Velvet Hammer

Too many things happened this weekend to write a full write up. And I'm feeling lazy. So here you go. I'm liking numbers lately.

1 - Ian did the Falling Pieces project and named it Hungry Hippos. He thinks it's a 7 or so. Instead of doing a jump start he started matched on the juglet/sidepull and went up hugging the arete. It was pretty cool actually and I want to try it. He did a great job on the landing too so go do it.

2 - Ian then did a sit start linking Jenga into Hungry Hippos, naming it Hungry Hungry Hippos. He called it a 9. Should be a classic line actually and doesn't feel forced at all. Once again, go do it.


3 - Chris and I moved a shitload of boulders. More on that soon hopefully.

4 - Super Slab is absolutely badass. Everybody should do it. I'd totally forgotten how much fun it is. One of the best V0 highballs in the park.

5 - Ian then flashed Moj which was sick. Sadly neither of us had our cameras on and I might actually get video punt of the year. Ian tried to repeat it for the camera and fell on an easy move after the crux. Dude is strong.

6 - I tried the Seam Project again and feel absurdly close to doing it but I don't know what I have to do. It's a really interesting move for sure.

7 - The first right hand hold on Moo Stache broke off on Saturday but it doesn't seem to have changed the grade too much. It's kind of sad just because that hold was really cool and somewhat unique. Sarah is also extremely close on that one and should do it soon. Go Sarah go!

8 - The Tilted Project is REALLY hard.


9 - I truly enjoyed seeing Aaron climb yesterday. He's having a good season and is motivated by the lake right now and that's just cool to see. He fought through it all and finished Smooth Operator which is super proud and one time he even came off the topout. Skeery. Then over at Tunder Tighs he said he just wanted to give it one or two tries. A half hour later he was cruising through the problem and getting ready to top out. I'll let the video below tell the rest of the story. Nice to see someone climbing really well outside while not caring about the gym too much.



10 - Ian is climbing strong right now. He flashed Flatiron, Smooth Operator and Massive Vertigo with relative ease. Adding his try hard flash on Moj he had a damn fine weekend just with that. Then he went and did Tunder Tighs in a handful of tries calling it one of the best at the lake. It's nice having him around for the season. Need to find him a project.



11 - The ladies held it down too. As I said above, Sarah will do Moo Stache soon and will prolly do Magnum as well. Sam looked really strong on Massive and I hope she'll finish it up before the summer sets in. Katie seems really psyched on Tunder Tighs though she can't span the big left hand move to the lip so she'll have to figure out different beta. Excited to watch her on that.




12 - I may have gotten my pad golf swing back. It took me four shots to get to the path coming down from Tunder Tighs and I had my best throw ever. Suck it.

This season has been an incredibly enjoyable one for me. We're only a month or so in and I've been lucky enough to spend an absurd amount of really nice days at one of my favorite climbing areas with many of my closest friends.

I want to thank everyone for that. It's been a really fun season so far.

Here are a couple of videos from the weekend.

Devil's Lake Bouldering - Super Slab, Seam Proj, Hungry Hippos from Steve Schultz on Vimeo.

Devil's Lake Bouldering - Dirty North, Smooth Operator and Tunder Tighs from Steve Schultz on Vimeo.