Well… yeah. I lagged again. Hardcore. This might have been the longest time I’ve let my blog gone un-updated. Ya know how it is… sometimes you just check out, and let so much time lapse that it feels impossible to check back in.
I had about three more weeks in Rocklands after my last blog post, before I returned home for the first time in six months. That two month trip to Rocklands was the most funnest bouldering trip I’ve even taken. It was nothing but good times with an amazing crowd of people and perfect boulders, for the most part. Lots of bouldering, and lots of fun parties, lots of local meat. I had been sport climbing at Ceuse for 6 weeks before going to Rocklands, and though I didn’t send many of the routes I worked on in Ceuse, it actually provided the perfect training for Rocklands—a long hike to get to long, power-endurance pitches with lots of finger holds gave me a perfect base to which to work from- so I climbed pretty well in Rocklands as a result. Sending wise, I pretty much climbed almost every hard boulder I had my sights on (except, of course, the arête) and on my second to last day of the trip, which fortunately arrived with perfect cold and windy conditions, I succeeded climbing one of my dream boulders- Sky. Sky wasn’t something that gave up easily for me. I came really close to sending it on my second day of attempts, but it got dark and I had so much time left in the trip that I wasn’t worried about having to come back to send it… but then it got really hot for like two weeks and I went back day after slimy day just to slip off the second move over and over. I started to stress that the right conditions that I needed to send wouldn’t come before my scheduled departure. Then, the weather gods sent me perfect conditions for my second to last day of the trip and it all came together for me. Sending Sky meant a lot to me. It’s such a perfect looking line, it’s beautiful, it’s simple, and the moves are incredible. It felt like the first real V14 I’d climbed. The previous two were Esperanza, which is much more my style (power endurance out a roof) and Goldfish Trombone (also that same style), so to complete a problem of that difficulty that was more pure power climbing was such a cool thing. It felt like magic, how major sends that come at the very end of a trip often feel. The planets aligned… ok I’ll stop tooting my horn. There were still a few problems that were on my list that I didn’t manage to complete or didn’t get around to trying that I want to go back for…
Living Large!
Golden Shadow
Black Eagle
Airstar!
Amandala
30’s the new 20
The multitudes of other projects that are out there just waiting to be found and cleaned!
Manu on 30′s the new 20, me on Airstar on my last day, and on the last boulder I topped out in Rocklands, Nutsa.
After I came back from Rocklands I had a few weeks at home to relax and regenerate. I had a pretty damn good reason to go to Norway J the weather looked promising, and after salivating over Nalle’s Norway bouldering video for a year, the time seemed right. I booked my ticket and jetted over there on August 18th. I had a really fun trip, met lots of new friends (reconnected with some from Rocklands) and managed to get some bouldering in on some of Norway’s finest granite between squalls. Here’s a video that my friend Bjorn shot and edited…. embarrassing for me, but here’s the link anyway. I am really looking forward to going back there for a more extended trip… the country is beautiful (as are the people 
and is essentially made of perfect, costal granite. If you had lots of time and a nice boat, you could probably find and climb at 50 more areas like Harbok and Vingsand between Trondheim and Loofoten.
Warming up on Hueco Vingsand V9 and sending The Diamond V13
I came back from Norway and only 5 days later flew to Colorado for a photo shoot for MHW. It was super nice to hang in Boulder for a few days in Late September and it really made me want to live there… it was sad to leave. While I was there I had one really fun morning climbing at the Rincon wall. I managed a flash ascent of Fraid Line and did the notoriously heady Musta Been High second try between rain showers, and right before the sun blasted the wall. I also got to boulder in Upper Chaos with old friend Cody Roth on Blood Money. It’s so beautiful up there! I felt like a drunken asthmatic up there, then watched an impressive ascent of Top Notch (V13) by Killian Fischuber (filmed by Chuck Fryberger’s next flick). Super inspiring! I went to Endovalley the next day, feeling equally out of my element from the altitude and got spanked around on Flux for Life (V13). Such a cool problem though and I can’t wait to get back there! I also got up to the Devils’ thumb and had a play on Matt Wilder’s Cheating Reality (13d ish) on TR, and actually felt ready or a lead after one TR session, but we were running out of Daylight and it was drizzling… not a god idea to rush those things. One more to go back for!
Flux for Life V13 (photo by my man Nathan)
Going straight from Colorado to Vermont for the Nor’ Easter was a little shocking to the system, but I coped. I went pretty much solely to try to defend my title at the UBC North Face Open… the Semi finals got rained out, and then I performed somewhat poorly in the finals, but despite earning a slightly disappointing 4th, I still had a blast and got to catch up with old friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time, even if one of their iPods kept me up all night before the Finals on a loud but muffled repeat of the same song that sounded like a faint, far-away smoke alarm… I’ll never let you live that one down lizzy!
After the Nor’ Easter I had a month or so at home to chill and regroup. I made it to the east side for a day of bouldering at my favorite area in the world, the Buttermilks. I didn’t have the callouses to send anything hard, but I got all psyched to come back in the winter and crush some of my long standing projects… The Swarm, Mandala SDS… freaken sharp crimps… I love ‘em!
Repeating the Mandala
I also got up to Half Dome and climbed the Regular route for the first time with my good friend Brian before the first snows came. Thanks to our fast pace while still keeping it safe, mostly credited to Brian’s wall experience, it was one of the best days of climbing I’ve ever had (even though I accidentally dropped my iPhone from about 1800 feet up). My goal was to onsight the rig, all free. Following the stupid topo, (which for some reason doesn’t have the free variation written in) we got a little lost and had to go up the fist bolt ladder instead of around to the left. It might have been for the better though as it saved us a little time on the wall and we were able to top out before it got too late. I was able to onsight everything above the Robbins traverse, including the 12d variation that I thought looked like the easier path, but I did take on the 12- slab at the top due to extreme toe pain… stiffer shoes would have been nicer on that pitch.
On October 22nd I departed SFO for Beijing for the second time in a year. This time though, Yangshuo wasn’t my final destination. This time, I was going to meet an international crew of Petzl athletes in the Getu Valley for the Petzl Roc Trip. I’m so glad I went! It turned out to be really fun and the temperatures weren’t nearly as warm as I expected them to be. I mostly climbed with Belgian wall master/adventure climber and half the dynamic duo, team Favresse/V’illanueava, the man with the coolest accent ever- Sean Villanueava O’Driscoll. I also roomed and climbed with Kiwi powerhouse Mayan Smith- Gobat (what’s with all these hyphenated last names??) who was fresh off a super-impressive season in Yosemite where she made free ascents of two El Cap routes! In Getu, the routine was wake up, eat noodles for breakfast, rally the troops, hike to the river and boat across it, then hike up the 1370 steps up to the great arch, climb all day, thrash your skin, share some laughs with your friends, then hike down at dusk shouting for the boat man not t leave you stranded on the far side of the river. It was great fun! At night we’d feast on some of the best Chinese dishes Getu had to offer with all the other athletes. Along with most of the other 5.10 athletes, I had an extra week of climbing in Getu after the rock trip. Even though the crowds had severely diminished, everyone still wanted to get on the same routes and thus I never got a chance to try the most bitchen single pitch line in the arch, Powder Finger (14a), but that’s ok because I got a ton of climbing in anyway. On my last day in Getu, I visited the other premier crag, Banyang’s Cave. I had a pretty successful day despite the nagging inner elbow tendonitis I was experiencing, and managed flashes of the two classic 13ds, the classic 8a and a third try ascent of the hardest route at the crag, the short and powerful Michael Fuselier route, Kung Fu Panda (14a) just before dark. I great way to end the trip! The next day all the Five Ten athletes who had stuck around after the trip hoped in a bus and made the 4 hour drive back to the small (a population of 6 million) city of Guiyang for our respective journeys back home… or on to Fontainebleau, France in my case. Just keep going west, that’s my motto!
The Great Arch, Enzo enjoying some of the amazing holds, and the light coming through the arch that I never got to see because it was never sunny enough!
Leaving Beijing
I’ve been posted up in Font for almost the last two months! I can’t believe it’s been that long… I feel like I’ve accomplished very little of what I had in mind at the beginning of the trip… which was the exact opposite of how I felt after spending almost two months in Rocklands… I guess, looking back, I could make the excuse that a lot of our trip was plagued with bad conditions… but that’s Font! There aren’t a ton of days with perfect conditions, so you have to take advantage and I just wasn’t physically prepared to boulder 8b or 8b+ really quickly on this trip. Unless you’re name is Adam Ondra, Paul Robinson or Daniel Woods, you probably need more then 30 mins (or 30 seconds) to climb 8b or 8b+… Jesus, is Adam Ondra even real? I’ve never seen him! I’m convinced he’s just a hologram. That’s the only explanation I can find as to how he managed to flash (FLASH!) the Gecko assis…
Working out the moves on the Gecko assis (8b+) and sending Ubik assis (8b)
Yeah, so the style of climbing here is hard for me. It is much different than somewhere like Rocklands or Hueco where it’s more pulling and dynamic moves on actual holds… Here, the key to sending problems at your limit is 1) having good beta, 2) having good conditions and 3) having the nuances and intricacies of each move down to a science (unless, as previously stated, you can flash 8b+). I think those seond and third criteria are more important here then other places with positive holds. In bad conditions, problems that have felt easy on a previous day can be totally impossible. Also, body position can play a huge role on weather or not you can do a move. Sometimes something as bringing your body up higher without moving your feet to oppose a hold (Partage) or pointing your toe down while you’re heel hooking (Karma) can make the difference.
Flickr album of pics from the first half of our trip to Font
After almost two months I didn’t manage to send many boulders in the 8a+ and above range… but really, who (besides me) cares! Looking back, I’ve had a really fun trip.
I did manage to stand on top of a few boulders when it really mattered to me. I got some classics done, made some new friends, ate a lot of delicious French pastries, and shared a lot of laughs and ate amazing home-cooked meals every night. I am super psyched to come back soon and step it up a notch on some of the harder lines. Here is a list of the most memorable boulders I’ve climbed on this trip, boulders I can recommend, because it seems like everyone does this at the end of their wrap-up blog posts now:
Ubik assis 8b
Partage 8a+
Total Eclipse 8a+
Gecko super stand 8a+
Amok 8a
Rainbow Rocket 8a (dyno!)
Karma 8a
L’apparemment 8a
Big Dragon 8a
Tigre et Dragon 8a
Controle Technique 7c+
L’Œil de la Sybille 7c+
Hypothese 7c+
Misericorde 7c+
Controle A 7c
Dosage 7c (flash)
Megawatt 7c
Air Sweeden 7c (roof dyno)
La Berezina 7c
Big Boss 7c
Formi Rouges 7c
Infidèle 7b+
Sur- Prises 7b+
L’Aérodynamite 7b+
L’Angle Incarné 7b
Smatch 7b
La Balen 7a+
Big Jim 6c (sandbagged!)
All the problems I tried on this trip or in March with Wilder that I either didn’t get to on this trip or only had one session on that I’m anxious to get back on:
The Island (shouldn’t it start from conviction!??) Vvery hard
Gecko Assis 8b+ (did it in two parts…)
Elephunk 8b (it was never dry on this trip)
Kheops 8b
Satan i Helvete 8b
Chaos 8b
La Pierre Philosophale 8b
Le Tajin 8b
Hip Hop 8a+
La Merveille 8a+
Duel (!!!) 8a
La Balance 7c+
Megalith 7c
L’angle Parfait 7b+ (Sandbagged as a mu-fugga)
There are dozens more that I would have liked to try on this trip, that I’ve either walked past and ogled over, or have seen video/pictures of. Problems fitting that description are to numerous to recall! And there are countless more that I’ve never seen or heard of, just lying in wait in someone’s private area… there are said to be over 5000 grade 7s and 8s in the forest. 5000! How could any one person ever climb all the best ones!
So that’s it. I’m about to pack up the rental and drive to Orly… I’ll be back for you Fontainebleau!
Also, big thanks to Neil here at Maisonbleau. He has made our trip much more comfortable and relaxed! I highly recommend staying at his place.
That is one outstanding orange cat. And a splendid chicken.