I got tired of the blogger platform finally -- so I've started creating a shiny new blog!
Come check it out: http://www.mncrimp.com. Like all personal websites -- it's still a work in progress -- but may as well have people start going there now..
If you are subscribing to this site's RSS feed and want to keep my posts coming your way -- you're gonna have to subscribe again over at the new place -- sorry 'bout that.. but it really is a much nicer site I think..
I've imported all the climbing posts from here over to mncrimp and will have a dedicated video as well as classic mn problems pages.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Friday, October 17, 2008
Governor Dodge State Park Video
Governor Dodge State Park from Neil Berget on Vimeo.
Click through to Vimeo to see larger size, or full-screen here.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Governor Dodge State Park
This past weekend I drove out to Madison and met Nic and got a few hours in to check out Governor Dodge State Park. Governor Dodge has been seeing a lot of development recently and I've been interested in checking it out for quite awhile now. The climbing is all on featured sandstone - and while the rock quality is unfortunately low - I did find the problems to be fun and the setting very pretty.
We started the day by meeting up with Vince from Madison at the Camp B area who was psyched to show us around. We all warmed up on and near the Picasso wall which provided some fun introductions to the area.
Picasso Right:
Very quickly, however, we set sights on Sandstone Violence - a superb looking V8 in the area. To our knowledge, it has seen just 2 ascents so far:
The line starts standing on an obvious jug, then goes straight up into two really bad pinch crimps. Work your foot up, and go to a higher left hand crimp, switch feet, and go out right to a bad, side pull crimp and then a jump for the break. I tried it quite a few times but was never able to get past the 2 pinches but Nic quickly worked the bottom moves and after a few tries managed to grab the 3rd ascent! Video of the send (and more) is coming soon.. I definitely would like to get back out there and work on it more myself too -- wish it wasn't so far away.
After Sandstone Violence, we went over to the other side of the Backbone and to check out the Hangman/Excalibur area.. Hangman is a traverse on slopers culminating in a dyno to the top. Very fun moves.
And finally, we headed over to the Godfather boulder. The Godfather is quite a tall, proud looking line that goes at about V4/V5. The pockets were pretty painful to pull on, but that was probably because it was toward the end of the day. We both managed to get this one on our first tries:
Another cool line in the area is the jump start problem around the corner to the left -- footage of this coming as well..
All in all, a fun day of bouldering. It's a very scenic area with pretty fun problems although it's too bad you're always slightly afraid the holds you're pulling on might break.
We started the day by meeting up with Vince from Madison at the Camp B area who was psyched to show us around. We all warmed up on and near the Picasso wall which provided some fun introductions to the area.
Picasso Right:
Very quickly, however, we set sights on Sandstone Violence - a superb looking V8 in the area. To our knowledge, it has seen just 2 ascents so far:
The line starts standing on an obvious jug, then goes straight up into two really bad pinch crimps. Work your foot up, and go to a higher left hand crimp, switch feet, and go out right to a bad, side pull crimp and then a jump for the break. I tried it quite a few times but was never able to get past the 2 pinches but Nic quickly worked the bottom moves and after a few tries managed to grab the 3rd ascent! Video of the send (and more) is coming soon.. I definitely would like to get back out there and work on it more myself too -- wish it wasn't so far away.
After Sandstone Violence, we went over to the other side of the Backbone and to check out the Hangman/Excalibur area.. Hangman is a traverse on slopers culminating in a dyno to the top. Very fun moves.
And finally, we headed over to the Godfather boulder. The Godfather is quite a tall, proud looking line that goes at about V4/V5. The pockets were pretty painful to pull on, but that was probably because it was toward the end of the day. We both managed to get this one on our first tries:
Another cool line in the area is the jump start problem around the corner to the left -- footage of this coming as well..
All in all, a fun day of bouldering. It's a very scenic area with pretty fun problems although it's too bad you're always slightly afraid the holds you're pulling on might break.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Taylors Falls
Been way too long since my last post.. Hopefully more coming soon..
I had a great time this past Saturday showing Brian, aka the ClimbingNarc, and his wife Amy around to most of the best problems at Taylors. The 3 of us started by warming up on the river boulders down below the Cave area on the WI side and soon moved up the hill to the Pharoah and Cave boulders where we spent the next few hours. One of the largest groups of people I've seen at the cave was out and the energy level was great! After hanging out at the cave awhile -- where Brian flashed the Midget Stand and did the Sit in a few tries and I had my best go yet on the Traverse (will send soon - somebody hold me to it) -- we headed up to do the always fun Big Boy problems. And finally, to end the day, I gave them a tour of the MN side where we ended up hanging out in the B2 pit.
Anyway -- had a great time -- and although most readers of this blog probably know this already, Brian wrote up a great post about it too and has some sweet pictures of me not doing the Traverse:
http://climbingnarc.com/2008/10/taylors-falls-bouldering
I had a great time this past Saturday showing Brian, aka the ClimbingNarc, and his wife Amy around to most of the best problems at Taylors. The 3 of us started by warming up on the river boulders down below the Cave area on the WI side and soon moved up the hill to the Pharoah and Cave boulders where we spent the next few hours. One of the largest groups of people I've seen at the cave was out and the energy level was great! After hanging out at the cave awhile -- where Brian flashed the Midget Stand and did the Sit in a few tries and I had my best go yet on the Traverse (will send soon - somebody hold me to it) -- we headed up to do the always fun Big Boy problems. And finally, to end the day, I gave them a tour of the MN side where we ended up hanging out in the B2 pit.
Anyway -- had a great time -- and although most readers of this blog probably know this already, Brian wrote up a great post about it too and has some sweet pictures of me not doing the Traverse:
http://climbingnarc.com/2008/10/taylors-falls-bouldering
Monday, August 11, 2008
B2 Bomber
I headed out to Taylors Saturday with Brea. It was pretty warm so my only intention was to get some time in climbing on easier stuff on the MN side and have some fun. We started in the B2 Pit and before I knew it I was eyeing up B2 Bomber. This is a classic taylors falls V4 that I had tried once a few years ago but never did - having taken several back landing falls from the last move that made me too scared to try it until now. After getting to and/or attempting the last move about half a dozen times - getting more and more confident as I went - I finally stuck the top move and did it. I was really glad to finally get over my fear on this thing and do this essential problem.
B2 Bomber - Taylors Falls from Neil Berget on Vimeo.
B2 Bomber is one of the problems mentioned in John Sherman's historical bouldering book Stone Crusade -- first done by Jim Holloway in 1978 and at the time was considered "one of the last great problems in the B2 Pit" and is "now rated B1."
B2 Bomber - Taylors Falls from Neil Berget on Vimeo.
B2 Bomber is one of the problems mentioned in John Sherman's historical bouldering book Stone Crusade -- first done by Jim Holloway in 1978 and at the time was considered "one of the last great problems in the B2 Pit" and is "now rated B1."
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Taylors Falls - 7/27/2008
It's the middle of the hot, muggy summer but I got out to Taylors on Sunday with Nic and Lynn as well as Justin Evidon. We started out in the Cave area and I managed to grease off the holds quite spectacularly at least once so quickly just went to work on improving some individual moves.
It was cool meeting Justin -- he is a very good photographer:
Check out his stuff at http://exposure.evidon.net -- or go straight to his rock climbing pictures at: http://exposure.evidon.net/Rock%20Climbing. You can see more pictures from our day by clicking on Taylors Falls > July 27th, 2008.
After hanging out there we went over to the Big Boy (or is it Peeler's Rock?) area and climbed Big Boy - a super cool V3 that I'd recommend to everybody to try if you are very comfortable at that grade and don't mind getting up off the ground a ways (this problem has sprained ankles before). We also climbed the face to the left of Big Boy. I don't know if it's got a name so I'll just refer to it as Big Boy Left. This ended up being another taylors classic in my opinion that I had not done before. It does have an awful landing but it is pretty easy - especially if you have a long wingspan - V0 probably if you can reach both aretes - but quite a bit harder and headier if you can't. It involves starting with 2 foot smears and a slopey hold and then popping your hands up 2 aretes, followed by a high step to a foot smear and a long stand up to the top jug -- really fun. You can find these boulder problems by continuing up the road past the Cave area and looking for the prominent prow to the right of the road and set back about 20-30 yards. Check out this quick video of Nic on Big Boy followed by me on Big Boy Left:
Taylors Falls - Big Boys from Neil Berget on Vimeo.
We finally ended the day by hanging out for a bit over at Mike's boulder. It sure was a hot and muggy day - but with the right mindset it was definitely worth getting out there. I certainly didn't expect to do a new line - let alone one as high a quality as Big Boy Left.
It was cool meeting Justin -- he is a very good photographer:
Check out his stuff at http://exposure.evidon.net -- or go straight to his rock climbing pictures at: http://exposure.evidon.net/Rock%20Climbing. You can see more pictures from our day by clicking on Taylors Falls > July 27th, 2008.
After hanging out there we went over to the Big Boy (or is it Peeler's Rock?) area and climbed Big Boy - a super cool V3 that I'd recommend to everybody to try if you are very comfortable at that grade and don't mind getting up off the ground a ways (this problem has sprained ankles before). We also climbed the face to the left of Big Boy. I don't know if it's got a name so I'll just refer to it as Big Boy Left. This ended up being another taylors classic in my opinion that I had not done before. It does have an awful landing but it is pretty easy - especially if you have a long wingspan - V0 probably if you can reach both aretes - but quite a bit harder and headier if you can't. It involves starting with 2 foot smears and a slopey hold and then popping your hands up 2 aretes, followed by a high step to a foot smear and a long stand up to the top jug -- really fun. You can find these boulder problems by continuing up the road past the Cave area and looking for the prominent prow to the right of the road and set back about 20-30 yards. Check out this quick video of Nic on Big Boy followed by me on Big Boy Left:
Taylors Falls - Big Boys from Neil Berget on Vimeo.
We finally ended the day by hanging out for a bit over at Mike's boulder. It sure was a hot and muggy day - but with the right mindset it was definitely worth getting out there. I certainly didn't expect to do a new line - let alone one as high a quality as Big Boy Left.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Video on MomentumVM.com
Well - I'm famous! Well...only to myself and a few close friends though.. A video I took of Andre De Felice doing Right Martini V12 in Hueco this past January has suddenly appeared on momentumvm.com yesterday. I had sent Andre a copy of it after the trip and it apparently has since made its way to the site. If I'd of known it'd be published on a super popular site climbing site I might have done things a bit differently in the filming :) Anyway you can check it out over there or a bit higher quality version right here:
Right Martini from Neil Berget on Vimeo.
Right Martini from Neil Berget on Vimeo.
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