Feeling Independent?

Howdy.

It’s been a while… Ahem.

I’m in the Rocklands of South Africa. Been here for a month! It’s raining again today but that’s ok since we’re recovering from a late night last night. The Oliphantshous threw their the annual meat buffet for the climbers. This time is was an assortment of Antelope (mostly springbok) products- minces, shredded pies, steaks an extremely tender creamy meat that we found out halfway through the meal was tongue. The food was delicious and the party afterward was a bash but I have a feeling that’ll be the last time they through a buffet for the climbers. Next year when they consider it, someone will chime in with ‘yes we raked in $3000, but remember how late they stayed here and those guys from California were so obnoxious- the one bearded guy screamed so loudly when he was drunk and the other danced SO terribly! I don’t think I can bear to watch that again,” But in Africans.

So yeah, I guess I haven’t blogged for 2 months. Uh… oops.

How’d I get to this position? How’d I manage to neglect the EP.com domain for another three months? Yeah… pretty pathetic! I let time slip. I let everything pile up until I couldn’t balance on the peak of the everything any longer, then I tumbled down the slippery slop of this everything- the goings on, the happenings, the stories of events attended and routes sent (or more often punted off) and self promotion that usually (well sometimes) fills up the blank spaces on this forsaken website of mine- and when I stopped at the bottom and picked myself up and brushed myself off and looked up at the everything, the mountain of it was just way to tall to climb back up and sort through. It was just too much! That’s my excuse at least.  I know I’ve disappointed you, but here’s the thing. I’m a “professional climber” because I like climbing, not spraying about climbing, and for the last four months, traveling through Europe, and bouldering in SA for the last month, I’ve been focusing all my attention on climbing well. I may only be in SA once! I’ll probably come back someday, but who knows. I’m not saying I don’t have free time. I’ve had loads in the past few months… but when the time comes to update my blog, or read, or watch an entertaining movie, or go to the hen house and hang out with a international group of climbers, or stretch, or play with myself, (like, stuff that normal people do with their free time I’ve been choosing to do the other stuff, the stuff you do. That’s my other excuse. Ok, no more excuses.

I think I might have mentioned in my last post at the beginning of April that I was planning on going to Ceuse. Well, we went to Ceuse, and that’s where I stayed for about six weeks. And hey, I really didn’t make it to the top of too many note worthy rock climbs, so ya really didn’t miss much! Here are a few of the highlights of my trip to Ceuse (which involved side trips to Saint Leger Du Ventoux and a weekend in Vienna, Austria for a bouldering WC). So in Ceuse…

-The early April heat wave from hell that plagued European climbing areas (that inspired our departure from Catalonia) vanished, Spain cooled back down and I thought about returning to have another shot at some if the more inspiring lines at Oliana and Margalef, but didn’t. Instead I stayed stuck in the Ceuse vortex.

- When I first arrived I put my draws on Three Degrees of Separation, the route I went to Ceuse to do. There my draws stayed, swaying in the wind, heckling me every day upon my completion of the hike, a constant reminder of dreams left unrealized. I probably went up the route like 10 times on this trip, and gave the crux dyno serious efforts on about 6 of those tries, and I stuck it twice one day when I was really psyched. TWICE! I think the route’s 9b. I mean, it’s the only route I know of that Ondra’s tried and hasn’t sent. If that’s not a testament to it’s difficulty, I don’t know what would be. In an attempt to distract myself from failure on 3D I moved my draws around the cliff from one project to another.

-I fell in love with a roof project that goes straight out the middle of Demi-Lune that Dani Andrada apparently bolted. It’s very atypical of Ceuse style climbing, with burly, bouldery cruxes on good holds, finishing with an iron-cross type lock off at the lip of the roof. I fell from the route’s definite RP crux about 10 times (the iron cross move) and left Ceuse without the tick… when I originally worked out the moves I thought it was in the hard 8c/soft 8c+ range. By the time I left I was thinking more along the lines hard 8c+ or 9a. Ondra will probably onsight the FA. I wanted to call it Angry Birds because there were some birds nests near the route and because I was incredibly addicted to the iPhone game around the time I was trying it. So Adam (or whoever sends it first) respect dat!

-I checked out Saint Leger for a few days- that place is fun! Sent two 8b+ routes there, both second try. Le Nabab on the Face Est and Collections of Fall and Winter (or the French translation of that, except I accidentally ended the climb on La Giraffe) at La Baleen.

-I did a few newer routes on the Berlin Sector of Ceuse, the best in my opinion being the Queue De Rat Extension, rated 8a+ (total sandbag). If you’re looking for a slightly overhung to vertical 8b to try, definitely get on that one! It’s brilliant!

-I bolted a new line on the Biography wall. It’s just 10 meters to the right of Biography. The climbing on it is fun and the line is stunning but there is an extremely hard crux in the middle that I couldn’t’ do, even after throwing myself at it for a couple days… something for the human spider monkey to work on. This one I’m confident he won’t do first try. But I do hope he, or SOMEONE does it. I think it’ll be one of the hardest climbs in the world when it gets done. I’m glad I put the work into bolting it- something for the kids (Trick love da kids).

-I attended the annual bouldering world cup in Vienna, Austria. It was a lot of fun and it rekindled my motivation, or rather my resolve to do a whole season of WCs at some point. Maybe next year?!? Five Ten sponsored the trip and I wrote a pair of blogs for their site about my weekend in Vienna.

-I ate. A lot. Most of it was really yummy. Some of the best items were fresh goat cheese from La Cheverie just up the street from the Les Guerins Camping, Fleur De Sel chocolate, Crepes, anything containing or covered with salted butter, nutella or creamy honey. We’ve also made salads or cooked with the dandelion greens that we picked around the campground. Foraging is fun (as a friend from Davis said).

-At some point near the end of my trip I looked at the non-stick pans we’d been cooking with and eating out of and judging by the amount of Teflon missing from the insides of them, I’m pretty sure I’ll have cancer soon, if I don’t already have it. We must have consumed a half a gram of Teflon thanks to the good folks at Ceucha industries.

- Arnaud Petit is a professional climber who lives just at the bottom of the hill from Ceuse with his lovely wife Stephanie. After weeks of preparation, we were lucky enough to witness Arnaud finally go for an all-naturally protected ascent of the 60 meter climb on the Biography wall, The Black Bean. After a decade of living just below Ceuse, we think Arnaud’s gotten a little bored with most of the climb there and the mental challenges those climb can provide. The Black Bean (or the French translation of that name) is the 8b+ extension of a classic 8a, Les Collenettes. Arnaud basically soloed up the first 10 meters, past the V9ish boulder start to Les Collenettes, put in some cams, then added more where he could (not very many- like three) on his way to the anchor of Les Collenettes where he threaded a sling between two huecos. He then hauled up a rack to finish the climb and made a cam nest next to the threader. The task of hauling the cams, making the nest and re-racking took a solid ten minutes. He hauled the rack of cams for the upper half of the climb by hauling with one arm and biting the extra rope with his mouth so he could reach down and grab the rope lower. All in all it was an exciting performance, for him probably even more so than for us, that was nearly successful- he pumped off after the crux when he placed a cam with too short a runner in a hand hold he’d just used (which got in his way when he tried to step below it). He went back a week later for a clean send and this time there were no errors. Sick! I guess skipping bolts is a trend that has migrated to Europe! Or did it originate in Europe…

-I belayed my Isralie friend Ilya on his first 7a+ (5.12a!!!), Pourquoi Pas. It took him a good 10 tries. It was an EPIC send! Then we sent the first season of East Bound and Down and the movie Hot Fuzz, both also EPIC! Then we pigged out on Chocolate and French delicatessen.

-I met lots of new friends in Ceuse and shared some memorable experiences with them. I didn’t learn French though… Or Spanish. Shiza! Oh, and I turned 25. Turning 25 is fine since people have been guessing my age as 25 since I was 19… I think it’s my matooraty. I’m in my late twenties now! Gosh how time flies when you’re having fun.

-The day after my birthday I was hung over and Brendan and I hiked up to the cliff in the rain to retrieve our draws. Brendan’s route was wet, so he had a good excuse to stick-clip up the wall, but my routes were pretty much completely dry… we had a laugh about the prospect of me trying 3 Degrees in my dizzy state, but I decided to sport aid it instead.

(Disclaimer: The previous half of the post is pretty much what I’ve been up to in a nut shell, so ifyou’re feeling contented about this update, feel free to close this window or skip to paragraph 130. If you want to hear a bunch of bull-pokey about my big send in Ceuse, read on!)

The same day Arnaud sent The Black Bean on gear, I made the second ascent of a route called La Cadre via a new, all natural variation that skirts a 4 meter chipped section to the left. La Carde Neuville Version was FA’d last summer by… guess who? Correct, an on-fire Adam Ondra. How many tries you ask? Well, two, according to his 8a scorecard. Yes, I agree that’s a very impressive effort for a climb rated 9a!

La Cadre is also on the Biography wall about 50 meters left of Les Collenettes and maybe 20 meters to the left of 3 Degrees. I red pointed the original line, which was rated 8c, in 2005 (it was one of the more popular 8cs in Ceuse). At some point between then and last summer, one of the chipped pockets that was re-enforced with glue, broke and rendered the move… much harder, if still possible. That was all the excuse Arnaud and local strong-man Sylvan Millet needed to see if a natural variation to the left would go (those guys don’t like the chipped holds in Ceuse very much). After placing bolts where they thought this new variation would go, they realized in fact there were just barley enough grips to make passage possible.

This new variation climbs the old line for it’s first 15 meters to a good rest on Jugs to which point the climb is about 8a+. The jugs at the end of the 8a+ section are massive, which is good because you want to fully recover for the moves that are coming up (unless you’re Adam Ondra, in which case you probably just shook out twice with each hand, said “woooow” in a low-pitched voice, then continued right on through the crux). Where the old line goes straight up using some chipped holds through an otherwise blank section of wall, the new line goes out left on some crimpy pockets, then past some harder tension moves on slopers with low, crappy feet, then a big huck off said slopers with your right hand to an in-cut edge (sticking this edge is the crux of the new variation), then you must match and do another big move up and left off of the edge. After this you climb another meter out left to a jug rail and cop a quick shake and slow your breathing (by which point your last draw is about 5 meters down and right). Without clipping the dogging draw you begin your adventure back out right through a powerful, 8-10 move under-cling traverse after which you join back up with the old line. The new sequence is about 22 moves from where the line leaves the old version to where it re-joins it. The old sequence was about 12. After you rejoin La Cadre you encounter the RP crux of the old variation– an in-your-face sequence on two consecutive crimp two-finger pockets, followed by a stab into a jug from the second one. Once you gain the jug you are on less overhung terrain and the hardest moves are out of the way, but there are still a couple more technical sections that would be easy to fall from if you weren’t carful or were too pumped, where I actually did fall once or twice in 2005 when trying to red point the original version.

The sending day on which Arnaud and I both topped out our respective projects was cold and windy and the rock felt really tacky (and I had forgotten my underwear… don’t ask). I was pretty psyched when I stuck the crux lunge on my second try of the day, but I thought for sure I’d fall on the subsequent cruxy sections- the physical undercling traverse, the previous version’s crux on the crimp two fingers or even the techy sections after that, but somehow the pressure was off and I just kept climbing until I found myself with that overwhelming sense of surprise and elation at the anchors. Woo-Hoo! It never ceases to bring a smile to my face.

The climb took me ten or so tries in total. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to finish the route in the few remaining days I had left before departing Europe, and thankfully I did do it the day that I did because on my next day I felt tired and lethargic and the following days it rained heavily… so yippe! La Cadre Neuville Version was a route I was happy to complete in a timely manner and invest some days into, but it also felt like a consolation prize of sorts, after failing on my other projects… Oh well. It’s all good! Two days later I turned 25, and not having the looming pressure of unfinished projects on my shoulders, I was free to enjoy the occasion. You only turn 25 once you know! My last few days in Ceuse were fun, but next time I go to France to climb, I need to forget about Ceuse. There are so many places I wanted to check out on this trip- Gorge Du Tarn, Verdon, Boux, crags around Briancon, etc that of course I didn’t see on this trip because I once again got stuck in Ceuse! Ceuse is like a favorite record that you just can’t help but take down off the shelf, even though you’ve heard it a million times, and all you’re friends who’s musical tastes you respect have given you a list of albums to check out (which you’ve researched on the internet and heard samples of on myspace), you just can’t help but go back to your roots and grab that old trusty record off the shelf because you know it’ll bring a smile to your face… but at some point you’ve listened to it too many times, and the beautiful music you once enjoyed more then any other starts to just sound like noise.

Two days after I turned 25 I left Ceuse at 5am. My friend Brendan (who belayed me on La Cadre) was nice enough to give me a ride to the train station for my 6am train to Marseilles (thanks Brendan!). In Marseilles I caught another train to Nice (it was delayed by 30 minutes, yikes!). In Nice I caught a bus to the airport, (the slow, 45 minute bus for 1 £!) then a plane to Istanbul, then another plane to Johannesburg, then another to Cape Town where Rob Guinn was waiting for me with his luggage, and where Jason Crase arrived an hour and a half later. We packed our miniature Hyundai rental car to the gills and headed straight for Clanwilliam. And Rocklands is where we’ve been for the last month. A lot has happened. Lemme fill you in- Blah blah blah blah. Ok, really, all I can tell you about Rocklands is that it’s by far MY favorite bouldering area. I love this place. I mean, every boudering areas is different and they are all special and have certain qualities, but the style of climbing here is my favorite. There are big, beautiful overhangs featuring striking, attractive lines with good holds and the rock has perfect texture. It’s so much fun to climb! Also the people are great, the landscape is incredible, the isolation is enough to make you feel far away from everything, but the proximity of everything you need on a daily basis- lodging, food, boulders, other people- is enough to make life easy and relaxed. There are groups of climbers from all over the world here this summer (actually most of them are from Scandinavia…) but it’s pretty cool connect with so many wonderful people! Even though we will have been here for 7 weeks, by the time we leave I know I’ll miss it and won’t want to leave the last time we drive down from the pass towards Clanwilliam. It’ll be a sad moment and I’m dreading it, but we have three more weeks so I think I’ll be mentally prepared when the time comes.

The weather patterns here are sort of perfect for the schedule I like to keep on a bouldering trip. Most of the time it’s sunny with a cold, dry wind (I think on the whole this winter has had exceptional conditions). Every 5 days or so a little storm comes and it rains for a day or two, usually when we’re totally knackered and need some rest anyway, then when it’s done raining the sun shines again and it’s cold and dry! Perfect!

After seeing pictures and video of the famous, incredible boulders here for years now, it’s a real treat to get to finally climb on them. Gosh I’m one lucky dude! And how magical they really are!!! Mother nature sculpted their beautiful forms and streaked their bulging flanks for our pleasure! I made a list of all the problems here that I wanted to do, or at least try before I left this year, and I’ve actually done a majority of them now and most of the ones I really needed to get on I’ve done. The climbs on the list that I still haven’t done at this point are either pretty dang hard, or more obscure. If I could do one more hard climb before I leave it would be Sky. It’s such a nice line. Big beautiful overhang with good holds perfect spaced (for someone with my reach) up the center? I can’t even imagine a more perfect line. I’ve given it one afternoon of attempts on our second day here, and was able to do the second move and come close to the first, and I’ve been itching to go back ever since! I’d also like to try and send Amandala before I leave, but I’m not sure I have the crimp strength (or a low enough BMI, I type, as I sit here and shovel hummus covered crackers into my mouth). We tried 30’s the new 20 one morning in the sun and that’s definitely on the list as well. You can’t really tell from the video of Tommy doing it but getting your foot up after sticking the right hand pinch is pretty hard. Also the Power of One, the Quintessential, Black Shadow… not a whole lot else? Airstar is an amazingly hard party trick, but a sick line and one I’d like to have a go at again before departing.

I hiked up to Living large one warm day, rapped down it and… WOW, what a climb. It’s so impressive. It’s definitely one of the most difficult and stunning pieces of rock I’ve ever seen. I tried some of the moves on the rope and, though they were in the sun and I had a floppy pair of 5xs on, I managed to do all the upper moves in isolation, barley. I for some reason had hoped that those upper moves were easier then Nalle makes them look in Core but, NOPE. They are every bit as desperate and balancy as they look. Thinking about trying to do those delicate, barn-doory moves without the rope gave me butterflies. It was warm and the rock at the bottom is extremely rough, plus its hard even to pull onto the wall on those moves with the rope, so I didn’t give them much serious effort, but again, WOW, they are HARD. Those bottom slopers on the left side of the arête are almost nothing! I can see if it was cold and windy and you had the body position down being able to use them as handholds, but it’d be hard. I’d like to go have a play on it some evening when the conditions are perfect and when I have some calluses I can afford to shred, but I can’t really conceive of sending it on this trip. It is just such a hard and continuous boulder that I know it would take me days just to figure out the moves, and right now there are too many other, more do-able lines that I would like to finish in my remaining three weeks. But it’s something to dream about, something to look forward to if I come back next year.

Difficulty is a hard thing to gauge, huh? Is it an exact science? Is a climbs rating etched in stone at the bottom of the wall? Thank goodness no! My opinion is that the difficulty of a rock climb really can’t be contained in a number with any amount of certainty- every piece of rock is so different, every person is different, and every day is different.  Beta evolves, the collective understanding of what’s possible, or even just hard, evolves, and conditions change from day to day. If grades were just a guide for people to know what to try when they go to an area, like they should be, people wouldn’t bicker over them so much. Grades for climbers are so much more than a guide- we let grades define us. I do it, you do it, we all do it and it can be fun and helpful. You can use grades to gauge your improvement and to set goals for yourself and when you achieve those goals, it’s feel good. But there are some negative effects when you put such meaning behind them. First of all you’re limiting yourself on what you can get on. I know strong boulderers that won’t get on many climbs easier then 8a after they warm up, especially if they aren’t gimmies, because the grade isn’t high enough, even though the climbs they neglect are some of the most classic in the area. It can also work in the opposite way where a climber is afraid to get on something that’s graded harder then they ever climbed even though it’s well within their ability. I’m not saying people shouldn’t bicker on the internet about grades of problems they’ve never touched because they are going to do it anyway, I’m just saying that grades are not that important! They are just one person’s rough estimate of their own experience on a climb. Most of the time people just take the grade of the first ascentionist at face value, even though they might actually think it’s easier because they used different beta or a sticky rubber thigh pad or they had the simple knowledge that it isn’t an FA and that it’s been done before.

Unfortunately “pro climbing” isn’t like pro surfing, and videos of my sends aren’t online the next day, edited professionally to music complete with artistic angles and cut-aways, thought Rob is capturing loads of video. So all people have to go on is what I post to 8a, (mostly for my friends back home to see what I’m climbing) and there lies the problem. I’m a realist and when I post my climbs to the sprayDOTpoo, the grades I give them are just my own (brave and humble opinion. Don’t take it so personally! I don’t just downgrade things, I grade them whatever grade I felt they were for ME, the day I climbed them. For instance, the other day I did Ray of Light, a climb that has been pretty solidified at V13, but I climbed through the lower moves, which most people consider to be the crux, first go and fell in the middle. I ended up doing the climb on my 3^rd attempt and maybe it just suited me, maybe my fingers fit into those slots really well? But I never do V13 3^rd go, so I rated it V12. Then I walked over to the far plateau and tried a climb I’d already given about 15 tries on, In Between Dreams. It’s somewhat of a one move boulder problem, a dyno to a crimp, but it felt like the hardest thing I’d climbed on the trip, taking me about 15 more tries. But friends of mine who have given Ray of Light many attempts and still haven’t sent it, climbed In Between Dreams in a couple of tries and didn’t find it too bad. In Between Dreams was given 8a by Klem who climbed it first, I thought it was more like hard 8a+, even though I felt Ray of Light was more like 8a+ even though Klem rated it 8b. What I’m trying to say is that grades, especially those of boulder problems, are extremely subjective. And now I’m not going to give the topic another minute of thought! Get outside and away from you computers people! Climb what interests you and have fun! That’s what I’m gonna do. But then again I’m in the privileged position to do that.

Lastly I’d like to say hello and give virtual hugs to all the folks back home my family and friends that I don’t keep in close enough contact with.  You’re always in my thoughts and I wish you were here! (it’s the thought that counts, right?) I love y’all, and I wouldn’t be where I am now (somewhere awesome?) without your support and encouragement.

Three more weeks! Fienburglar’s coming, Randy savage is coming, Scotter and Brian are coming, and we’re gonna rage. It’s gonna be siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick! I haven’t been taking too many pics just because others I go climbing with have better cameras (and better eyes for good photos) but like I said before, we’ve been capturing a ton of video of the sends and I’ll try to get some teasers, or at least some frame grabs online soon. The internet connection here isn’t exactly lightning quick.

Wake up and smell the perfection.

Who are these stud muffins?

Lisa and a battle Cricket

Phil on Armed Response and in front of the Vice.

Rob on a warm up on the Plateau and the rainy day hiking team huddling below Shosholoza

Some dogs

Creaking Heights

Evening sesh at Roadside

Sky and the Hatchling

This one’s for Mak

Something totally random and awesome to end with.