We did have some time for some bouldering.. (WARNING: lots of technical bouldering details to follow..)
On Thursday afternoon Nic, Eric, and myself swung into the cabin boulder for a quick hour-long session. We hadn't been to the boulder in a few months while the temps have been too high so it was good to see it again. It's still amazing. We all warmed up on the 10th Plague. After this Nic did a quick 3rd ascent of Dragon Fruit. This is a problem I hope to do this season sometime -- a technical crimpy problem first done by Jim Merli this spring.
Nic on Dragon Fruit:
After Dragon Fruit, the 3 of us went to work on a new line to the left of it and pretty soon 'Cool Hand Luke' got it's FA from Nic. This is not the prettiest line in the world but it climbs extremely well. The low-start (V5 range) has a technical move into some tic-tac-y crimps and then a high bad foot and a big deadpoint to a small hold before grabbing an undercling gaston w/ your right hand and standing up and stabbing a sidepull before either going right or left to your choice of crimp jugs and then topping out.
Eric working Cool Hand Luke:
Friday was mainly a day of exploration so the three of us went to check out the Pauline-Astrid Boulders that Eric, Jared Waterworth, and myself discovered a year ago and built a trail to last summer. We hung out for a few minutes in a cave area and I got an FA of 'Purple Glider' - a V2 or so problem between rails with a slopey, technical top-out.
Nic doing Purple Glider:
We then went to check out the overhanging wall area that we remembered having lots of potential. It unfortunately endup having pretty poor rock quality and it was getting quite hot and buggy so we left before long without doing any more climbing to speak of.
On Sunday, with Chad having joined us, we returned to the Cabin Boulder for lots more climbing. Quite a day of First Ascents this turned out to be. The first new problem to go up was Pendulum - another V5 or so that Nic did. This problem is right around the corner from 'Kelly Clarkson' and is right in front of the smaller detached boulder. It starts on a sloper and goes up to some crimpers and then a high step up to a 2 finger undercling gaston with your right hand way up high that you have to step up into. After grabbing a pretty terrible rail with your left hand you flip the gaston to an undercling then work your feet up and do a big reach move to an ok hold with your left hand. Then another big move to a vertical slot and another big (and scary) move to a muffin feature at the lip and a pretty easy top-out. This problem is very, very good.. I was very psyched to get the second ascent of this problem. It was named The Pendulum because of the way your body swings back and forth at the top of it.
Eric on Pendulum:
The next new problem was put up by Chad -- his first FA! The line climbs up the bulge feature on the far corner of backside of the boulder. The problem features some fun, thuggy, spread-arm moves on the bottom and then a high, easy-but-hard-enough-to-really-pay-attention top-out above. He named it Watershed b/c the top half of the climb is clearly where all the water drains out when it rains. The rest of us also quickly sent this good problem that's probably about a V2.
Chad topping out Watershed:
The FA:
After this, attention shifted to the lines that climb out of the inside of the split between the two halfs of the boulder. Good work to Eric for doing a lot of work cleaning what became Inside Scoop. Inside Scoop is one of the best V2s I've ever done (The 10th plague or The Angler being the competition) -- perfect crimps, edges and sloper holds with good, fun movement between them all the way to the top. This problem is pretty scary as an uncontrolled fall would lead to an awkward sliding on the boulder behind you for a ways but it's not too bad to spot appropriately.
Eric doing the second ascent:
And video of me doing it. It's more overhanging than it looks like in this video:
After Inside Scoop, Nic worked on another line to the right of it that ended up being very hard and very scary he called Slot Machine. This problem is in the V8 range with very cool movement. I really wish the landing wasn't so insane as this climb is pretty incredible but too scary for me at this point.
We called it a day at about this time but we headed back out Monday morning for a quick session before hitting the road and I was able to get the second ascent of Cool Hand Luke from the low start and Chad got the 3rd ascent of Pendulum - which I believe is his hardest problem to date.
All-in-all a pretty great climbing weekend especially considering it was only a secondary purpose of the trip. It's probably been a long time since MN has gotten this many boulder FAs in one weekend:
Cool Hand Luke V5
Purple Glider V2
Pendulum V5
Watershed V2
Inside Scoop V2
Slot Machine V8
These are all quality boulder problems also. This brings the established number of lines on the Cabin Boulder (aka Camp 40 / Big Swirly Boulder / Johnson and Johnson) up to 10. The two mega-projects remain that will both potentially be double digit problems. There are probably a couple more moderate independent lines to be done as well.
And one more thing -- over the course of the weekend we did stumble on more rock:
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