Monday, April 11, 2011

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.

12 comments:

  1. Oops. I got a bit lazy and was hoping the coming rain storms would wash those tick marks off. Glad you guys could make some use of them. I for one would love to understand how Chris is able to do that top part so easily!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That makes two of us then. He did it once more on saturday and it must have been V2.

    Also.......leaving work early today and going rock climbing. That's right. Rebel without a cause right here.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice job Katie!!! Woohoo!

    I just love April at DL. So good. Saturday was so much fun. Keymaker is about to go down again, and probably several times this year.

    I think Katie and I need to visit Jenga together this coming weekend. We both are stumped in different places, so maybe by trying in rotation we each would send? Can only hope...

    Yeah on the Tumbled Rocks trail on the way out, I saw this dude walking who looked vaguely familiar. Pete Cleveland! Very cool. I said "Hi I'm a huge fan" or something equally stupid, and he mumbled "thanks". He probably thought I was a complete loser, but it made my day. Couldn't have gotten any better.

    Thanks for the betas Steve! Maybe Sunday this coming week? Weather depending...

    -The older weaker chris e

    PS. I don't see myself from that angle much. Looks like it's time for some Rogaine...

    ReplyDelete
  4. On the note of Keymaker, I am wondering how hard everyone thinks it is...???

    I would break it down like this,

    Trav into B-SOUP= v3?
    B-soup move= V7
    Keymaker top (if the rail was the start hold)= V6?

    When I was trying it I was at a weird time in my climbing.. I was traveling alot, not training but overall felt good.. I think I said anywhere between 9 and 11. I now know it is not 11, I think it could be a ten (harder than Alpine but without any move as hard as alpine). So. What you guys think? What else is of that grade at the lake? I feel like the v8+ category at the lake is easier (for me) to climb then the V7 and below. Shit is hard at v7 below...

    That is my thought. Ready go.

    ReplyDelete
  5. V pi^3/3?

    Or more accurately V sicky G?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yeah, I think consensus from those that have tried it is being settled on 10. The traverse feels like a 4 or 5 to me only cause of that last move to the left start of b soup.

    currently there's nothing really of that grade other than keymaker. And the projects we're finding are super hard.

    Tilted boulder is fucking rad looking by the way. Might not be doable but REALLY cool. 10-15 feet tall??

    ReplyDelete
  7. First of all, the historic sandbagging of problems at the Lake really confuse things when it comes to grades. Most of the V4s are so hard that it seems like V5 pretty much doesn't exist.

    That said, I'd say the traverse into Soup is slightly harder than Recreational Vehicle so V4ish?

    Not sure what to compare BS to but I did that in a day and haven't really even felt close to doing the moves after the rail albeit this is only after 2 brief sessions on that part.

    In some ways Keymaker climbs more like a route than a boulder problem since the rail breaks things up slightly and overall it is quite long, especially by Lake standards.

    Either way the whole rig is hard and I'm psyched to put some work in on it until I hurt myself. Please don't downgrade it any further until at least 5 years after I do it...

    ReplyDelete
  8. V9. If Narc is close it cannot be that hard.

    -nic

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh man, narc just got served.

    I say it's V<(Sicky)[Gnar}>. Not quite V('Sicky'[Gnar]{Gnar}).

    Just my thoughts though.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I did not think the top was incredibly hard, I think I did it once on a rope and slipped (*because I tried to use the intermediate) and did the move from the crimp to the other sloping edge 2nd try? IMO the move to the rail is the hardest move of the boulder problem... Lurps are not my thing so that might be why.

    -nic

    ReplyDelete
  11. Unfortunately for me I am not close. I'm good at Lurps but bad on crimps apparently...

    ReplyDelete