Plastic Pullin'

Just a quick update, over the weekend Lisa competed at the MAC Multnomah(Portland) Athletic Club's TR Long Haul Comp. The gym is in a basketball court, and covers the entire length of the court. The walls are Entre Prises panels and a cool gym, but by far too small. Lisa ended up in first, out of 3! Afterwards we headed over to Club Sport for some enduro(60 foot walls!) After flashing their hardest boulder problem(V9 from some sort of Comp) I tried the imposing 13-, pumping out at the entrance to the crux. Next up was a 12+ and I managed the onsight to the last clip, missed a hold and fell. Two minutes later, clipped the chains for a 1 hang! This is the first real test of my sport climbing strength gained from the few weeks of training I've been doing and I'm just a little behind where I was last year pre SCS Nationals. I'm definitely in good bouldering shape so that will be my focus for the next month or two. Then it's off to chasing down Dom and nabbing the 8a #1 sport climber title he's had for too long now! (Pathetic motives, but at least it gets me on a rope)
-jimmy Let the count down begin, 1 week, 2 days, 2 tests, 10 page paper, BISHOP!

Revenage on the Rain, Leavenworth

Finally, perfect weather in Leavenworth for the Beaty Family. Last Fall I took Ryan, Amanda, and Jimmy out to Leavenworth for a hopeful two day trip, as we drove up to the city, the 30% chance of rain kept on pouring. So we attempted to climb in the Swift water cave and then called it quits, packed up and headed on home. On Ryan's previous trip to Leavenwoth, he unintentionally experienced the unrelenting heat of a Leavenworth summer sun.

But the snow capped peaks told a different story this time! The pair of siblings, Ryan and Amanda, Lisa and I, got out of the cramped Jeep and made our way to Mad Meadows for some warm up and projects. We started off a the Hueco Route, an excellent V1 with an V11 finish I'll project some day. After a rather quick warm up Ryan and Amanda began sluicing out the beta for Drug Store Cowboy(V3). Ryan, dispatched the line from the proper start and then Amanda followed from a stand. (This is her first 'real' outdoor climbing trip). I gave the peephole a few burns after relearning the sequence and feel confident it will go with some dedicated weekends of projecting. After our thorough warmup we migrated on up to the Pocket(V4) and after a mini photo shoot of Lisa headed even further up to allow Lisa to return to her duel with Hanta Man(A monkey God, Ryan told us, he learned from a Religion class project, fitting name). She made good progress on the roof V9 but still couldn't decide what to so at the crux. We'll definitely be back here for some more. Ryan and Amanda then started projecting Sponge Bob Square Pad(V3). A rather technical and burly 3. After a few good efforts on the opening moves Ryan sent The Tentacle(V3) 2nd go and Amanda followed quickly. Then after watching Lisa throw herself at Hanta Man for awhile we moved on to the Hook Creek Boulder which none of us have ever seen before.

The boulder was, well, HUGE! About the size of a small two story house. Luckily the cruxes are within 10 feet of the round. I gave Atomic Energy(V9) a couple burns, shredding my elbow on the wall, leaving a few nice gashes on myself. Then two burns later my left hand blew and raked my knuckles deep, making for even more blood. The line starts off the ground with two O.K Feet, crossing to an O.K crimp, then the fun huck out right about 4 1/2 feet to an in cut slot. It took about 8ish burns to finally hit the slot(and nothing else on the way over) and then did one more cross to a jug that leads to the high top out. This is an excellent climb minus the difficult down climb(5.6 slabbish thingy).

Our final stop was the Carnival Boulders where Ryan fired off his first V4 2nd go, Giant Man. He also made good progress on The Rib(V4). If we had another day he certainly would've sent. This trip was a good practice run for Bishop. Ryan and Amanda need to learn to trust their feet and have faith in the pads beneath them, and I learned my knees are going to KILL me. cramped for hours on end. Next weekend is a comp at the MAC in Portland, so no rock unless the weather holds and then maybe some ozone, but if not the next installment will be from BISHOP!

Vantage

Some PicsThe warm up .10a
BOULDERS!
Yeah, photo evidence of me trad climbing!
Sunshine Wall before sun set.
Josh on warm up, .10a

This was my first trip to Vantage and it was pretty fun, definitely makes me appreciate granite though. After 5 minutes of trying to find out where we were due to the fact that almost all the pillars look the same, we located a cool looking 5.8 that leads into a .10a. It was fun and after we all did this climb the next stop was some trad! We located two short trad climbs that were next to each other. Josh took the left one and then I took the right one. They were a little dirty because they were put up the day before! (The FAer walked by and told us we were the first besides him on it).
After the new climbs we headed around the corner for some old classics. The first was a striking pillar called Sunshine Buttress, 5.10a. It had an easy start to an exciting finish. Stu managed the onsight of this radical line. After we all gave it a go we moved over to the classic crack, Air Guitar 5.10a. Its a slowly widing crack starting with finger jams to off hands at the finish. Josh took the onsight but messed up 10 feet in, lowered and then fired off second go with a harrowing finish and a semi-stuck hex. I went next and managed to flash the line using more crimps than jams but felt pretty satisfied with my climbing, I'm guessing 60-70% of my pieces would've held, so I'm glad I flashed it. I would like to come back and try some of the other trad lines here too.
After the exciting traditional climbs we headed over to the Powerhouse Wall so I could try the two .12s. Well, The first one is King of the Ruins and besides getting lost at the crux, pumped out of my mind, and taking three times, it went well. (I've decided basalt which has a gazillion chalked holds is not the best place to practice onsighting) It was a cool line and I tried King Connection, another .12a, and had a better result. I managed to only one hang it! After trying a few other lines in the fading light of sunset, we called it a day and hiked out in twilight. All in all vantage is a cool place for cracks and moderate sport, but this place will definitely be cookin' in a few weeks. I learned that I'm definitely in bouldering shape and need to kick the endurance up a notch but that can wait till after Bishop. It's looking like Leavenworth again this weekend an I'm glad to get back on the textured granite boulders...

Feburary Fun-Snowy Leavenworth

The weather around Olympia has been extraordinarily beautiful and dry for the past couple days. Sitting in class all I was focusing on, besides how much homework I have to do, is how dry is Leavenworth. Earlier we experimented with winter L-town bouldering and came up short handed with snow free walls, bu iced over holds. This time was, well, the exact opposite. The walls were dry and snow free except for a few. Derek, Kyle, Jeremy and I all piled into a Subie and headed over highway 2, sadly passing gold bar, on our way to the boulders. Our first stop was Forestland where we all warmed up. After messing around on One Summer Low, a nasty Domish crimp thingy, I managed to send it. Feeling good about my crimp strength I headed around the corner and began sessioning Back Door Ass Attack(V7). I fell off the starting move a couple times then derek mentioned the hip beta, basically bring it above your hands (yeah it was painful). But for the life of me I couldn't bump my left hand to the crimp. so I said screw it I'm doing this my way. I threw my heel up, reached to the first crappy left hand sloper on the bottom of the rail, shot my right hand out right to an undercling pinch in the crack, and then delicately hucked my right again to the lip, finally to the 'easy' part. The top out was a little sub par with my left heel slowly coming off but none the less still sent! Meanwhile Derek managed a send of One Summer(V5), and Jeremy came excitingly close to one summer low(V6). Also, Derek managed to get the subie stuck in the snowy parking lot and after 15 minutes of pushing we moved on.
Next stop was the Sword boulders until the road ended abruptly at Bridge Creek, so we headed back down to Mad Meadows were we ran into the Allwine Brothers and Kjerstie. Then we headed over to Pimpsqueak(V9) where I managed a flash, luckily caught on film, and was pleased to have done this scary line first go to not have to worry about the iffy landing anymore! After messing around on the hard lines we migrated over to the Pretty Boulders which was a killer hike (Little Si is going to suck, my legs already hurt...). Derek, Kyle and Jermey got to work on Pretty Women(V5) and Pretty Girl(V3). Jeremy had the send of the day jumping the last bit of Pretty Girl and sing over Kyle's head but somehow managing to cling on for the send. Also with some high steppin' he sent Pretty Women! Then after suicing out the tricky foot beta both Derek and Kyle fired off Pretty Girl. By this time we were all feeling beat so I decided to try Batman(V8) to no avail. Guess I've got to be fresh for this one. For one last punishment we headed to the Answer man boulder and tried a stupid V5 and then headed over the pass and on home.
It was an awesome weekend besides a scheduling error for a ghost birthday party at worked that ruined Saturdays Plans, but slacklining almost made up for it(10ish steps and a turn around!). I can't wait for new problems at Bishop and to start projecting the harder lines this spring in Leavenworth. I Just need some more enduro and sunshine...

(Vid coming soon-jimmy)

January Updates

ABS Regionals for the climbing team went pretty darn well this past weekend, of the 11 kids on the team who went, 7 made it to finals! Some highlights are, Victoria 1, Lisa 2, Eric 3 and Ian 4. Then the following day Lisa, Jimmy, Ryan and I headed over to the new Vertical Club/World bouldering gym in Tacoma which is, ah, SICK! The place has walls that stop around 20 feet if you go to the very top. They have 99% new holds, ranging from So Ill to Rockcandy. The holds were so new that you would slip off of them (which made for some entertaining falls by the way). I was feeling good and managed to send everything I tried with a few exceptions. My modified training regiment for Bishop is working. Oh, and I'm heading south for spring break to go to Bishop for(as of now) approximately 12 days of climbing with a bunch of climbers from SPSCC, mainly Jimmy and Ryan. They did really well at VCT. They just need some bomber calluses and some stamina, but 12 days we figure 2 days per area, Happies, Buttermilks, Druids and a little Owen River Gorge thrown in. My only (hopefull) goal is to send a V10 and 5.13a this trip, which I think is in my realm. Other than that I want to just send as many classics as possible and help scout out problems for Jimmy and Ryan and the others. It should a fun/painful 12 days. Till then, see ya crankin' in the gym...

Maybe a 2010 tick list soon but my main goal is to push myself to my absolute limits and be both #1 in routes and boulders on 8a for Olympia, so Dom, Look out! -jimmy

Winter Bouldering

It is nearing the end of Christmas Break and the 2009 season has come to a close. Last weekend Nicholas, Lisa and I headed over the Cascades to try to do some bouldering in Leavenworth. The boulders were, well, iced over but a few lines on the footless traverse boulder were dry at Swiftwater. All in all it was a fun day and I didn't manage the send of Bangalador Torpeedo. I needed one more V8 to beat my bouldering score form 2008. I was close (off by a few points!). Leavenworth is a prety cool town in winter and would probally be funner with a sledinstead of a pad. The video below is some uneditted footage from the trip. See ya in Leavenworth in three months (Hopefully this training regement thingy will help ;)

Study Break

There's nothing better than sending a mini proj. during a study break between finals. As rare as it it is, I was able to go bouldering in DECEMBER in Olympia. I braved the cold(handwarmers in bag) and made my way out to skookumchuck. The hillbilly boulders were dry so I grabbed the pad and got to work on the last hard line on the boulder. It starts with a pistol grip for the right and you go to a slopey crimp for the left. Then you get a heel on the pistol grip, move your right hand to an undercling then shoot out with the left hand to a micro crimp. From here there are a few strenuous crimp moves to a mantel in a little scoop, top out and pump fist! It was good to be able to climb outside so late in the year. I also checked out another cliff band that yielded a few good crimpy boulder problems. I'm heading out there today for a little scrubbing and(hopefully) sending! So grab your brushes and get scrubin...(theres plenty of moss/dirt/choss/shrubs for everyone) -jimmy The proj is (Kill the Hippie V7ish SDS)