October 23-25

This weekend started with some shabby weather, which only got better as the days progressed. Friday, Allen, Katie and I headed out and made our way to Roadside. Allen made his way up the soaking wet flake of "The Return of Chris Snyder"(5.11d) before deciding bailing was the best answer. We then headed back to the 5.10 wall, where I made two close burns on "Stay the Hand" (5.12a) one fall each time. On Saturday we (Allen, Tyler and I) headed to Muir Valley, leaving the girls to fend for themselves. We started our day by warming up at the "Bone yard" on "Captain Blondie Sinks the Ship" (5.11a/b), and then headed to the AMAZING "Midnight Surf" wall. There Allen worked "Tapeworm" (5.12d), I successfully teched my way through the boulder problem on "Iniquity" (5.12b) and got my redpoint. Tyler made quick work of "Cell Block Six) (5.12c) sending second go! Katie Scatena and I then went to the "Sanctuary" where we worked "Immaculate Deception" (5.12a) me falling one clip away from my onsight. Katie made good progress and her first 5.12 send is not far away!

Day two broke Sunny and Cold, we headed to "Drive By" where we began to climb. Katie Scatena made quick work of "Whipstocking" (5.11a) and "Yadda Yadda Yadda" (5.11b) which she quickly repointed hanging draws. Chase and Allen worked a hard 5.12d, while Katie Erickson and I palmed slopers and held pinches on "Check Your Grip" (5.12a) I managed to get it clean on my third go of the day. Chase and Tyler spent the day working "Beer Belly" (5.13a) while John worked towards the send on "Dirty Smelly Hippie" (5.13b), which I decided to get on at the end of the day. All in all it was a great weekend, with some amazing climbing!

Triple Crown Hounds Ears

Our first bouldering trip of the year was a weekend excursion to visit the first triple crown event of the year at the private Hound Ears Club in Boone, NC! Though the weather looked iffy the whole preceding week, all 250+ competitors lucked out with a beautiful 65 degree bluebird day for bouldering

Saturday broke bright, cold, and dewy, with free breakfast from five-ten and the loading of pads and groggy climbers onto trucks and into buses. The anticipation quickly rose to a pre-Christmas fervor as the hoards of climbers ascended the gravel mountain road to where Evolv, Five Ten, La Sportiva, and Scarpa were handing out demo models of their newest kicks. Finally, after some parting rules and wisdom, we were dismissed to shred our tips on the razor sharp crimps of Hounds Ears.

Tim and I got the day started with quick onsite/flashes of Woody's v3 (v5), and proceeded to the mushroom boulder for a cool traverse called Abracadaver (v4), and for Tim to come close to sticking the wicked swing of Mushroom Roof (v6). We then split up for a few hours to negotiate the crowded rocks solo. Teeterpoint (v6), and Capt Crunch (v4) were next for me. I was able to send the highball Capt Crunch, but Teeterpoint allowed me progress and no send, along with stealing several layers of skin.

As the day wound down and the few climbers with skin and hopes of victory rushed about attempted to fill their scorecards, cries of effort turned to curses of pain and bloody tips until the final horn sounded to bus back to the campground.

The party lasted well into the night for most, treated to an, er, entertaining? music experience before the awards ceremony, and the dispersing of much swag and raffle prizes.


Recommended Problems:

Abracadaver v4
The Pocket Problem v4
Captain Crunch v4
2,000 v4
The Mad Splatter v5
They Call Me Nobody v6
Crystallized v1
The Edge v0

Brian Voges, who placed 2nd in Men's Open, got the first ascent of an outstanding Hounds Ears project that links The Crusher (v10) into Flash or Trash (v5) and dubbed it Half Price Porno (v11/12).

Dreary Saturday

Last Saturday, after an adventurous start to my weekend which started with me being kicked awake by Miss Katie E at 3am, we met young Dru at 9am. He was itching to get out to the Darkside to climb, he and I headed out with his father and planned to meet the girls there later. It rained the entire way, fortunately Darkside is so steep that even the tops of climbs stay dry. Dru kicked off the day by climbing the "ramp of death" to get to the start of "Shanghai" (12d) he quickly worked out the moves going bolt, making it the hardest climb he's done all the moves on. After that I got a rope stick clipped to my project, "The Force", Then the ladies showed up. As I began to work the bottom moves of "The Force" again, Katie E. jumped on "Tuskan Raider" (12d) (pictured) and made great progress! I managed to stick the crux move on "The Force" on lead finally, making me hopeful that climbing in decent conditions and feeling 100%, I'll connect the bottom difficulty section in the least! Later in the day Sarah and Lindsay both gave good burns on "Mama Benson" (12a) Dru also gave Tuskan a burn, but then had to go home. To finish our day Katie got on Tuskan and got all the moves! I got on it too and figured out the crux moves, it's a super cool route, and has a sit down rest just after the crux! It was a super day full of climbing and various shenanigans!

Beautiful Weather!!!

Sunday was the first day of fall climbing, and it was truly magnificent. After a week of rain the sun came out and illuminated a dry 75 degree day full of hard climbing. Lang, Katie1, Katie2, and I set out earlyish to Drive-By.

Team PBR got the day started with some onsights and flashes of Whip-Stocking (5.11a) and Yadda Yadda (5.11b), both of which were enjoyed by all :) Lang then gave Check Your Grip (5.12a) a burn, and I gave it a go on Beer Belly (5.13a) - an awesome 5.11d layback flake into a v5 traversing pocket problem!

Next on our agenda was an afternoon at the Motherlode where Katie E. redpointed Ale8 (5.12b) for the first time- Go Katie! I gave 2 burns on the amazing and brutally hard 8 Ball (5.12d), and one on Stain (5.12c). Lang gave Chainsaw Massacre several burns and also sent Injured Reserve (5.11a) after finding the hidden crimp ;)

All in all a fantastic day even to be outside! Great to feel motivated again to climb til your fingers bleed, and siked to continue to get stronger into the amazing fall season at the Red!

Rain Rain Rain

It has been raining for days and is starting to dull my wits. A mixture of cabin fever and general recklessness has driven my weekend thus far. A pitcher of Dogfish 90min. IPA and a bottle of Bacardi 151 was enough to get me, Lang, and Katie S sufficiently lubricated and prepared Lang to be picked up for his night at the Red in the rain. Katie and I decided to "tough it out" in her dorm rather than brave the demoralizing weather, and now at 12:40pm I'm attempting to drag her out of bed and to the Zoo for a few burns on Hippocrite (5.12a) and Scar Tissue (5.12a), a couple short 45ft routes on 40 degree wall. Climbing will win out! .... I hope.

NRG, September 18th, 19th and 20th.

Last weekend Chase, Tyler and I made the trip to the New River Gorge. Chase and I left Lexington Friday afternoon and met Tyler in Ironton, Ohio at about 6pm. While we were waiting for Tyler to arrive however, Chase and I had some adventures. Most interesting was our brief acquisition of a puppy. We were walking around, and this lady yelled at us "Ya'll lose a dawg?" Chase and I answered no, and she asked us if we wanted a dog. Chase's response was "I don't know, I'd have to see it" we walked up and she handed it to us and said "It's your problem now". Chase and I weren't sure what to do, then a man drove by and said "Is that there your dog?" we said no, and he said he'd take it. We then had no dog, an hour or two later Tyler and Langston arrived. We headed off to the New. We arrived at Roger's late, and set up camp and went to bed early. The next morning we got up and headed off to Kaymoor. We came to the Rico Suave Buttress. We decided to warm up on a slab called Totally Tammy (5.10a) This was, with out a doubt, one of the hardest 10's I've ever been on. After that we moved on to a NRG classic, Rico Suave, also a 5.10a. This, the three of us agreed was one of the coolest 10's we'd been on. There was a cool line beside Rico that I was able to hang draws on while cleaning. We then each got a burn on the height dependent and incredibly technical "Out of the Bag", 5.11c/d. After having our fill of technical stuff, we headed off to the Glory Hole, where we wanted to get on some classic and super steep 12's.

We decided that we would test our metal on Skull F~~k, (5.12c, 7b+)(see picture) This was a line that shot up through two large roofs to the chains. I had never done moves quite like the ones I had to do to pull roofs. Several small crimpers, at least one toe hook and several heel hooks and gastons brought me to the chains, more scared on a sport route then I've been in a very long time. "The Hole" was one of the eeriest places I've ever climbed it was dark, the perma-draws were all on chain hangers that rattled against the wall when the wind blew. After one go each we decided it was time to go check out the old Kaymoor Coal mine. We walked down 800 steps to the relics of the coal refineries. we jumped the fence and explored, then we went down to the river and swam, smoked pipes and had PBR.

The next day we headed off to Summersville lake. On the way we stopped at the New River Gorge Bridge, quite a view. After a poor start, and being lost for an hour or so we managed to find our way to long wall. We warmed up on a spicy 5.10b called "For What? aka Hot and Buttered" at 60 feet or so and 4 bolts I felt runout. Then we moved a little further down the wall and got on a route called "Maximum Overdrive" (5.11c). I have never felt so happy to onsight hanging draws. After we all sent, we headed off to The D.C. Memorial Boulder and got on "All the Way Baby" (5.12b, 7b) We all gave this a few good tries, none of us sending, but all of us coming awfully close. Because of our late start we didn't have much time so we headed over to The Colosseum to look at the climbs there, and decided that would be our destination the next time at the New! After pizza and beer at Pies and Pints, we headed home. All in all an awesome time In West Virginia!

Slideshow