Monday, October 19, 2009

Massive Vertigo, Dos


Aaron looking a bit cold


Saturday came and the forecast called for clouds in the morning and sun in the afternoon so we'd planned on going up a little later in the day and catching good temps and sun. Gabe and Aaron made their way up and were gonna meet us at Beautiful Soup and then maybe go to Massive Vertigo.

We'll get the ugly out of the way early.

I sucked on Beautiful Soup and stopped trying it after about 5 goes. I need to go back with more psyche, that's for sure. I dunno what was happening but I was fumbling around and forgetting my beta and just being a tool in general. Big thanks to Katie for being the level headed one.

I had one good go but I want to go back with more pads and spotters. Who's in?? I want a session on that bad boy!!

Second, the weatherman can suck it. He can suck it long and hard. All the sun that abounded in the morning turned into this on the drive up:


Anyways, after my pitiful series of attempts at Beautiful Soup I walked away for a bit and swore that I heard someone yelling my name from one of the wooded talus fields to the South. I kept on hearing these muffled sounds and then Katie got a phone call from Aaron. He confirmed that he was trying to find us with Gabe in tow and promptly yelled again for me with the phone against his mouth. With Katie partially deaf now I was on my own to direct them my way.

Somehow Aaron went up not one, but at least two talus fields too early for Alpine Club. I didn't even know that two other fields existed!! Either way, they finally made it to us and Aaron made a weak attempt to warm up before we departed for Massive Vertigo.

With a totally jacked pad setup that consisted of our pads, already folded up and loaded for the hike, lined up under the V3 to the left of Alpine Club. Jacked.

Katie looking very unimpressed with the landing zone


I scurried up to the topout to make sure I caught his almost guaranteed tumble down the talus field behind him on camera. Sadly, he did not hold up his end of the bargain and after a couple of false starts he topped out in good fashion.

Surprised and happy, like a puppy!


Finally hitting the good holds at the lip


BRRR?!?!?


After Aaron came down we picked up our pads and left for Massive Vertigo. A nice, quick hike up the talus and we laid down the pads. I started things out and came agonizingly close to sticking the crux move yet again. I had a couple of good attempts and my heel stuck better than it had in the past. I feel like one more good session and I'll have it.

Gabe hopped on next and very quickly realized that the sharp crimps weren't ideal to warm up on. He gave it a few good goes and got the first moves fairly fast. Sadly that got him to the crux and when he figured out that it was a heel hook crux I think a little bit of him died inside. Heel hooks are not where Gabe is at his finest. They're his Kryptonite, if you will. After a couple goes he stepped aside with a confused and sad look on his face. Nervous Nacho was not happy.

Go Nervous Nacho, go!!


Aaron got on next and started working the crux with me. Aaron had all of his stuff stolen from his car earlier in the week and he was in less than ideal shoes but got fairly close anyways.

After the three of us messed around Katie finally took her hand warmers out of her shoes and set to work. On her first go she made the point of telling us how easy the first move was and that we're all "Sally's" for making it look hard. Touche'.

She'd been amped to try it since watching me flail on it last weekend and had no real trouble with any of the intro moves. She's gonna have to figure something out for the bigger move but is definitely excited to get back on it. It'll be a good project for her.

Toasty shoes


On the first move


Figuring out the crux move


One thing I noticed though was the amount of dry fires people had on this problem. I was the only one to not have my hand just explode off of the problem. I thought it was pretty funny.

She's on.....and...


BOOM!!!  She's off!!


Katie didn't think it was funny.

The other entertaining part of the day was seeing just how tall Aaron seems when he stands next to Katie. Check it out.

Tall bastard


With a quick change in the weather our day ended as rain started coming down rather hard and temps dropped about 10 degrees in 5 minutes. We slipped our way down the talus and made our way back to the cars.

I'll leave you with a shot of Nervous Nacho, devastated after he found out that there was a heel hook on Massive Vertigo.


9 comments:

  1. sounds like a fun day overall. I was out for a bit on Sunday and felt like a chump on Alpine Club. Also tried Beautiful Soup for the first time. I was kind of nervous since the landing is on a down slant and I only had 2 and a half pads and Kristen spotting me. I'd like to try it with more pads. To be honest I'd like to try it and just go up. I think the traverse off thing seems silly.
    sweaty

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, I'm excited to get out to Beautiful Soup with more people and pads.

    I used to think that the traverse off was a bit weird but I've put a lot of thought into it lately and think that it's pretty logical when you look at the boulder the first time. I mean, until Nic had chalked the holds after the rail it really seemed improbable. The obvious feature is that big rail and there are holds the whole way out left.

    Needless to say I'm excited to do it both ways and actually think that not doing it traversing off right at least once is a bit of a copout. The moves are not gimmies(Both nic and todd fell off multiple times AFTER sticking the rail) and it has huge historical value to me since EZ did it.

    I only think it's proper to do it both ways, and if you're gonna go up then you might as well do it with the traverse, right??

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry, there are holds the whole way our RIGHT! Not left!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. fair enough my friend. I will save the straight up for when I send the Keymaker :-)

    I can also attest to blowing off my left hand when I was on MV as well. Perhaps it's just the name of the game with that thing. I really want to go see that roof traverse thing up close next time.

    Also when were were there me and Kristen hiked all the way from south to north shore and back (first time I've actually done that) but it is unbelievable how much rock that is out there. I can not believe people said that place was 'climbed out' because there seems to be unlimited potential.

    sweaty

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is this the same 'sweaty' who not 3 weeks ago told me how he was so unpsyched on Devil's Lake climbing??? Hard to imagine who this imposter really is! ce

    ReplyDelete
  6. well that was before my breakthru on Tuesday :-) prior to that i struggled up most v2's at the lake. I think I'll just stick to the talus fields. Also my friend Eggnuts, I did not say that there was un unlimited number of climbs that I would personally care for, just that there is an unlimited number of climbs. lol
    sweaty

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yeah, the potential is insane for the west bluff isn't it?!?!? that's not even mentioning the east bluff!! So crazy! It's overwhelming.

    Of note is that I had completely written off the lake in 2004/05. Thought it was stupid.

    Shows what I know.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey steve, I was trying to think of other beta for the your shorter half. Did she try going to the slopy pinch underneath the hold that we use, resetting her foot or feet and then bumping to the edge that we use? I feel like it might be better for her because she would be cutting the big move into 2 smaller ones. Just a thought...
    sweaty

    ReplyDelete