Late April

Well April has been treating us pretty well for climbing! The bugs aren't totally out yet, the weather is still in the 60's and rain has managed not to ruin everything! Anyways, last Saturday I decided to head up to Farley, to do some circuits, and scope out some harder problems and potential new projects. Upon getting there I became roped into spotting Nina Williams on Speed of Life, which was kind of fun to see, I was impressed how brave she was to do it with a worst case scenario landing. The giant snow landing that was there had diminished into a three foot tall pyramid of ice, making a fall from the first crux extremely hazardous. It was cool to see her just brush it off and send it, while I was honestly too scared to really try it, fearing I would break myself. After being stuck there for a few hours I was happy to move on, and started by doing the first wave boulder circuit of the year, which involves doing a v1, v3, v3, v4, v5, v6, and a v8 in a row without falling. Climbing felt good! It was a nice confidence boost to know I can still do the circuit on repeat, since all the climbs are a little strange and tricky! After that I played around on Mr. Tricksta, which is the name given to the v10 sit start to the v8 in the corridor across from tweaky bird. Damn that thing is hard. Crikey. I recently developed some pain in my right hand middle finger, which does not cooperate with crimping well, so I decided to call it a day on this death-crimping testpiece. I spent the rest of my day working on Full Sized Man, a climb I always wanted to start putting effort into, and I surprised myself by feeling quite good on it. After about an hour and a half of trying to burl my way through the start, I finally hooked up a good sequence, involving a subtle knee-scum. Upon figuring that out, I managed to do the bottom pretty consistently and fell four or five times on the first crux of mid-sized, the left arete match. This move gave me incredible trouble on Mid-sized, but I think if I can do it from the bottom, I have a high chance of taking it to the top, since my beta for the top is very high percentage and not so physically hard. I still have some kinks to work out in my sequence while transitioning into Mid-sized, (cutting my feet will not do) but i'm optimistic about it, and excited to try it fresh.

Husky chilling with me under Full-Sized Man

On Sunday, Liam and I woke up at 6 and drove up to Rumney. We met up with Nick and India, and warmed up on some boulders. After doing Zig Zag Crack a few times I climbed Zig Zag Crack Variation on my first try, a cool v9 slab with monos. I found some tall guy beta which probably makes it a bit easier. Next I finally did Pyramid Power, a classic v8 which was always hard for me for some reason. Felt alright today. We tried Satans Choice a bit, but my skin could not handle it, so we moved to a somehow sharper problem. Satan's Sister Sally is a sweet v10 on a beautiful really thin 40 degree boulder with a bunch of beautiful yellow swirls in the black rock.

Satan's Sister Sally (v10) 

The climb starts on two high jugs and a high right heel. You start by doing a long right hand lock off to a very very sharp 1/4 pad incut crimp. From here you move your left hand into a sidepull fingerlock, and then bump your right hand into a really cool 3/4 of a pad rounded incut. Then you pull your feet up, hit a bad intermediate, and do a long move to an amazing full pad incut gaston. None of these moves are easy, but the crux of the boulder involves cutting your feet from the last two holds. Your body swings out really far, and you just have to pull it in and get a high right foot. Two easy but scary moves deposit you at the juggy lip. After whining about the sharp holds for fifteen minutes I managed to complete the send train of this line. The rest of the day was spent lazily climbing some routes, but I did get the chance to film Nick on Parallel Universe, a 5.14a he had sent the day before. I think the video came out well, and it was cool to see a hard route climbed so smoothly and controlled.

Here is the video: https://vimeo.com/125504979

I finished the day by climbing Caver's Direct, a fun v8ish dyno climb on nice rock. 

It rained all the next week, and my finger started feeling worse again, so I tried my best to take it easy. 

Yesterday, though, the weather was beautiful, and Doug, his friend Dylan, Katie and I drove up to Pawtuckaway for the day. We started the day off at Blair Woods, since I really wanted to try Sit and Deliver. We warmed up by climbing the Rose, a slopey v7, which felt very nice and then decided to try this v8 on the other side of the boulder called Jon's Arete. It was an interesting climb on some slopey holds leading to one hard move off a small right hand crimp to a pretty good incut. We all managed it in a few tries. Next was Sit and Deliver, a v12 sit start to the classic v11 Stand and Deliver. Recently a big foot had snapped off for the first move of Stand, making it harder. (according to some) Yet, I got back on it, and it honestly felt easier than it did before, and I repeated the whole climb again just for fun, and damn it felt good and controlled. However, upon getting on the sit it was apparent that the broken foot makes a difference, at least for somebody my size, since the move was bunchy to begin with, and now the foot is even higher. Regardless I felt decent on it, though never really felt solid hitting the big move to the sloper.. maybe in winter.. 

After trying Sit and Deliver for twenty minutes we decided to head over to Boulder Natural, where we got on Mr. Natural a v10 Doug and I had both done last fall. Today was Katie's turn and she busted out a quick ascent of the line, while Doug repeated it for good measure. 

Katie using french/female/good beta on Mr. Natural (v10) 

Next we walked down to Devils Den to try Leave it to Beaver. On the way we stopped at a cool line called Ashes to Ashes (v9). The last time I was here it was covered in a good inch of moss, but apparently somebody had given it the resurrection, for it is now in great shape! It is a very cool line very reminiscent of the Chattanoogan at LRC, but instead of tiny crimps, its nice 3/4 pad edges leading to a crux jump into a sloper. Although I did all the parts quick I never managed to connect the dots, which was a real bummer, but I am excited to come back and take it down.

Ashes to Ashes, starts left and traverses the curving seam, pictured here is the long crux jump from a good slot to a sloper.

I got to redeem myself later, when we finally got to Leave it to Beaver. This climb is amazing! One of the best v8's I have done in New England for sure. The climb starts sitting, and follows some sloping rails around an arete, leading to a few edges and a slopey top out. Doug and I both managed the old flash, although both almost numbing off of the v2 exit. Here is a small clip of the middle third of the climb. Thanks 100mb limit.

Anyways! After that we walked up the hill and got on a sweet sweet climb called Universal Socket. This climb is twenty-ish feet tall, with a very committing last move. It is a blank wall which starts with a super fun traverse across a series two pad rails with bad/no feet. After traversing ten or so feet to the left, you start climbing up, grabbing two sharp but nice pockets before grabbing a good dish on the sloping arete. From the dish you have low feet, and your 'only' option is to do a little hop for the sloping lip of the boulder. After testing the water out, I managed to commit and take it to the top on my second go! 

Making the last move on Universal Socket (v6) 

We finished the day by destroying ourselves on this dumb v6 mantle called boulder x, and then made the long trek back down to Massachusetts. Today, my skin is wrecked and I can't lift my arms above my head, so I would say it was a fun day, and I am excited to come back here before the blackflies arrive. 

The weather looks nice this week, so hopefully I will get back on Full-Sized!!! 

We shall see

Kai