The line I had my eye on was "Jewel Thief" a V10 straight up the steep main face of the boulder. I'll let the Tucson bouldering site describe the problem:
"The most sought after send here is the Bob Murray testpiece Jewel Thief. Sent in the early 1980's (I think), this is still a difficult and committing climb, with most people opting to rehearse the moves on toprope first. The climb involves a strenuous sit start on horrendously sharp incuts, then moves to a rail, then up to a series of difficult sidepulls. Using the sidepulls, you set up up for a long deadpoint for a bad sloping edge at the lip, with your feet well above the ground, and facing a potentially dangerous swing off the lip. You bump your right hand up to a small hold higher up the lip, then match your hands, then topout. All the more impressive is that this problem was originally sent without crashpads, and with a potentially jewel thiefin' tree right in the fall zone. The fact that it may not have been repeated until 2008 is a testament to the vision and strength of Bob Murray, possibly the strongest boulderer of his era. Since 2008, Jewel Thief has been sent by Brent Silvester (probable 2nd ascent), Jared LaVacque and Sam Davis, and maybe a couple others."
Though I am not normally one for particularly tall problems the description just sounded too good too pass up. I found a video of the problem online and watched it enough to have the beta memorized. Though, once I got to Arizona, I was mostly just hoping my finger would be healed enough for me to climb at all.
The day we went to the Matterhorn boulder was atypically cold for Tucson at that time of the year, which worked out well for me because once we got to the 7000 ft altitude on Mount Lemmon of the Matterhorn boulder it was actually cold enough that there was still snow on the ground. Perfect conditions.
I taped up my finger and put on my shoes. On the very first warm up problem, a fun V0 arete with a cool horn feature, I felt my finger hurting already. I decided to ignore it. I was likely only going to be here once and I was not going to turn around and stop climbing at that point.
warming up
After a couple more V0's I moved on to a crimpy V3 called "Sidepulls" and then a really fun V5 called "The flake". After completing those climbs I was feeling strong and could hardly feel any pain in my finger.
Sidepulls V3
I started trying a V7 on the same face as Jewel Thief but with a crux near the top and no beta I did not have the nerve to commit to figuring out the moves over one pad with just Erica below me.
So then it was time to start trying Jewel Thief. The video I had watched made it seem like the first move pulling off the ground was going to be one of the cruxes and it did not disappoint. Starting super low and a good incut jug you need to do a big pull to a small but decent right hand crimp.
After a few goes I managed to slap the hold and knew I would be able to grab it. A few tries later I stuck the hold and kept going, I managed to make it to the point that I was trying to put my heel up on the rail feature before I fell. I decided to leave the start for now and start working on the upper moves.
Working the moves
The drop in move right before the final lunge took a couple tries to get the body position right on. Once I stuck it I surprised myself by hitting the lip my first try on the lunge. I went around to the top of the boulder to scope out exactly where I needed to grab then, not wanting to do the top out more than once, went back to trying from the start.
Scouting from above.
It took me a few tries to stick the start move again but once I did I just kept going. Setting up for the last big move I didn't feel like I had my left hand set quite right but went for it anyway and surprised myself even more by actually sticking the lip. Trying unsuccessfully to ignore how high I shakily rolled myself on top of the boulder.
It really was an incredibly nice climb and would be a gem in any area. As for the grade, I really have no idea and am less certain about all grades the more I climb. Whatever the grade it was certainly one of my most satisfying climbing experiences.
Erica's Mom was nice enough to come out and film so here's a video of the send
noice wun!
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