What a great weekend to be in the shadows of Looking Glass! The temps were more than bearable and the rock was freshly cleaned by recent rains. We got up to the forest around noon on Saturday, set camp quickly and hurried out to The North Face boulders for a long session. After spending about an hour working all of the Warm Up Wall problems (V0-V3) and every silly variation I could think of, I headed down to the lower area of boulders to work on some problem I had only messed around with a few times. I ended up sending a few new (for myself) routes...a fun V2 slab problem on some razor sharp crimps, and one that starts on these big sidepulls and goes up to a blank slopey/slabby top section...felt like about a V3. Then I worked a problem that has obsessed me in the past, and has shut me down everytime before...I have always called it "Big Jug". Just left of the sidepull problem is a giant flat jug half way up the face...I started doubled there and got my feet high on the face and threw a left hand deadpoint for the small thin sloping rail about 12 feet up, the real crux of the route. After a few misses and a couple of craters on the pad, I stuck the skinny rail and brought my feet up underneath me to be able to reach towards the top for another thin sloper and finally top it out...finally, after like 5 or so years it went! I thought the route was much tougher than most of the V3's around, so I feel comfortable calling it a solid, fun, V4. After this, I sent another V3, a route I've called Pyramids, that starts low on an angled sloping arete and follows it up to the apex and tops out...along with Giza V2, the other sloping arete on the Egypt boulder. Both of these routes are a little tricky and a little powerful, but overall a bunch of fun. After finally wearing myself out, we packed our stuff up and headed back to camp for the rest of the day. Sunday, we got up after a perfect Pisgah night and headed out to the Roadside and Nowhere boulders. We were pretty worn out from the previous days climbs, but I was still able to send Nowhere V3 and goof around with a few other routes. There was a lot of moisture on the boulders, so many of the routes weren't climbable...cutting this session pretty short. No matter, it was still a great hike out to the boulders and its always relaxing in the middle of Nowhere:)
I have also got some good news from Greener Grass Publishing...I'm getting an advance copy of the new Stone Fort/Little Rock City Guidebook (hopefully it'll be in my mailbox when I get home today) and plan on putting up a review here in a couple of weeks. We have planned a trip over to Chatty for the 17-19th of September so I can use the guidebook first hand and see how user friendly it really is. As soon as we get back, I'll post the review and share the experience with everyone...I'm really looking forward to getting back to one of my old stomping grounds!!!
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