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 18^th. 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 4^th, 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 22^nd 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.

Subject: Space Travel

Mr. Pringle,

Hello there. It’s been a short while. I guess you’re wondering what I’ve been up to–and guess what? I am finally ready to tell you. Huge emo-sigh. I have spent the last several months designing a very complex and highly efficient media driven rocket engine in order to propel myself into complete and total obscurity.  I modeled it after you. Let me just say that it has been a LA-BORE intensive (spelling?), near-insurmountable task, wrought with communication breakdowns, lack of internet access, world travel, over sleeping, bouts of both diarrhea and vegan-ism, not to mention an extremely rudimentary understanding of  aeronautical engineering.  There was even talk of love in Scandinavia to boot. After months of being on the dark side of the moon, I haven’t even gotten the damn helmet working. Oh, f*** dude, take.

It’s easy, see:

Well, guess the f’ what?…I’ve been rock climbing out in the world someplace. Sometimes here. Sometimes there. Sometimes at that place too. I crushed it. I am crushing it. I will crush it.  I’m just clinging to shit all over the place. Schling! Nope. I am not on the rope. I am not on the pad. IM ON IT. And you? You even come here to read about it, freak, because you do it too. That is some seriously vicarious tin-can-action. Some “Girlie-Maan” crumpling shit. And yes, I have done that one. And yes, I have done this one. AND I have also done the other one you are thinking of–onsight, mo-fo. I am on the scene. I am on your tip. I am straight trippin dog. I have waka’d and flaka’d my way to where I be, am and is. I have done it with one arm. I have been to The Joshua Tree my friend, and I still haven’t found what I’m looking for–you feel me? Are you picking up what I am laying down? Do you smell what I’m stepping in? Word.

Or, “words” one might say. Pull on the f–ing draws if you have too, but clip the proverbial chains bro. I am your Peter Parker, your Clark Kent, your Pepper Potts (cos’ Iron Man was a tool too).  I am the Rukia to your Ichigo Kurasaki and I know what is good for you. Use those squeezers for something other than yanking for 60 God damn minutes, and write me a, uh, well…um.. a love song, ‘cos I asked for it, ‘cos I need one, you see…

If you want to get lied to, then turn on the Weather Channel.  If you want to generate more buzz than a bumble bee, write some shit down and let’em eat cake.

Love,
❉.
p.s. Enzo Oddo may do the frikin’ NAR at Clark before you do? WTF? It’s enough to make me hanker for Freedom fries and Liberty toast. The little communist.

He also wrote at the end that he was JK’ing. So it’s all good.  And to all my friends who I don’t keep in close enough contact with and don’t update my blog enough (at all) for and who’s emails and FB messages I let slip throgh the cracks, I miss you and you’re always in my thoughts. Ja bless. One Love.

Now I have to Wiki Ichigo Kurasaki…

Il Était une Fois

Golden Virginia and Ray of Light (I did not put that tick mark on the wall BTW)

Jason off and on Hole in One and me on Black Velvet

You Say Party, I Say Die

(Berni doesn’t want anyone to know this but, when he did the FA there was NO WATER IN THE HUECO!!!)

In Between Dreams and Phil on Steakhouse

Ghost in the Darkness and Shosholoza

Leap of Faith

El Corazon

Amandala

It’s been really hot here for the last ten days or so and haven’t been climbing that much, but the forecast says it’s going back down for the last week of our trip so hopefully I can finish up sky! I’ve done the first move about ten times and the second move maybe 15, but the second move is SO hard after doing the first, especially on days where it’s 70 degrees in shade which it has been for the last two weeks. And hopefully Jason can do Pinotage and hopefully Lisa can do a 7b+. Brian Antheunisse, Scott Cory, Dave Wetmore and Rod D’Anastasio are here, ready to grip it and rip it for the next month (or two). It’s nice to have a solid crew to roll with. May the temps cool, may clouds cover the sun and may our calloused fingertips latch onto the holds on our respective projects perfectly again and again until we’re standing on top of all the freaken boulders in rockalnds laughing and hollering before we go get crunk at the campground bar!!! ONE MORE WEEK!

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.

Ethan-

Nice work. You have once again flown in the face of chisel toting Euros and delivered a dose of humiliation–American style.  Actually, that would be more like bursting a real estate bubble through bad credit default swaps or bombing brown people, but whatever. Now onward! Next please. Now serving number 2 to at window number 1. Did you manage to send “that thing” you bolted, or are you planning on doing the second ascent? Ouch. Didn’t mean that. Hugs.

I saw by flickr that you went to a WC event.  eh? eH? EH? Did you contemplate swapping La Cornetta for a year of El Campo de Ninja in Europe? “When you can snatch the T-Nut from my hand…” etc, etc. Looked pretty cool from the vid. Stupid human tricks but perhaps not as stupid as the human tricks put on display in Virginia. It pretty much looked like a cross between Donkey Kong Jr and upside down Q-Bert.

Hows the shoulder? Who are you climbing with these days? Have you found a Hot-Euro-Pro-Climber-Babe to travel around with? Have you considered a Chateau or Hacienda and a Dog named after “The Fonz” ‘s little bro? Not sure how you would say that name in French though.  Maybe Richie would be preferable. Whatever. I never did like Happy Days. In any case, you’d have nothing left to do at that point but knit yourself a tam and crush.

I, on the other hand, have chronic low back pain, two annular pulley partial ruptures, and find myself in the peculiar spot of getting paid to drive wet homeless people around SF–in June. Whine whine whine. I am still able to climb, but my schedule prohibits much other than the gym. Did I ever tell you how much I LOVE the gym. The red route. The black route. The black AND red route. Wow. It fucking RULES! You go to this pinch, and then to this little Climb It edge, and then toss to the fucking shit pile fucking garbage fucking slow death. Fuck outside. I remember that I did manage all the moves on the new line at Pinnacles. 8b I think. We will see. I pried a few giant (30+lb) dirt clods off of it. Actually, It cleaned up fairly well. Its 36 meters long if you can believe it. 17 bolts, 13 put up on lead. 5 days of effort thus far just in bolting and cleaning. Argh. Hopefully we will have it ready for the fall when I am likely to be too injured to sit upright and/or feed myself, let alone climb.

Let me know how you are. Stop falling off of stuff.

Thanks for making us laugh so hard we cried and couldn’t choke breaths of air for five mins afterward. Thanks friend. We’re in Rocklands, SA for the next seven weeks, BTW.

On a separate note, we’re down the road 10 kilometers past Oliana at a pretty decent hotel. The Campground with the campers for rent in Oliana was closed… we waited at the reception for an hour, we walked all around the campground and didn’t see a soul, so we bailed. But we’re pretty psyched on out little hotel. It has a nice view and it was only 45 euros, which is relatively inexpensive… for Europe. The town we’re in is called Coll De Nargo and it’s surrounded by huge cliffbands. There must be a ton of climbing around here, and if there isn’t, well, there are probably a lot of awesome cliffs that will remain unbolted beyond the ends of human existence, which is fine by me.

I might rest again tomorrow because my tendons are feeling extra tweaked from the last two days of cranking in Margalef but after that it’s a muerte at Oliana! I have to finish up Blanquita or I’ll never forgive myself. Blanquita is a route I tried in Oliana about seven times and fell from this puta slab crux five of those times. It’s rated 8c+ but if it had the 9a grade I wouldn’t argue. There are many involved and difficult sequences and while there is a good rest before the final boulder problem, it’s still damn hard for me even when I just pull on and do it after a rest.

Two weeks ago Adam Ondra onsighted this route. ONSIGHTED!!!

It’s hard to imagine onsighting a route like this that would be so easy fuck up, let alone climb on your first try without falling… anyway, it’s just mindboggling impressive. The new geneeration is here and they are pushing things forward. In the words of Boone Speed “well, I guess I can go get a job now”. I’m paraphrasing but you get the picture. I’ll just go trad climbing and start drinking lots more beer, grow a (n even bigger) gut and reminisce about the good ol’e days…

Other notable ticks that I’ve heard from the young’ins sector, and this may be old news but- Enzo Oddo doing the third ascent of The Beautiful and Damned in Bishop after a crucial hold broke and got way worse (a hold I remember standing on a milking for all it was worth) and also his ascent of Just Do It in Smith Rocks in two days with warm conditions. Oh Vey! This second accomplishment is almost more impressive becuase I remember trying this route when it was warm and I’d just slip right off the small crimps. It felt impossible in those conditions… Sasha Digiulian has been ripping the red river gorge a new one in the past month, redpointing Southern Smoke and Lucifer, Both 5.14c and onsighting Omaha Beach (14a). Holy hell! I tried to Onight Omaha Beach six years ago and failed. I also tried Southern Smoke THIS year, about five or six times, AND FAILED! Kids these days… no respect for their elders (‘s egos). Enzo is probably clipping the chains on the second ascent of Era Bella as I type this.

Ha! And I just remembered hearing that a young French girl who’s name I can’t remember did the very route I do in the above video, Scarface, except in four tries, NOT FOUR DAYS! And she probably didn’t have to use some cheater-ass drop knee sequence to avoid the mono…

I’m sure there are a whole lot of other ankle biters out there that I don’t know about who deserve a shout out, lining up to onight my projects and I say to you, in the words of J-Stew, good day Sirs (and Madames)! Keep doing what you’re doing! It’s truly inspiring! It’s awesome to see the groms (to borrow a colloquialism from surfing) coming up with a totally different and broader understanding of what’s possible in climbing. Take the understanding of what’s possible in climbing NOW, add some hero/icons who are still very young but raising the bar in the sport, pair it with the drive you have when you’re a teenager and wallah! Adam Ondra is going to flash Realization. Ashima Shirashi is going to climb Jade. Some other kid who’s all psyched on walls is probably gonna onsight El Cap. Then some other kid’s gonna free solo half dome! Ok that’s never gonna happen… I’ve had too much wine, I’m going to sleep

Since my last update in Tecino, Matt and I met up with Liv, Loic Chuck, Clerence and Marc for two full days of Photos and video capturing. The days were long and a little more wet than we would have hoped for, but we were mainly there to get photos and the weather cooperated just long enough for us to accomplish those tasks. Matt and I really wanted to climb in Tecino but it just wasn’t in the cards this time, so after comparing numerous extended forecasts, weighing pros and cons, and soaking some tea leaves, we decided driving the 7 hours to Fontainebleau was the smart decision.

If you’ve never been to Le Bleau, plan your trip right freaken now!!! It’s soooooo fun. The last time I was there was about ten years ago and it was the summer. I bumbled around in Bas Couvier and Isatis and slid off a lot of 6cs… I left under the assumption that font was all turdy little lowballs that you had to be 60 with spandex capris and look like a goat to climb… oh I was so naive. Long story short, I was wrong! Font has everything, and it’s almost all amazing. There are rumored to be over 10,000 problems in the forests around Fontainebleau and I can believe it. I’ve never seen a bouldering area better made for, well, bouldering. It’s just a playground of perfect sandstone monoliths that are seemingly shaped to be scaled by humans. The lines up the boulders are obvious and fun and never get old. I can’t wait to go back.

Mat and I had ten days in Font before we had to make it back to Zurich to catch our respective flights. Matt had spent a fair amount of time in Font before and had done a fair amount of hard and/or classic lines, but being on my first trip, I just climbed as much as possible until my arms ached and I begged for a rest day. We scored with the weather and almost every day was climbable, if not stellar. Neither Matt nor I got up quite as many hard boulders we’d hoped to get up, but we managed to top out a few things that challenged us and while not climbing our very best ever, we put away some serious pastries which probably made us just as happy in the short term. Check here for trip reports from Font on Matt’s blog.

We were with Paul for the first few days and he made up for our lack of hard sends by sending Angama (8c) on his second to last day of his trip. Paul is so freaken strong these days it’s silly. He’s sent almost every hard problem in the forest (and in Tecino) and done them all REALLY fast. I’ve never really seen anyone float up moves that I’ve struggled on so easily… It’s damned impressive. I expect Paul will establish more problems in the next year that will have us all shaking our heads while dragging our jaws on the ground form side to side…  Keep up the good work kid!

So now I’m back in Spain and Wilder is back in Colorado, preparing for the birth of his baby boy (and trying to finish his PHD, and search for bitchen, unclimbed lines, and trying to remodel parts of his house). Good luck buddy! My friend Mandi (who seems equally psyched to look explore the various plant and animal species of Catalunya than to climb and I have been thrashing our fingers on the sharp conglomerate/limestone pockets for a week and we’re ready for a change of scenery. Margalef has some really fun, steep routes and some beautiful scenery, plus all of the Spaniards we’ve been hanging out with have been really friendly and fun to kick it with, (especially Vincent!) but we’re ready for a change of pace. We’re seriusly considering just ditching Spain and going to southern France (St Leger, Gorge Du Tarn, Verdon… Ceuse!) because everyone seems to be coming to Catalunya to sport climb right now and we’re thinking that the limestone paradise of Southern France might be pretty sleepy right now, but my draws are on Pachamama and I have unfinished business at Oliana so we’re headed there tomorrow.

That’s it for now… I’m tired, and I’m on the tail end of a cold, so I’m going to treat myself to a moderately early bedtime. I’ll try to update after our stay in Oliana. Hopefully I can clip the chains on something hard! We’ll see! Oh and remember to take some pics… Here are a few sets since the last time I posted…

We’re in Switzerland now, in the region of Tecino. Matt Wilder and I are sharing a small apartment in the town of Claro with Paul Robinson, and friends Fernando and Jen. The apartment is only about five minutes from the bouldering in Cresciano, so not a bad location. It also has a beautiful view of what right now are cloud covered mountains. The rain we’ve been expecting finally arrived last night, but it’s actually been light and intermittent today with a stiff cold breeze in between. Matt and I are keeping our fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow and the next day because the crew arrives tonight to start getting stuff done for Mountain Hardwear. It’s going to be a circus or lights, camera, posing. The plan is to make three athlete profiles (of Liv Sansos, Matt and I) and fulfill a shot list of a hundred different scenes a mile long. It should make for some hectic times but hopefully we’ll get everything done in the allotted two days and it won’t be too epic of a junk show.

On Thursday I spent the night in Zurich and stayed at a friend’s house. It seems like a realty nice town and reminds me a little of SF. Matt came though Friday morning after getting lost and driving around Zurich for half an hour. We packed the car to the gills full of bags of stuff for the shoot and our own personal belongings including crash pads and climbing gear and headed south to Tecino. We arrived around 1:30 and after Paul, Fernando and Jen arrived back from Milan after picking up Jen, Matt and I drove down the road for an evening sesh at Cresciano. It was pretty good temps with a nice breeze blowing though the boulders. I had never climbed in Tecino before so I was psyched to sample some of the rock at one of the most classic areas. We warmed up and then started sessioning on a problem Matt had tried years ago called Franks Wild Years (V12). It’s a really obvious line that also climbs quite nicely on pinches and in-cut crimps. We were taking some footage and making links on the problem before it started to get too dark to see and we had to put away the camera and bust out the headlamps. Matt has climbed once since ABS nationals three and a half weeks ago and I’ve haven’t been bouldering much in the last month at all, so neither of us were feeling particularly fresh or punchy, especially Matt who’d just arrived from Colorado that morning… I managed a headlamp send of the problem about a half hour after it got dark and despite being able to climb through the problem from the second move, Matt couldn’t quite satch the thing. My ascent was anything but graceful- a total desperation send full of screaming, big dangerous feet cuts and desperate throws while my hands were opening up on good incuts… but to my utter surprise I soon fond myself on top of the boulder smiling from ear to ear. The feeling of completing a boulder or route you struggle your way up and fight tooth and nail for (I actually did break one of my nails on it) never ceases to bring me that emotion that is a combination of excitement and relief.

Knowing that crappy weather would be showing up to the region in the next few days and not wanting to waste any climbable hours we trudged over to Dreamtime and had ourselves a little night sesh on it with a Swiss guy named Ben who lives just down the road. I wasn’t super inspired by the full problem- I found it kinda hard to pull onto the shite start holds and conceive of doing the first few moves, but the stand start was super fun and I was able to do every move but the first big jump to the lip. I came close to sticking that move as well but the skin was getting shredded and Matt and Ben were bored of watching me attempt one move over and over, so we called it a night and headed back to the apartment to fill our bellies with pasta.

Matt somehow got food poisoning. Yesterday Paul, Fernando, Jen and I went to Magic woods and Matt stayed behind and suffered in the apartment al day by himself. He ate one piece of bread for breakfast and a half a bowl of rice for dinner. He’s feeling better now. He ate a normal amount for dinner tonight.

At Magic Wood a lot of the forest was covered in snow but a good portion of the more exposed boulders were dry and climbable. We thought it might be raining since it was misty and we were driving through clouds most of the way to the valley but when we arrived the conditions were cold and windy. We warmed up on some easier classic problems and then fought our way up the hill through ice and snow to  the highest freaken boulder on the hill. This boulder has the classic hard problem Steppenwolf (8a+/8b) and a variation that Aussie-Superhuman Chris Webb put up last year that checks in around (8c- V15!!!). Fernando and I flailed on Steppenwolf while paul tried to figure out the moves on the Variation. I came close to sticking the crux first move but couldn’t do the moves at the top of the boulder that I blame on a slightly damp crimp (although Paul made this move look like V2). Paul did all the moves but one on Chris’ rig and deemed it HARD. We were all cold and hungry by 5:30 so we hoped back in the car and jetted back to the apartment to fill our bellies with chicken curry and veggies. Here’s a super classic highball warm up near the higher end of Magic Wood. P-robs photo.

Today there was some scrabble, some stretching and some bitching about the rain before we finally went stir crazy and left to hike around in Cresciano to look at all the boulders I hadn’t yet seen. The rock was suprisingly dry and tacky feeling to me but all the vert/slab walls and tops outs were soaked. It was cool to see some of the problems that I hadn’t seen yet though and just get out of the house for a min. Here are a couple pics-

We just ate some really effing good homemade pizza and vegetable soup and… Oh look, Chuck Fryberger just arrived. I’m gonna go rub some more arnica on a pulled muscle on my ass cheek… and get ready for a long day of posing tomorrow. Layers!

So… I’m in Spain right now! Holy shit, how did I get here!?! Well, I got on a plane and flew here, duh! Then I took a train, then my friend Chris and his GF Daila picked me up, and now, here I am! Wa-la! I think that’s an incorrect spelling of the phrase… but you get the picture. Sorry for not warning you about my departure… I have failed in my blogging duties. I have also failed in other ways but this is not the platform for me to discuss personal failures, so onto the climbing we go!

I’ve been in Spain for about two weeks. The weather here has actually been, well, unbelievably good for climbing the entire time, minus one drizzly day. We’ve only gone to Oliana but even on the ‘hot’ days (which are nothing like most days at Jail House past 2 pm) it gets nice and cold and breezy as soon as the sun goes behind the cliff which happens around 3 pm this time of year. I’ve never gotten skunked too badly by weather on a trip before and I’m counting my lucky stars or, um, something that the weather continues to be solid. Because of the late hour in which the cliff goes into the shade we’ve been getting really late starts- waking up around 10, leaving for the cliff around 11 and starting the warm-up around noon- 1pm.

The mode here has been muy tranquillo. I think I’ve rested more days than I’ve climbed, which is unsusal for a climbing trip oversees. The thing is, and this might be a shocker to some of you, I’m not planning on being back in the states until the end of July. I guess I should back up a sec and explain the plan. I am planning on climbing in Europe until June when I’ll take off for Rocklands, SA, and climbing there until the end of July when I’ll f-off back to the states and, stop by my sponsors booths at the summer OR show to be back at home in time for desert and a re-run of the Daily show… Holy extended climbing trip (and extended sentence) batman! But why not, right? I mean, sure I’ll get a little homesick, miss my friends and family and yurn to sleep in my own bed on occasion, but the five months I’m planning on being gone will seem to have gone by in the blink of an eye by the time I’m back home. Unless I get terminally ill or badly injured, god forbid, I’ll be living the dream at the worlds best crags and boulder fields for the next 4.75 months! Woo hooo! Of course I’m a little sad that I’ll be away from my beloved city for so long but I’ve been wanting to visit these crags (and boulders) forever, and as my dad says some poeple used to say in the 1950s ‘I’m free, white, and 21′. They were kinda racist in the 50s.

Ok now that you’ve given that news a chance to sink in, allow me to continue. The climbing! The climbing here is… not bad! Ok that’s a little under stated. It’s everywhere, all over the place, in every direction, everywhere you look. La puta madre-load of limestone. Enserio. There’s even a cliff just a ten minute walk down the road from chris’ house that would probably be one of the best single walls in the states. The Spanish/American dream- to live within walking distance from world-class climbing! But like I said before we’ve only gone to Oliana and we’ve only been there 6 days out of the 14 I’ve been here. I’ve been hursing a few minor tweaks and twinges plus a bad case of jetlag. But Oliana is awesome! If you haven’t seen pics or vids before, which if you’re reading this blog you’re probably the kind of person who watches Progression at least twice a week (I know I am!), let me give you a little desctiption- it’s like a mini Ceuse, a blue and tan streaked limestone wall that averages about 120 feet in length with blockier (read: chossier) rock near the bottom and cleaner tufaed and pocketed, hyper-textured rock up higher. Most of the routes are endurance and power-endurance mega-thons with technical and powerful cruxes thoughout and good rests in between. A sportclimbers dream!

I was foolish enough to get on the hardest route on the cliff on my first day, Chris’ Pachamama which is rated 15a but feels harder than other routes of that grade I’ve been on or even routes graded harder (ie, Jumbo Love). Granted I haven’t been on many others, but it felt damn hard, and for a long time. It’s pretty much really hard from the start, until about 100 feet or 110 feet off the ground where it becomes easy. There are multiple long v10-11 sections with very few rests, then you get to the business. It’s no joke. So after that I toned it down a little and started trying some other stuff. I’ve fallen twice (my third and fourth tries) off the slab crux at the top of a route called Blanquita that’s rated 8c+ (14c), and feels stiff at the grade.  Tomorrow is my last day of climbing here in Catalunya before going to Switzerland for two weeks so I’m hoping to satch it up. If not, I’ll be back here for the entire month of April and quite possibly even longer so I have plenty of time. No rush. I had heard from Chris that the Spanish mini-machine, world champ comp climber Ramon Julian got shut down on this route on the slab move up high that he couldn’t quite reach (he’s only 5’5″ and supposedly weighs only 47 Kilos…) so I felt that a rating of 9a would maybe be fair for it, but just two days ago on our rest day Ramonet sent Blanquita on his second try of the day, in the blazing sun, after not being on it for weeks but discovering new beta for the top slab-boulder problem… Hay, dios mio! There euro comp climbers are… impressive, to say the least. Oh, and holy mierda, have you heard that Adam Ondra onsighted two 8c+s, an 8c and a 8b+, wresteled and alligator and saved a baby from a burning then cured herpies all in two days?!? Christ… all these super-human climbers make me wanna train for six months loose 15 lbs eating only vegatables and white meat and running a marathon every day… but lets be realisitic, that’s not gonna happen. I love nutella and penut butter and avocado (not necessarily not all toegther).

I also gave my dream route a go yesterday. The crown jewel of Oliana, the Megatufa from heaven (or hell, depending on how pumped you get on it) is called Humilides Pa Casa which translates to Humble Go Home. I guess I needed to be a little less cocky or just take a look around because even with a cheater-ass knee pad, which offered me descansados sin manos throughout the climb, I still pumped off just before the last bolt when I failed to register the last tufa out left and tried to muscle up the single, slithering tufa that snaked away from me when I was too pumped to lift my arms. Quote of the day from Chris as he lowered me: Bummer dude, you had tufa vision.

Chris has a project of his own which looks really fun and quite hard. He’s made fast progrerss on it though and it’s coming together nicely. It sorta just looks like some random part of the wall from far away, but the holds look really cool and it looks like it climbs really well. Hopefully he also satches it up tomorrow.

Unfortunately I haven’t been taking a ton of pics lately, but Chuck Fryberger is hear filming Chris for his newest flick “The Scene” (scheduled to be released sometime around summer OR) and he was kind enough to hook me up with a couple screen grabs from his footage. Chuck is coming to Switzerland to film Matt Wilder, Liv Sansos and I for Mountain Hardwear so I’m psyched top meet back up with him there in a week. His camera is freaken amazing (he shoots with the Red One camera, which takes cinematic quality footage) and he knows how to use it. His movie Core is a favorite of mine and I’m betting The Scene will be even better! Venga, A Muerte! Here a few pics that I took around Chris’house in the past two weeks and the two screen grabs from Chuck.

So, there ya have it. Tomorrow (Thursday) I fly to Zurich and meet up with Matt Wilder when we will then depart promptly to the town of Claro to meet up with bouldering machine Paul Robinson (who just sent DG’s V15 Story of Two Worlds!!!) and hopefully have our fill of the finest granite and gneiss on the planet for two weeks and then… back to Spain for more of the best limestone on the planet… ahh, hard life, I know. TTYS!

I wanted to do something really hard when I was there, but most of the problems I tried that were 8B or herder felt impossibly hard in one way or another. Diabolic, Alma Blanca, Li, Yellow Diamonds (christ that problem is hard!)… it was the same story. All the supposed 12s I got on went down without too much trouble, but breaking the V13 barrier felt harder on this trip then it has on previous trips… I know I had the strength and power to do all these problems but for some reason I couldn’t quite get the movement right. I guess that’s the thing with bouldering– a lot of it is just learned movement. There were several other lines that I wanted to get on while I was out including Nagual, Dune, A Single Word and the project next to it, The Bandersnatch, along with some other projects scattered about, but, in an area like Hueco, there’s never enough time and too many amazing rocks… unless your initials are FN, PR or DW. Despite the flailing I did manage to finish the 4th (?) ascent of the Machinist (or maybe the 1st since I topped it out?!? [jkjk]) and snag ascents of a half dozen or so problems rated V12. Mark cranked impressively and made an ascent of Loaded Direct which he pretty much peed on when he sent, but sort of lost the plot after ten days in the desert away from his GF. Owen and Josh had a good introductory trip to the Tanks and fired a few of the most classic lines, and Jeremy, well… his menacingly dark and thick beard alone got him to the top of some shit. He’s like Chuck Norris in that underneath his beard is not a chin, but a fist: a fist that closes down on crimps.

Here are a few frame grabs and select still from the bounty of footage that we took. I’m not sure what the finished product will be but we easily have enough footage for a rad little short film of this nature. Expect to see signs of it coming out sometime this spring. Huge thanks to Owen for patiently sitting behind the camera, try after frustrating try on the machinist, and thanks to Jeremy Balboni for lending us his 7D so we could get two angels on everything. Werd.

Also, in case you haven’t seen it enough, here is a video of my send of El Techo-