Pawtuckaway

On Saturday, Rachel and I went up to Pawtuckaway, New Hampshire, to test ourselves on all the gigantic granite boulders that sit in the pristine evergreen forest. I had a few objectives such as Stand and Deliver, Confident Man and Halcyon, but Pawtuckaway is big, and I never even attempted a single one of them. Thats not to say I didn't have fun, or climb on cool boulders, it just means that I need to return pronto.

We started off the day by warming up on some v2s, and then immediately Doug was psyched on Mr. Natural, a brutally sharp v10 incut crimp fest. On my first go, my hands were cold and I fell on the crux, my second go, I punted off the v2 outro moves, but on my third try I managed to take it down, utilizing a sick ninja kick toe hook method for the crux.

Toe-hooking my way through the crux

Scary mossy slab

Unfortunately, I managed to split my finger on the send go, but I taped it up and moved on. Next on the list was Blaow, a one move micro crimp dyno. Basically you pull on to a right hand, slightly incut sixth of a pad crimp, a left hand flat, like eighth of a pad crimp, paste your feet on two bad feet and jump for a slopey jug. I had really wanted to try to flash it, but unfortunately as I was grabbing the jug, my right hand exploded off, and destroyed my knuckle. After a few bad, numb tries, I managed to find the jug again and take it down. 

The swing on Blaow v10

After that we all got on this super dumpy v11 called Revolution. It was hard, and within our group of five double-digit boulderers, nobody stuck the crux move. We all just grumbled and wrecked our skin. Once that finally ended we cruised down to Dome Piece, which is a little one-mover in a roof. You start false gripping on two pretty good crimp/mini jugs, you have a small, shitty right foot, and a atrocious left foot smear, and you throw all the way out to a sloper on the lip, which you campus match, followed by an awkward top out. 

Pulling on to Dome Piece v10

Doug and I thrashed ourselves on this little thing for probably an hour, both coming insanely close, even sticking the throw and punting for one reason or another on the next move. Finally, after lots of screaming and whining I managed to send, as did Doug. 

Campus match

Awk-Berg!

Since the light was fading at this point, I ran up the hill to try to give a few good goes on Back At Ya With The Realness, a one move v11 span. I always thought this thing would fit me well, and had always wanted to give it a good flash attempt. I pulled on and felt great, threw for the move, but the span was bigger than I thought, and I hit the jug with my first two pads, and just somehow failed to engage my fingers, and just popped off. The second I hit the ground, I chalked up again, pulled on, and sent the climb. 

Back At Ya With The Realness v11

This climb confuses my grasp on the grading scale to the limit. On one hand, by the books, (8a.nu), this move should have been the hardest move i've ever done. It wasn't. On the other hand, its not like it was an easy move, it was literally as far as I could reach, and I could only get my first two pads on the jug, and it felt like my shoulders were both popping out of their sockets. I don't see how ANYBODY more than an inch shorter than me can do the climb. It wouldn't be v13 for a short person, it would simply be impossible. So do I trust Dave Graham who had to have been tall enough to do it the way I did, thinking it was v11? Or do I grade it how I would personally grade it if I got the FA? Nobody who is around my height who has done the problem hints that it is easier, which makes me inclined to think it was the epitome of my style, the conditions were perfect, and things just clicked. This brings up another issue with grading, specifically in the 8a world, which is that downgrading boulders is acceptable, but upgrading it not. This makes zero sense to me, for example, last weekend, when I finally sent Fotowa stand, a crimpy v9, I semi-jokingly said 'i'm going to take this at v10 because thats how it felt for me' and everyone got all hot and bothered about it, while at the same time, I felt like if I was going to log Back at Ya at v11, I would have to defend myself to all my friends, just because it felt easier to me. The system only works down, which makes me inclined to just take accepted grades, specifically with crazy morpho climbs like Back at Ya. 

All in all I just don't know, I haven't climbed ANY boulders of this style before, so it's impossible to grade it compared to any other climb i've done. What really matters is that this is an AMAZING climb, in my opinion, on the single best rock at Pawtuckaway. 

Now, back to Brothers Keeper when I can, and hopefully back to P-Way ASAP to try some other rigs. 

Kai