A Lot Going On Lately

I have been so busy with the holidays, climbing and access meetings that I haven't had a chance to post up in a while...

Since my last post I've been able to climb at Dixon, a couple of local spots and the Bald a couple of times.

DIXON:
At Dixon, I climbed a bunch of fun easy stuff on this boulder...


After warming up, I sent 2 super fun routes, the route up the right side felt like a V1 and the left side felt like a V2/3, on this boulder...


And then sent a sweet slab problem from a big sidepulling sit start on the downhill side of the Classic Overhang boulder, felt around a V3...here's a shot of that route.


After sending a few more routes, I packed it up and met with Stephen Scoff, the SC CCC rep, and Larry Hyde, the superintendent of Crowder's State Park, for an informative overview of how Crowder's manages climbing. If you are a long time follower of this blog, you might remember earlier this year there was a push for better access in SC. Since then, I've been working with Stephen to try to open up more bouldering and roped climbing in the state. This was one of the many meetings we have had, or going to have, to push for more access. Larry was an incredibly nice guy and a great asset for climbers in NC and at Crowder's. He helped us out by giving us a lot of information we can use to demonstrate the advantages of climbing for our meetings with a couple of SC parks. Nothing makes a day of bouldering better than doing something to give back to the climbing community!

THE BALD:
I'm stoked that I've had a chance to hit the Bald so much this fall, and each trip I seem to finally bag a route or 2 that has hassled me for a while. On one of my recent trips, I finally headed back to the Middle East and Far East...an area I don't visit too often. I sent a few fun easy routes, and Fire V3, on the Fire boulder seen here...


After flailing like a little sissy on Silver Platter V2 (is this thing really a V2?), I headed over to my real targets...The Forbidden City V2 and Rift V4. After working the upper moves of Rift and finding the best foot beta for me, I loaded up and worked the SDS until I had linked it all together for the send. This has to be one of my absolutely favorite routes at the Bald...especially due to the fact that it was named after a Phish song! Check out the beautiful music on this boulder...


From here I went out to the Forbidden City V2 and took a couple of tries to send this wonderful route. What a great boulder problem! Listed as being similar to Dime Crack, but easier, the movement felt like it was set in a gym and put a big smile on my face after the send. A sds traverses out left to a series of edges that goes up the short face to a pretty easy top out...check out the picture.


After sending a few more easy routes, I called it quits for this session...ticking off Rift was big for me, its always been a project of mine...but climbing The Forbidden City was just as fun and rewarding!

ACCESS FOR SC:
Besides our meeting with Larry Hyde at Crowder's, Stephen and I have had, and will be having, more meetings with some of the SC state parks and DNR about climbing access. We have had some successes in some of our recent meetings, and hope for the same with the next meetings. I'll fill everyone in when everything gets ironed out and this will hopefully give SC climbers a new climbing landscape in the coming year.

Besides all that, I want to wish George Evans good luck at the last leg of the Triple Crown at Little Rock City/Stonefort. George has finally (kinda) gotten back up to speed from his broken ankle and I hope he pulls hard and has a good time finally being able to boulder like he used to! I also want to wish Adam Johnson (take loads of pictures for your website) and Doug Ianuario a great comp and trip to Hueco afterwards...I'm so damn jealous:) If you haven't checked out Adam's awesome photos and blog...click your hiney on over there and check it out. Bro man got some skills!!!

G-Vegas Represent!

If you havent seen the newest DeadPoint Magazine video of Eric Singleton climbing Waste Not, Want Not 5.12b/c at Looking Glass...check it out! Nice work on the send and way to represent the old school Rocks and Ropes gym crew (that was the gym I climbed at 2-3 times a week, back in the day) and Looking Glass Outfitters.

Click here to go to DeadPoint and watch the video

Slave Driver...Finally

This past Friday, I had a chance to run up to the Bald and work on one of the last real "haunting routes" I have at the Bald...Slave Driver V3. The leaves were incredible and with the sun shining bright, it felt like I was wrapped up in the color yellow.



Slave Driver has been another off and on project for me over the last few years, very similar to Shady Grove/Basketball Mantle, and so I decided I had to finally take it serious and project the route until I sent it and got that monkey of my back. I've sent a lot of V3's, at a lot of different boulderfields, but this is by far one of the hardest, if not the hardest V3 I've ever sent...and quite a few strong folks have mentioned that Slave Driver might be a little sandbagged at a V3 too.



I worked the stand start until I finally had it a little dialed (am I the only one that has to bump through the little crystal at the top to reach the small "thank god" knob with my right hand?), then I gave one good solid effort on the sit start and ended up linking through it. To say the send pushed me to my limit was an understatement...I literally felt blown up afterwards and decided to call the day a success, despite originally planning on climbing for a lot longer. It felt good to send another route that has been taunting me every time I walked by it, and that satisfaction was enough to keep me smiling all weekend!

Here's a sweet video of the East Side, from a couple of years ago, that Matt Christie put together. Slave Driver is climbed at the 40 second mark and Matt makes it look easy! You can also see Crystalline Entity in this video, a sweet V5 slab that I was also working on Friday...I think this should go next time, with a spot.



Saturday I woke up early and shuttled some friends to Whitewater Falls so they could do an overnighter on the Foothills Trail...here's a shot of the beautiful morning view out over Lake Jocassee.

While I was there, I had a quick session on the small set of boulders next to the bathrooms. There are really only a handful of routes worth climbing, but I've always found them to be fun. Here are a few photos of the boulders. The first is a shot of the Slab boulder as you approach it from the parking lot. The other 2 shots are of the Snapping Turtle boulder behind it. Most of the routes on both boulders have some solid slopey crimps that make for some fun climbing.

Triple Crown: Horse Pens 40

So, this past weekend was the second leg of the Triple Crown, down in Steele, Alabama. The weather was cold in the campground, but the sends were awful hot in the boulderfield! I was able to head down early on Friday and climb a little with the Clemson Crew before the comp on Saturday. Here's Autumn Parham sending Dope...

Bumboy is one of the legendary boulder problems in the world, one of my all time favorites, and I was able to send it easier than ever on Friday, with some crucial beta from Adam and George making all of the difference. On Saturday, the place was packed and hyped! Competitors were everywhere in the park, giving their all on some of the best sandstone routes in the Southeast. No matter if you climbed V0 or V10, everybody was cheering for everybody else and the smell of comradory was in the air more than the smell of competition. I was able to send a few 3's (Bumboy, Orca & Double Groove) and the rest of my scorecard was filled out with some of the most fun V2's around (Dope of course being one of my favorites)...needless to say, I was nuzzled deep in the Intermediate category with no chance of placing, but I definitely had a blast climbing!

The real competition was for the Mens Open division, which Jimmy Webb dominated. Here's a couple of shots of Jimmy climbing Skeletor V10 and God Module V11...2 routes that helped him claim first.



Brion Voges wasn't too far behind Jimmy for 2nd in Mens Open. Here's a couple of shots of Brion on Cadillac Thrills V9 and Slider Sit V10...



And rounding out the top 3 was Brad Weaver...here's a shot of him on Illusions V11.


The top 3 getting Crowned...


Angie Payne won the Womens Open division...here's a shot of her on The Flow V7.


Here is Deadpoint Mags Coverage of the event...and also some great photos and coverage by Clemson climber Adam Johnson over at Climbing.com Adam Johnson also has a great set of photos over at his website AdamJohnsonPhoto.com that I stole for this post...thanks a million Adam for letting me use your incredible images! You can get the full lowdown on the winners of each category at the Triple Crown Bouldering website, and the complete results with everybody's score should be released soon too.


Also...Here is a great video of Adam and some other climbers at the comp, check it out courtesy of George Evans.

HP40 Triple Crown 2010 from George Evans on Vimeo.

Help the SCC Win A Grant To Invest In Southeast Climbing!

For some reason, the vote button wont show up on the above widget sometimes...click here to go to the SCC's page to vote if the button isnt available!!!

If you havent heard yet, the SCC is competing for one of the Pepsi Refresh Grants to help maintain and aquire more climbing areas in the Southeast.

The SCC's Goals for this project are...
•Purchase and preserve 40 acres in AL currently closed to access
•Purchase and preserve 38 acres in TN currently closed to access
•Build new and maintain existing hiking trails throughout southeast
•Responsible land stewardship and inspirational team building
•Community outreach: Promoting the joys of climbing AND preservation!

In order to help the SCC win this grant, they need everyone's help with voting. You can vote everyday and the SCC encourages you to do so...the most votes wins, so help makes this a reality for all southeastern climbers!

Here is the great video the SCC put together to promote their bid for the grant...

Haunting Bald Routes

Over the Halloween holiday, I had a chance to run up to Rumbling Bald a couple of times and work on some routes that have continually haunted me over the past 8 or so years. The leaves were still turning nice colors and the Beauty Berry was out to remind us that its fall and winter is on its way.


The first session I was able to knock out 3 routes that have been like giant monkeys jumping on my back...Shady Grove/Basketball Mantle V3, Unknown V4 on the Brevard Fault boulder in the Central Boulders, and Unknown V2 (problem 10f) on the Gateway boulders in the West Side. Each one of these problems has given me fits for years, and it was so nice to finally send all of them...especially Shady Grove, seen in the above picture. Shady Grove was what most folks I knew called the problem for years, but the guidebook came out and said that the real name for the problem was Basketball Mantle...either way, it and Slave Driver have been 2 V3's that have never gone for me, no matter how much time and effort I have put into them. I wasn't even looking to send Shady Grove, but after walking by it and avoiding looking at it like it was an ugly ex-girlfriend for so long I thought maybe I should pick the project back up. I had put a couple of tries on it during a session last month, but during this session, the problem flowed better and the crimps were much stickier and easy to yoke up on. After getting the high right hand sloping crimp to feel good, it was just a matter of the sketchy top out onto the delicate slab...which made my knees shake, but I still was able to top it out.


From here I went out to the Brevard Fault, seen above, and sent the tricky V4 to the right of it...a sds on some crimps leads to a short crimp traverse and a delicate move to and over the sloping lip leads to the top out. Here's a picture of the V4 route...

Brevard Fault is one of my favorite Bald V2's and so I've always put a little extra time on the V4 beside it, every time I hit the Fault...and it finally paid off.

The other problem seems so benign, but for a V2, it has haunted me for years and years and always felt like it was sticking its tongue out at me everyime I walked by. On my way out of the West side, I stopped by for my usually token attempts, but surprisingly had no problem with the crimp on the lip that usually gives me trouble. So the first session was one of my better Bald sessions in a while, and it was especially rewarding to finally send Shady Grove!

Yesterday I got a chance to head back up to the Bald and finish off a few more monkey-on-my-back-routes. I've sent Crescent Crack V2 before, but it has been years and years since I have sent it...so it was nice to get on it and send it first attempt. It always seems that loud idiots gather near this route and I am not one to send routes with a lot of distractions around...if I wanted to climb with a bunch of morons, I could of just went to the gym! One of the last times I was trying to climb it, a couple of kids were throwing their toy cars at me as I climbed and their mother refused to get them under control...I couldn't even believe that the mom was that stupid and had such little respect for other climbers nearby!!! So, needless to say, it was nice to get the resend out of the way when it was chill and relaxed. From here I went over to the Cluster and sent the short Unknown V3 on the Top Rope boulder, across from the Silliness boulder. This is another route that I have tried off and on for a few years, but never really spent enough time on it to send it right. On a previous visit, Adam Johnson made it seem like such an easy send...so I was a little motivated to actually work on it to try to make it look as easy as he did. From here I went up to the Terraces and got shut down on Big Crimpin (more like Big Limpin for me), but I did get a chance to see Doug and Dale from the Clemson crew send a couple of awesome classics out at the Patio Roof...Dale sent the crazy hanging-from-one-foot problem Terminator Exit V6, and Doug sent the incredible route Kamikaze V10. Here's a shot of him getting ready for the big dyno...


Some of their friends were able to video both of their sends and hopefully I can link to their video when they get it polished up and available...definitely worth a watch or two! After hanging out and having some fun with those guys, I headed on over the Central boulders again to try to finish up a route that I was working on my previous session, Azimuth Coordinator V4.


Azimuth Coordinator, seen above, is kind of a crimp route, but really its mostly a tall slab...my favorite:) So, I loaded up on the big sidepull flake and smeared my way up to the small pinch/crimps and barely to the top just before I was about to lose it and fall off. This ended the second of my 2 Halloween sessions...I was completely happy with the routes I had sent and felt like I got more treats than tricks in my bag this year!


Here is another photo of Shady Grove...you may notice the sign on the tree informing boulderers that this is part of the property just recently purchased by the CCC. The loan is still far from paid off...please do what you can and give as much or as little as you feel comfortable giving to help us get this property paid off and permanently keep it in the hands of the boulderers that really enjoy it!

The Triple Crown is heading to Horse Pens 40 this weekend...so all you sloper buffs, get your open hand on! I'm really looking forward to a big party with a whole bunch of like minded people!!! If you havent seen the newest installment of Andrew Kornylak's Beta Series...here it is.

The Beta - Branch Bacardi from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.

Meeting Bob Cormany

So, the LRC trip was tons of fun...but one event stuck out a little more than others in my mind, and it wasn't one of my sends. As I mentioned in my last post, I stopped off at Boat Rock in Atlanta on my ride home from Chatty. While I was at Boat Rock and working the super sweet slab problem The Surgeon, I ran into one of my heroes...Bob Cormany. Bob is a near famous Southeast boulderer/climber, he's one of the old school originals of the game and has blazed the trail for many to follow. He's climbed spots out before others even knew they existed. He is one of the folks that helped to save Boat Rock, an in essence, he has had his hand in saving many more SE crags than most people might realize. In both of the new bouldering guidebooks to Horse Pens and Little Rock City, there are some nice little essays by Bob to help give his perspective of these areas. I've seen him at different events, but never had a chance to actually meet and talk to him until now. It all started out with a little beta for The Surgeon, one of his routes, and turned into a wonderful conversation on many topics.



We had a great conversation about many of the boulderfields in the south...Lilly, Little Rock City, Boat Rock, Horse Pens and several secret spots I had never heard of were discussed. I have been climbing for about 15-20 years and have seen many places change over time. ..I think we all have our own history of our favorite crags and snapshots of specific climbs or moments. I always enjoy getting this perspective from someone that's been at it much longer than I have, its humbling and helps us remember the roots of the places we love. Bob's perspective and discussion about southeast climbing and bouldering was awesome and refreshing. But what really impressed me more was our discussion of physiology. If you don't know, I'm an Anatomy and Physiology professor at a local college, this is not only my life, but one of my passions also...so being able to talk more than just climbing shop with Bob was really cool. He talked about some of the research he helped out with at UT, while he was up in Knoxville. We went into a long discussion of the intricacies of the corpus luteum in female pig ovaries and the amazing ability of scar tissue to become an endocrine gland and control a major component of reproduction...yeah super thrilling to only the physiology geeks:) It was pretty neat to connect with him on more than just a pebble wrestling platform, and learn a lot about who he was and is.

I left the Boat with not only a sense of accomplishment from the previous days at LRC, but also with a valuable experience that will remain fresh in my mind for many years to come.

Little Rock City aka How I Fell Back In Love With Sandstone

I want to start with an apology for not having any good pictures of my trip...I stole all of these pics and videos of other folks on some problems from the net.

So, I finally got a chance (I've been floored all week at work) to write up a quick post about my visit this past weekend to Little Rock City in Chattanooga. I headed over to Chatta-boogie on Friday and hit LRC with enough time to send plenty. I started out with a couple of warm ups and immediately jumped on Kingpin V6, a route I was working/projecting on my last visit. At first I didn't think there was anyway I could send it this trip, but the friction and foot holds finally became familiar to me and I sent it after about 20 minutes of work. This was a great route and wouldn't have taken hold of me and made me project it if it wasn't so much like Fontainebleau...I really enjoyed figuring out the tricks to Font routes last summer and it gave me that same psyched feeling! I was stoked to send my project at the beginning of the trip so I could then run around sending other stuff. Feeling like I was on cloud nine, this was my first V6 of the fall bouldering season, I wandered around until I found Adam and Doug over at Tristar and Celestial Mechanics. They had been there since like 8 that morning, so they were running out of steam and getting ready to pack up and take off...but not before Doug made us all look bad by practically campusing Tristar. After hanging out and sending some easy routes with Adam, they took off and I started focusing on some tough slabs. My pinky has been feeling better since I've been trying to only climb once a week, and so I wanted to climb slabs mainly Friday to keep it from getting tweaked and ruining my main session on Saturday. So after Kingpin, I climbed Jupiter V3 and Humpty Dumpty V4, two slabs on the wall beside Kingpin. Fun routes, but not as fun as Crystal Ball V5 and Clarence Bowater Survival V3 on the Two Shoes Jack boulder. I had high hopes of sending a V5 slab this trip, and Crystal ball looked doable last time I was here and sent Two Shoes Jack V4. I was stoked to finally get to the sloping rail towards the top and have sent a super fun and delicate slab! Clarence Bowater Survival was right next to Crystal Ball and had a few sketchy moves towards the top that got my blood moving. After these routes, I was getting a little tired and wanted to start cooling down, so I climbed a bunch of V0-V1's...but on my way out, Hairy Underclings V3 caught my eye and sucked me in. Hairy Underclings ascends a bubbly sloper wall reminiscent of Horse Pens and the Bumboy area. The satisfaction of climbing Kingpin was definitely a highlight of the day, but I'd have to give Hairy Underclings the props for being my favorite route of the day...it was that much fun to send! Friday went much better than expected & I ended up sending at least 1 route in each grade from V0-V6, which is always a stellar day for me!

Saturday I was able to climb for a while...and I ended up sending a lot more than I expected. I went to LRC with 2 goals, climb (or at least get a little closer to sending) Kingpin and to try to send a V5 slab problem. Since I had accomplished both, surprisingly, on Friday, I decided to just roam around and climb what looked good. I had sent Mystery Machine V3 years ago, but I wanted to send it again, since its one of the ultra-classic V3's, so I started out here and had to work pretty hard to get the send. After Mystery Machine, I climbed Ruby Roo V2, which was a bunch of fun and seemed like an easier version of Hairy Underclings, and then sent Mutiny V2 right around the corner. From here I thought I'd aim high and try a few more harder routes, or at least for me. Adam had shown me the moves to Fat Cat V5 the day before and mentioned that he thought I might could send it...so I sat underneath the jigsaw like face and pulled onto the chalked crimps and sidepulls and flashed Fat Cat. Here is a video from YouTube of Fat Cat...

I was super surprised and stoked to send another solid route. After climbing the easy routes on the Blind Spot boulder, beside the Frumundathunda boulder, I headed around to the Main area to work the dyno problem Trailer Hitch V5. I had this route in mind before I got here, because I thought I could send it without my pinky getting too tweaked...and I sent 2nd try. Here is an older video of Trailer Hitch...

From here I ducked into the Cell to finish up the day by sending Green Lantern V3 and Jump V3. I only had 1 route left that interested me, Fixer V4. Here is a video with Fixer at the 2:08 mark (and Mutiny V2 is the first route, but its referred to as the After School Special)...

I had tried to work Fixer earlier in the day, but a crew of loud obnoxious guys came up and ruined the experience with a radio blaring really bad pop music. When I came back at the end of the day, I was barely able to send it with the last little bit of strength I had left. This ended Saturdays sendfest, and I couldn't have been more satisfied with Saturday and the whole LRC trip...3 V5's and a V6 was much more than I thought I could send and made me remember how much I really love sandstone and its comfort and ease to climb. I spend most of my time on the east side of the Appalachians, and granite routes that aren't as forgiving, so it was good to feel like I had accomplished something.


On my way home, I ruined that feeling by stopping off at Boat Rock in Atlanta and getting my butt handed to me:) I sent the usual routes on the Easy Crack boulder and added a new V3 send with Kashmir Crack, seen above. Besides that, I just felt spent and weak and like I had left everything on the boulderfield back up in Soddy Daisy...but that was the goal of my trip anyway!