MN Crimp

I’m just killing time in the Las Vegas Airport – about to celebrate the new year’s here in Terminal D…woohoo!

We finished the trip by heading to the Happies. I was able to barely do Action Figure – a V6 I couldn’t do last year. This was particularly nice for me as it completed for me every problem I got on last year that I gave any significant effort to that I didn’t do — basically met all my trip goals and assured myself that I have indeed gotten significantly stronger in the past year.

I also did Ketron Classic — a very nice V4.

Eric worked out all the individual moves on Cholos and has another project to dream about:

Our 4th day in Bishop was a rest day. The 5 of us drove up to try to find the hot springs to relax in but all we found was one of them that was already occupied. Did get to see some nice views however:

The next day we were back out to the Buttermilks. We started the day working on Get Carter – a classic V7. Pretty cool looking problem with a very hard start involving either a huge drop knee or a wide spread and powerful move. I worked out the top moves pretty easily but got completely shut down on the bottom. Eric did pretty well on it and was able to do all the moves and could probably do it all with more work.

After that we headed back to the main Buttermilks area and I ended up doing a really fun V5 called Go Granny Go

The following day we started by getting on the Ironman Traverse (V4). Super classic line that I tried a few times a year ago and didn’t have the endurance to do. I was able to do it this year fortunately (barely though), in addition to Eric and Kris who also did it.


After this we briefly tried the Leary/Bard Arete (V5) but none of us had the strength/skin at this point to do it:

And after that we hiked up to the Checkerboard V7/8 to check it out. We tried a few moves but it’s way too crimpy for me at this point in the trip. A truly inspiring line though — perhaps the best I’ve ever seen. Something I’d love to do on a future trip.

Today I didn’t do much climbing — felt pretty much worthless. Started the day trying Pain Grain (V5) – but it lived up to its name and I gave up after 2 tries.

I also briefly tried the Cave Problem but gave up on that too after ripping off the holds and tearing yet another hole in my fingers. Kris got it though. We also went over to work the crimpy Yayoi (V7) but I decided not to try it to protect my fingers. Kris got this one as well after about 30 minutes of work. I finished the day by doing Green Wall Essential (V2) along with Eric. Nice line on a beautiful face.

Tomorrow we’ll climb for a few hours and then head back to Vegas and on home. I’ll try to put a slideshow up when I get home. My fingers are completely shredded (worst they’ve ever been – holes in most my fingers it seems) but I’m really psyched to get them healed and pulling again in Hueco in 2 weeks!

Edited: Much higher quality video:

I’ve been climbing with a tweaked finger tendon for the last 6 weeks or so and I’ve come to realize it’s gotten bad enough that I have to take a break.. The plan is 3 weeks of no climbing and then the following 3 weeks of slowly escalating to the Hueco trip. Hueco is 6 weeks away and counting and even though taking a few weeks off now will be frustrating — it will be far more frustrating to be in Hueco not at 100%. It’s just as well I take a break now — the MN season looks to be officially over — we’re getting 6+ inches of snow dumped on us right now and more to come tonight and tomorrow. So all I’ll be missing is plastic climbing. I will be focusing on core workouts in the meantime and antagonist muscle training.

Here’s some random pictures to brighten up the post:
Me about to fall off Kahuna Roof at Carter Lake — over and over again:

Chad Johnson on The Angler/The Rail in Joe’s Valley:

Josh on Boogie Nights in Triassic:

Eric Johnson sending Serengetti in Bishop:

Jim Merli on Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground at Swede’s Forest (there’s the same Tetanus Kettle in the background from my previous post, 2 years earlier):

Me trying Germ Free Adolescence in Eldorado Canyon 2 years ago: