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.

July Heat

I met up with Chuffer on Wednesday morning to try the Reverse Face Out Traverse, a combination of the regular King Conquer Traverse V5/6 and the V7 Reverse Face Out. My skin was pretty fried from the day before so I couldn't link them up but I would propose a pretty solid V9 for this problem. Good to catch up with Chuffer--if you haven't gone to his (still unfinished) online guide for Flagstaff Mountain, you don't know the half of what's available. His own estimate is 800+ problems. People often put Flagstaff down and granted, much of it is less than stellar. But I would argue that there is virtually no other bouldering area in the world so close to a city that is of such extent and quality, so accessible, and across such a range of difficulty (classics from VB to V13). And it's still not tapped out. If you're like me and don't have unlimited free time and want to find hard problems outside, there is so much to do here that you may not even know about, most of it within 2 minutes from the road. I might say that it is the ultimate urban bouldering destination in the US.

Jamie Emerson has put together a concise encapsulation of Colorado Bouldering's Golden Age or as I would put it, a Renaissance, describing eloquently and accurately the impact of the past 10 years or so of a truly transformational wave of achievements and personalities. You must read it as Jamie nicely evokes the excitement of the time that he got caught up in and that is now past. As a cultural historian, studying the shining moments of the past is part of my job and yet there is always the sure knowledge that the past survives only in memory, words, and images, none of which truly can convey the spirit of the time that they try to express. I applaud Jamie's effort to set down, however briefly, in words the flavor of a truly historic time in American climbing that is, I agree, now past. We are left to reflect on its afterglow and pay homage by yet another hike up to Lake Haiyaha, which I am planning to do tomorrow afternoon, if the weather cooperates.

Flagstaff Video: King Conquer Traverse and Reverse Face Out

After driving up Boulder Canyon to find the water too high for Hardboiled, I went up to Flag to try the King Conquer Traverse. After scoping out the holds well, I figured out a likely sequence and went for it. I next tried Reverse Face Out and should have flashed but stalled setting up the last move. Such a crimpy problem.

I'm feeling a bit fitter now. A quick venture up to Chaos last Sunday was fun. Toting 2 and a half pads just a few days after two weeks at sea level produced the following results: Bear Lake to Nymph 9 minutes, Dream Lake Junction, 9 minutes, Chaos Trail turn-off, 35 minutes. Not exactly a difficult hike, even with an extra pad. Worked mostly on the Centaur, a great V12. Planning on the left (Marble) exit since the snow will be gone well before I have any chance of linkage. A good reintroduction to the park. Nice to meet Jamie, Angie and Brian Camp up there.

Back in Boulder

We've been back in Boulder a few days now. Hot weather, typical for July. I hiked up to the Satellites to try Face Full of Brian, a classic little V8 power problem. However things were a bit warm and humid and I could not stick the move off the sloper to the fingerlock. A good reintroduction and warm-up to bouldering with an approach. I checked the elevation gain and it is roughly comparable to that for Lower Chaos Canyon, over a shorter distance. The reason I think that's interesting is that the pad-stashing controversy is apparently back with the NPS actually removing stashed pads in RMNP. The Climbing Narc has posted on the topic and I have weighed in at that site already. The short version is that pad-stashing is weak, selfish, and detrimental both to climbing access and the climbing environment. There is no reason that even two reasonably fit climbers couldn't carry up enough pads to protect most of the problems in both Lower and Upper Chaos and carry them back down.

I am thinking about going up to Lower Chaos tomorrow, pretty early. Not sure yet what I want to try but I would like to get up there and look around. I think it's time that there was a much more respectful attitude towards the environment in RMNP. I suspect the "insider" attitude towards the area has resulted in more abuse than respect. Boulderers take themselves very seriously but it would be better if they took their responsibilities toward the environment and other visitors equally seriously.

Speaking of taking things seriously it is very hard to take the recent article in Climbing on Rifle very seriously. Essentially it profiles the history of sandbagging at Rifle, particularly at the 8b/8b+ level. A Boulder climber whom I know fairly well is described as the master of downgrading and is quoted along the lines of, "Why rate something 14a when some Euro might come along and flash it?" This is a classic instance of how to sabotage your path to improvement. When you become so obsessed with a number and your "reputation" as a climber that you can't get past the idea that a route might really be harder than you felt it was, you are probably not focusing on getting a whole lot better as a climber. The article was an eerie throwback to a scene in Rifle that was dominant in the 90s or at least was until Chris Sharma did Lungfish in an afternoon and put everything in perspective. That scene with all its dysfunctionality has since dissipated somewhat, helped along perhaps by the increasingly exorbitant cost of driving there from Boulder. The math is c. 350 miles roundtrip at 30mpg so about $45 plus 7-8 hours driving time wasted in polluting the atmosphere all to send the "proj".

That's in part why I started exploring local projects instead of queuing up for the 18th ascent of 7 PM Show. It was nice to see a little recognition in an article in the same issue by Abbey Smith about Clear Creek. If I had to choose between Rifle and Clear Creek, I would take Clear Creek any day. Good bouldering, multi-pitch routes, moderate routes, tons of potential, and no parking and camping hassles. The surface is still only being scratched regarding really hard climbs there.

Anyway it's good to be back in town, even if the weather is hot.

Almost out of New Jersey

Tomorrow we head out New Jersey after a few days with relatives. The weather this trip has been so swampy--hot and humid--that anything outdoors has been disgusting. I don't know how people stay here and remain climbers.

A good story on the NYT website about a 41 year old swimmer Dara Torres qualifying for the US Olympic team with some interesting points about non-athletic factors that bog older adults down, chief among these being time and money.

Hoping to get back into climbing upon my return. I've had a good physical rest period but I'm really ready to actually do something for a change.

Sea Level in Maine

After a bunch of traveling, including a fairly hellish congested stretch of 295 et al. through Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire and some of the heaviest rain I 've seen in a while, Caolan and Sophia and I are settled in a small cottage a few hundred yards from the ocean on Peaks Island, just offshore from Portland. The ferry ride though brief was fog-bound and cold and even now the leaves in the oaks around the cottage are dripping with condensed moisture. Although it seems an unlikely spot to think about climbing, the Maine Rock gym is a ferry ride and a short drive away and interestingly a stone's throw from Whole Foods, just like the gyms in Boulder. And on the island itself, I am wondering about this wall; here is a photo I took last year. It's very similar to the rock at Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth and should provide a few sessions of interest, especially the wall on the right side of the photo. I grew up across the bay in South Portland and started climbing near there so in several senses it is a return to my roots.