Weekend Wrap

I feel like a broken record every time I come on here and say we had yet another damn fine day. It's been so good this season though that I can't help it. It seems that every time someone goes out something goes down and it's super fun to see. I love it.

Saturday was no different.

We made it up there around 10:30 in the AM and waited for Eggnutz at the cabins. How, you may ask, did we know that he was up at the lake?? We could hear his "Rumbler" of a car over at the South Shore parking lot idling.

Then we could follow his progress as he drove along the south shore road. It was pretty great. So much power he doesn't even know how to deal with it.

Eventually we made it up to Keymaker and soon after the other Chris E and his better half Sarah joined us. Party time.

Thanks to Mr. Runnells all the upper holds were well chalked and ticked perfectly. Thanks bud. We quickly warmed up on the traverse while Eggy warmed up on Soup. For once I wasn't the worst at warming up.

After a bit of waiting I hopped on for my first try at Keymaker. Traverse felt fine, and I was able to get some good beta for bumping to the higher edge that starts Beautiful Soup. It all felt fine.

I grabbed the crimp and it didn't feel super, but felt decent. I readjusted a bit and moved my feet around. I felt pretty good about everything and started to throw.


And then I was on the ground. Everyone was quiet for a second or two and the pain started to seep in.


I've dry fired a lot at the lake. The Alpine Club one sucked but Ian got smote down for laughing at me. Massive Vertigo was terrible but Dobbe, Chris and Remo were nice enough to put a jacket over me. Perfect Medium was horrible but it only tore the tape a bit.

This one though, was the worst. By a staggering amount.

Eggballs put it the best when he said it sounded like a firecracker went off. And bonus. Esser got video of it.

After some recoup time I got back on the horse but each time I got to the crimp it felt terrible. One time I did make a half ass throw to the rail but never really committed to the move after that.

Esser on the other hand had some great tries and it's over once he hits the rail. Staggering how wired he has the top section. Literally it's just one move separating him from the link. It's super fun watching him on the thing. He's got it wired and it'll go rather soon I think.

Moving on to one of two highlights of the day now. I really enjoy climbing with Eggsack. Dude's just fun to be around and he's strong. Not only is he strong but he's strong in crappy shoes.

He's been trying Beautiful Soup for about 3 years now, off and on. He'd given it a go with RV and I last September and he was just barely not holding the rail. Super close. Fast forward to this year and we'd sprayed him down with finish beta in case he stuck.

Each time he'd come to full swing and then just as he was coming back in something would pop. After a while his skin started to roll and he was down to basically his last effort. Duder just got up and did it. Kept both his feet on, no less! He sketched his way through the finish moves and stuck the jug with ease.



I'm really glad we were able to meet him up there in his really limited time. Geezers like Chris give me hope. He works 40+ hours a week, has two kids, a wife and is turning 40 this fall. Plus he wears Sportiva Mantis's. Suriously impressive that he climbs so hard on and off rope. And he'll be going for Sandstone Violence again this fall on his birthday. When he does it it'll be his 10th time doing it. So sick.

Impressive bud. Really happy for you.

We parted ways after that and the four of us hiked our way up to Massive Vertigo. Katie came absurdly close last week before her heel popped with her hand on the jug and she was psyched to get back. After a couple of close calls she finished it up with fairly little effort or drama.

Sarah giving it a few burns

Right before the send

It was really just a super solid link for her and she looked great on it. Very nice to see. She remarked afterwards that it was nice to do a problem. It didn't feel like an epic or a super hard project, just another problem to do at the lake.

It was good.

After we cleaned up there we hiked over to Dog Walk to see if Magnum P.I. was dry. It was not, but that didn't stop us. Esser and I dried the holds that we could with chalk and he even used his jacket to cover a wet spot.

Sarah started working out the moves once more and after 10-15 minutes she was getting close but not quite there with the crux move. She moved her foot a bit and something clicked in her. All of a sudden she was super close to doing it. Each time she'd get to the gaston and pause for just a second before popping off.

She gave a few ditch efforts but her shoulder had been acting up so she called it a day. That one will go very soon for her. Should be good!

After Dog Walk we hiked it up to Jenga but everything up there was damp and wet so we didn't give anything any real efforts. A nice round of Pad Golf down the 500Ft field ended the day and I was able to reclaim my winning ways with a 1 stroke win over Chris. He was close, but not quite all there. He's a solid putter though. He came through clutch to put the pressure on.


Weather is looking dodgy this week so we'll see if anyone gets out. Anyone in town this weekend should come to the comp at Boulders on Saturday. It'll be a good time. Ale Asylum is donating 2 kegs so bring your drinking boots.