Weather, Sickness and Local Climbing

Over the last week, we have seen the gamut of weather...from sunshine and 50's to snow and 20's. I have also been fighting one of the worst colds that I have had in years, and have hopefully put that behind me. George and I are up to our usual bouldering and hounding around the area in hopes of finding new rock and the mythical Shangrila/boulderfield of the gods that we all hope is right around the corner. We have found a couple of pockets of boulders here and there, but nothing major to report. We did get a chance to check out some land that is in a new nature preserve, or has the potential to be included in this nature preserve, that has possibly the best roped climbing and bouldering in SC. The good news is that this land is not owned by the state, which tends to disallow climbing no matter what, but is owned by another important conservation group, The Nature Conservancy. Hopefully, after a meeting this Thursday night, we will have some progress made on this area and something to report to all of us SC climbers starving for any rock to pull down on.

Despite all of this, I have also been able to get out a couple of times and work a few routes here and there...mainly at Little Eastatoee. I have been trying to resend Yeti Areti, the latest V4 that was added to the area, but I have been sent back down to the crashpad every time. I thought that I remembered my beta from the FA just a week ago, but when I got back on it, it just keeps spitting me off...pretty frustrating! I know that this cold has made me weaker over the last few days, but I'm beginning to wonder if I just fluked it for the FA and the problem may be more of a V5 than a V4. I've also noticed some other folks' chalk out at Little Eastatoee and some of the other boulders we stumbled along this past week...if you're out there reading this, get in touch. We can get together and compare notes on boulders in the area.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate for a few Rumbling visits over the next couple of weeks...I'm planning on hitting the Eat side up on Friday and the following weekend, I plan on spending Friday, Saturday and Sunday up there finishing off my tick list. I haven't been able to get out to the Bald as much as usual this year, but I feel much more accomplished this year than ever. Instead of spending a lot of time driving to and from Rumbling, I've been sticking closer to home and spending more time developing areas. This has been the most productive year for me, as far as SC boulder development, compared to any of the past 10 or so. I have had my hands in good FA's at 3-4 different bouldering areas, along with finally getting Little Eastatoee somewhat developed. Don't get me wrong, I love the Bald and climbing all of the classics, but I feel more accomplished to create my own classics and expand the climbing opportunities here in the Upstate. But, spending most of my time at these local boulderfields has also made me miss travelling and seeing the boulderfields I used to hit all the time. Hopefully I can use these next couple of weeks to re-connect with the Bald and send the routes that have been on hold for a while. I'm really looking forward to getting back to Rumbling, the new Southeastern mecca of bouldering!