After the opening of Potato Salad V12 at the Villas by Tom on the weekend, I decided to go down to The Villas for the first time since coming back from europe.
Tuesday saw me attempting Contact and Potato salad, making progress on both, but unable to do their individual cruxes. After a bit of work on PS, it got way too hot and I decided to have a go at Exit wounds V10, which had always just confounded me. After a while I worked out my beta and went home to leave it for another day.
Yesterday was that day. After a quick warm-up and the realisation that I had brought my camera but left the memory card and battery at home, Exit Wounds was mine. It climbs really well and was really not as much trouble as I had always perceived it to be. Watch this poor iphone vid of the ascent.
Other than Exit Wounds, I also did Hairy Joe's Banana Shack V11 and Derailed V8. Both these climbs I've done before, but never felt 100% on, so I guess this was more just a moral headcheck for me. I finished of the day with Help into rock on, which give V7. This is probably one of the hardest V7's in all of Australia. It is ridiculous. It took me more attempts yesterday to tick this than to tick the other three combined! A very good friday indeed, next session might actually have to be at the lip now, I've been saying it for long enough haven't I?
Didn't actually get out as much as I wanted to last week. I did however have a nice Sissy session in which I ticked the one-move Buffalo Bill. I had originally been trying this problem from the wrong holds, making it MUCH harder than what it needed to be. Fourth shot from the correct start saw it done. I think there's a variant here worth doing, maybe from a lower start too.
That's about it, Icecream-the Havana eliminate is shoulder-destroyingly good though.
I've got a video up, but it needs more views before I can upload it here
I've been back in Australia now for roughly 4 weeks. It seems like the terrible weather I read about whilst being away has stopped and now the conditions are back. I'm trying to get out about 3 times a week now, as indoor bouldering just doesn't cut it. Bonnet bay was my first stop. I ticked Horizontal and Pop the bonnet, to complete my Bonnet bay quartet of V8s and had a small play on cling thing, but it wasn't to be. Next up was Crumbly. Dr Dave Kellerman recently rediscovered a very nice line extending from nasty and traversing quite high to finish above Genesis. I spent a while on this, getting my sequence checked but it went with relative ease. Next up is the link, which I know quite a few people have their eyes on.
Dave Hughes just put up a new, somewhat chossy low traverse from the start holds of Nasty to the start hold of Sushi Train. The lowball is called Tushi Strain and goes at about V4. I linked this into Sushi Train via the jug block of Genesis to give Edo Style at about V8.
About 2 weeks later I was back at Crumbly with Liam and Nicholas. Liam was working Abacus after having done the stand 3 months ago.
I tried the link of Life Changes into Reading Between the lines but it was a no-go. Pete Tosen has it dialled so I expect that will be knocked off shortly. I finally got my head around Blacker Magic V9 and Nicholas did Black Magic as his first completed outdoor boulder ever.
2 days ago I went to Sissy in order to work Bursting and Buffalo Bill. Both V8. Bursting went first shot of the session whereas Buffalo Bill defeated me. In my break from trying Buffalo Bill I had a crack at Silent Bob V10 and to my surprise, completed it after about 10minutes. I'd never been able to pull the 4th move of it and for some reason it just clicked. My guess is having new shoes.
I'm hoping to get out to The Lip this weekend to finish my project there, so i'll hopefully have a video or some pictures up here next week.
About four weeks ago I completed the first ascent of a line on the far righthand side of Bruno Bloc in Magic Wood. Naming the climb Hydromancer, I graded it 7C.
I have just been told that it is now considered 8A by both the 2nd and 3rd ascensionists which makes it my hardest FA ever! I'll need a few more people to try it before I'm certain of the grade, but really I'm just happy that people are getting on it.
One week has passed since my last post, and my recovery stage of this trip has well and truly begun. I planned this so that I can plunge myself back into a training program as soon as I'm back down under.
The last few days in Magic wood were both fruitful and sometimes painfully frustrating. Trading in my goal of doing 35 climbs harder than or equal to 7A, I began to look for harder mid range problems, upping it by doing 30 climbs harder than or equal to 7B. My favourite 7B in the forest was Fliegen Erlaubt, a semi-highball with a low dyno crux. This problem is in the highest sector of the forest, and as such is pretty much in an undisturbed surrounding, barring the few established boulders here.
Fliegen Erlaubt (Flash)
The aforementioned painful frustration directly relates at my still standing project Master of the Cow 7C+. The stand start is Man of a Cow and goes at what I believe to be a soft 7C. The hanging low start adds a grade and 4 moves of straight up burl. The shoulder crux of Man becomes more of an endurance crux in Master and, when you've passed that, there's the tree. I discovered the close proximity of this tree on my flash burn of Man, the high probability of a careless dab also affecting 2 good attempts on Master. Passing both of these dangers only once, I pumped out going for the 2nd last hold. This is benchmark 7C+ of a medium length and a Magical classic.
Master of the Cow, move before crux
The penultimate days of the trip were surprisingly amazing for me. The severe flooding of the river in the last 2 weeks had washed a great deal of silt and small stones underneath the Bruno Bloc. This caused the usually wet and unsafe landing to be filled in and the river to move its bank about 2m to the right, thus enabling the line I called Hydromancer 7C to be climbed. It starts in a super jug and follows the fin to the right of The Neverending story around until joining up with Part two, after its crux. I checked with the locals, guestbooks and on the net and this seems to be my line. PSYCHED!
Cleaning Hydromancer
Final crux of Hydromancer
The day after Hydromancer went up I had a miserable climbing day. That was, until about 5pm when I decided to play on a line I had spied on the La Dance boulder. This boulder is font-esque in its shape, and the original is very much of a similar style to your harder than average font mantle (L'aerodynamite), only granite. Beginning low and right, La Dance tops out directly via a slopey shelf. This new line, which we named La Dance Gauche, climbs as for La Dance but heads left at the lip on bad slopers and good crimps, to exit on jugs. It went 3rd shot after sussing out the end and climbs much better than expected, and much better than the original. I also gave it a grade of 7C, slightly harder than the original. The proper sit-start to LDG remains open, a desperate, tensiony pull-on which should make this a higher end 7C+.
La Dance Gauche
Right now I am psyched to be relaxing and preparing for more exploration and development in sydney in two months time.
I got here on the night of the 29th and was quickly shown around the Forest by Fred. The furthest blocs lie within 15minutes walking distance, so needless to say the quantity in such a small space was 2nd only to the quality. Because of the limited time here I'm not really projecting anything. If I don't think it'll go that day I'm leaving it for next trip
Scoping out the boulders
Magic Wood is Magic Good, the first day was encouraging, Flashing Flown Away 7B after ticking off the entire Höhen Boulder 2nd shot (7A, 7B+, 7C). We then went down to the river bloc for the Grit delux, a no hands mantle to crimps with smears. Total anti style. Fred flashed it. Rene and I rode the send train.
The weather here hasn't been the best. To my knowledge the river hasn't flooded this bad in 2 years. In the last 2 weeks it has flooded twice. Before Bruno Bloc (home to the Neverending Story) went under, I did both Supernova 7C and Du Côté du Seshuan 7C+. Both are exceedingly cool although the latter is without a doubt the most amazing line I've ever climbed. Unless you are solely a slab climber, this line has it all; overhanging slopers, crimps, smearing, a kneebar, a mantle, a no hands-rest and a dyno. A total classic from Fred Nicole.
Other lines soon went down including From the Darkness to the Sunshine 7C+ and a flash of Intermezzo 7C. Coupled with a few more 7C's and a small score of 7B's I've got enough under my belt to make the 5 forced rest days of rain bearable.
From the Darkness to the Sunshine
It's been a week and a half since arriving and I've so far managed 34 problems above 7A. I'm one off my goal and an 8A might be a nice trip-ender. But we'll have to wait and see what the week brings.
After a rough start to my trip, Font proved to be once again, the best thing for me. I kicked off this part off my trip with a session on Rainbow Rocket 8A. This was the only day I got to work it this trip because of my no-car situation. It was not to be. I was able to get the first pad of 3 fingers over the top but no more.
The next areas visited were Mont Pivot and Roche aux Oiseaux. I finished off the amazing Prow that is Pancras Assis 7C and then re-did Satan m'Habite 7B, as I dabbed the first time. Both of these areas tend to be overlooked but they offer some real good lines.
The next session found me at Roche des Souris, with the bleau.info guide on my phone. Being the closest crag to the campsite I soon ticked off Yoguinol and Ratatouille before making my way to Symboise. The friction was great and the moves didn't feel hard. I made it to the 2nd last hold when my excitement kicked in. Instead of readjusting i threw to the small pocket next to the MASSIVE slopey jug. After a bit of a scream and some rest, the rig went the right way. Nb. never go for the tiny hold in desperation.
It rained on and off for the next few days and the rest did me good. After my close call with Rainbow Rocket I rode a bike out to Canche aux Merciers to have a play on La Puce, also 8A. After about 15minutes I had caught the Jug. This however wasn't done cleanly, my feet grazed the mat so I was back, almost at square one. The next go I did it clean. The go after that was even better. My goal of 8A in font was complete.
My last day in Font saw me in the area of Fata Morgana and Satan i Helvete. It is decidedly my favourite Font crag. I knocked off Phobos Moon, an amazing dyno with a foot placement crux and Belle de Jour, a 60degree overhang on the zenith of one of the hills. AMAZING.
Swiss comes next, hopefully I can get a handful of those 'magic' ticks.
Where to begin? I'm in Paris now about to leave to Fontainebleau tomorrow (the 11th). It's been a bizarre ride so far. My four month trip of non-stop bouldering could've had a better start. Arriving in France I was greeted by Jan, Stef, and interminable rain and clouds. It would seem that this trip was going to be wet. The forecast predicted terrible weather for the entire month, so we decided to journey south.
Provence.
What an amazing part of France, I'm really quite glad to have visited this area with all it's warmth and fresh food.
Sport climbing is the main game here and in two and a half weeks we visited the hardcore Buoux, the rainy day cave Volx, and St. Leger at the foot of Mt Ventoux. All three crags offered completely different styles of climbing, from old school techy pocket pulling, to powerful jug hauling. I hadn't lead outdoors in about 3 years and I was pleasantly surprised by my climbing here. I did my first 8a, Shaoshing, 2nd shot and flashed L'invitation au Voyage 7c+.
After this brief period of non-bouldering I took a few days off and visited Paris, resting up before Mello Blocco. Missing my train on the day of travel, I was able to get in a few hours in Val di Mello before the storm hit. And what a storm it was. Three days and nights of solid rain and a flooded campsite left a lot to be desired climbing wise. I met both Chris Sharma and Sasha Digulian at the festival, and bought myself some much needed climbing attire. Font looks like it will be really good for the next three weeks!
We returned from the Gramps to be greeted by Sydney rain. This was not unusual. It had rained everyday for about 60 days straight. With that said, my pads were trashed and I was resting anyway.
About 10 days after arriving home I paid the Wing Cave a visit and, to my surprise, the entire cave was dry! I had never in 3 years seen the lower cave dry! It was amazing! Needless to say, this psyched me up and In quick succession, both Puppy love V9 and Two Mats and a Squeaky Dog were mine. My hesitation in going for the final jug of Puppy love cost me the flash, but my tall man beta got me 2mats in about 15minutes.
I then ventured out to the Balkans to put away Dynamite V9, after the previous session of bad beta, I knocked it off 1st shot that day and joined Liam and Sophie out at the Lip.
This Crag is sick! Two lines and four problems make up this lowball cave, and all are of the best quality. Having already done one of the sitstarts last year, I gave the link; One Grubby Paw in the Honey Pot a play. This line had yet to be repeated and unfortunately remains so, as my burn got me within a centimetre of the final pocket. This will go down after Europe, but right now I lack both time and space.
Here are some piccies from a few sessions ago at The Lip, Quentin and I on All the Tables are Reversed in My Private Universe V10
I've been terrible at keeping these in the past but I figure that now is as good a time as any to begin my eblogging experience (again).
Where to start? The weather in the last month has been amazing! Add in a 10day trip to the Gramps with a good crew and magic happens. I arrived with Liam and Christophe late monday night at the luxurious Mount Zero Log Cabins. Needless to say, we were off for a quick boulder almost as soon as we stepped through the door. Hitting up Andersons, Liam and I kicked off the trip with a flash of Artillery, an amazing semi-highball piece of fun. As the night grew darker, Liam managed a quick ascent of Bismark and I of Mr Knox, it was a nice start.
Over the course of the next week our party grew to include Andrew, Quentin, and Big Simon, their presence adding to the amazing send train we were on.
The first train arrived after about half an hour on the 100 Pound Club, a V10 double dyno on the Epsilon wall. Liam was the first to tick, followed by myself, and then Quentin in the space of about 2 minutes.
We then moved along to the spurt wall/afterglow boulders where a variety of V8's and 9's were shared amongst us. The last trip I took out here gave me a taste of the quality rock around, but left me with a thirst for more. One such boulder which I 'tasted' last time was a V8 called Crisco Love Party. It's a pretty cool line over very questionable terrain. I did it first shot this trip. It was coooooooool.
After an almost rest day, we headed up to H.M.C. to try our luck at the classics. I managed to send Extreme-Cool V8, Amniotic World v9, Ogre Thumb v9, and flash Rave Heart v8, Liam and Quentin each sending 3 of these four. Both Quentin and I had a play on American Pie but it remained out of reach.
After that session Liam and I decided to take another rest day, In which we both got the quick tick of Butcher's Choice V10, a rad line of underclings and smears down in Trackside.
The 17th landed me a bunch of V7's and 8's whilst Liam laid siege to Gripmaster however unsuccessfully. Andrew tried his luck on Spanking the Monkey Bars Direct but was just off the money.
It was Liam's Birthday that night, thus no one really climbed the next day. Liam and I had some fun at the campground boulders, with Liam flashing Da Lai Lahmung. The next day saw us at Snakepit and the citadel. Quentin made what might be the 3rd or 4th ascent of If You Want Blood You've Got It V12 and I got both strammamax and Raging bull 2nd shot.
We wrapped things up with an easy day in the Trackside, Between the Sheeps, and Caves Club and then made our 13hr trip back to sydney.
