L'Enflure*

*(too much detail on climbing one problem.)

After a weekend off to recover and let my skin heal I went back today with high hopes that I could put away one of my projects quickly.

After warming up I felt fresh and confident. I hopped on "L'enflure" and felt good through the openings moves only to come off at the same crux move I had already fallen on countless times on the previous two sessions.

Several attempts later I was still no closer. The crux move that has been shutting me down involves taking an awkward, crimpy, sidepull, high stepping with the left foot, and then bumping the right foot high enough with a drop knee to allow the right hand to make a big move to the finish. I've already seen two people do this move with ease but whenever I got up there I felt like I could barely hold the sidepull well enough to move my feet, let alone do a long reach to the finish.

So today, after several attempts I was starting to get discouraged when I was again surprised by another climber showing up at the crag. After he warmed up while watching me fall repeatedly at the same move he commented that I was "presque la", I told him I had been "almost there" at the same move more times than I could count.

The new climber then asked me if i was using my thumb on the sidepull. I said that I was because there was a small divot I was putting my thumb in which seemed quite obvious to me. After falling off several more attempts I asked him where exactly he meant to use the thumb. Despite my french, which is seriously lacking when it comes to climbing jargon, I eventually understood that there was another thumb catch on the sidepull above the one I was using which he admitted was quite hard to get set up on, but would make the hold feel better.

Trying it this new way I finally felt like I could move off the sidepull and managed to slap towards the hold, I was a long way from sticking it but I finally felt like it was possible.

A few attempts later, I was not so sure. I felt better on the sidepull sure, but I still felt like I was slapping wildly for the finish and would need a lot more control to finish it.

With 10 minutes left before I had to leave to catch my bus I came off an attempt with both my skin and my tendons hurting, I decided I was done and started to pack up. I looked at my watch while packing my bag and decided I could still give one more attempt and make my bus. I put some tape on the worst of my fingers and got on for one last try. When I got on the sidepull I put my thumb up and felt my ring and pinky finger latch on better than they had before. I let myself think it might just be possible before stabbing for the finish hold. To my surprised I reached it and held it.

It was so surprising it was actually anti-climactic. I had already decided I was not going to get it today and was giving one more attempt just to get the moves even more wired. But once again it's shown me that I seem to climb my best when I climb without expectations.

What I need to learn is how to get so I can always climb with this mindset.

Once again a very poorly quality video...

L'enflure from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

Motivation

Bouldering in Newfoundland has gotten me used to bouldering alone. I'd say it's likely that I've had more days bouldering alone in my life than I have had with other people.

I'm told that in the evenings the St. George bouldering area can get pretty busy. I've never seen it. Because I climb in the day while everyone else is at work I am usually alone. Once or twice some else has arrived as I am getting ready to leave and one day there were people there doing routes when I got there. Mostly though it's been more climbing alone.

That's why I was surprised yesterday when after I'd been there maybe an hour or so a man and woman who looked to be in their 40's arrived with a 14

year old boy and two small girls. They had ropes and a crashpad and starting scouting out the routes they had wanted to climb. Remarking with dismay that most of them were wet and they were going to have to boulder instead.

(the bouldering area stays dry even in a downpour because the overhanging park of the cliff extends quite a ways out from the base of the wall)

They put their crashpad down for the little girls to traverse over and started looking at the boulder problems, the boy got on a two move V10 and nearly flashed it, then started asking the man he'd come with what it was. I had my topo handy (and had previously tried the problem and knew very well how hard it was) so I told him it was V10 from the stand start and v11/12 from the sit. I brought my pad over so he wouldn't have to take the pad from the girls and watched in awe as he climbed the problem from the sit with ease in just a handful of tries.

The woman tried it as well and was doing well but had trouble with a long move and the man came over and did the v10 version first try and remarked on how there were different holds ticked than he used to use.

Clearly these were all pretty serious climbers and he seemed to know the area pretty well, so I asked him if he could give me some beta on a problem I'd been working for a while now. It's called "L'Enflure"a tall v8 that I have been getting pretty high on but just couldn't figure out how to get to the top. When I brought him over to it he said "Ah yes, L'enflure, I put that up. After which the boy addressed him as Francois and I realized that it was Francois Nicole. (Brother of Fred and climbing beast in his own right)

He then cruised the problem to show me the beta, and I was a little dismayed to see that the section I couldn't figure out required taking a sidepull I had written off as un-hold able and then high-stepping and pulling through to the top jug. Young guns then came over and flashed the problem as well.

I wish I could say that taking inspiration from the first ascentionist I managed to fight through and finish the problem. Sadly despite repeated efforts this is not the case. Returning today yielded similar results. However I am starting to feel closer. I also hopped on the v10 while the kid was working the harder version and managed to stick the first move, which previously had made me feel like my shoulder was going to explode, I slapped for the next hold and feel like with work I might be able to stick it.

So with about a week left of my time here in Geneva I am left with two motivating projects. Which wouldn't have happened if I had only been climbing alone.

27

Went out to St. George today for a birthday boulder session. After finishing my last project I needed something new to work on, so today I decided to try a 7a+ that I had not gotten on yet.

It's called "Cet a-plat de Merde" which very roughly translates to "A plate of shit" or something like that. It's an appropriate name, which is why I had not bothered to try it before.

It's one of the lowest finishing problems in the area, which in itself is pretty uninspiring and the climb itself does little to make up for that.You start on two sidepulls, pull up to a decent sloper, then do a couple of moves on weird crimps that ripped me a couple new flappers then try to reach out left for a sloper that leads to the finish jug.

I'm running out of fingers that are not missing chunks.

Despite the low quality of the problem, climbing it was actually a pretty enjoyable experience but only because I had to figure out the sequence. If I'd been given the beta beforehand the climb would have been as crappy as it's name. I went through a couple different sequence variations before I found one that worked, which is part of what makes bouldering fun to begin with.

It was nice to get a send on my birthday as well, and now to celebrate we are going out for korean bbq!

Here's a video of the send, along with a really fun V5.

St. George Bouldering from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

So, after a week off with a bad neck today it was time to get back at it.

The past few trips to St. George I have been trying a problem called "Moustache du prophete" 7a+. The problem is pretty simple. Sit start with a juggy undercling, stand up to set up your left hand in a bad mono, then a big move to a sloper with your right hand. I suspect that for most people this big move involves just standing up and pulling through on the mono. But whenever I tried the problem I felt like my finger was going to explode and quickly wrote the problem off as not-for-me.

Then one day I went back to try it again and tried jumping to the sloper instead, this avoids alot of the strain on the mono finger. I managed to slap the sloper and thought it might be possible. I tried jumping from the ground with my finger in the mono and managed to stick the sloper in a few tries.

Sticking it when doing the actual problem was another story. The wall is deceptively steep so your feet are quite a ways in front of the top of your body, so to stick the sloper you need to not only hit it in the right spot, but also keep from swinging off.

Last day I tried it I managed to come close to holding the swing, but had to try it so many times that I ripped 3 separate flappers off my right hand in the process and so couldn't finish it. Today I was hoping to finish it off quickly after a week of rest and skin regeneration.

After a thorough warm up I got on it. I was quickly dismayed to see I was not even as close as the previous session to sticking the sloper. So I kept at it but was slow to make any progress, eventually I started to feel like I was slowing myself down slightly on the sloper, but still felt far from holding it when I re-opened one of the flappers.

I decided to give it one more go and just try to hold the swing for as long as I could. I shocked myself by sticking the sloper and realized I still had a few more moves to finish the problem. I had tried the top moves before from a jump from the ground and they are no gimme. I nearly swung off at one point but barely managed to snag the next hold and then grab the finish jug.

It goes to show how arbitrary grades can feel that this gets 7a+ and took me more effort than any problem I've done in a long time, while at the same crag I've done 3 other 7a+ and one of them was a flash. This felt like one of the hardest single moves I have ever done. Maybe I am just bad at mono's I guess?

Here is a little video of the climb. The quality is pretty bad because it was filmed by my phone propped up on a log on the ground.

Moustache du Prophete from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

New Blog/ Geneva

I've decided to start a new blog for all my climbing related activity.

Currently I am in my last month of spending 3 months in Geneva, Switzerland visting Erica. Switzerland? Should be a dream come true for bouldering right? Well...

When I first arrived here we rented a car and drove to Ticino to climb in Cresciano and Chironico,which was great, but prohibitively expensive to do with any regularity. Even getting there by train costs a fortune and takes over 5 hours.

So I was left going to the bouldering gym here in Geneva, hoping to find out if there is anywhere to boulder closer to town. And maybe meet people to climb with. However several visits seemed to only reveal more and more gym rats and when I asked about bouldering options nearby the best suggestion I got was to drive to Fontainebleau in France. Not exactly to close to home option I was hoping for.

Doing web based research I eventually found the swiss-german site www.bimano.ch. which when copied and pasted into google translate revealed details for dozens of smaller swiss bouldering locations, along with directions on how to get there by public transit.

The closest was St. George, a limestone crag more popular for route climbing but with about 40 boulder problems ranging from v2 to v14.

Through a huge stroke of luck, I managed to borrow two crashpads from Erica's co-worker's cousin..?! So I've been able to take the hour long train/bus ride to St. George about 3 days a week and it has been great.

The next closest area is Massongex which is about an hour and a half away by train, but then also includes a 30 min+ walk to get to the boulders. But on the bright side they actually are boulders, as opposed to the crag with drop of problems at St. George. I have only made the trek once so far, but plan on returning.

Unfortunately for the past week I have been having forced rest days due to a mysterious neck pain/stiffness which has left me almost immobile. (and probably led to starting this blog instead of climbing.) It is however finally better I think and tomorrow I'm heading back to St. George to test it out, and hopefully finish of a problem that has been eluding me.

More on that problem next post, and if lucky perhaps a video of a send.