First Day Back

An unnamed snowman guarding the North Shore parking lot...He was later defeated...

It's always good to be back in the game at a local area, no matter where it is.

Katie, RV and I made the first trip up to DL for the year with promises of mid 40's and sunny. We were not disappointed. Warm temps and very bright sun greeted us as we pulled into the north shore.

On the hike to the East Bluff Woods Trail we decided to detour over to the Greatest Show as it might be climbable. The hike was fine for most of the way but as we got closer we had to detour and posthole to our knees to get over to the face. When we were almost there Katie stepped through a chunk of icy snow and twisted her ankle badly.

There we were, 20 yards from the first boulder of the year and we were already injured. Damn.

After the initial pain subsided Katie decided that she could wobble onward. Fucking trooper! RV and I both admitted that we'd have cried our way back to the car.

She decided it was easier to tow it through the snow.

So there we sat, under the Greatest show. Snow guarding the topout and both of our pads on the giant green tarp that Katie was smart enough to bring. We played around on the first couple of moves knowing we wouldn't commit to more for fear of careening off the face and soaking our shoes in the snow. It was really fun to be back and all three of us are looking forward spending a bit of time in good conditions out there.

Another quick hike, and more postholing, brought us to the base of Sex and Chocolate. RV and I had only worked this problem in the worst of temps and were curious how it'd feel in good conditions. We both remarked how much shorter the problem felt on top of a couple feet of snow. Fun.

After a frustrating start we quickly made great progress and were starting to stand on the shitty left foot without trouble. It felt easy actually. Minds were blown.

Sadly our skin made a pretty valient effort to stop us. I crimped hard enough to make my cuticles bleed on my middle finger and RV was getting close to a split on his right index finger.

Then, RV decided to sack up. He said he was gonna just do it. He got all sorts of psyched and inspired and stood tall on the shit foot. Fully extended, he reached up for the finish hold with his tips coming just shy! He tried with all his might to reel in the hold but couldn't extend anymore!! He tried one final time and got his tips around the hold. I thought he was done but his foot thought otherwise and popped off. He was back on the ground with me. Confused.

PUNT!!!

We both cursed a bit and each sacked up for one last go. I applied some war paint hoping it'd help but it didn't. I came up short on the big dyno. RV stepped on and nearly castrated himself when he foot popped unexpectedly. He slid down the arete and decided to stop for the day.

The unhelpful warpaint on our valiant hero.

Back to the car we went.

On Saturday we all met up with Chris, Sarah, Kelly and one other guy. Not sure of his name though. The plan was the Flatiron and The Zipper. The hike up was nice, although tiring. Sadly the Zipper was a bit wet from all the melting snow. The Flatiron was in GREAT shape though, so we all booted up for that. It felt really good to pull on the warm crimps again.

I do love that problem.

Chris did it very quickly and then promptly couldn't repeat it for beta. It took him a bunch more tries to repeat it than it did the first time. Plus he did it with two totally different methods. Hilarious.

RV had a phenomenal flash go but fell off right before stepping up on his left foot. He then spent a solid hour and a half trying to do the damn thing. After finally taking my advice on beta he did the problem and quickly repeated it two more times.

Trying not to punt.

Sarah trying to mono the crimp.

Chris approves!!!

We moved up above that problem and tried Martini Madness a bit, which is fucking hard by the way, and then packed up our stuff.

I think the most impressive thing of the weekend was watching Katie absolutely piss on the lower moves of Flatiron with a bum left ankle. She continually made it to the big flat right hand edge but didn't want to commit to the last dyno with a bad ankle. Very very impressive. She put all of us to shame.

So, who else got out??? It was good!!

I want to also mention Nic's send of his new problem, The Raven. Knowing how much he put into the problem and how much it means to him only makes it that much more special. I'm glad that he did it and that it's over for him now.

We had a fun little experience when we came into the gym after climbing on Saturday. Jeff, who nearly did Keymaker last fall, and Kelly McBride were in town for a couple days. It was a nice surprise and totally unexpected. I called up Nic and found out he sent and then passed my phone off to Kelly and Jeff to say their congrats.

It's always fantastic to finish off a project and it's especially fantastic when it means something to you. No matter if it's V2 or V12, it's great to see.

Nice job bud.

Also, I can't forget my never ending quest to get as many pictures of RV's back while he pees. It's just too much fun. The little bugger has gotten smarter though! It's been tough going so far. That said, I still got two this past weekend. It's like catching the rare magenta spotted koala. Too funny.

Uno...

Dos.