Colorado and Nor’easter

Yeah, I’ve been lagging. I know. The other night Joe Kinder said to me after dinner: yo, Ethan man, you gotta update the blog piece yo. Do dat shit! Do it. Then, last night Kynan said: Why don’t you update you #u@king blog man?!? I blame it on Sundayitis. After extensive debates with other professional climbers, we’ve decided that being a pro climber is like being stuck in a Sunday. It’s the weekend, which is nice, and you feel free to go where you want and do what you please, but you know you have some obligation, some deadline; Monday looms. And I’m the type who lets everything go and procrastinating when I feel overwhelmed. Or maybe I just need to take it easy and quite complaining so dog-gone much.

Well, where should I start? Right, rifle. So Scotty Cory and I made the grueling 18 hour drive from SF all the way to Rifle in a single push, no bivys. Maybe a quick brew-up or two. We decided to live the high-life that night and split the coast of (a ridiculously priced) motel room. Best night of sleep I’ve gotten the whole trip. Unfortunately I’m a very temperamental sleeper, I don’t do so well with camping. I felt so good that I almost sent Girl Talk second try the next day. Anyone who reads Joe‘s blog will know the story already. After making reverse progress my third and fourth tries, falling at the bottom boulder problem, I pulled the rope, tied back in immediately climbed up to the move I had been falling off, and realized I needed to lock the shitey little crimp off to the max before letting go of the left hand. I stuck the move and went to the top, summiting with the last light of the evening. I really should have done the climb second go, but oh well. Shoulda coulda woulda I guess. Story of my life.

After another very unproductive day in rifle (I got spanked and greased off Stockboy’s Revenge a bunch, which joe swore was easier than GT, but Scotty sent Huge) we ventured up to the Fortress of Solitude to check out the routes up there, including, for me, Kryptonite. Joe had it wired and I watched him dismantle the route up to it’s red point crux which he fell at the end of twice. Being that it was my third day on, I felt like crap on the route, but had fun climbing on this amazing route and tried to learn the moves to I could come back and hopefully dispatch. After a rest day the crew, minus Joe who was in SLC for the HERA Climb for Life fundraiser, hiked back up to the Fortress. I came pretty close to sending, getting to the RP crux three times, once falling out of a knee scum, and twice two moves later. It was really frustrating getting that close and not being able to continue because I couldn’t get a knee-bar well enough to match hands and shake a couple times. I tried to follow what Dave and Joe had done, getting the knee-bar, clipping, matching on the three-finger nob/crimp, shaking the left, matching again, shaking the right and continueing, but I couldn’t seem to get the knee-bar secure enough to match, so I’d just try to punch it and fall a couple moves later. I knew by the looks of it that Joe was going to send the route soon and sure enough he did send a couple days later. Scotty also sent a 13d called the Daily Planet. So after that, not only was I incredibly sick of knee-bars, my knee-cap was all scuffed up and the back of my thigh was all chaffed, rendering my leg un-padable for a few days, so Scotty and I took off to Independence pass, just out side of Aspen, just an hour and a half from rifle.

My main objective at IP was the second ascent of Matt Segal‘s Orangutan Overhang (14-), which he freed in may of this year. The line was an old aid line, going at A2, before Matty worked on and sent the thing placing all natural protection, except for two pins. On the way from Glenwood Srpings to aspen, it was raining the sky didn’t show signs of clearing, so I had my doubts about weather the Tang would be climbable, but knowing Colorado weather, I prayed it would clear up and the granite would dry enough to bear weight. As soon as we arrived we hiked up the hill in the drizzle, through wet bushes and up slabs to the jutting out buttress hosting the Orangutan and realized that since it was a roof, all that was wet was the mantle (yes, it tops out!). We left the to go check out some other cliffs and sure enough, an hour later the sun poked through, it stopped raining, and when I returned to the overhang the entire climb was bone dry, even tacky. Perfect. I basically aided up the route my first try, not linking a single move in the crux for fear of falling and blowing a piece of gear, which I did my next try on top-rope. I was able to figure out all the moves, and had a pretty solid plan of where to stop and place gear, so I decided to clean it and go for the send. I some managed, after a few minor fumbles with widgit placements, to get through the whole route and found myself one move after the crux, with my right hand a foot below the lip of the overhang, with my feet a few feet over my last gear placement, too pumped (and scared) to go for the lip. So I warned Scotty I was going to fall and let go, thankfully not ripping the piece I fell onto (whew). I even boinked on the red TCU to get back on the wall, to finish the climb and clean my gear in preperation for my second RP attmept. After I came down it actually got quite warm, the climb was blazing in the sun, so I decided we should go for a quick cool down, aspen style, and take a dip in the river. The water was so cold and refreshing, and it was so nice to just chill by the side of the river and take in the surroundings of the beautiful place we were in, that I hardly cared weather I sent that day of not. Eventually though, the clouds rolled back in, the temps dropped a bit, and I felt psyched and ready to send. I ended up climbing the route my next try, not fumbling wit the gear at all and not thinking at all about the fall. The route is definitely one of the most fun and asthetic routes I’ve done in colorado. The moves and holds are really cool. There slopers, pinches, (no crimps:) hand jams, finger locks and even a under-cling fist jam. And the line really jumps out at you. I was really psyched I had come and had this experience, and connected to this particular rock in this amazing alpine setting and sent the rig in a day. And of course props to Matty for having the tenacity to free this line. Killer rock climb. In the end I couldn’t tell if it was actually 14- or 13+ with placing the gear, but I can never tell. And maybe one just can’t be certain of something like that. Putting a number, something definite, on an abstract thing like a rock climb is always a bit of a guessing game…

The next day we had a really fun day climbing at another wall at IP called the grotto, where I climbed a route Tommy Caldwell established in a few tries, like a decade ago. When I asked him about it at the Nor-easter he said he had no idea about the grade when he did it, since he did it so fast, so he called it 13b. Maybe something has broken since his FA, but the route, which is a short bouldery pitch on a less than 5% overhung wall, felt more like hard 13d to me and I hung on by the skin of my teeth for a third try send. Scotty came agonizingly close to sending on his third try as well, but we had to leave to make the 2.5 hour drive to boulder to get a decent nights sleep so we’d be prepared for the day of travel that lay ahead of us both the next day.

So, the Nor’easter. Kevin J and I rallied to NH two days prior to the event so we could have a couple days to climb before the circus arrived. Even though it was pretty warm and humid, not ideal conditions for hard climbing in Rumney, it was still relatively dry, relative to the douching the north east would receive in the next few days. I tried the classic Waimea line China Beach, but was unable to send in the few attempts I had. Others tried Jaws 2, the viciously bouldery testpiece re-climbed in it’s current, broken state by Vasya Vorotnikov, but no one had the time or primo conditions needed for sucsess on this brutally hard route. Then the rain came, and it did not stop for like three days. I was so psyched to see the reel rock tour. It was probably the highlight of the weekend for me… People were occupied by slideshows and movies, booths set up by many different companies including a few of my sponsors Mountain Hardwear, Five Ten, Clifbar and Metolius, and there was phenominal live music on Friday and Saturday nights and we had an insane dodgeball tournament. But I knew the rock wasn’t going to be dry by the time I was suppsed to leave on Tuesday, so I changed my ticket to come back to colorado on Sunday eve. Even though there wasn’t as much climbing going on as everyone had hoped, the event was a sucsess thanks to the endless efforts of Jason and Pete, the rest of the NE2C crew, all the vollenteers and of course all the sponsors including EMS. I will gladly attend next year, rain or sine. On Sunday, Kevin J, Pete Clark, a bunch of the guides and I went up to the Waimea wall to brush and rinse chalk off some of the more popular routes that were previously caked. I also needed to get my draws, which I had forgotten on the wall, off of Jaws. As I rapped down the wall that was like a waterfall, the water started to fall down my rope and the rope I was using to rappel, my harness, my pants and shirt, and even my butt crack and junk all became a part of the waterfall. I felt like my first glimpse into the great wide world of alpine climbing, except without the freezing cold conditions, and I gotta say, I kind of liked it…

So, after another epic day of travel, I am back in boulder, psyched, and ready to start pushing it. Watching the sharp end got mo so Psyched to do some of the trad pitches around boulder and Estes Park. I made a little tic list for myself, of routes around here that I want to do and or check out. Now that the Orangutan is crossed off the list, the list remains: The Iron Monkey (un-repeated 14-), The Five Year Plan (5.13), Deadline (13+), Musta Been High (5.13), Might try to go for the flash on these ones, and the project next to Deadline, dubbed Headline (14+?). There is also China Doll (14-) and a bunch of routes around Estes Park like Tommy’s un-repeated Tick It (14a) and a a handful of routes also established by TC at the base of the Diamond on Long’s peak, in Rocky mountain. And then of course there are all the exceptional hard sport lines and boulder problems scattered all over the front range… Obviously I have my work cut out for me. Now I just need to find partners or all this stuff! I really wish I could find someone who knew all the beta to all these climbs who doesn’t have a job and who is psyched to go with me on all these adventures… Yeah Right.

In other recent news, there was a really funny Video of me when I was 13, sending my first 14a, Soul Train, which was subsequently downrated to 13d, on MVM. So sign up for free and check it out. Also I did a short interview with Pod Climber that just aired recently, so check that out as well. I was also in both the latest issues of R&I and Climbing, with pictures and a little news flash about my recent trad sends in Canada. J’yeah!

I’d also like to report on the condition of my friend Rowan, who had been diagnosed with Scleroderma, and was awaiting a lung transplant, was given his new set of breathers about two weeks ago, and has actually been realised from the hospital already. This is great news as Rowan was on the waiting list for those lungs for over 45 day. I’ve gathered from recent reports, that Rowan has been quite physically active and has been walking regularly. Good for you bro!

I’ll end this post with a picture I stole from Matty’s blog of him on the last move to the lip, the move I fell on my first RP burn on the Orangutan. Notice the cam over his left hand? Only for posing purposes…