The Trip Of Northern Agression - Balrog

While perusing the new HP guidebook I came across a cool looking problem named Balrog. It seemed interesting enough to try and find so on our second day we sought it out early in the morning. It looked cool enough to try a bit and invest a little time in so I decided to come back later in the day.

After doing Redneck I was psyched and we hauled our stuff into the hole that Balrog sits in. The problem starts on a good right hand sidepull and a sharp knob for your left. For being such a short problem it packs a lot into a couple of moves.

The first move is a sapping slap up to a pebbly sloper with your left hand. That leads into the crux move, a giant throw up and right off of that sloper to one of the coolest bread loaf rails I've ever seen.

I sat down and did the first move after a few tries and a bit of grunting. It didn't seem terrible and it got better with each try. I started messing around with the second move and started getting excited. It seemed all there.

Thats the best part about the project phase. That moment where it all seems doable. When you think it won't be a problem at all.

Then it comes crashing down around you. That always sucks.

I tried the throw a couple times in vain before i resorted to the oldest trick in the book. I chalked some piece of shit sloper and just went with it. Convinced myself it'd work.

I stepped on to try the move out and with a giant heel hook it seemed to work. The sloper was miserable but I was on the wall, a bit stuck, but on the wall. I tried moving my left foot up but my right hand got all pissy and dry fired off the pebbly sloper with force.

I sat on the pads as Katie laughed a little. I gave a few more efforts at the move, able to do the heel hook without issue each time. Deep down though I knew it was just going to come down to having to do the big move off of a higher foot instead of my heel. I tried that a few times, jacking my left foot high to a cool iron rail but didn't have the tension or the skin to try the problem with any authority.

Knowing what I had to do made it easy to want to come back later. Sadly my skin would only go south from there and I didn't have the heart to grab the grainy slopers anymore. Seriously looking forward to trying this one again. Here are some pics for yas.