Well – I’m famous! Well…only to myself and a few close friends though.. A video I took of Andre De Felice doing Right Martini V12 in Hueco this past January has suddenly appeared on momentumvm.com yesterday. I had sent Andre a copy of it after the trip and it apparently has since made its way to the site. If I’d of known it’d be published on a super popular site climbing site I might have done things a bit differently in the filming Anyway you can check it out over there or a bit higher quality version right here:
Recently I’ve started seeing a large increase in the number of videos floating around the internet that are hosted at vimeo.com (including some great bouldering clips at Ethan Pringle’s blog I discovered today that I’d recommend checking out: http://www.ethanpringle.com/?page_id=104). I’ve noticed that videos on vimeo are always far higher quality and have a niftier player interface than youtube so I’ve decided the check it out today…
Haven’t done a whole lot of climbing since my Joe’s trip back in April. Made it to Taylors twice or so to work on Cave Traverse but just haven’t quite pulled that thing off yet. It’s been too hot for quite awhile now to get psyched enough to drive anywhere for outdoor climbing.
Finally getting around to Part 2 of the Joe’s trip….
Thursday ended up being a pretty good day for me. We went up to the Garden of Eden area and I checked out Anatomy Act – a V7. The guide isn’t very clear as to what the problem is exactly but after talking with some other guys there I finally figured out it climbs up an arete. I almost flashed the thing. I fell off a sloper on the topout that I couldn’t quite hang on to right. Fortunately, I did the thing next try which is the fastest I’ve ever done a V7. It starts on 2 crimps without really any feet to speak of and a pretty big move right to a pocket. Then slap your left hand up on slopers a few times, get your foot up to the start holds, then another pretty big move with your right to a bad sloper. Adjust it and rock up to a nice rail and it’s pretty much over.
It is good to be back in Utah! I’ve been in Joe’s Valley since Sunday night for a week long trip with my girlfriend Brea and it’s been a great trip so far. We made the drive on Saturday and Sunday and have been camping out here. We got here in a thick snow fall but got camp set up successfully and fortunately the snow was gone by mid-day Monday.
Last Saturday Nic, Chris Hirsch, and myself headed out to Taylors hoping to find some climbable rock. Despite their being lots of snow everywhere, we did all manage to get climbing in on the problems we wanted to try. We started at the Left of Lloyds area where Nic was trying the sit start – The Sporting Life. He gave it a few really good burns and managed to slap the final sloper but couldn’t quite do it. After this, Chris went to work cleaning up Sizzlefoot – a 5.12 route that he wanted to boulder and Nic and myself walked over to the cave so I could try my project The Cave Traverse. It was my first time on it since the fall so I forgot my beta on the opening moves on my first go but quickly re-learned it. I didn’t manage to send it but feel much stronger on it – my injuries from hueco have been healing much better than I feared and didn’t present a problem. I got through the drop move and into the opening moves of the Midget feeling very strong and fell at that point a few times from technical reasons so I know I’m strong enough to do the problem..just have to put it together.
Once I had enough, we all joined up at Sizzlefoot and Chris bouldered the thing! Truly frightening and inspiring to watch all at the same time. This line is usually top-roped and is probably over 25 feet tall with the crux move coming at the top. Chris warmed up by climbing up to the jug at the midway point a few times and jumped down before doing the whole thing. Very nicely done! I wish I’d have gotten video of it but we decided a spotter would be more valuable than video.
After Chris did it, Nic decided to give it a go as well. He took a few long falls from just above the jug in the middle before finally working through the crux and making it to the lip. But he grabbed a wet spot that hadn’t been cleaned and blew off the top! Chris and I could only watch and attempt to spot as he fell all the way to the pads… somehow he managed to not get hurt and got right back on the problem. After taking one more pretty long fall from above the jug (at this point I decided I had to take video in case he fell off the top again) that is in the video he sent it too.
Here’s some footage Nic edited together from the day:
Pretty nice day considering we didn’t know what to expect when we got out there.. Hopefully there will be more days to come very soon.
Oh what a trip.. The Murphy’s Law climbing trip. It’s finally all over now..
Here’s the rundown: 3 of us got ridiculously sick (puking guts out/not eating anything for 3 days/losing 10 pounds sick) everybody got injured at some point: a tendon in my left knee and a tendon in my arm connected to right ring finger (which will probably keep me from climbing for a month), eric and nic pulled hamstrings and couldn’t heel hook, chad sprained an ankle
Oh well — even an awful climbing trip is still much better than sitting at home on the couch. I had a great time hanging with friends and met a lot of really cool people from around the world. Hueco is beautiful and I do hope to get back again.
Still in Hueco. Everybody seems to be at close to 100% health finally……..
(PUNCH!KICK!POW!)
TAKEOVER-
by Nicholas Oklobzija
back to 100% my ass.
Let us take role
skin- well I have a full pad flapper (pointer finger) f’n power of silence (still not sent) stomach- able to eat however I left Minnesota at 152 and am now at most 143…. WTF! muscles- looking amazing seeing that i have rested and sunbathed more then i have climbed friends- great as always, yet we could hang out in minnesota (did not need to spend 700$ to go chill in a coffee shop in el paso) not my idea of a good time. family- lost a great woman in my family this week and a key player in my life (we will miss you bonnie!) girl friend- is wishing she would have thought twice about “us” (joke)
but on the bright side i would change nothing… this will be the trip of my life (i just have to kick ass these next couple days) if all go’s well i will climb “dark age” v11, “power of silence” v10, and “diaphanous sea” v11/12. I do not want to sound like a baby i am just letting the public get the real story kinda like cnn?
well neil is coming to better go before he wakes up..
peace,
—————–
……..okay back to Neil here…Nic is right – this trip has really sucked at times and featured extreme hits to our psyche but we still have a week to go and things are on the up.
I sent Baby Face V7 on Friday on my 2nd try of the day which is one of the best lines I’ve done. My sights are now firmly set on Adjust Your Attitude – a roof V8 with some of the craziest moves I’ve tried. I have all but one of the moves worked out and it feels close.
Chad and Eric are both working on projects as well. Chad hopes to do Baby Martini V6 and Eric has done King Cobra V6 is making progress on Speed Bump V7. Nic has done the Right hand variation of Free Willy V9 and has his projects as well.
Jeff Fink joined us this weekend for his first outdoor bouldering experience — quite an introduction this was! He really enjoyed climbing on a whole lot of fun problems throughout North Mountain. Nice work Jeff!
Dan and Andy have left us to go back home. It was fun climbing with these guys and too bad to see them go.
Not much to report. I got food poisoning or something a few days ago and am just now getting better from it. Yesterday was my first day of climbing since my first day and I was really weak as I’ve eaten hardly any food for the past 3 days. I did make some progress on Baby Face and have no doubt that I will send it when I stop hyperventilating after 2 moves . I’m falling currently going for the 2nd pinch on the arete.
I’m not the only one feeling under the weather so it seems only Chad has really been doing much of any climbing. He did a nice V5 called Lobster Claw:
After this, he and Andy went to work on Lithologic and Andy did it 2nd go. Here’s Chad on it who is also very close:
Anyway you can check it out over there or a bit higher quality version right here:
