End of August

Monday was forecast to be the last dry day of august before we got the tail end of hurricane irene, so it was now or never to ticking problems of the summer sendage list.

I started the day by heading out to try and finish off Warlord, which I had felt super close on last session before I had to go to the wedding.

Unfortunately the tropical winds blowing up from the hurricane meant it was one of the most humid days I've ever seen in Newfoundland.

Already sweating from the walk in I tried to do a little warm up and found myself struggling on the warm up problems.... which was not a good sign.

When it came time to actually try the problem... I couldn't even stick the first move... which normally I never fall on...

I tried it for a solid hour, but the best I could do was trying my absolute hardest and still only getting a couple moves into the problem and not even reaching the crux.

So I had to pack it in, but before leaving the highway I made a quick run in to the Mandolin Boulder and ran up "Banjo Chase Music" V1 for a quick tick off the send list... I also eyed a potential new line I have not tried before and there is another project on the boulder so I am stoked go head back there soon.

In the afternoon I was joined by Jamie and Giz and we went down to Freshwater bay because there are 4 problems on the tick list down there.

We got down in the woods and got on "Treacherous Snake Woman" which at V5 is the easiest problem on the list from Freshwater Bay. Unfortunately as humid as it was out on the highway it felt even worse sheltered in the woods. The problem relies on using some really friction dependant slopers and in the humidity they felt like they were seeping grease.

"Treacherous Snake Woman" V5

So after an extended falling session on that we decided there was not much point in trying to climb in the woods... so we skipped the other two problems there and did the walk down to "the wooly wolf" which is out in the open down by the water so we were hoping to get a bit of a breeze.

I was also stoked to get on it because it is one of only two problems on the list I had not sent previously.

Conditions down by the water felt a lot better and after sorting out the beta the problem went fairly quickly. I was really impressed by the problem; the moves are super fun and it's a really nice line. It felt pretty low end for v6 but it is fairly height dependant.

Jamie sent shortly after me and after an otherwise frustrating day of climbing we hiked out as it got dark satisfied to have sent an excellent problem which really saved the day.

A video of the sends.

The Wooly Wolf from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

So with august done the tick list is over, I ended with 17 out of 25 problems done in a month. The goal I set for myself was 20/25 so I was a bit short of that, but happy it was still good enough to win me some shoes.

Now that the list is done its time to start focussing on sending new projects instead of just repeating problems. I'm looking forward to a good fall of bouldering.