East Side 3/28

Hit the East Side on Saturday with Seth. Man, we're getting lucky with this early spring weather. The cliff is in great shape- even the Diplomat wall is dry at this point. Let's hope the weather continues to hold. Last summer's July/August washout was the worst in years.

Can't wait to get out and climb on a sunny day!

Seth and I headed up to the Blunt Force area to warm up. I decided to hop right on Scavenger and hang the draws to see if I'd be able to redpoint it. The rock was actually a bit warm (amazing for March) and the holds we're not as crisp as they'd been. I think I've gotten used to climbing in 30-degree weather; it's actually pretty nice when you get used to it.

I linked up to the last clip hanging the draws, but I was feeling a little tentative. I'm not sure why- I guess it's kind of a hard warm-up and I still haven't logged enough falls this season to have them out of my head. Seth decided to give it a top-rope run after I topped out. It was Seth's first-day out on rock for the season (other than his Black Dike / Whitney-Gillman link-up with Alden the previous weekend). Seth decided to work the early-season kinks out on solid 5.12. Good man!

On my second go, I fell on the last holds. I didn't have enough in the tank to jack up my feet for the final toss to the top. I pushed pretty hard on that attempt and was planning to move on to another route (figured it could wait for another day) but Seth suggested I rest a bit and give it another go. "Dude- you were at the last move!"

About this time, Jeremy Dowdy and his girlfriend(?) showed up with Tyler Sandberg in tow. Tyler had seen my red shirt from Duxbury and decided to come over to see what we were up to. Tyler ran off with his pads to find some boulders and Jeremy took his girlfriend up to Bubbles. Having had a decent 20 min rest, I saddled up and sent Scavenger. It felt very good. I used a new cross-under hand sequence on the crux and found myself on the final holds before I even realized I was there. It was funny to be on the last holds, trying to adjust my right-hand so that it was perfect, not even realizing that I was only one big move from the top. It was great, I'd totally let go of my attachment to sending the route. I was one move away, calmly fiddling with my grip, trying to see how to best get my fingers on it when suddenly a thought came rushing into my head, "SEND IT YOU FOOL! YOU'RE THREE FEET FROM THE TOP!" I hiked up my feet and made the big dead point to the jug at the lip. I think the route's probably about 5.12b. I asked Dave Vuono, who sent it last fall, and he suggested 5.12b as well. Looks like we're on our way to a consensus.

Seth Maciejowski- my "lucky belayer".

After Scavenger, Seth and I headed over to the Pastry Rage project. Getting to the first bolt is a little scary. Not sure if a stick-clip, a cam, or just getting used to it is the best approach. It's just a little too loose and a little too 5.7ish to feel totally secure when looking at a 15' backwards fall onto the slab below. I dogged my way up, stick clipped the crux bolt and trolleyed up to brush off the holds a bit. I found a few interesting crimps (a neat left hand quartz edge and a right hand square-cut which looks a little "impermanent". With these holds, the move isn't too bad. Though it might be a little exciting to do pumped. The bolt is a little high. I think I should be able to link a lot of the bottom and put the rope on top of the cliff next time I make it up there. I don't think this route will take too long to put together.

After Seth's go on TR, we went down and looked at the problem Tyler was working on. Looks tough. He said, "It might be double-digits". So, V10, or something. it's a super-powerful 2-move chuck. Out of my league for sure.

Tyler Sandberg working on a hard new problem...

Carcass 3/26

I made it out to the Carcass Crag last night with Chris Duca. The cliff was pretty dry, though some of the routes had a few wet spots. After warming up on lower Appalling Travesty and Two-pitch Route, Chris and I worked on the proper finish to Appalling Travesty. It was great to get on the route again- super fun and a total sleeper. The business section of the route is pretty short, but it's a really cool series of bumps and deadpoints.

Parker showed up to do some rope soloing shortly after we started and we invited him to join us. He was pretty stoked. I guess he's headed out of town with Vuono for a few months to go climb in the desert and Yosemite. Must be nice...

On my last go, I manged to link all the way to the last hard move. One-hung it. The tricks I learned in the gym this winter, coupled with all of the yoga are really paying off. My contact strength, dead-pointing accuracy and high stepping are feeling really good. Now if I can only do something about my terrible endurance. It's been a long winter...

It's good to be roped up again. The first real burn on the route I was feeling a little bit shakey. The Carcass can get in your head a little more than some of our other crags. It was good to keep trying, by the end of it I definitely felt like I was trusting the rope again.

The anchor on the top of the route is toast! It was a piece of 10mm rope, but now it's totally rotten and green with mold. It even has a huge core shot (not sure how that happened). We backed it up with a piece of cord, but it needs to be replaced with some quicklinks very badly.

On a side note, I bumped into Derek who'd been up at the East Side. He's been bitten by the bug and it looks like we'll see some action out of him this summer. I'm psyched- let's hope our schedules line up for once.

Gotta get back to the Carcass again soon!

Welcome Spring!

I can't tell you how nice it is to have an early spring this year. I crushed my ankle in December and the lack of physical activity has made this winter a long one. I was hiking down from the East Side with Kevin after putting the last bolts on Pastry Rage (a resumed Derek Doucet joint) and I slipped on some mud covered ice. Could there be anything more slippery than mud covered ice? Probably not.

As of this writing many of the local cliffs are uncommonly dry for this time of year. The Cat's Ass is totally dry, most of the Carcass is doable, The East Side is almost entirely in and, though I've not been up there yet, I've heard the 82 is also "in".

I've had a few good days out this spring already and I've been hitting the Cat's Ass a bit. Despite my recent inactivity, the yoga and bouldering I've been doing have done a lot to keep me in reasonable shape. I've been amazed at the control I have high stepping now that I'm not super-inflexible.

On Saturday, Dereck, Derek, Dennis, and Ross Chongo (new guy) met up at the Cat's Ass. Perfect temps and good cheer for sure. I was feeling pretty plucky and managed to redpoint the Cat's Ass routes except for the crack, It's Only Interment. Man- that's a sandbag, even with the new bolt. Here's the gear for future reference (in order of placements)

1. .5 Camalot
2. Yellow Alien
3. Green Alien
4. .5 Camalot
5. Bolt

The trick for me on the crux was two things. I'm going to write 'em down here so I'll remember (well, I'm sure I'll forget, but at least I'll be able to kick myself if I read this after falling on it again).

Hit the thin fingers where the aliens are placed. Use the better of the two jams (left hand) as a sort of gaston (pushing left) and skip or bump past the beak to a palm-up two finger (pinky and ring) lock. Use this to sidepull-jam-layback up onto a good high right foot. Reach over into the good lock where the .5 goes. Step low and right and move to the jug.

This is a great route- it really deserves more traffic. I'll need to get on it again soon.

All my blokes have been climbing well. Here are a few pictures:

Derek in hot pursuit of Cat's Ass.

Derek mid-crux.

Blunt Force

Derek onBlunt Force

Dereck on Pussy Galore

Dereck demonstrates his signature move