Joe's Valley 2008 Coming Soon...

I leave on Saturday!

Here's a highlight reel of last year's 2 trips that I put together a long time ago that I never bothered to post:

Taylors Falls - 2/23/2008

Last Saturday Nic, Chris Hirsch, and myself headed out to Taylors hoping to find some climbable rock. Despite their being lots of snow everywhere, we did all manage to get climbing in on the problems we wanted to try. We started at the Left of Lloyds area where Nic was trying the sit start - The Sporting Life. He gave it a few really good burns and managed to slap the final sloper but couldn't quite do it.


After this, Chris went to work cleaning up Sizzlefoot - a 5.12 route that he wanted to boulder and Nic and myself walked over to the cave so I could try my project The Cave Traverse. It was my first time on it since the fall so I forgot my beta on the opening moves on my first go but quickly re-learned it. I didn't manage to send it but feel much stronger on it - my injuries from hueco have been healing much better than I feared and didn't present a problem. I got through the drop move and into the opening moves of the Midget feeling very strong and fell at that point a few times from technical reasons so I know I'm strong enough to do the problem..just have to put it together.

Once I had enough, we all joined up at Sizzlefoot and Chris bouldered the thing! Truly frightening and inspiring to watch all at the same time. This line is usually top-roped and is probably over 25 feet tall with the crux move coming at the top. Chris warmed up by climbing up to the jug at the midway point a few times and jumped down before doing the whole thing. Very nicely done! I wish I'd have gotten video of it but we decided a spotter would be more valuable than video.


After Chris did it, Nic decided to give it a go as well. He took a few long falls from just above the jug in the middle before finally working through the crux and making it to the lip. But he grabbed a wet spot that hadn't been cleaned and blew off the top! Chris and I could only watch and attempt to spot as he fell all the way to the pads... somehow he managed to not get hurt and got right back on the problem. After taking one more pretty long fall from above the jug (at this point I decided I had to take video in case he fell off the top again) that is in the video he sent it too.

Here's some footage Nic edited together from the day:




Pretty nice day considering we didn't know what to expect when we got out there.. Hopefully there will be more days to come very soon.

Stop the Madness...

Oh what a trip.. The Murphy's Law climbing trip. It's finally all over now..

Here's the rundown:
3 of us got ridiculously sick (puking guts out/not eating anything for 3 days/losing 10 pounds sick)
everybody got injured at some point: a tendon in my left knee and a tendon in my arm connected to right ring finger (which will probably keep me from climbing for a month), eric and nic pulled hamstrings and couldn't heel hook, chad sprained an ankle

Oh well -- even an awful climbing trip is still much better than sitting at home on the couch. I had a great time hanging with friends and met a lot of really cool people from around the world. Hueco is beautiful and I do hope to get back again.

The exact moment of tendon injury:


Final day:

Hueco Update #3

Still in Hueco. Everybody seems to be at close to 100% health finally........

(PUNCH!KICK!POW!)

TAKEOVER-

by Nicholas Oklobzija

back to 100% my ass.


Let us take role

skin- well I have a full pad flapper (pointer finger) f'n power of silence (still not sent)
stomach- able to eat however I left Minnesota at 152 and am now at most 143.... WTF!
muscles- looking amazing seeing that i have rested and sunbathed more then i have climbed
friends- great as always, yet we could hang out in minnesota (did not need to spend 700$ to go chill in a coffee shop in el paso) not my idea of a good time.
family- lost a great woman in my family this week and a key player in my life (we will miss you bonnie!)
girl friend- is wishing she would have thought twice about "us" (joke)

but on the bright side i would change nothing... this will be the trip of my life (i just have to kick ass these next couple days) if all go's well i will climb "dark age" v11, "power of silence" v10, and "diaphanous sea" v11/12. I do not want to sound like a baby i am just letting the public get the real story kinda like cnn?

well neil is coming to better go before he wakes up..

peace,

-----------------

........okay back to Neil here...Nic is right - this trip has really sucked at times and featured extreme hits to our psyche but we still have a week to go and things are on the up.

I sent Baby Face V7 on Friday on my 2nd try of the day which is one of the best lines I've done. My sights are now firmly set on Adjust Your Attitude - a roof V8 with some of the craziest moves I've tried. I have all but one of the moves worked out and it feels close.

Chad and Eric are both working on projects as well. Chad hopes to do Baby Martini V6 and Eric has done King Cobra V6 is making progress on Speed Bump V7. Nic has done the Right hand variation of Free Willy V9 and has his projects as well.

Jeff Fink joined us this weekend for his first outdoor bouldering experience -- quite an introduction this was! He really enjoyed climbing on a whole lot of fun problems throughout North Mountain. Nice work Jeff!

Dan and Andy have left us to go back home. It was fun climbing with these guys and too bad to see them go.


Here's my send of Baby Face:


Nic On Free Willy:


Jeff on a nice line:


Warming up:


Chad:


Adjust Your Attitude:

Hueco Update

Not much to report. I got food poisoning or something a few days ago and am just now getting better from it. Yesterday was my first day of climbing since my first day and I was really weak as I've eaten hardly any food for the past 3 days. I did make some progress on Baby Face and have no doubt that I will send it when I stop hyperventilating after 2 moves :). I'm falling currently going for the 2nd pinch on the arete.

I'm not the only one feeling under the weather so it seems only Chad has really been doing much of any climbing. He did a nice V5 called Lobster Claw:


After this, he and Andy went to work on Lithologic and Andy did it 2nd go. Here's Chad on it who is also very close:

Hueco Tanks Day 1

We've all made it to Hueco. Eric Johnson, Chad Johnson, Nic Oklobzija and myself met up with Dan and Andy Kolar and our trip has begun. On Sunday (the 13th) we started the trip with a circuit of amazing easier problems. I commented after the day was over that this day was probably the greatest climbing day of my life as measured by sheer number of mega-classic problems done for the first time on a single day.

We started by doing the V0 problem Melon Patch. This is a tall, beautiful face covered in large jug huecos and was the perfect way to start the trip:


After this we hiked over to check out the Terremer/Diaphanous Sea cave to look at the amazingly small holds on Terremer. We then did a V1 highball slab problem called Hershey's Symphony:

We all did this one a couple times and Nic started working the moves to Diaphanous Sea:

After this we walked over and did the V3 Sign of the Cross. I was very psyched to flash this one.

After this, we went over to check out the V10 Power of Silence and Nic started trying it. He almost did it his second try of this trip, getting into the left hand gaston slot and falling going for the top. I'm sure he'll get this one soon.

After this, we hiked up the chains and all did the V2 roof problem Nobody Gets Out of Here Alive. Very fun moves on jug holds out a horizontal roof:

We then went and did the super long, amazing V2 problem Ghetto Simulator. Props to Chad for flashing this one. I got too pumped my first try but did it second go. It is the longest ropeless problem I've ever done. But it parallels a big slab behind you the whole way that if you get into trouble you can step off at any time.

After this we headed up to the Baby Face area. Eric did a V6 problem in about 2 tries called Daily Dick Dose that he has worked in years past and made it look easy:

I gave Baby Face a few tries and am really psyched to do this one. I think when I come back fresh I will do it right away (hopefully!). This is probably the best V7 I've ever seen:

All in all an amazing start...

2007 (Personal Bouldering) Review

How strange it sometimes seems to measure success in terms of 10 to 20 foot sections of rock. Start on the ground and get to the top, using the hardest section of rock you can find or manage.. Stepping back and imagining this sport from a non-participants perspective is always good for a chuckle and maybe a healthy dose of perspective. But no matter how hard it is to explain and how tired I get of explaining why climbing without ropes is not the suicidal pursuit non-climbers perceive it as I am currently of the conclusion that this sport is truly the greatest sport.

2007 was quite a year for my personal climbing development. I'm not the strongest guy around but fortunately success is a personally defined attribute in climbing and by my reckoning - this was easily my most successful year yet.

I've been climbing for 6 years now -- starting in late 2001 hanging from top ropes at VE. Before the start of 2007, I had never climbed anything harder than V5 and my interest in the sport was actually at an all time low -- By late 2006 I had hardly climbed in 6 months. But then two things happened. First, on Thanksgiving Day 2006 Eric Johnson found the single most amazing boulder I've seen anywhere practically in his cabin's backyard and second, my first trip to Bishop (and first climbing trip anywhere for more than 2 or 3 days) in January 2007.

The boulder discovery was important to me as it injected a new interest in Minnesota bouldering in me. At that time I was bored with Taylors and frustrated at Sawmill (since then my attitude has shifted significantly on both these places) so the possibility of new lines on amazing rock was a huge shot in the arm and motivating to get stronger and contribute to its development.

The trip to Bishop opened my eyes to how beautiful and fulfilling spending time among rocks can be. On that trip I think I completed only a single boulder problem but I was in school the entire week and learned an immense amount about how to move on rock and what my body was capable of pulling on. I came back very psyched to get stronger and ready to plan the next trip somewhere.

Well, to make a long story short, I did go on more trips and I have gotten a lot stronger. Joe's Valley in Utah twice -- once in April with a group of friends and back again in May alone (I did meet up with friends I'd met on the road). A quick trip to Colorado where I got completely shut down but still had fun. A week in Horsepens 40 in Alabama in the fall on the crazy sandstone. And back to Bishop for a second time to close out the year where I climbed everything I had left undone a year ago. Not to mention dozens of local trips to Taylors, Sawmill and the development of the Cabin/Big Swirly Boulder up north which has exceeded all of our expectations. Favorite problems of the year include Scary Monsters V6 in Joe's, High Plains Drifter V7 and Saigon V6 in Bishop, The Sycamore V2/3 at the Cabin Boulder but I can think of dozens more that were a blast.

While I do think it is important not to place too much emphasis on grades, they are the most obvious way of measuring progress. So as long as you're not skipping over amazing problems just because of their low grade or searching out only the soft problems to inflate your tick list I think it is important to be trying to increase what grades you are capable of climbing over time. For me personally I was able to go from having never climbed a V6 to climbing 15 problems V6 and above including 7 V7's in the past year. To me that is solid progress and I'm quite proud of this. I hope to continue to get stronger and hopefully break into some V8's and hopefully beyond soon. Who knows -- maybe in Hueco in 2 weeks I can get started.

Another aspect of climbing that has become quite clear to me is how wonderfully social the sport is. I've made some great friends in the past year and developed older friendships further as a direct result of climbing. There are of course some loud exceptions, but it seems the vast majority of people you run into at climbing destinations are some of the coolest and friendliest people around. The more you travel the more you begin to run into the same people randomly at different places around the country and pick up where you left off with people. How crazy is that? Not too many activities allow that. It's also funny how diverse the people are that get drawn together. 16 year old kids stand next to 40 year olds and everyone in between equally enthused and cheering each other on as equals to succeed. There are of course dramatic exceptions and occasional back-biting but that seems to be the exception.

Well, I've written this mainly for myself but perhaps some of you out there that read this found something of interest in here. Thank you to the friends I've been able to share this year with and here's to a great 2008...

End of Trip

I'm just killing time in the Las Vegas Airport - about to celebrate the new year's here in Terminal D...woohoo!

We finished the trip by heading to the Happies. I was able to barely do Action Figure - a V6 I couldn't do last year. This was particularly nice for me as it completed for me every problem I got on last year that I gave any significant effort to that I didn't do -- basically met all my trip goals and assured myself that I have indeed gotten significantly stronger in the past year.

I also did Ketron Classic -- a very nice V4.

Eric worked out all the individual moves on Cholos and has another project to dream about:

Bishop Continued.

Our 4th day in Bishop was a rest day. The 5 of us drove up to try to find the hot springs to relax in but all we found was one of them that was already occupied. Did get to see some nice views however:



The next day we were back out to the Buttermilks. We started the day working on Get Carter - a classic V7. Pretty cool looking problem with a very hard start involving either a huge drop knee or a wide spread and powerful move. I worked out the top moves pretty easily but got completely shut down on the bottom. Eric did pretty well on it and was able to do all the moves and could probably do it all with more work.


After that we headed back to the main Buttermilks area and I ended up doing a really fun V5 called Go Granny Go



The following day we started by getting on the Ironman Traverse (V4). Super classic line that I tried a few times a year ago and didn't have the endurance to do. I was able to do it this year fortunately (barely though), in addition to Eric and Kris who also did it.


After this we briefly tried the Leary/Bard Arete (V5) but none of us had the strength/skin at this point to do it:

And after that we hiked up to the Checkerboard V7/8 to check it out. We tried a few moves but it's way too crimpy for me at this point in the trip. A truly inspiring line though -- perhaps the best I've ever seen. Something I'd love to do on a future trip.


Today I didn't do much climbing -- felt pretty much worthless. Started the day trying Pain Grain (V5) - but it lived up to its name and I gave up after 2 tries.

I also briefly tried the Cave Problem but gave up on that too after ripping off the holds and tearing yet another hole in my fingers. Kris got it though. We also went over to work the crimpy Yayoi (V7) but I decided not to try it to protect my fingers. Kris got this one as well after about 30 minutes of work. I finished the day by doing Green Wall Essential (V2) along with Eric. Nice line on a beautiful face.

Tomorrow we'll climb for a few hours and then head back to Vegas and on home. I'll try to put a slideshow up when I get home. My fingers are completely shredded (worst they've ever been - holes in most my fingers it seems) but I'm really psyched to get them healed and pulling again in Hueco in 2 weeks!

High Plains Drifter

Edited: Much higher quality video:

Bishop

I've been in Bishop for the past 3 days and am absolutely loving it. Eric Johnson and I rolled into town on Christmas Eve at about 3 in the afternoon and drove straight out to the Happies to warm up for the trip. We figured there wasn't enough daylight to make the Buttermilks worth it. We started by doing a V4 called Sucker Punch and a V3 called Carrot Top that were both pretty fun and nice warm-ups.
Eric on Sucker Punch:


We then headed over to Serengetti (V5) - a classic problem that shut me down and ripped a hole in my finger last year. I did it this time in 2 tries and Eric quickly repeated it as well.
Eric on Serengetti:


We ended the day by working on The Hulk (V6) -- which felt doable if we go back to the Happies -- and by doing a high and committing V1 called Heavenly Path.

On the following day - Christmas - we met up with Kris and Lynn Johnson and Dillon Doyle and headed up to the Buttermilks. The Buttermilks are one of the most scenic bouldering spots in the country if not the world. We warmed up on the Sunshine Boulder and then quickly went up to work on Saigon - a classic V6 I worked on but couldn't do last January. This time was a different story and I did it on my 3rd try. A truly spectacular line. Here's me sticking the crux move:


Kris worked on Saigon Direct (V9) for awhile and he really seems close. It's pretty tall and committing and he was taking some big falls down to the pads:


After this we worked on High Plains Drifter (V7) for a little while and Lynn came very close on Pope's Prow and then headed down and Kris and myself worked on Soul Slinger (V9) and Eric and Lynn worked on the Cave Problem (V6) before calling it a day.
Eric on High Plains Drifter:


Me trying Soul Slinger:


Today we headed back up with High Plains Drifter as my primary goal. It felt close enough yesterday that I was completely certain I was going to do the problem today -- never really had that feeling before -- at least not that strong. It took about 5 or 6 tries and a key bit of beta from Kris (who sent it earlier this week) and I did it -- so psyched! I got video of it but will have to wait until I have faster internet before uploading it. Eric is super close on it too and I have no doubt that after a rest day he'll do it. It was very cold up there today and everyone was pretty much ready to go by this point but I made them come spot me on Soul Slinger for a few goes. Unfortunately I tore a hold in my finger on my 2nd go but it did feel a bit better than yesterday. The hole isn't bad so after a rest day tomorrow it should be fine..

5 Days Away

Rest.

I've been climbing with a tweaked finger tendon for the last 6 weeks or so and I've come to realize it's gotten bad enough that I have to take a break.. The plan is 3 weeks of no climbing and then the following 3 weeks of slowly escalating to the Hueco trip. Hueco is 6 weeks away and counting and even though taking a few weeks off now will be frustrating -- it will be far more frustrating to be in Hueco not at 100%. It's just as well I take a break now -- the MN season looks to be officially over -- we're getting 6+ inches of snow dumped on us right now and more to come tonight and tomorrow. So all I'll be missing is plastic climbing. I will be focusing on core workouts in the meantime and antagonist muscle training.

Here's some random pictures to brighten up the post:
Me about to fall off Kahuna Roof at Carter Lake -- over and over again:


Chad Johnson on The Angler/The Rail in Joe's Valley:


Josh on Boogie Nights in Triassic:


Eric Johnson sending Serengetti in Bishop:


Jim Merli on Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground at Swede's Forest (there's the same Tetanus Kettle in the background from my previous post, 2 years earlier):


Me trying Germ Free Adolescence in Eldorado Canyon 2 years ago: