China Doll, Flat Irons

Yep, the china doll went down yesterday evening. I struggled up it, barely hung on through the crux and topped out with the last remaining light of the “day”. I had to put on my headlamp immidietly after getting to the ground to see anything. Psyched!

Brian Solono came out from Denver to film me on the route for his new movie, The Players. The footage he got should be pretty rad. I went and gave it a couple tries the other day with Matt Wilder, and figured out the beta on this monster 120+ foot pitch. Yesterday ended up being a splitter day with really good conditions: clear skies and windy. We got up there and I set up a rope for BS to film from, while we waited for the wall to go into the shade. As soon it was I gave it my first RP attempt, sans warm up. Even though the rock was still a little warm, it was cool and windy and I felt really good on the bottom half of the climb, which is like 13c by it’s self. I climbed the route really smoothly up to the crux, but didn’t quite get the grey TCU in all the way, which is the piece that holds a fall from the crux. I figured it was in good enough to hold a fall though, so I just punched it and climbed though the first bit of the crux without any slips, then when I went to clip the fixed nut (that I think Mike Patz and Matt Segal might have placed on lead on the FA and 2nd ascent), I realized in a moment of panic that I didn’t bring a draw to clip it! In desperation, I grabbed the only piece of gear on my harness: a draw on the other side of my harness that had the stopper on it that protects the last 20 feet of climbing to the anchors. I don’t really know what I would’ve done if I had been successful in clipping the draw and climbing past the rest of the crux, because I would’ve been looking at 35 more feet of climbing with no pro left on my harness. After clipping the draw with the stopper, onto the fixed stopper I was too flash pumped, from lack of a warm up, to actually clip the rope into the draw. I tried to do the next move and wung onto the grey TCU, that actually ended up holding, and took a solid 20 foot fall onto it. After pulling back on I climbed the crux section a few more times to get it that much more dialed. After Matt came down from the route, it was already starting to get dark, so I had to get ready pretty quick, this time making sure to bring enough draws. I had no time to waste and tried to sprint up the first half of the climb, keeping resting time to a minimum, racing the light. This time I plugged the grey TCU into it’s place, it’s home, which was good for my confidence. It’s actually a pretty hard move by it’s self to get in that piece in. I climbed through the crux, noticing that I was a little more tired than the previous attempt, but knowing the route that much better, I knew I could send. I clipped the fixed nut and kept going, trying to cop a shake wherever I could. I was really pumped, and was thrutching my feet a lot, unsure weather I was going to have the juice to get through it all, but managed to thug through to easier terrain, let out a scream, and relaxed. I climbed the remainder of the route easily, and was barley able to see my foot holds when I got to the top. Obviously I was really happy to have sent such a mentally and physically challenging route in so few tries (4 including my first TR reconasince). For me, this was definitely the second hardest trad line i’ve done. Easier than the Cobra for sure, but harder than The Path. A more traditional style, crimpy and technical. Here is a pic of me working out the crux section after falling on my first attempt of the day.

I though I had left my sunglasses at the base of the route, so today I went back up to dream canyon to retrieve them. I scouwered the ground looking for them, but to no success. So I went back down to boulder canyon, to castle rock, to belay Matt for photos of his new route Viceroy, 14a R. I was an hour late to meet them, but it didn’t much matter as the light was just getting good when I arrived. After Matt posed his way up it and set up a TR, I got my climbing shoes to give it a TR. As I was telling Andy Mann and Matt the story of my missing glasses, I un-velcrowed my gallileos and there were my glasses, shoved inside my shoe! Righteous!

Letts see, what else have I been up to? I went bouldering up in Rocky with an old friend, Mike Wickwire from California, on Monday. We had a blast, climbing on the super-classic Both Sides of the Spetrum, established by my friend Harry Robertson, and the low left start to another classic problem Veritas. I ended up sending Both Sides, after an hour or so of figuring out the beta and a short epic, which involded me falling off the very top of the boulder, then falling making reverse progress. I also sent the low start to veritas, which mike was also super close to doing also.

In the last couple days, i have soloed the 3rd and 1st flat irons. For those who haven’t been to boulder, the Irons are a bunch of Ironing board shaped rocks that jet out from the side of the mountains that overlook boulder. There sick, and you can see them from anywhere in boulder because they’re about 500 feet tall. Yesterday I decided to solo the 3rd, which is about 5.4 or something. Really more like a steep hike wich a few smears, but inexperienced climbers should definitely rope up for these. I passed two parties on the third, one of whom needed a little assistance with managing there rope… I summited and descended without any hassle. It was so much fun that I decided to do the first this morning with a friend. I’m going to leave out the details to spare myself the humiliation and ridicule that would surly come with explaining what happened this morning, but I’ll just say that my companion wasn’t the most experienced down-climber (even though she handled the up-climb like a champ!) and I didn’t exactly direct her to the easiest way down… please don’t slander me too hard! In the end we were both totally fine, even though I almost had a heart attack, and I learned a valuable lesson: Make sure you get bomber beta on the down-climb off the first flat Iron (especially when soloing with a less experienced climber!)

Tomorrow I go back up to the 5 Year Pan to pose for Video and Pictures. Then we wait out the storm to cooler, and hopefully dry weather next week when I’ll hopefully make my pilgrimage to Rocky for trad and bouldering alpine adventures!!! Stay tuned!