Jealous of the people tagging big lines (or any good skiing conditions, really) but for now our daily bread will be rock climbing sports action.
Here I am cruising to the anchor yesterday on one of the few 5.12c routes at local crags I have hot-wired to automatic status. Meltdown is not popular compared to other routes at the Dungeon but I really like it, especially since I found a previously unknown knee bar between the last bolt and anchor that makes for a more aesthetic, direct finish through the crux. Thanks to Erik Hanschen for the Meltdown photos.
One of the best parts of getting routes like this wired is putting them on a circuit. You do it enough times, one of those times some jacked youngster who crushes 5.13s will say "Hey that looks fun I'll do it." And on the right day you'll get to watch some guy, who flashes your project on another day, get totally spanked on a route you just hiked.
Here's a photo of Atty getting through the crux on a warm-up, draw-to-draw burn before his big send on Loose Cannon last Saturday (July 4)
Belayed by Kelsea, who sent both Moat Jump and Against Nature that day.
Hit The Shack with Erik today. He sent both Mortal Kombat and Gauntlet, nice! I "cruised" 40-love for an advanced warm-up then took two laps on Rosie. This is a picture Josh took of me on it two weeks ago. Probably better beta to keep the feet on the rock?
I definitely stay entertained. Things are looking good now that our heat wave has passed and we are getting some rain.
Here is another photo Erik took of me yesterday on my new project, Beastmaster. Just when I was wondering whether it was really for me, I finally did the crux move yesterday, so now I'm stuck with it. Here I am at the crux but my feet are wrong.
Trugman had a nice farewell tour before moving to start an Associate Professor gig. Here he is in the midst of the slowest send of Evil Alchemist I've seen.
Frame captures of his sequence from a video here Evil Alchemist
Took Kaj and Egil to White Rock on Saturday. Here is Kaj having a blast next to a crag called The Pit.
Yesterday at The Shack, cruised a warm-up run on 40-Love, then got *two* one hangs on Rosie. It seems like I just need to commit to the one hard clip and the send is imminent.