LOTD, Necropolis Sector

Objective: New Routing

Left to Right
Voodoo Man, V1 - undercling to slopers
possible additional line
Beating Heart Cadaver, V0 - dihedral ramp
possible additional line

Right to Left
A Stick Up The Butt, V1 - sds on horn, lieback edge
Better Than A Stick Up The Butt, V3/4 - sds on sloper ledge, straight up via big moves
Nothing is Better Than a Stick Up the Butt, V2/3 - sds on sloper ledge, traverse left and up

Ressentiment, V1 - sds, climb the steep horn via jugs

Left to Right
I'm not into dead guys, V1 - lie back edge
Everyone’s dead, V1 - green lichen section
Your mom ate my dog, V2 - left of tree
They are coming to get you Barbara, V1 - roof

Are We Worth Saving?, V3 - middle of face, Gill start to good sized crimps

Notes: My life is surreal at this point. I woke up and set a 13 at the local gym (ironic because I haven't climbed harder than 12a). I went to my normal job until 5. After, I put up 11 new boulder problems outside.

I revisited the first sector I found when I started exploring the ridge. It is mostly moderates on good vertical rock. "Beating Heart Cadaver" is a perfect example of why I moved to CO. It is kinda high, and I did it ground up after it had rained that afternoon. That would have been suicidal on the Central Coast of CA's fragile sandstone.

After the session, I walked around and found even more rock. I have barely scratched the surface of this area.

The Bachelor Claw

Objective: Climbing Stamina

Training: (1) Boulder continuously for 1.5 hours, try for hard flashes with minimal rests

(2) 3 rounds
5s crimp, each hand
10s 1 arm/1 foot plank on rings, each side

Notes: I had some business in Boulder (the city) and used it as an opportunity to train at The Spot. I ran around and tried to cram as many hard problem as possible in the session.

Each gym has a different setting style. For example, Mission Cliffs in SF most routes are open handed, non-reachy, endurance fests. Almost all the boulder problems at The Spot have traverse moves. There are almost no straight up problems. The Spot setters are very good, but there is a limited number of fun traverse moves. It forces the problems to be repetitive or have lower quality movement. It appears they are compensating for a lack of rope climbing. There is a old adage that is apropos: Boulder for power, sport climb for endurance, trad climb for your head, and mountain climb for your soul.

To Err is Human. To Control Errors is Science.

Objective: Climbing Power

Training: (1) Small Rungs, 1-3-5

(2) Medium Rungs, 1-4-6 (f)

(3) Big Rungs, 1-4-7 (f)
1-2-5
1-3-6

Notes: I really like campusing. You have to focus and try hard. If I get in the right state, I float between the rungs and surprise myself. My short term goal is 1-4-7 on small rungs. My fingers feel strong enough, I can latch any rung I can get to it. Getting to the rungs is the problem. I have some mental baggage. When I tried 1-4-7 today, this thought popped into my head - "Pulling through from 1-7 is really far." The last sets were designed to trick myself out of that idea.

My Big Hairy Audacious Goal, BHAG, is 1-5-9 on the medium rungs. I feel that if I can do 1-5-9, I with have enough power to climb any route that I want. The technical and mental abilities are equally important. I'm getting after them, too.

Right now, I'm in the dairy business. Milking linear progress until it runs dry. Once I stop seeing improvements, I'll switch something up. If it is working, I'm not changing. I aim for small improvements from session to session. This week it was 1-3-5 on small rungs and 1-4-6 on medium rungs. I didn't post my warm-up sets. I limit each session to 8-12 working sets and strive to keep fails under 10%.

LOTD, aka My Other Job

Objective: New Routing

(Sorry about the horrible picture. It is mostly for personal reference.)
Left to Right
Get that damn screwdriver out of my head!, V1 - open book, left of tree, possible harder awkward sds
God has fled, V4 - low hang start on two crimps, right of tree, POWERY
Jesus was the First Zombie, V4 - stand start on two crimps, much harder sds
Possible Project, V? - cave

The residue of ground-up ascents.

Notes: Short session at LOTD. The next boulder is immediately below the Twitcher Boulder. The rock is not perfect, unlike the other boulders. But it did yield a couple of short, powerful problems. The currently undone sit start to Jesus was the First Zombie is rad compression climbing. The cave to the right looks very cool but very hard. I don't want to spend too much time on any one problem because there are so many more boulders to develop.

The Hood - If you’re going to chip routes, at least make them fun.

Objective: Performance

Routes Sent:
Touch of Grey, 10a, onsight (okay route)
Finger Injection, 10c, onsight (climbed it a total of 3 times, MONOS!!!)
Innocent Bystander, 11b, redpoint (3rd go, incredible highly technical crux, a no handed step up to traverse)

Total Points: 13

Routes Tried:
Friendly Fire, 11c, 2 tries (the biggest POS, 50ft of 10a to 3 move slab dyno, a waste of glue and batteries)
Short Dog, 12a, 2 tries (pretty good route, very Owl Torish, big moves between two finger pockets)

Total Pitches: 11

Sea of Limestone
Can you find the climber?

Chillin' in the Compton Cave

Yes, if you define world class as 13s/14s climbable in the summer in America. No, if you want high quality routes of all grades.

Notes: Alex and I went to The Hood, the primary climbing area of Mt. Charleston, on the second day. This sector is higher in elevation with less-featured limestone. Fewer features is a mixed blessing, less chossy bits but more enhanced elements. I have nothing against chipping routes (not that I'm in support of it either). Sometimes, it is a necessary evil. If routes are less than natural, they should be fun to climb. I got on a bunch of climbs that were POS. Who puts monos on a 10c? Seriously. Friendly Fire consists of very easy climbing to a very hard crux. The crux involves ticking-tacking into a setup for a desperate lunge on a slab. WTF!!! I was forced to climb it twice to get my draws off. However, Short Dog is a reasonable route, V4/rest/V4. I was saving a redpoint burn for the next day but those plans fell through. I will get my revenge in a couple of weeks. I was fit enough for 11 burns, but I would like to see more sends.

Imaginator Wall - The Wall That Hates Me

Objective: Performance

Routes Sent:
Mary Weeks Arete, 6, onsight
Egyptian Sandfish, 10b, onsight (good route, high point of day)
Unknown, 11a, 2nd go (maybe Killer Driller, hard slab start to fun easy climbing)

Total Points: 9.5

Routes Tried:
The On Ramp, 10a, 1 try (a foot broke on my onsight attempt)
Imaginator, 11c, 1 try (17 bolts, 140’, super classic, a foot broke on my onsight attempt, UGH)
Old World Order, 11d, bailed (onsighted to crux, couldn’t do crux, even after using nylon jug beta)

Imaginator Wall in its glory.

Alex on the sharp end, on sharp rock.

Notes: Alex and I went first to Imaginator Wall, one of the lesser Mount Charleston walls. It has an unmatched aurora. Nestled in the mountains with snow at the base of a limestone wall stretching high into the subapline air. Unbelievably, we had the crag to ourselves.

The rock is not super chossy but feet kept breaking, ruining my onsight attempts. I wanted to call "technicals" and get my onsight try back. Redpointing the routes seemed anticlimactic. I like the technical off-vertical climbing, even though the crux was usually starting the routes. My ego wants to claim Old World Order was very broken. It was the hardest I have ever tried on a route. The sharpness of the rock did not effect my tips but did result in micro cuts on other parts of my hand. Considering the amount of time I spend in LV, I'll come back and clean up the loose ends.

Video Evidence