impurities

Sometimes variations muddy the waters and other times they are nice additions/distractions.

July 16, 2006: Tony Yao, Seth Sanford and Justin Jaeger during the FA session on Rawhide, Mount Evans Wilderness Area, CO. All Dogs Go to Evans is a fairly obvious line that surfs left along the low arete on the east face of the Seurat Boulder to a jug under the roof, then continues up and left across the face to the apex of the boulder. JJ thought it would be a grand idea to add an alternate finish to ADGTE that pulled onto the slab from the jug, then cruised to the top. It sounded easy enough, but - after spending an hour or more cleaning it up - it turned out to be quite a technical nightmare to turn the lip and establish on the exit slab. And once you've turned the lip, you've still got 15 more feet of thin sketchyness to contend with. Thinking back, this problem throws a lot of monkey business at you and I'm pretty sure JJ sandbagged us with his favorite grade ... V7. Maybe this photosequence will help Rawhide see a few repeats.

midsummer dreams ...

Projects provide a unique mix of frustration and satisfaction. They are why many of us love climbing the way we do.

June 30, 2007 and July 4, 2007: Eliott Morris on Bierstadt, Mount Evans Wilderness Area, CO. Bierstadt is a boulder problem that most of us mortals need to work at. It requires patience, time and dedication to ascertain your beta, because it's technical and everyone seems to climb it a little differently. Although only about 10 moves long, no move is truly easy and a couple of those moves are low-percentage slaps and stabs. It is one of those great problems that never lets up and is "not over 'til it's over." In the first few photos (purple shirt), it was obvious Eliott had already put in some time on the problem. He had the lower section wired. He looked strong and it seemed he would send, but - in typical Bierstadt fashion - the top continued to frustrate him ... eventually wearing him out. Four days later (brown shirt), he dialed in his finishing sequence, but fell off the lip too many times to count. Two days later (no photos), he put it all together. w3rd.

ladies installment numero quatre

Seeing more ladies cranking at Evans this year = a good thing.

August 19, 2007: Stephanie Marvez on Crossfire, Mount Evans Wilderness Area, CO. When we arrived in Area A after our morning session, 6 of our ladyfriends were getting started on this fun little crimpy line. Before moving on, I snapped a few shots of Stephanie avoiding all 3 of the crossovers used on the FA a few years ago. I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but it's been cool to see so many folks of the female persuasion up there this season pulling down and motivating one another.

unlocking sequences ...

... occasionally requires whack-assed beta.

August 19, 2007: TJ Burchfield on the FA of Magical Mystery Tour, Mount Evans, CO. One of the joys of the bouldering experience is unlocking sequences, solving cruxy puzzles and figuring out the easiest way to the top, etc. We exhausted lots of other possibilities on this one, then tried the old one-finger one-joint sideways finger lock crossover dyno. There may be other ways to surmount this bulge, but this turned out to be disturbingly fun, far easier than the other possibilities and the send train showed up for us as soon as we tried this ridiculous maneuver.

rest day shenanigans ...

... it doesn't take much to entertain climbers.

August 11, 2007: The Delo, Situner, K-Diggity, Fi, Kevin and Thomas on the rope swing over Clear Creek in downtown Golden, CO. I needed really good material for my first non-climbing post and this stuff hits the mark. If you venture there, bring your bathing suit, shoes and your climber/farmer tan. Hope for HOT temperatures but expect cold water and you will be rewarded with a few moments of anxiety, terror, laughter, joy, child-like wonder, pure bliss, buffoonery, brilliance, regret and satisfaction all rolled into one great idea for a rest day activity out with friends.

4 & 5 star moderate gems

Here's pics of one from Evans maybe you haven't seen.

August 5, 2007: Justin Jaeger on Buddy Swalsack, Mount Evans, CO. I suppose moderate means different things to different people, so I've arbitrarily cut this list off at V3. Lots of you have seen pictures of or maybe you've climbed some of these lines which include Dark Crystal, Timeline, The Ladder, BS Squared, Puddle Jumper, Angular Momentum, The Magic Bean, etc., among maybe a few others. Here's another line to add to that exclusive list. The perfect layaways in a crack that narrows to fingers bust out a Yosemite-like overhang, then widen to bomber hands/fists as you turn onto the slab. Unlike anything I've seen anywhere in Colorado, you can definitely add this to my list of 4 & 5 star moderates in the Mount Evans area.

don't make excuses

Just send.

July 1, 2006: Sander Pick on No More Greener Grass, Mount Evans Wilderness Area, CO. I've heard this referred to as one of Colorado's toughest and best V12s. If not for the one really sharp crimp, it might universally be considered the best. I believe Sander told me he had previously hiked into Evans "about 10 days" in order to put this one together. In fact, he told me NMGG was pretty much the only problem he had climbed at Evans other than The Dali as his "warm-up." Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating on this day and a torrential downpour put a damper on everyone's spirits and slowed the climbing to a crawl. Sander just bided his time rolling smokes while the 3 of us fooled around on a damp Dali.

Nobody else hiked into Evans that day and for 3 to 4 hours, it was downright dismal. The rain did eventually stop and - as the minutes turned into hours - the humidity began to drop. Although the topout remained soaking wet, this was a minor detail in the grand scheme of things. Sander did The Dali to warm-up (maybe twice), brushed the holds under the lip and was ready, just hoping to have to contend with the wet topout when he got there. After 2 tries, it was obvious he was ready to send. I got the camera out in piss-poor lighting conditions, then proceeded to shoot one of the raddest most clutch sends I've ever witnessed. Watching him try to rock over at the lip on wet holds was painful, but he somehow got 'er done under the worst of conditions. He never once cursed the rain or bitched about the conditions. He was there to send, accepted the day's conditions for what they were and made the magic happen in spite of them. Mad props.

stand-up versions of problems

What's all the fuss about?

August 29, 2004: Scott Hahn on The Hume Problem (stand), Mount Evans Wilderness Area, CO. Usually, problems are originally done from a stand-start, then harder sit-starts are added and people universally agree that there are 2 or more separate, albeit overlapping, problems. The Dali and The Hume Problem, however, were originally done from low sit-starts. As a result, some have reasoned that there is only one problem known as The Dali and The Hume Problem and they begin from a sit on the matched sloper (The Dali) and the undercling (The Hume Problem), respectively.

I understand this point of view, as it raises the question of when do you draw the line on higher starts? Still, I must disagree as long as folks who do the higher and easier starts are not misrepresenting what they did or did not do. In addition, the higher starts on The Dali and The Hume Problem are pretty obvious places to pull on. Most importantly, why should anyone worry at all about what others are doing at the boulders? In the end, issues like: (1) being friendly and respectful to other user groups and land managers; and (2) helping take care of and preserve our wild places seem so much more worthy of our attention and debate.

nemesis problem volume 2

Before you finish one project, you've got another. Is this a common problem?

July 18, 2007 and July 24, 2007: Andy Mann and Matt Karasik on Carpet Cove, Mount Evans, CO. These are just two of the folks I've tried this Jason Tarry problem with recently and it's so fun. Not sure I'm close to linking but I've done all the moves. Maybe soon. Maybe Sunday. Of course, Jason surprisingly strolled through the other day and managed to repeat it for us with our fully tricked-out beta in about 5 minutes. Inspiring and humbling all rolled into one.