July

Well its July.. and for whatever reason we got a few days of good conditions! I managed to climb outside six out of the last ten days which makes me really happy, and gets me really motivated for whats to come. Having not done a single hard boulder since like April, a trip to Lincoln Woods was just what I needed. As much as I like to down-talk Lincoln Woods, we actually had a lot of fun climbing there. Yes the pond cave eliminates are kind of dumb.. but they're also pretty fun, and in a way i'm glad they are there. We started the day off by all flashing Try Again (v5) and then did the left sit (v7/8) in a handful of tries. All of a sudden a freak rainstorm came in so we ran off to the Pond Cave.

As the rock started getting wet I ran up Leap Frog (v7) on my first try of the day, and then did Hueco Dreams (v9), (but more like v8) on my first try as well. After that I turned my attention to Gravity Hits (v10) which was the one boulder I really wanted to do. I tried it at the end of the day a few months ago, and it felt totally heinous and impossible, but today I felt like I connected to the moves and powerful nature of the climbing better and managed to take it down in a couple tries.

Gravity Hits v10 

Having done all the individual lines in the pond cave, it was time for the link ups. The first one I got on was Under the Grid v10. After playing around with sequences for a few minutes I came up with a new method involving a painful gaston fingerlock which makes the bottom boulder problem quite easy and super high percentage. Once I figured this out I did the boulder first try, and think it is probably closer to soft v9 with this method. Immediately after I applied the same method to Keep it Hid v11, which finishes straight up on leap frog. I did this first try, and thought it was v9-ish as well, but certainly harder than Under the Grid.

To finish off the day I came sorta close (?) but failed on Feeling Needy.. but I WILL BE BACK. 

Later in the week I went to Great Barrington a few times.. didn't send anything, but felt decent on a couple projects I would love to return to including True Bleau and The Sound of One Hand Clapping. 

fun v6 or 7 dyno problem on the upper tier 

Later in the week I went out to Farley on a somewhat muggy day and made my way to the upper tier, where it was windy and beautiful, and I managed to do a couple new boulders. The first one was a boulder Tucker put up, and clocks in at around v8. The crux revolves around getting this right hand gaston-ball-sloper-jug with your right hand, and a poor sloper for the left, and doing an extremely tense bunchy lock off over a bulge to a rounded slopey crimp, which is hard to see and really difficult to grab correctly. Once you grab the crimp, you have to do a surprisingly hard blind dyno to a slot jug. It's one of those kind of classic Farley boulders, thats pretty hard physically, but mainly just very precise and technical. After figuring out the feet I managed to take it down in a few goes.

After I did that one I began trying this low seam traverse that ends with a dyno to a sloper out of a heel toe cam. It took me quite a long time to do the dyno alone, and then an extra three or four tries to add in the v5-ish traverse. The boulder is super low and dabby, which is a shame, since the rock quality is near flawless. I'm not sure if it's a FA or not.. but if i'm the first, welcome 'La Marathon de Chossy' into the world. The grade for the full line is somewhere in the hard 8 easy 9 range.. I think, but conditions may say a lot. 

La Marathon de Chossy v8 FA?

Later that evening I made my way back down to the main boulders, watched some guy tick mark every single hold on the tusk. I wasn't too psyched.. I couldn't pull off the ground on Mr. Tricksta.. So I needed a refreshing challenge. So I decided to try the OG beta on Brick Bop, which is a simple dyno from the starting holds, to the lip of the boulder, and was thought to be v10 at the time. 

I felt like garbage during the first few tries, but somehow stayed psyched. Once I figured out the correct foot to jump off of, I began hitting the lip, and swinging off. It's a funny boulder, because getting to the lip isn't actually that hard, whats hard is sticking it as your body flies away from the wall. Anyways, I swung off the lip like five times before I got the extra bit of height and latched it in control. 

Check this little video of me the try before I did it.. haha 

The weather is really bad now, with temperatures at around 95 degrees today, so it may be a few weeks before I get back on rock, but it doesn't matter because i'm going to Colorado in 18 days! HAH! Psych is high to spend three weeks bouldering in the alpine. 

Kai