Chamonix Bouldering

(I made this post a few weeks ago but was having trouble displaying the images for some reason and it took me this long to sort it out)


Last weekend I got to have a pleasant change from my normal routine of taking a train alone  2 hours each way to boulder alone. Our friend Rene graciously offered to drive myself and Erica to Chamonix for a little bouldering/ sight seeing day trip.

You might notice the pictures in this blog are considerably better than my normal phone photos.  Photos courtesy of Rene Robert.

I had purchased the guidebook for bouldering in the Chamonix region over a year ago but had not gone yet due to lack of a ride. I chose the area in the guidebook with the best recommendation and we headed there. The driving directions ended up being pretty straightforward and we soon found ourselves walking into an almost magical feeling forest with a carpet of fallen leaves.  Almost immediately upon entering the forest we found ourselves surrounded by boulders with surprisingly flat landings given the density of large rocks in the area.

I check to see what looks good in the guidebook while erica checks to see what looks good in the picnic basket.

The classic problem of the area is called "La Proue" french for the prow which is exactly what it is. Sit start then squeeze your way up an impressively angular arete. After a quick warm up this was my first objective.

"La Proue" with Rene trying out some climbing in the background.

Warming up

"La Proue" either tops out straight up at v5/6 or traverses left along a sloping rail before toping out quite high for v7. I managed to get to the lip on my flash attempt so I decided I should try the v7 exit. I made it through the traverse but by the time I got to where you need to mantel out I was so pumped I didn't want to commit to the top out over one pad with inexperienced spotters  so dropped off.

After a long rest waiting for my arms to de-pump I got back on and did the straight up version.

It was a super fun problem and i'll have to come back for the traverse top out with either more pads or more endurance.

I didn't know any of the other problems in the area so next I just wandered around until I found a boulder that caught my eye. I found a steep face with interesting incut holds that the guidebook seemed to indicate was v6 from a stand start or v8 from a sit. It turned out to be another very fun problem and I managed it from the sit in a couple of tries.

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of the problems and the area in general. There are several other areas listed in the guidebook for the Chamonix region and if the others are even half as good as this one then I am quite looking forward to checking them out.





Our non-climbing plan for chamonix had been to go up the "Aiguille du Midi" which is the worlds highest vertical ascent cable car, but when we got there they told us it was closed due to high winds. As there was not a breath of wind we suspect this was just a cover for the fact that they weren't busy and so wanted to close early.

This was re-inforced by the fact that on the other side of the valley a separate gondola was still open.


(from here on the photos are back to my standard ipone quality)

Going up.

Having beers and hot wine at the top.

Erica doing some climbing of her own.

Pretty pleased with herself.

Giant meringue reward.

Summer Recap/ Return to Swiss

I know it's been a long time since my last blog post, sadly it's because I ended up basically taking the summer off from climbing. Not intentionally. First I was forced to stay off my hurt finger for a while, then by the time it was healed I was too busy getting ready to move out of the country to have much time for climbing. I'll start with a quick recap of what little climbing did happen over the summer.

A few new boulders were found/developed. First following a tip from Neil Bradbury I found two nice new boulders on the highway close to the vacation boulders. I managed one day of climbing there during the summer but the flies were so bad I just managed to clean and climb on line while being eaten alive. The climb was worth it though. "Fly Casual" is about V4 and one of the best at its grade I have ever climbed. It squeezes up a slightly over-hanging prow feature with big moves and a fun lunge to a jug at the top.

Joel Harvie on "Fly Casual" V4

The other new development this summer was at some boulders found by Kyle Hussey and John Bennett beneath Topsail Head. There are several large boulders there but so far only one has had any climbs done on it due to the fact that the cleaning process involved removing several large trees that had fallen on the boulder using only small hand saws.

Once the trees were removed we were left looking at a 20 foot tall overhanging face with widely spaced holds. Some of the rock was a bit loose so we were wary of getting 20 feet up over an uneven rocky landing so ended up doing the problem headpoint style with a top rope first. A fact I was very glad of when I pulled off a hold near the top while harnessed in.

David Bruneau and myself got the first ascents of "Know what'm sayn" another new very high quality problem.

(UPDATE: John Bennett had already climbed the problem so here is a video of us repeating "Nice Try" V5 that we thought was the FA)

Know What'm Sayn? from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

Both new spots have plenty more good problems just waiting to be cleaned and climbed so hopefully someone will get at them.


The other big bouldering thing this summer was the first ever outdoor bouldering event/competition in newfoundland. The Flatrock Boulder Bash saw nearly 50 people bouldering in Flatrock at once. That's more people than normally boulder there over an entire year. The event was aimed eqaually at getting new people out bouldering and testing the abilities of seasoned boulderers. A ticklist of 30 problems ranging from V0-V10 had plenty of problems to keep everyone busy for 7 hours of climbing. Sponsors Evolv, La Sportiva and flashed hooked us up with prizes. Lewis Loader climbed the most problem for the Men and Keely Whitelaw wasn't far behind him at the top of the women's division. Hopefully this will become an annual event.

I should mention that the event was organized by the newly formed Newfoundland section of the Alpine Club of Canada. The club is dedicated to brining together the climbing community in Newfoundland through monthly climbing related events, as well as maintaining climbing areas. If you are living in NL and are interested in climbing at all I would highly recommend joining the club.


Other than a few scattered days out here and there I didn't get much other climbing done over the summer because I was getting ready to move to Switzerland. Now that I am here I am very excited about climbing regularly again. I've been hitting up the closest area to Geneva at St-George pretty regularly and am starting to feel like I am getting back in climbing shape. I am very excited to check out new areas and managed to get to one this weekend. Vernayaz is nearly 2 hours by train from geneva but with a high concentration of quality problems in the v7-v12 range it's more than worth it.

Here is a little video from my first trip there.
Vernayaz Bouldering from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

Highway Boulder Topo

The Highway Boulder

1. Highway 420, V0 - Climb the left arete.

2. Road Rage, V7 - Sit start on two sidepulls then climb straight up the face using small crimps. Powerful and fun.

3. Highway Robbery, V4 -  Climb the right arete using heel hooks and a small crimp to get out on the face then up.


Description: One of the first boulders developed on the highway this boulder doesn't have very many problems but it's short approach make it easy to stop at while coming to or from other boulders. Or for the adventurous you can keep heading in towards the power-lines to the area called "the unknown" for more boulders. The unknown has seen very little attention for quite a while but there are several good problems to be found in there.

Directions: From St. John's take the TCH west past the witless bay line, turn around at the Holyrood access road then park at the large green sign that says "St. John's 37 km". Walk up up the hill and you should be able to see the boulder once you are at the top.

Drive ~25 minutes Walk ~ 5 minutes

Inspiration

So I've had to come to the frustrating decision that I actually need to take some time off to let my finger heal. With a long list of projects I want to complete and the weather getting warmer every day this is pretty annoying.  There's been some new boulders discovered recently so I am going to try to focus on cleaning new stuff to keep myself occupied. I just need to make sure I leave my shoes at home to keep myself off the rock.

I've been going out and showing people areas / spotting recently instead of climbing. I am happy to say there seems to be increased interest in bouldering with several new people keen to get out and send.

Just recently one such person came into the gym. Head to toe in denim, with a feather sticking out of his fishing hat he and a friend walked into Wallnuts and went straight for the gear display case. After they looked at that for a while we asked them if we could help with anything.

"Do you have YOUTUBE?!" Denim man shouted back at us.

"Uh?"

"YOUTUBE! Can you play YOUTUBE!?"

Once we told him we could indeed "play youtube" he made us look up his name and then pointed out some videos for us to watch. Explaining that he had just been "Mountain Climbing" on signal hill while his buddy filmed.

Here he is with an impressive free solo first ascent:



In this one he  tackles some bouldering instead:



I was particularly impressed by the circuitous route of his problem. Not being constrained by traditional concepts of what constitutes a "line" or "rock worth climbing" or "sanity".

After watching a few more of these very impressive climbing videos he asked us if he had "That thing that goes into the rock and makes the 3 point hole?"

We told him that we didn't think such a thing existed but if he was interested in climbing then the outfitters would be a good place to buy gear.

As they were leaving we advised them not to die out there and they went on their way. Where are they now I wonder. What feats of mountaineering greatness will they accomplish next?  Only time, and possibly the news report of an air rescue will tell....

Tucson

Based on the bouldering tucson website, it was pretty clear that "The Matterhorn Boulder" was going to be my best option.

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

Austin

I just had a two week trip to the southwest U.S with Erica to see her family. Her sister is in Austin, Texas and her folks are in Tucson, Arizona. Even though it wasn't really a climbing trip, I brought my pad down intent on doing as much bouldering as possible.

I did my research on what would be accessible from each city and had a few problems in mind for each area.

In Austin the first spot we went to was "McKinney Falls", a state park with some cool water falls and a long overhanding limestone bouldering wall.

The online guide describes the problem "Evil Eye" V5 as one of the area's classics so that's what a set my sights on first. It climbs a steep section of the wall on deep pockets with the crux being a dyno to the lip off a split finger two finger pocket. Basically a double mono with one finger in each pocket.

My first time trying the crux move I hit the lip but immediately dropped off because my fingers were hurting in the pockets. Not wanting to get injured I decided to leave the problem alone and work on something else...

However a few minutes later my fingers felt totally fine and I convinced myself they were not actually hurt I was just not used to climbing on pockets.....

I decided to give it one more go.

This time I topped the problem out but paid the price. Both my middle and ring finger on my right hand were hurting and I was now worried I had actually hurt the tendons.

Here's a weird video someone else made that gives an idea of how scary the move off the pockets is...


I played around on a couple more problems and then called it quits to go home and ice my fingers. As the day went on they started to feel worse and worse.

Every morning I woke up with pain in my fingers and sadly had to give up on doing any more bouldering around austin. I had my sights set on a climb I really wanted to do in Tucson so I was hoping a full week off would let my finger heal enough to climb there.

New Boulder

The other day while browsing around on bing maps I came across this boulder:

http://binged.it/xGOhjG

From what I could see online it looked like it was probably big enough and maybe had a steep prow feature.

Yesterday I finally got a chance to head out and check it out and I was not disappointed when I found this:

I'm calling it "The Sandcrawler Boulder" because I think it looks like one of these from Star Wars and because I am a nerd.

See the resemblance?

No?

Today myself, Joel Harvie and John Bennett headed out, despite the forecast saying it would feel like -12, to check out what climbs we could do on it. The prow is heavily featured an yielded two easy but very fun problems. "Bing Crosby" up the left side an "Chandler Bing" up the right. There is potential for a hard climb straight up the feature in between those two but it would likely be an eliminate.

Joel on "Bing Crosby" V1

"Bing Crosby" from another angle.

The money side of the boulder is the vertical face to the left of Bing Crosby. There will likely be 4 very distinct lines up this face. The first problem we tried on this face today was the line furthest to the right before you get to "Bing Crosby". It's a stand start on a good right hand crimp, then goes up to a cool sloping rail feature which leads to some more crimps and some blind footwork to get to the top.

Andrew scoping for holds on what would become "Bantha Fodder" V5

Taller and harder climbs remain to be climbed to the left. I started trying the moves on one today and got shut down hard. The holds are definitely there, its just going to require doing some serious pulling on painful credit card sized crimps.

Joel also climbed up the cool crack/arete feature on the left side of this face for "Catchy16" a fun V0 and a nice addition to the boulder's warm ups.

I'm excited to get back to try some of the harder projects and clean some more of the easier lines. Also with a couple other potential boulders spotted on bing maps and an already long list of projects I want to complete I am excited about the prospect of bouldering this spring in general.

Entre les gouts

I'm in Geneva again for a short visit and was excited to try and take advantage of the winter temperatures.

My goal was "Entre les gouts" a two move V10 I had tried in the summer. A really simple problem, it starts with a high, bad left hand gaston, pulls up to a really thin crimp/pinch or "crimpinch" to use a word I just made up. The crimpinch is hard to even just hold but you then have to pull off it to do a big move up with your left hand to an awkwardly shaped but kind of incut hold at which point its just one easy move the finish jug. After quite a bit of effort in the summer I had managed to stick the first move but was never able to come anywhere near the second.

I was hopeful that a combination of cold conditions and the fact that I have been climbing/ training quite a bit since the summer would lead to success.

The day after I arrived was a perfect 0 degrees, and snowing lightly but the crag is overhanging so that did not matter. I took the train and bus out to St. George and once again found myself bouldering alone, except for a couple deer (or something?) that were having a snack nearby.

Deer?

Ice bouldering anyone?

After a quick warm up I got right to business. I was a little nervous after failing to stick the first move on my first couple tries but I eventually got the movement sorted out and then was getting the first move consistently and throwing for the next hold. The first time I slapped it with any semblance of control I knew I could do the problem.

Excited, I kept throwing myself at it... but not sticking it. After 3 hours of solid effort I was having to face the fact that I might have to walk away and try to come back and send it while fresh. The bus back from the boulders to geneva leaves every hour and I knew I did not have another hour of attempts left in me. So with 10 minutes until the bus arrived I told myself I'd have one last try and then pack it in for the day. Next thing I knew, I had stuck the crux move and finished the problem. I quickly threw my things in my pad then ran up the hill just in time to catch the bus.

I've noticed (and mentioned here) that I frequently climb my best when climbing without any expectations and this send certainly supports that. What I need to figure out is a way to get myself climbing with that mentality more consistently, but it's a hard thing to fake. While trying the problem I felt confident that I was physically capable of doing it. As I continued to fail I tried a number different mental techniques to try and get out of the cycle of falling. But it wasn't until I was actually climbing without any pressure or expectations at all that I was able to do the problem. Something to try to work on in the future for sure.

Anyway, heres another phone on the ground video of the problem.