Project Recap and Refresh

At the beginning of the summer I posted about wanting to do 5 specific routes this summer, or at least try. Well now that I am about halfway through the summer I have done three of my five projects (Fakir, Fugitive, and Songline) and picked up and completed two more projects, Straw Man 13a and a V8 up in Hyalite Canyon. Seems like it is a good thing I am spending more time on the rock than keeping this blog up to date!

My most recent tick off of the original list was Songline, a 12b/c mixed line in Gallatin Canyon. When I first looked into Songline it seemed like just another good route that Bill Dockins put up, that unfortunately had two bolts in it but still seemed worth doing. Well after spending two days working this line my only response is WOW! This line is so amazingly beautiful to climb. The bottom 20' work over a bulge of faulted rock that has some tenuously small holds and bad finger jams on really pretty moderate gear. The second piece I put in on this section was a DMM offset brass nut that I threw in sideways and super shallow. It's supposed to hold still right? Well I fell on that piece on my first attempt of the route and it held perfectly well, so now you know, the worst piece of gear on the route still holds a fall. After a few hard moves it eases up into some cruiser slab climbing onto a small ledge and a bomber piece. This is where the fun beings. I made sure to take as much advantage of that rest as possible because really the bottom bulge is just access to the amazing route above, and by amazing I mean sustained and technical. From the rest there is an awesome traverse sequence to get about 6' farther right on the ledge, and then it is one move off of the ledge to clip the first bolt, and enter the crux. A beautiful layback/finger jam sequence into a big move back left makes up what I consider to be the crux of the route. From this big hold you get to at the end of they second crux you can clip the second bolt, and then make a few more hard and technical moves into some easier holds and great gear. One last heart breaker move at the top finishes her off. I have never had more fun projecting a route, Songline is an absolute must do for anybody and really needs bolted anchors so more people are willing to get on it!

After finishing off another hard trad route, this gear guy did something crazy. I went bouldering! Quite a bit actually, and was remarkably successful at it, at least in my opinion. Due to my general lack of outdoor bouldering my hardest and proudest bouldering send outside was a remarkable V4...maybe remarkable wasn't the word. After a short day trip to Pipestone so Evan could get me on all of his newly established problems, a day on the Overhangatang in Hyalite, and the many more days following that I spent on the Overhangatang due to its remarkable convenience I had done easily 20 problem all the way from V0 to V7. I considered the simple fact I was bouldering a successful stretching of my limits, and the fact I was able to get 3 V7s to be truly remarkable. Then there was the one day on the Overhangatang that I noticed a boulder higher up the hill with a super steep slanted crack that seemed to just be calling my name. I went up to check it out and was able to come to the conclusion that it was really hard, but really wasn't any more successful than that. However, it inspired me and if I have learned one thing about climbing, it is do what inspires you. So I grabbed a few pads and spent a day out there working out the beta, but again no send. Finally I invited my roommate Mike to come out and spot me on this thing so I could give it a really good attempt, and it went. This problem was super fun, but figuring out the beta on it was probably the best part. It took me a solid two hours to figure out how to do the top sequence, as a toe cam hook above my head in order to readjust my hands so that i could switch that foot to a heel then do a hand jam heel hook match is not a set of beta I have ever done before. At all. Ever. My beta for this problem was weird enough I may as well have been climbing on mars, but it was super fun and it worked! I found out later this was a V8 boulder problem that doesn't see much traffic, and for those who can pretty easily climb V8 the crazy beta can be skipped. I still think my way is more fun though!

The bottom section of the V8

The other route that sneaked its way onto my to do list was Straw Man 13a. This route, as it was described to me, is the test piece 13a in the region and would be a great first 13 for me because it had a short bouldery crux and really isn't very long at all. A few days before I got on it I went out to Natural Bridge with Evan and got on Pagent of the Transmundane, another 13a. I was able to get Pagent in only three trys, but to be completely honest I thought it was more like 12c, and it turns out that is what most people think it is. Straw Man appealed to me not because I thought it was going to be a great climb, but because I really wanted a legit 13 under my belt! Straw Man is a super fun route that is a hard 5.11 into basically a V6/7 move then a few more 5.11 moves. Of course the 11 sequence wasnt too bad, but I was well an thoroughly shut down on the crux move. Thankfully Jon was up at The Cube also and was able to shout some key beta up to me, and after a few more attempts I was able to send Straw Man my first day on it! Straw Man wasn't the prize for me though, just the opening of a door and a confidence booster. I am hoping to head back up there soon to nail down the sequence to Roller Girls so I can link up the cruxes and do Forbidden Fruit 13b. 

So the new project tick list for the summer is this:

Der Fruh Lowe, 13a Mixed

Annihilator, 12d Trad,

Forbidden Fruit, 13b Sport

The Pro Slacker Tour,  13a/b Sport

Cardiac Arete, 12d Sport

A2 Line, 13a Trad

Weapons of Mass Destruction, 12c Sport

Can-Dunne, 12d Sport

Silver Surfer Suit, 13a Sport