Thursday, May 20, 2010

New River Rendezvous recap

Arrived at the New River Gorge Friday afternoon and immediately drove to the Cirque at Endless Wall. Climbed the warm up 11a, Finders Keepers 12c, and Sloth 12c. Loved everything about the Cirque. The 10 minute approach is through old growth forest that really sets a cool mood. The routes at the Cirque climb brilliant orange rock that is highlighted with stripes of white and black. The moves on the routes are thought provoking and usually both powerful and slightly technical.

Saturday i decided to enter into the sport climbing comp. I entered last year and got third place which payed for the trip. Last year my strategy was to try routes around my onsite level hoping that the bonus points would make up for the difficulty. This year my goal was to try harder routes that i had previously sent.

goal tick list:
1. Tobacco Road 12b
2. Apollo Reed 13a
3. Mercy seat 13b
4. The Pod 13b
5. BC 13b/c
6. Vaseline vision 12b
7. Blood Raid 13a
8. Lactic Acid Bath 12d
9. Skull F?ck 12c
10. Yowsah 12b

Actual Tick List:
1. Apollo Reed ( had to warm up on it because tobacco was wet at 9am)
2. Mercy Seat ( took me 3 tries to realize my foot beta was bad.)
3. Tobacco Road ( Felt hard, after trying and falling off the Pod earlier.
4. Vaseline Vision ( So Pumped, and feeling the time ticking away)
5. tried all of the other 12lvs around the boulder and couldn't pull any of them off. Wow so pumped! Gotta run to get the card in.

I guess a lot of people didn't turn in score card because i ended up taking 2nd place with only four routes on my card. Trip paid!!
I really enjoyed this comp. I love getting in a zone and just trying really hard!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Two new lines for the Red!

I bolted two lines at the Red last week. The routes are gently overhanging at around 15-20 degrees and are about 50 - 70 feet long. The route in the center which goes at 5.12d has 6 bolts and two anchors. The route on the left (my current project) which probably goes at 5.13c has 7 bolts and two anchors. The routes aren't your typical endurance based Red River Gorge routes. Both routes have long powerful moves with a defined crux mid way up the wall.

There are currently 8 routes from 11d to 14? in various stages of development. Most of the lines will be 5.13 and up.