After lunch we tossed all of our stuff down to the base of the Pharoah Boulder. The Pharoah Boulder actually makes up the landing for the Cave Boulder so it was really easy to just drop everything over the edge and walk down to a nice landing. I found this very entertaining. Maybe too much, actually.
Katie set to work on Pharoah Right and figured out the top moves really quickly. I always like watching Katie work through beta. She rarely gets to use the "standard" beta because she is 5 feet and 1/2 inches tall with a minus two ape index. She's really good at figuring out her own way of working through things and doesn't use the short excuse as much as many other taller people do. If I were any smaller than I am right now I'd be doling out the short excuse as much as I possibly could. I like excuses though.
Both of the Pharoah problems share the same start holds and first move. It's kind of a weird rockover into a gaston. After you match that hold, you start to get into better and better holds the whole way through. Katie was able to do the first move after finding some sort of motivation and topped out one or two goes after that. My send was MUCH less graceful and involved some awkward, dead vertical campusing with the always useful "chest smear". Not my finest moment of the day.
I also put in a few uninspired tries on Pharoah's Arete. It's basically a one move wonder to get your butt off the ground and into the juggier holds up top. It's too bad because the stand start is actually really fun climbing on huge holds. The one hard move down low just kinda ruins the fun. Oh well.
Stay tuned for more.....
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Agreed, that low start was not particularly fun. A combination of knee scumming and being tall are the only thing that got me up.
ReplyDeleteThe stand start was super fun though as you pointed out. Doesn't it seem odd that there aren't really any problems (that I can think of) like it at the lake??
I really really liked the stand start and wish there were more things like it in the area!
ReplyDeleteAnd I definitely can't think of anything similar at the lake. Which is too bad. It'd be fun to find some stuff like it around here! Maybe in the West Bluff Talus field.
It's just weird because there is nothing spectacular about the boulder. It just has a touch of steepness and some relatively big holds that are fun to climb on. It's weird how similar the rock seems to DL yet it's so different at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI am only short on the outside.
ReplyDeleteinside I am a normal sized person.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you're the only normal sized person out there and everyone else is tall and goofy??? Maybe.
ReplyDeleteI was definitely surprised how similar the rock was to DL. Funny though. We went out to the reserve on sunday on our way back and I was reminded of just how slick and sandbagged the lake is. I got properly shut down on a V3 and had my monthly dose of humbling. Wow.
ReplyDelete