Tuesday, February 15, 2011

More Winter

If you've been following my blog at all these past few months, it's pretty obvious that this Winter has been particularly tough on the Northeast climber.

More specifically, a single Northeast climber. One without a gym, a car, a license, or the ability to subscribe to any training regime that does not involve Netflix and Sour Cream and Onion Chips. Perhaps these decisions (and the awful, straight up awful hand that mother nature has dealt me) are to blame for my apparent lack of progression lately.

And with a lack of progression comes a lack of psyche.
And with a lack of  psyche comes a lack of sends.

I would much rather be on a boulder than up on this plateau. It's not even a cool plateau. It's full of worn sweatpants and the scraps of what were possible calluses at one time.

Despite these dark times we're in, I'm still attempting to salvage a send out of this pit, however deep it may be. And the only way to do that is to keep heading out and spending time pulling. Once again, we headed to the gunks.

Surprisingly, the rangers were at the upper lot! GASP! So we went covert-ops and parked at the stair master. There is a reason the stair master is closed this time of year. There is also a reason why, when going climbing, a pair of hiking shoes instead of sneakers is often preferable.

We warmed up on Andrew's Boulder and, while playing around with the Buddha, Ben was able to make a surprise send of The Illustrious Buddha - V8. Aaron also nabbed a send of The Buddha - V7. Next, we walked down to Boxcar, and while Ben flirted with death trying to get down to Bismarck - V10, the rest of us went to check out The Temple of Jahboo - V9. (Temple of Choss/Daboo)

Murph came out and nearly got a send of the tricky roof problem, but called it quits so we could make the long hike back to Ricans and White Boys and New Pair. Arriving at Ricans and White Boys, a FREAK snowstorm and terrible, biting winds swept through the Trapps. However, within ten minutes, blue skies were back.

We need to start getting to these lines earlier in the day, before we are tired and our psyche tanks are empty and it's cold.

Ben nearly sent Ricans and White Boys a good 15 times before we left and ate burritos.

Also, I got a new lens, it rocks, here are the pictures it took.

Murph lurping out of The Temple of Jahboo - V9
Cronin's Face - V9 doesn't suck? What?
Aaron getting real on The Buddha - V7
Adam on Jahboo

After the snow storm
Over the break, I'm going to Europe, where I will bide my time attempting to explain why I'm crying as our bus rolls right. fucking. past. Fontainebleau.

- WB

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Winter...

After a little less than two months away from all things rock, it felt pretty damn good to be squeezed into a two-door hatchback with four people and three crash pads. And even better to finally see the Carriage Road as I know it best, all covered in snow. Unfortunately, this winter has been a little bit less forgiving than last year, and it shows. Topping out anything was out of the question and, despite our best aquatic engineering, many boulders were seeping and dripping all over the place.

The day, however, was not a total loss. Aaron nabbed a send of Art of Nothing - V8, while Tyler and I made excellent progress on the crimpy little stone. All three of us spent a good couple hours on the problem, and it showed as we gave last-ditch attempts on Ricans and White Boys and New Pair of Glasses. 


Here are some pictures.








-WB
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