On New Years Eve, Dave battled with some heinous conditions and made the first ascent of the Nicky’s Project, naming it Memory Is Parallax and giving it the grade of V14.  I know Dave had put a ton of time and energy into the problem and I was happy to hear that he had finished the problem off.  It was a very impressive effort.  I do admit that I had a brief moment of sadness when I realized that I would no longer be able to complete it first, but quickly reminded myself that my vision for the future of bouldering requires the abandonment of the policy of opportunism that those at the upper echelon tend to inherit.   We all take our knocks at the door of progression and development, and regardless of who eventually breaks through and continues to break through, it was the collective energies of everyone that generates success.  It’s also important to realize that non-destructive competition amongst your peers ensures the highest level of performance, but not at the hands of greed.  In the end, every project is everyone’s project whether they are the first to climb it or the last.  I prefer to continue my life with this belief and that everyone is giving all they can give, trying their best, and consistently trying to improve the lives of the people around them.  Also, not enough credit is being given to the climbing community as an audience.  The admirers of our craft transform the visionaries from being a bunch of weirdos wandering around in the woods touching rocks into inspirational stories and reputable professionals.  Maybe it’s time to re-assess who really leads the way…

Following this realization, I regained my psych to return to Memory Is Parallax.  It was still a project for me and that’s all that really matters.  After checking out the video of Daniel Woods crushing the problem, unknowingly utilizing the beta that I had originally tried, I returned with a new found perspective.  With the addition of some great motivation from Paul Robinson, who was passing through town, I managed to squeak out a SEND:

After the send it was back to plastic until two days ago.  It was too late in the day to drive far, so I decided to head out to Clear Creek Canyon and visit an old friend named Echale V14.  I’ve spent a number of days over the last few years on this particular boulder, and have consistently been very, very close to sending.  I can do all the moves quite easily, but I always seem to let the bloc get the best of me in the end.  At times I wonder why I keep returning.  Echale, though it climbs fairly well, is a pretty bad boulder problem.  It was dug out of a hillside, chipped, and glued.  It’s not pretty.  But it’s close to home, has a very short approach, and is rarely covered in snow.  However two days ago, happened to be one of those rare days.  All the holds except for the juggy topout  were dry, so I spent a solid hour cleaning the top off.  I cleaned it just enough for a quick, but dicey warm-up on the final moves and proceeded to start trying from the bottom.  A few attempts later and this happened:

At this point all I can do is laugh.  That’s what you get for trying to top out on snow and ice…

Two weekends ago I had the opportunity to travel to Boston, MA and compete in the 2012 Dark Horse Championships at Metro Rock.  Prior to my departure for Boston, the week had been a bit hectic.  And the “joys” of traveling were about to make things a bit worse.  The same day of the Dark Horse Championships was also the final competition of the Spot Bouldering Series for which it is my responsibility to manage the setting of all the competition problems.  I spent Wednesday, Thursday,  and Friday stripping and setting The Spot for it’s comp and at the end of the day Friday hopped on a plane to Boston for the Dark Horse competition.  Not much rest for me, but hey, sometimes you have to make things work.  I barely got to my gate on time at DIA on Friday (after a stressful drive in a blizzard to get there), but started to relax soon after finding my seat on the plane.  I popped my headphones on and closed my eyes for what seemed like a fairly long amount of time.  Upon opening them, I realized we were still parked at the gate.  Sure enough, the pilot announced something about mechanical issues, a 1.5 hour delay, and a mandatory evacuation of the plane.  1.5 hours in the terminal followed by another 1.5 hours on the runway (de-icing) and we were finally off.  Luckily for me, I arrived in Boston at 1 am which meant I had missed the last subway train at 12:30am.  Next best option:  $50 taxi ride to go 10 miles to the hotel.  In comparison, the subway ride is $2.  Sweet!  At least the epic travel adventure day ended nicely; Metro Rock was kind enough to book hotel rooms for all the athletes traveling from out of town.  Thanks Metro Rock!  Having a nice place to crash before a competition is KEY!

All Photos Courtesy of Pat Bagley

The morning arrived quickly and soon enough I was pulling on my shoes for the qualification round.  After a brutally quick warm-up, I was on the attack.  In a little over an hour I managed to complete the top 5 hardest problems in the red point round and land myself in a three way tie for first with Daniel Woods and Alex Johnson.  I was definitely feeling strong, yet understandably, a bit tired.  None the less, I was very excited for finals.  After a disappointing finish in last year’s comp, I was determined to make my way onto the podium.

…And determination goes a long way.  After a solid finals round, I ended up with a 3rd Place finish.  Psyched!  I made a few mistakes and definitely didn’t climb perfectly, but that’s just how it goes.  Daniel Woods flashed everything to solidify his 1st Place finish, and Rob D’Anastasio brought the power to land himself in 2nd.  Nice work guys!

Overall, the 2012 Dark Horse Championships was by far one of the best comps I’ve ever attended.  The hospitality provided to the athletes was second to none.  This has been an area of weakness in all climbing competitions of the past, and I look forward to future competition organizers taking Metro Rock’s lead on this one.  A free place to stay, travel help, food, a place to relax at the comp, and a personal thanks for attending from the gym ownership goes A LONG WAY with ensuring that top athletes will continue to provide a show for the Boston community for years to come.  Last, but not least, the route setting.  Wow!  Dave Wetmore, Josh Larson, and everyone else who helped set:  BIG PROPS!  Despite being a bit reachy (a token comment from me), the finals problems were some of the best I’ve climbed on in a long time.  Creative, difficult, aesthetic, and showy.  And the girls problems looked just as good.  The setting crew for ABS Nationals next weekend have their work cut out for them…

My good friends Paul Robinson and Daniel Woods continue to live the envious lifestyle of constant travel to inspiring climbing destinations. They also happen to climb and establish some of the hardest boulder problems in the world. Paul, in particular, has truly upped his game in a creative sense with his new production from PRAK Media, Welcome To The Hood. The film follows Paul, Daniel, and new European talents Guntram Joerg and Anthony Gullsten on a tour of some of the most difficult and prestigious blocs in Switzerland, Austria, and France. All the while capturing the essence of life as a professional climber.

Last week, I had the opportunity to preview a few sections of the film, and I can honestly say that the footage of Daniel flashing Entlinge (8B+/8C) is some of the single most impressive, inspiring, raw, and unreal clips of climbing video ever captured. Prepare to be awed:

Happy New Year!  A little late, but I’ve been busy.  2012 is already shaping up to be an even better year than the last, and that’s saying something.  Europe is back on the radar, and it looks like Fontainebleau for the whole month of March!  Before launching into that, check out this video that I produced for Five Ten highlighting some sends from last season in the Colorado Alpine.  I filmed a ton of stuff last summer and without much of a story line for each independent problem or day of climbing, I decided to throw it all together into one video.  Let me know what you think:

Video from a few years ago:

The trip started out slowly this year with some wet weather and a little bit of rain. We still managed to find plenty of dry rock over the last few wet days and tear our tips to shreds. However, it’s been hard to search for new rock when the weather looks like this:

But we made do, climbing and checking out some of the classics of the area like the fantastic problems in Fred’s Cave and a short stop at Wood Grain Grippin’ V14.  Wood Grain has been on my list to check out for a long time now, and it was cool to finally give it some effort.  Looks like V11, climbs like V13/14.  I pieced together some of the moves and got close to the crux, but unfortunately, near the end of the session, I broke a small bit off the crux edge:

The problem definitely still goes and is still just as good, but the big move to the edge (which is the crux for me) is definitely a bit harder now.  The hold is not quite as deep at the bottom.  After Wood Grain, we headed up the road to look at the now iconic, Witness The Fitness V15:

And it is by FAR, one of the coolest natural roof climbs I could ever imagine!  Sculpted pinches and bulbs on a horizontal roof for 30+ feet.  What more could you ask for?  Rumors have talked of a number of breaks making the already difficult climb impossible.  After checking it out, I am sure that the climb has broken quite a bit, but is still very possible.  I’m really excited to try it, and I hope that the weather stays dry for long enough to give it some effort.  Wet sandstone leads to holds breaking, and Witness can’t handle any more breaks!

Today was the first day of sunshine and we spent the whole day climbing at Horeshoe Canyon Ranch, where we are staying for the extent of the trip.  It’s nice to be able to casually wake up in the morning and walk to the boulders from the front door of the cabin.  Life is good.  The morning temps were great and spent probably 2 hours warming up before repeating some classics.  It was a mellow day and we all had a blast.  Except for Cameron who had his pad stolen from the rocket box on top of his car.  Not Cool!  I think we are all still in disbelief that something like that happens amongst the climbing community, particularly on such a family oriented ranch.  Here’s a few more pictures from the last few days:

Grand Dragon V7…one of the coolest natural features out there.

Stepping off the plane at Denver International Airport this past week, I could feel my hands sweating and aching for some real rock.  Luckily the temps have been some of the best of the season.  Dry and cold, and most of the snow has melted off.  Right now, there are three very high quality projects in the Estes Park/RMNP area that are just begging to be sent.  And they are all at least V14.  It’s very exciting to have new stuff to project.  Here’s a glimpse:

The ATTACK is on!

Thanks to my wonderful shoe sponsor Five Ten, I had the opportunity to chat with Bear Grylls about adrenaline for the Degree Men Adrenaline Lab which is a series of commercial web episodes featured on The Discovery Channel. It was a really cool experience and it’s great to see mainstream television showing interest in climbing.