Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Struggles in Chaos Canyon

Shannon Forsman and I headed up to Chaos Canyon on Sunday morning. I tried the 3 pad carry which actually was OK except some of the tight spots in the talus. We warmed up on Tommy's arete which I tried to flash but to my shame could not commit to the last move to the jug. The V7 rating must depend upon the fear factor since the problem is otherwise very easy. Even draping a pad on the adjacent slab didn't help my mental state. I'll be back but the episode illustrates one of the factors that adds to the totality of the RMNP experience.

We went over to the Centaur boulder and worked a bit on the Marble which was pretty much in the hot sun and very greasy. Shannon was doing great on it however. I got nowhere and in fact did much better on Secret Splendour a V12 around the corner, fortunately in the shade in the morning. so I may be back for that one. It's one of the few V12s in the state to have been flashed, along with No More Greener Grass, that I know of, but seems pretty solid for the grade. Crimpy technical but with a lot of squeezing and tricky footwork. I may have pictures from Shannon soon.

2 comments:

sock hands said...

i'd much rather climb in 20 degree temps than 80, 10 than 90, and so on.

heat is the suck!

also for the ego/record: i did tommy's arete on my first climbable visit to chaos canyon [first actual visit was blinding snow and 2 ft drifts... saw handicapps and walked back down]. i remember thinking that it was soooooo hard for v7 and my ascent was akin to a badger desperately clawing its way up a frozen waterfall and frothing like a fiend.

take the 7!

Peter Beal said...

JJ you're right about the grade. If you were like a badger, I was like a not too fast horse balking at a jump. Too hot, not psyched enough who knows. Great problem though.