Jenga

Saturday was a real nice surprise. Really nice conditions in the talus and a nice breeze was blowing through the area keeping everything rather climbable.

After a very quick warmup at north shore(read: totally socked in) we made our way through the chaos and over to the cottages. We had a pretty large group of about 10-12 people but the plan was to mess around at the Dumpster boulder before splitting up and going up to Jenga.

Sofie was excited to try Dumpster Diving again after coming so close last time so we stopped there first. After warming up to the oddly shaped holds she started feeling better and better. Pretty quickly she was making good links and was only coming off on the big move out left. She took a quick break to calm down and then did the problem, making it look rather simple.



Very psyched for her!! She's been progressing really quickly this time around and is really enjoying it. In the past month she's done both Recreational Vehicle and Dumpster Diving. Nice work!

In the meantime Chris figured out the problem after a couple goes and even had to use a sloper. He wanted to crimp so bad.

All the time we were up at Dumpster I could see Katie getting antsy and eventually she hopped on Dumpster Diving with her street shoes on and repeated it. It's nice to see the giddy just wants to clmb motivation come back after so many months of her being sick. It's very nice to see.

We made the quick hike up to Jenga before Katie started running around in circles. Very quickly she made progress on Jenga and soon she was linking into the last move. I went down to check out the Seam Project and when I came back up she'd apparently just fallen going for the jug!

There's only one thing I can say.....PUNT!!!

After a few more efforts she was continually falling on the last big move and on her best effort she fell with her fingers just grazing the edge of the hold. Alas, it'd have to wait for another day.

She'd better finish it up before she gets a nomination for Punt of the Month.

In all honesty, it was a really strong effort on her part. Really strong. She hasn't been up there since early March and to make such quick progress and stick the crux move many times is really proud.

With that we went down to the trail and over to Alpine Club. I was interested in trying out the bump beta and also seeing how the original beta felt.

First the bump method. After a few tries I started warming up into the movement but wasn't quite sure where my left foot needed to reside. A little bit later though and it all started to feel a bit more comfortable. On one of my last goes I got a nice little pause on the edge before my foot blew. I really think it's just a matter of pushing a bit more with my right foot to create opposition for the awkward thrutch.

I didn't give it very many attempts before moving on to my real goal of trying the original betas. As I've stated previously, I'm most interested in doing the move Peter's way. This problem means a lot to me personally and Peter had a large influence on my climbing style as well as my outlook on the lake.

After a few warmup efforts I came oddly close to the move and had a bit of a pause on the high gaston. It was really refreshing to be honest. I've spent many days at the base of this boulder with many ups and downs. More ups than downs really, and this was a nice little boost on a problem that I've avoided like the plague for many months now.

This problem is definitely a personal battle for me and I'm looking forward to more effort in the coming months.

It's been a long time since we've had a really great day climbing and Saturday was a welcome change of pace for us. It was a long, fun day and both Katie and I are really excited about Rock Climbing again. Something has been missing lately and I think we've found it.

Good shit. Also, I've apparently been really into taking portraits of people. Who knew. Honestly, I think it has more to do that my long lens has been on and I've been far too lazy to take it off. Here you go.