Swede's Forest - 11/24/2007

It was pretty nice weather for a late November MN day so a few of us headed out to Swede's Forest. The group consisted of myself, Nic, Dillon, Chris Craft, Chris Hirsch, and Joe. Turned out to be a really nice bouldering day. Swede's doesn't have much and many of the problems are short, but they are fun. I hadn't been there for two years so it was good to see it again.

I did Swedish Lightning - a really fun V3 and Swedish Slopers to start the day. I then moved on to work on Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground -- a really great V7 that has got a great jump move to a sloper for a crux. I was able to do all the moves but just couldn't complete the jump and hold the sloper from the sit so the problem will have to go another day.

Nic got the 2nd ascent of Choppin Broccoli. Chris Hirsch got a nice (for Swede's at least) FA. He climbed from the start of Choppin' Broccoli and instead of finishing on the slab finished up the arete. Nic followed with the second ascent shortly after.

Chris Craft came really close on Tetanus Kettle as well -- here he is posing in front of it with the actual Tetanus Kettle:


Video:
1) Me on Swedish Lightning
2) Chris Craft on Swedish Meatballs
3) Nic Oklobzija on Swedish Slopers
4) Nic on Choppin' Broccoli
5) Chris Hirsch on Choppin Broccoli -> Relationship of Command (top half)
6) Me then Nic on Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground

Trip Down South Wrap-up

Finally got out of Atlanta on Thursday and drove up to Rocktown... Where to begin telling you about Rocktown......uhh..at the same place it ends...

Nothing more to say about that :(

So we drove all the way back down to HP 40 and made it there by 2pm or so. Nic had some serious unfinished business and I knew I could find some stuff to work on. Nic ended up having a pretty great day. He did his trip goal Slider (V9), and then added Ghetto Superstar (V9), The low start to Step Child (V9 i think), and Mulletino (V7). I worked on Mulletino and did the tall top-out but couldn't do the roof moves at the start as my right middle finger pulley was really acting up after 4 straight days of pulling on plastic in Atlanta. It hurt bad enough that I decided that was it for climbing for me on the trip.

I did pose for pictures on Hammerhead (V5) which I had done last week:


Since I needed quite a bit of rest for my finger and Nic's fingers were worn down enough that he felt he needed a few days rest, we decided to call it a trip and head home. So we packed everything up at 5:30pm last night in Horsepens and hit the road and rolled home at 11:30am today.. Totally exhausted now but trying to stay up at least most the day so my sleep schedule doesn't get completely thrown off..

Atlanta Lifetime Routesetting

Nic and myself have been in Atlanta since Saturday night working on a routesetting job for a brand new Lifetime Fitness... First time I've done this (at this scale -- I've set a few routes here and there before). Quite an immense job this has turned out to be. We arrived to find 18 70 pound boxes of holds - over 1200 pounds of holds and 300 pounds of bolts that we had to carry in from outside a box at a time and then open and prepare for setting:


We had 44 routes to set from 5.5 to 5.11 so it was over 3 days of hanging from my harness developing cuts and abrasions on my legs and trying to haul myself up ropes with a gri-gri and climbing through 30 feet of scaffolding behind the wall when setting the ropes. Pulled up on so many holds that I completely trashed a brand new pair of pretty decent work gloves.


I think we're finally done now -- just to have to go back tomorrow morning for the final check-off and help with some clean-up. I lost my phone there and am hoping to find it tomorrow. Should hopefully be climbing in Rocktown by tomorrow afternoon.

HP40 - Short Long Video

Didn't take much video but I did get Nic's send of Short Long V8:

Horsepens 40

I have been in Horsepens 40 for the last few days. Nic and myself drove down all day last Tuesday (Oct 30) and arrived early Wednesday morning at about 5:30 AM. We got checked in and found a campsite and went to sleep on our crashpads under the stars. We got up about 2 hours later when the sun came up and hit the boulders that are literally right there next to the campsite.. Impossible to sleep in with that.

We started by heading over and checking out Slider - a classic V9. I tried it once but decided it wasn't for me at this time. Nic set to work figuring out the moves on that and I moved on to a fun V4 right next to it called Cuts Like a Knife. It is a couple of really crimpy moves up to a classic HP40 slopey top-out that was a good intro to the area for me.
Slider:



After this we headed over to look at some other classic problems Ghetto Superstar and Thief but neither of us tried these. We did both end up doing a fun V5 called Popeye. It felt really hard for me until I figured the moves out and it clicked into place.

Finally, we checked out the Millipede area and did Bug Boy - a really slopey V3 that felt really hard. We both tried Millipede V5 as well but just couldn't do it.
Here's Nic on Bug Boy, Millipede is on the far right:



The next day (Thursday 11/1) I tried a V6 called Boomslinger that's on the Slider boulder but couldn't do it and then later tried and did a really cool V5 called Hammerhead. It climbs up a roof arete to the hardest topout I've ever done. Felt like I had to use every ounce of energy I had to top it out.
Hammerhead:



Friday was a pretty light day. All I tried was Redneck - a hard V6 - a few times which Nic ended up doing and hanging out the rest of the day. Nic also did a pretty cool looking V8 called Short Long that climbs out of a steep roof.
Short Long:



This morning I headed back out to Redneck and ended up doing it. Pretty fun problem that climbs up an overhang using a lot of crimps and a key heel-toe cam. Pretty fun climb that is unlike most things at HP40. Nic went back to Slider to try to finish that one early this morning as well but unfortunately fell off the last moves several times.
Me on the 1st move of Redneck:



The rest of today we wandered around as spectators watching the Triple Crown Bouldering Competition and it was pretty inspiring to see a lot of really strong climbers who'd come into town to compete.

I'm quite impressed with Horsepens. A high concentration of great sandstone boulders. It's a different style of climbing than I've ever done before and quite difficult to get used to.

We're in Atlanta now and will be heading to a Lifetime fitness tomorrow to set routes and then after that will head on to Rocktown...