After that first sunny day climbing it proceeded to rain for nearly two straight weeks. Apparently that was par for the course for the summer...but I was not used to it and started to get a bit frustrated with the lack of climbing and always biking to work in what felt like a hurricane.I managed to get out to blackhead with Kaleb one grey afternoon that was a bit dry despite some light drizzle. Otherwise I was stuck with gym climbing as my only option for a while.
Eventually the weather finally shifted and I was able to get out again. After being shut down by "Beat it like a red headed step child" again last time I was keen to finish it off.
Despite the lack of warm up problems on the boulder I went straight there with Erica on the first sunny day we'd had in ages. After a few attempts to get the fingers warmed up I was finally able to get through the whole problem. Feeling solid the whole way was a huge relief after flailing on my last 3 visits.
Here's a video from the first time I sent the problem... over 3 years ago...
Which shows that my self made video techniques have not changed much over the years...
After sending that we made the trek out to the Red Army Boulder to get on "Raiding Gorbachov's Wine Cellar" a fun V6 that was also on the Sendage list. After a few tries to pull past the start move crux I was able to send that problem quickly as well and was starting to feel like getting through this list wouldn't be too tough after all.
We headed back to town for a lunch/ supper at Sun Sushi where we met up with Jamie and Claire, then myself and Jamie headed out to Fort Amherst to try and tick two V7's off the list.
Jamie warming up at Fort Amherst with the battery in the backround.
After warming up we went to was "Green Eggs and Ham" a V7 Thomasina and Greg put up... last summer? or was it the summer before... keeping track of time is hard....
Anyway the problem is basically just a heinously hard start move on terrible crimps and then it's over. Working it last year I managed to find some way to haul my butt off the ground to do the moves... but when we got there this day neither of us could figure out how to pull the first move...
So we gave up on that one and moved on to "Ketamine", a tall technical climb with powerful and interesting moves, which i feel is the gem of the area... and not just because I did the FA.
Jamie showed me some new beta he figured out which avoids relying on a really tenuous heel hook. At first I thought his new beta was going to make the problem easier... but after sessioning the problem for about an hour neither of us had sent.
Jamie sighed "I guess it's just not going to go today" Right before he pulled on for a final attempt and sent the problem. Inspired by Jamie's send I got back on and... fell past the crux move. After waiting a bit to recover I got on again, this time getting past the crux and up into a good crack near the top of the climb... when my feet cut and all my weight fell onto what was basically an accidental hand jam... which surprisingly held and I was able to regroup and send the Climb.
My next day out was with Jamie and Giz. We headed out to the Barrens boulder, which has a bit of an epic hike in, but also has two of the best problems on the send list. Finger Fried V6 and At Play in the Fields of a Warlord V9. Both are very crimpy climbs up slightly overhanging granite. Skipping a warm up Jamie sent Finger Fried after a few tries for his send of the problem and I repeated it for the list afterwards. Then we moved on to Warlord... which at first felt impossibly hard but after a bit of work trying to remember the moves and body positions I started to trust the painful crimpers a bit more and nearly sent. However we were severely limited for time because I had a wedding to go to that afternoon. So after a few more attempts we had to pack it in and head back.
I was getting picked up for the wedding at 2:30, so we left the boulder at 1:00 to do the 20 minute hike out, then a 20 minute drive back would leave me plenty of time to shave, shower and change for the wedding.
When we made it out to the car Jamie put his hands on his head with a look of disbelief... he had left his keys behind at the boulder. Without saying much else he dropped his pad and sprinted back off into the marsh.
With a 40 minute round trip ahead of him I started to worry for my chances of making the wedding... However Jamie ran like a Champ and made it in and out in just 20 minutes and I still made it home with plenty of time to get prepped for the wedding.
Ok... not going to get caught up in one post apparently... more next time along with that video I promised...
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