More Bouldering

It's been a while since my last post, and since then I have added a grand total of 4 routes to the East Rampart ticklist.  That's not to say that I haven't been getting out, it just hasn't been to the East.  I've either been out bouldering, guiding, or down in the Red.  Most of it has been relatively uneventful.  In the Red I went down to Emily and Dario's wedding which was beautiful, fell off Snooker a few times to give Sarah some motivation to send it, and worked on Golden Boy a bit.

Up at the lake, Kevin and I have gone out bouldering a few times, and Kevin has done just about everything he's tried.  At the beginning of the month  we went out, and Kevin wanted to do Tunder Tighs, Bulbous, and Fat Pants.  He also had some interest in doing Alpine Club and Beautiful Soup, but they weren't quite as high on his list.  We warmed up at Anchorpoint, and quickly headed over to Tunder Tighs, which he dispatched in short order on his second try.  I meanwhile continued to not be able to repeat hard boulders I've done before.  On the way back to the car we stopped by Alpine and Beautiful Soup.  We dabbled on both, but with no success.  I did get close to sticking the throw again on BS though, so that was encouraging.

Having not been to Bulbous since Brian showed it to me years ago, I assured Kevin that I could FOR SURE get us there, and eventually I did, but it was a much longer walk from the CCC than I remembered.  We toyed around on it for a while but couldn't quite figure it out.  I quickly lost interest, and went to take a look at some of the other bouldering nearby.  I didn't get far before I heard Kevin shout "TONY, TONY I FIGURED IT OUT!" I hurried back and sure enough he'd figured out the tricky foot beta, and fired it next go.  I tried it a few times, then we packed up and headed over to Fat Pants.

Not much to say about Fat Pants besides it is an awesome problem, and I have no idea what you guys who do that weird drop knee thing are thinking.  Also, I did Fat Pants in less tries than Kevin, and that doesn't happen very often.

Today Kevin and I got back out on the boulders, and he again had some goals in mind, namely Sex & Chocolate, Tipping Point, and Venus Rising.  We warmed up at the North Shore, which really is probably the best little warm up circuit at the lake.  Kevin topped off his warm up with a great onsight of Big Bud.  Then we walked up the trail to Monolith and hopped on S&C.  Kevin played around on it for a while, and I was able to repeat a hard problem at the lake for the first time ever.  I stand by my rating of V5 for that one.  Kevin was getting a bit frustrated by S&C so we went down to The Tipping Point.  Kevin figured out some great toehook cross through beta, and sent quickly.  I was having trouble in my shoes, and paid the price by getting a big cut on my shin when I popped off.  I put on Kevin's too big for me shoes though, and was able to do it a few tries later.  We both thought V8 was a bit of a stretch for this one, but regardless, it's a cool feature and a fun problem.

Next up was Venus Rising.  This problem has been the bane of my bouldering existence at the lake.  First showed to me by Brian, and one of the first problems I tried at the lake, I have been falling off of the final throw for years.  Kevin again quickly sent as I was trying it in frustration.  After a while we decided to head back to S&C so Kev could try and finish it up.  Unfortunately he was unable to finish it, but his second effort inspired me to give Venus a second try.  I really didn't expect to do it, and with a couple hikers gawking at me I was making negative progress.  The ever psyched Kevin however insisted I try again, and even went up and brushed the crimp for me.  I decided to try one last time, and out of no where was able to just barely stick the sloper.  Not really sure how, but I'm glad to have finished that one up.

On the way down, we decided it would be a good way to end the day to try Show Me The Kind.  I had basically written the problem off as impossible, and that everyone who claimed to have done it was in on some elaborate joke.  However, Kevin came up big with the right foot beta, and I had a couple of tries where I felt like I might be able to pull off the crimp.  A few negative progress attempts followed by a horrendous dry fire, and I felt like I could do it next go.  In what may have been my lamest moment as a climber apart from hanging the draws on Whiskey on rappel, I had Kevin stand in front of the sloper to shade it from baking in the sun.  I am not proud of this, but I sent next go, so I don't know what to think.  My world is in turmoil, and I'm feeling a lot of complex emotions about my behavior.  Please don't judge me too hard.

On another note, throughout the day Kevin and I kept discussing what would make a good circuit at the lake, similar the "Mark of the Beast" circuit in Hueco, which consists of Alf in a Blender, Uncut Yogi, and That Hi Pro Glow.  We settled on Tunder Tighs, Fat Pants, and Venus Rising, and started calling it the "Slot Machine".  Considering the difficulty and the location of the problems we figured that would make a pretty proud, yet attainable day of climbing.