2, but by this point in the trip it took a lot more effort than I normally need on a V2. And Micah made a very bold deep water solo of the beach arête V2. Good job Micah, I'm glad it was you and not me. We finished up the beach area with a problem called Dyno 101 (V3). The name says it all really. I got a nasty flapper latching the jug, but it was worth it.

Micah on Beach Arete V2

So how does the bouldering in Leavenworth compare to Squamish? In my opinion Leavenworth has more and better problems in the grades V1-V7. But I don't think it will ever attract people from overseas to camp out here for the whole summer like Squamish does. The bouldering in Leavenworth is not as concentrated and you need a car to visit all the different areas. But if you don't mind driving between areas, Leavenworth has more quality bouldering than you could ever hope to do. Micah thinks the grades here might be a soft, but I don't think so, I think the climbing is just more powerful and dynamic which is his style.

Micah latches the jug on Dyno 101 V3

This trip taught me a few things. One, that even though I've got more points on my scorecard than Micah, doesn't mean I'm a better boulderer than him. That doing routes 2 or 3 times a week is not enough to get strong, I need to train as well (I bought a 3 month pass to the warehouse yesterday). And best of all, we don't have to drive all the way to Squamish for world class bouldering!

The end of a good weekend

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.