Summer 2013

The snow is flying once again here in the 'Ville which offers a good opportunity to post some pictures and recap last summers travels. Like I mentioned before, most of the good stuff is stranded in my dysfunctional hard drive. Since I can barely remember what happened last summer, I'll just post some iphone photos in chronological order and hopefully they spur some memories.

I do remember feeling like I was stuck in West Virginia. I had a seemingly unending stream of work holding me back with my regular DPM duties in addition to finishing the 2nd edition NRG guidebook. The guidebook was a lot more work than I had anticipated for a number of reasons. I also remember that one day I just freaked out, threw everything in the van, and left. Elissa stayed home this year, mostly because her shoulder finally gave out after a Crossfit injury from two years prior and she couldn't climb very well. Murder Dog stayed home too. So it was just me, heading west on I70 and I didn't really have a destination. At some point along the drive, I decided to head back to Ten Sleep because I was guaranteed to have some partners there only to realize that I should have taken the road north about two hours ago. That's what happens when you don't have a plan.

 My home away from home, the Buffalo, Wyoming library. 

I feel like I spent a solid month mostly working at the library, climbing a bit in Ten Sleep, and hiking cliff looking for new routes. I spent a lot of time by myself and settled into a nice rhythm of working most of the day at the library, then driving back up to camp in the Bighorns by Crazy Woman. I love camping up there. It's so quiet, open, and peaceful. Every evening I'd just sit there with my legs hanging out the door, drinking beer, eating burritos, and watch the most amazing sunsets.

One of the cool things about being alone was that I was forced to seek out new climbing partners and I got to climb with some great new, and old, friends this year. But I'm still generally antisocial so on the 4th of July, when Ten Sleep is packed to the gills, I hiked up into the Lost Twin Lakes Cirque to check out the climbing potential. It's something I've been meaning to do for years. It's pretty amazing up there in the Cloud Peak Wilderness. It's remote, beautiful, and there are multiple lifetimes of new routes to climb up there on the alpine granite. The Bighorns have long been overshadowed by the endless possibilities in the Wind River Range which is much closer to the climbing communities of Lander and Jackson. I know there are plenty of established routes in the Bighorns but, like I said, the potential is staggering.

I drove south from Ten Sleep to Lander to hang out with one of my best old climbing buds Devlin Junker and to check out the International Climber's Festival. On the way there, I drove through a badass hail storm.

Funny thing about spending a lot of time alone. I guess after a while it makes sense to just bust out the phone and hit record because it feels less weird than talking to yourself. I sound good and cocky in the first video but when I started getting closer...

I did drive right through it, and it was insane. The hail wasn't quite golf ball sized, but big enough to have to pull over and wait it out. Wyoming summer storms are amazing. I've been caught by a few when I'm out climbing or bolting and it happens so fast. Blue skies turn black and then you just get pummeled by hail and lightning. Wild and awesome.

I remember still being in work mode in Lander, though I did get to climb a bit. I think the climbing around Lander is great, but I'm always there in the middle of the summer and it's just so hot. Even Wild Iris, which has a reputation for being a great summer area, bakes in the sun most of the day and at 8500 ft, the sun is super intense. But the festival was a good time it was fun to hang out with Dev, Ana and their little daughter Shanti. One day, Lander route developer Tom Rangitsch took us for a drive up into the Winds to check out some relatively undeveloped cliff line. It's crazy to see how much rock there is in the Lander area. The issue is access. Even though you can see a lot of it from the highway, it's always tucked away behind Rez land or only accessible by an hour long 4wd drive. Without fail though, Todd Skinner has already checked it out and left some bolts in his wake.

This wall reminded me a lot of the Picnic Lunch Wall at Smith Rock. It could have 10 Big R's on it.

These curious dudes were chilling right at the base. They let me get really close. 

As I usually do, I will approach wildlife until we either spar to the death or they run away. They always run away like little bitches.

As far as my personal climbing, I didn't do much in Lander. I got to check out the Sweatlodge, which is a pretty cool little cave, and also hiked up to the much talked about Wolf Point. Killer crag but it was like 100 degrees. Sandbagged by Blake Cash who, being from Chatty, seems to operate on the mentality that it's a dry heat and better than what he's used to. I also spent some time hanging out with Zeke and his owner Jonathan Siegrist. Zeke is such a boss. Jonathan's pretty cool too. I put this video together of Jonathan climbing Wyoming's hardest route: Moonshine (5.14d). Zeke makes a brief appearance. 

Click it for video

I also went full paparazzi on Tommy Caldwell. It was cool to meet Tommy because...he's Tommy Caldwell. 

According to the sequence of photos of my phone, Elissa flew in to Casper a short time later and we drove back up to Buffalo, The Bighorns, and my favorite spot...Crazy Woman. 

The blue streaks at Blue Chuck Cliff were the first prime lines I saw on the first day I "discovered" Crazy Woman the year before. Somehow though, I got so distracted by all the other routes that I had yet to sink bolts on them. I bolted the left blue streak and then got caught in one of those heinous hail storms. The left blue streak has a heinous crux near the top. It's a 5.14 project that I don't know when I'll get back to so go get it. 

Looking down the blue streak project. Later in the summer, I went back and added a four bolt variation finish that bails to the corner. That route is called The Ice Maiden (5.12c) and it's classic. 35 meters. 

The hail storm was heinous. I did a little product testing. #Outdoorresearch!

This was a memorable day because the hail storm left the dirt roads that we drove in on impassable. We were stranded out there and forced to camp in a place where we weren't supposed to. At some point in the night, I woke up to a strange guttural growling. The sounds of the beast outside were terrifying. It's hard to explain just how irrationally scared we were but these sounds were insane. I'd never heard anything like it. At the time, we thought it must be a mountain lion, or a bear, or a dying cow. Later, we found this soundboard and knew right away that it was a bobcat. You know how everything is scarier when you've just woken up and it's pitch black and you can't see anything and your brain is still foggy? Try to imagine these sounds right outside the van and having no idea what it could be. Aliens, Sasquatch, and crazed murderous rednecks were thoughts that crossed our minds. Yes, it was irrational but we were terrified and couldn't drive away. Check out Bobcat Growl 2 in particular for an idea of how diverse and threatening one of these little kitties can sound. 

Shortly after, Siegrist and Emily Jean showed up to check out Crazy Woman. I was psyched to see him repeat some of the hardish routes I'd established the year before. Here he is on Gold Digger (5.14a)

Here's EC chillin' at Crazy Woman.

After that, EC and I went back to Lander and chilled with Devlin some more before we went on an alpine big wall mission. We circumnavigated, by car, the entire Wind River Range, driving south from Lander first to the Cirque of the Towers. That area is mind-blowing beautiful. We didn't have camping gear so we had to do a day trip in to climb one of the closer peaks, Sundance Pinnacle. It was still an epic journey. 50 miles on dirt roads, a 6 mile hike, then a 10ish pitch 5.10c called the Northeast Arete that was hard! Such a killer route. Then we went to Jackson to climb in the Tetons and did the classic Death Canyon route, The Snaz (5.10a). It was also hard! Our alpine missions were mega extreme so we put together this video.

Click for e#treme video

Thankfully, we survived our alpine excursions and EC was back on a plane headed for the Dub V. I was on to City of Rocks, Idaho. I'd only visited the City once before back in 2004 when I was working for a therapeutic survival school near Twin Falls. It was snowing back then though, so I'd never climbed there. My trip this time was for a post tradeshow Scarpa/Outdoor Research event. It was basically a community-building get together for media and athletes and ended up being a really fun time. I got to climb some classic cracks, meet some new folks, and hang with my friends Brenden O'neill and Gord McArthur among others. I also got to spend a morning climbing with the legendary cobbler Heinz Mariacher which was a real treat. Heinz is a true old school badass climber and one of the coolest dudes in the industry. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that he invented the modern day sticky rubber climbing shoe. He's at the very least been an integral part of shoe evolution. Pretty much every benchmark shoe has come from his mind and hands. Shoes like the Mythos, Testarossa, and Solution all came from him when he was working with Sportiva. Now he shapes for Scarpa and the current line-up of his shoes are amazing. I've been wearing Scarpas since my very first pair of climbing shoes, a board lasted pair of Edges, and I've worn them ever since. I've been a grassroots Scarpa athlete since 2007 and have really enjoyed being part of the team. I truly believe they make the best shoe on the market and when they finally decide I'm washed up and stop giving me shoes, I'll just start buying them. I wouldn't wear anything else. 

The City of Rocks, Idaho.

After the City of Rocks event, I went back to Ten Sleep and Crazy Woman. I hooked up with my Canadian friend Mark Smith and his brand new wife Monica. They are great folks and were so much fun to climb with. Mark is the friendliest, happiest dude I know. When he comes to stay with us at the New, he'll be awake in the dark, talking to Elissa before she heads off to work at like 6:00 am. He's awake and so psyched he can barely contain himself. 

Mark at the belay and me on the first ascent of a route I bolted at Crazy Woman. Mafic Dike (5.13a).

That same day that I sent Mafic Dike in the morning, we headed back to Ten Sleep to check out a cool new crag developed by Mike Snyder, JB, and Full Charge Charlie. The Lakepoint crag is definitely worth a visit, particularly this buttress. Here, I'm sending Wavy Gravy, a cool 13b. I also flashed a 13a that day just around the corner. This was August 15th and the conditions were getting better, I sent the final edits of the guidebook off to the publisher the day before which meant my work load had decreased, and I was finally able to focus on climbing.

My goal for the season was to get back on General Litzenheimer, the hardest route in Ten Sleep. It's graded 5.14c, and I'd never climbed that grade, so to say that it was my goal to send it would be a bit much. My goal was to try it some more. Mark was belaying me the first day I tried it this year and I surprised myself by doing all the moves. This was really exciting for me because usually, if I can do the moves on a route of this angle, I can do the route. So I immediately went all in on it. But finding partners after Mark and Monica left was a challenge. Alli and Kevin were around but they were spending a lot of time at another, steeper climbing area that stays a lot warmer and heat is my Kryptonite. So I headed back to the hills to bolt the final routes I wanted to do at Crazy Woman.

I finally sunk bolts on the right blue streak, which is the very first route that caught my eye when I found Crazy Woman. I also bolted the variation finish to the 5.14 project and a nice 12d further left over by a route I did the previous year called Milky's Ultimate Steeze (5.13a).

The last line I bolted goes up just left of the black streak. You can barely see the rope on it. It's actually amazing. Way better than I thought it'd be. From the ground, it looked like the steep section was fairly short but when I rapped it, I realized the cliff there is 150 ft. and the view was foreshortened. It's actually a sustained 6-bolt section on 20 degree overhang with tiny two finger pockets and edges. It's definitely another 5.14. 

I love this photo. You probably can't read the sign but it says "end motorized travel." I can't even take a guess at how many undeveloped dolomite cliffs are in the Crazy Woman area. Overall, I've spent weeks driving around, getting to some, and not being able to get to others. This one was a ways off the beaten path and, as it turns out, locked up on private property. Some old rancher on a 4-wheeler got curious about what the hell I was doing with a van like Max way out there so he rode up, curious, and a bit defensive. He had a gun on his hip and a cowboy hat, of course. As is always the case in Wyoming, he was super nice and we talked for a long time. I asked him for his version of the legend of the Crazy Woman (there are many variations). He told me he didn't know but I clearly remember one nugget of knowledge that he left me with. He said with a drawl, "This land was good on men and horses but hard on women and dogs."

I went back to Ten Sleep to focus on the Litzenheimer and was greeted with this amazing double rainbow over the the cliff in the distance coincidentally named "City of Gold." One of my favorite campsites. I have much better pictures of this...on my hard drive.

I really enjoy the process of projecting a route and Litzenheimer was no different. I love figuring out the moves, then the clips, and making small links...all that stuff. I actually didn't spend that much time on the route before I went into redpoint mode so it was just a matter of finding partners. Alli and Kevin were nice enough to walk back and forth between the Cattle Ranch and Alli's project at the Superratic so every three days or so, we'd be up there. I was getting really close and then, one day when the conditions were less than perfect, I went full bore into the opening boulder problem which involves catching a sharp half-pad mono with the left middle finger. I started to fade away and did one of those numbers where your finger goes kind of into a crimp, then straight again, and right when I reeled it back in, something yoinked. I came down and went through that whole process of thinking, "it's not that bad," playing with it, bending it, pulling on it. It felt OK. So I decided to give it one more burn and pulled on my shoe and was like, "Aaagh!" Kevin convinced me that if it hurt to put my shoe on, it was probably a bad idea to pull body weight on the tip of that finger. He was right, of course. And just like that, I thought it was over. I needed to rest and there is nothing more annoying than not climbing. 

So instead of resting, I decided to take a break from the route and go to the Fins in Idaho, another vertical crag with tweaky pockets. Perfect! The Fins has been on my 'must-visit' list since I saw some footage of Siegrist on Algorithm, the 14d he put up the year before. Jonathan was already there, so I hustled to meet him. 

The fastest way to the Fins from Ten Sleep is through Yellowstone Park. In the early 2000's I worked for a wilderness program in Dubois, Wyoming and we used to go there all the time, so I've seen the amazing sites and just wanted to blast through. I managed to avoid the entrance fee by camping right outside the park, getting up early and driving in before the gate opens. But it wasn't early enough. I think it was Labor Day weekend cause the Park was packed and every time a bison herd gets near the road, you get stuck in standstill traffic for like an hour. I was screaming, "you gotta be effing kidding me!" for a while before realizing how much of a dick I was being. This herd eventually took off and actually swam across the Yellowstone river. I've never seen bison swim before. It was pretty cool.

I was blown away by my first view of the Fins. You drive up this really steep dirt road and it looks small from a distance. But when you get up to the 2wd parking, the Discovery wall looks incredible, like Ceuse. 

The Discovery Wall

I hustled up the hill at warp speed to meet Jonathan and was pleasantly surprised to realize that I knew everyone at the crag already: Jonathan, Zeke, Seth and Neely, Leif and Lindsay Gasch....such is the climbing community. I ended up staying at the Fins for a week. With such a short amount of time, I didn't want to pick off any lofty goals so I focused on doing a bunch of 5.12's and 13's. Like Ten Sleep, the Fins suits me really well. I managed to onsight or flash all the 5.12's and 13a/b routes on the Discovery Wall except one or two. That's really good for me. The one hard route I did was La Cabanita Especial (5.13c) which Siegrist had put up the previous year. All of these routes are simply incredible and I can't wait to visit again and try some of the harder rigs. I also bolted and sent two new routes on the left end of the Discovery Wall. Hazmat and Decon (both 5.12-) are decent additions. Definitely not the pick of the litter but worthy. Siegrist was a machine, as usual. He slammed in a few more 5.14 routes that week and I got some great pictures of his hardest addition of the year, Better Living through Chemistry (5.14b/c). 

This was my favorite of the series. It really shows the style of climbing at the Fins. Lots of blank rock and rad pockets with a beautiful view. See the rest of the pics here.

Then Siegrist was off to do more of what he does and I was heading back to Ten Sleep to battle the Litzenheimer. My last day at the Fins, I really wanted to finish up La Cabanita and I went a little too big. It starts with a 12+ that has a really hard pull on a ring finger mono. On my 2nd burn of the day, I felt something rip all the way down to my elbow but kept going anyway and fell at the very last move with the chains in my face. I'm not one to listen to my body so I tried again and felt the same twinge at that tweaky move but worse. Regardless, I pushed through and sent but not without consequence. My first day back at Ten Sleep I was feeling rough. My fingers were in terrible shape. Not only had the Litzenheimer injury not healed (how could it after 'resting' by climbing tweaky 5.13 pocket routes) but it had gotten angrier. In addition, I had a new injury in my ring finger/forearm. I was a mess. 

This go 'round, I teamed up with Brenden O'Neill and he was psyched on Galactic Emperor (5.14a) which is right next to the Litzenheimer. No way I was going to blow the opportunity to get on my project by resting, especially with limited time in the trip left. The day I sent, I warmed up on a 10d and was struggling. My fingers felt terrible. It was painful to tie my shoes. We did another warmup and I felt the same. But I stepped up to the rig thinking that if I feel something twinge, I'll just let go. Nothing twinged. I sent.

Kevin Wilkinson at the belay just before I left for the Fins. I think this might have been the burn before I tweaked my finger. Alli Rainey photo

I guess I should clarify that the route I actually took is called Masters of the Universe. James Litz sent this project, that was bolted by Alli Rainey, in 2009. The straight up independent bolt line is General Litzenheimer and was graded 5.14c. Litz was on a rampage in Ten Sleep that year so right after he did Litzenheimer, he did the link-up called Masters of the Universe. You do the crux section of Litzenheimer to a big jug at the 4th bolt but instead of going straight up, you step two feet right onto Galactic Emperor and finish with that route. Litz felt like this finish was harder so the word on the street was 5.14c/d. I doubt James ever really proposed grades for these routes. I know him a bit and can make an educated guess that he doesn't give a shit. Somehow the media morphed this into 5.14d for Masters of the Universe. The reason I chose this finish was not because I was looking for something harder, though 2nd ascent did sound pretty cool. I'd done both finishes before because I've done Galactic and there is a reverse link-up that climbs Galactic to the rest then finishes on Litzenheimer called Private Halfenheimer (5.14a) which I'd also done. I remembered the finish to Galactic being more straightforward and secure. Additionally, it has chalk on it whereas the Litzenheimer finish is blank and techy and insecure. Maybe the Galactic finish is a tad harder, I can't really tell. But I knew that if I did get to the rest that I didn't want to blow it up high so I took the right hand variation.

Siegrist has done Litzenheimer and Litz has done both so, although this was truly the 2nd ascent of Masters of the Universe, it's more like a 3rd ascent after Litz and Siegrist. I even got some sweet cred on 8a.nu where Jens noted that I gave the route a "personal grade" of 5.14c. For the record, I don't do personal grades. I always just take it at face value and don't put much thought into it. I've been on 13b's that feel impossible and I've done 5.14's that feel easy. Who am I to judge? I'm one of the most imbalanced climbers on the planet. I can climb vertical rock fairly well but I can't send V9 boulder problems. Because I did send this route, I doubt it's 5.14c but who knows. Crazy stuff can happen. I was really psyched though and even more psyched to finish off the wall with the 3rd ascent (after Litz and Siegrist) of Porcelain (5.14b). I wrapped up a 5.13d at Leigh Creek called Fangs, had a good day with Brendan at Dry Wall onsighting two 13a's, and that was it. My time at Ten Sleep is pretty much over which is kind of heartbreaking. I love it there so much but with almost nothing left to do, it's hard to justify another long-term trip. I'll be back though. 

Brendan split for the Valley and I only had one day of my trip left to send the routes I'd bolted at Crazy Woman but no partners. I had another great solo day up there, alone, climbing in silence on a shunt and just enjoying one of my favorite places. I TR sent Earthbound Djinn (the right blue streak 5.12b), The Ice Maiden (the easy variation finish of the left blue streak 5.12c), and Wilky's Anti-Steeze (5.12d). It's a shame I had to "send" them solo on TR but it was the only option. I consider them first ascents...if you don't, go snake 'em up you rat bastard! Ha! And like I mentioned, I did leave two 5.14 projects up there that are wide open. They're worthy. Go check them out. 

I drove back across this great land, stopping in Rapid City for some van repairs, and on to Delaware to visit my awesome gramma. 

Gramma is strong as hell!

I made it to Richmond, VA one day after EC got out of shoulder surgery. She was doped up and five months later she's still struggling, but  she did her first 5.6 this past weekend and I didn't even pull her up on toprope!

After 10,000 miles since we left on our trip, Max blew up in the home stretch from Virginia to West Virginia. He'd had enough. It got straightened out though, and we finally made it home just in time to kick off New River Gorge season. Like all the others, this past season has been amazing and I'll get something up about that asap.

Flashback: Hoax of Clocks

My buddy Chris and I were climbing at the Cirque AGAIN the other day and talking about the possibility of courageously visiting another crag in the near future. I know, it’s crazy. But he asked if I’d done Hoax of Clocks at Central Endless and I was all, “Hell yeah, son! I’m the only one!”

It reminded me that I had put together a little video of the route a few years ago and never done anything with it. It also reminded me of what a terrible job I’ve done of updating this blog this past year. I’m going to make a strong effort to make this blog a place for reading about current climbing happenings in the region. All kinds of (somewhat) exciting stuff happens around here and there’s no place for that info to be disseminated so I’m going to hustle to catch up and then do a better job of keeping it updated. New routes, access issues, that kind of thing.

For now, here’s that little clip of Hoax. I had grandiose plans for making a really cool time-themed video about this route with some sweet Porter Jarrard interviews. It would have conveyed the following:

Porter and Doug Reed were two of the sport climbing pioneers here at the New. They established what is considered the first sport routes on Endless Wall, Freaky Stylee (5.12a) way back in 1988 when I was 10 years old. During the following 9 years, sport climbing exploded at the New and hundreds more were established. At some point during this flurry of development, Porter rapped the wall to the right of the popular arête Bullet the New Sky which is located in one of the most trafficked zones at Endless Wall. He placed some cold shut top anchors and may have toproped it briefly but in the end, he deemed the crux too difficult and left the route for another generation.

(Edit: OG guidebook author Rick Thompson has corrected the previous paragraph. The cold shut top anchors were placed by Doug Reed. Doug and Rick toproped the wall and abandoned it. Porter adopted the project at a later date.)

Porter discovered the potential of the Red River Gorge in the early 90’s and moved on from the New to live in Kentucky. Lots of time is passing here… Hoax of Clocks…get it? I’m not sure why Porter named it that, though. He was originally calling it The Mellified Man, a reference to Egyptians turning dead bodies into honey, which is also really cool.

Anyway, he moved back to the New in 2007ish and opened a restaurant. Times were different, but that route was still there, completely unchanged. One of the things that did change is that Porter could no longer just drill bolts in the route. He was the first to apply for, and be granted, a permit to bolt the route under the National Park Service’s new climbing management plan.

In 2008, with permit in hand, Porter sunk bolts into Park Service sandstone, possibly the first time this had happened, at least legally, since 1997. It’s a beautiful wall with a singular line on it but the difficulty of it kept it off the radar for most. I was preoccupied at the time with my 4-year project Picket Fence, so I didn’t bother with it.

Chris Sharma came shortly after it was bolted and spent an hour or two on it. He was attempting an outrageous crimp/dyno move at the crux and the media was there to film it. He eventually did stick the move and on his 2^nd try at the route, he fell at the crux and couldn’t repeat the move. Instead of trying again, he walked around the corner and claimed the first and only onsight of the Racist (5.13b+)…apparently. I wasn’t there; I remember because the conditions were perfect that day and I was at Beauty Mt. failing on my project again.

The short clip of Sharma trying Hoax, was in the movie “the Players,” sandwiched in between clips of him sending Lucifer (5.14c) at the Red on his 2^nd try and onsighting Proper Soul (5.14a). I thought it was safe to guess that the Hoax project was in the 14c range since the crux move gave him some trouble and, well, he’s Sharma!

Hoax footage starts at 3:15. I bravely and humbly present this footage of the world's greatest rock climber not being able to do something I did. No big deal.

When the 1^st edition guidebook came out in 2010, I gave Hoax a projected grade of “somewhere in the 14c range.” Vasya Vorotnikov hung his draws on it a little while later and gave it a few efforts, I believe trying the move the same way Sharma was. I never bothered with the route ‘cause I don’t climb as hard as I believed the route to be.

Of course, I eventually did try it and solved the boulder problem with different beta, getting a really high foot and doing the move almost statically. It’s a classic NRG move: small crimp, high foot, rockover. After a few days of efforts, I clipped the chains, almost disappointed that it wasn’t going to be the New’s first 5.14c. I honestly thought it might be 5.13+ but I figured I might as well call it 14a since it did give some 5.15 guys some trouble. Regardless of the grade, it’s cool in that it does represent the ‘final exam’ in Endless Wall face climbing: small holds on a barely overhanging wall. And it’s a gorgeous line with bulletproof swirling white stone, and multi-colored water streaks.

That’s what the movie was going to convey; instead I just put together the climbing footage and never got to the rest. I thought the “Hard-Grit” inspired heartbeat sequence was a little too cheesy and I was going to swap out the music which is why I never posted it online. But when I went back to do that yesterday, I realized my hard drive no longer works and the premiere file and raw footage is stuck in there so I only have the rendered version from my laptop. Youtube hasn’t crashed yet, so I figured I should upload this before it’s gone forever.

Back to how the day played out for Chris and I at the Cirque… I got punted off Xanth again, a 13b that I’ve tried on and off for a few years but never seriously. This comes just a few weeks after I proposed the lofty grade of 14b for another Cirque route and got the 2^nd ascent of Brian McCray’s old House of Cards (5.13c/d). All Brian McCray routes and grades, House of Cards seemed as hard, or harder, than Proper Soul and Xanth seems harder than both so we joked about how jacked Cirque grades are and grades at the New in general.

I think it’s funny how time and history are going to sort things out around here. My thought was that Brian was the first 5.14 local climber at the New, but Proper Soul wasn’t necessarily the one. Around here especially, things that weren’t that bad for Brian, like Xanth, are very difficult for others and things that he thought were hard, might be pretty chill for others.

I think it’s going to be the same for some of the routes I’ve put up here. Everybody thinks Trebuchet (I called it 14b) is kinda piss and Picket Fence has seen fast repeats by Matt Wilder (three tries), Ben Spannuth (3ish days due to poor conditions), and Jonathan Siegrist (2^nd go). Looks like that one is not 14b either!

But then again, I’ve sprayed beta at some serious tough guys on Hoax of Clocks and no one can do the move the way I did. Jimmy Webb said it was the hardest move he’s tried on rope and when I yelled at him to just get his damn foot up he responded, “I can’t! I don’t have as much practice sucking my own dick as you do.” Well played Jimmy. I take this to mean that I can flash V13, I just haven’t tried yet.

So here’s the beta for Hoax. Now go up there and get your damn foot up!

Click it.

Thanks to Pat Goodman and EC Williams for hanging on ropes and shooting the footage!

Smoking Crack

I was out hiking today at the Meadow and found this hilarious bolted crack. It's probably about 5.7 and 20 feet high. It made me LOL.



There's no sense in getting all preachy and running through the last 50+ years of climbing history including the current consensus on how routes should be established. I feel like this picture accurately portrays my feelings and the feelings of...well, I would say everyone but I guess that's not the case.  

 

There are some bizarre ironies here as well.

Irony 1: It's actually kind of run out to get the 2nd bolt. If you fell, you'd probably deck.

Irony 2: The equipper was thoughtful enough to camouflage the hanger with a neutral-colored spray paint. He's a real minimal impact kind of fella.

Irony 3: He spray painted the hangers after they were placed and got paint all over the rock.

 

This route has probably already been named but since I get to write the guidebook, I'm trying to decide between some of the following options. Other suggestions are welcome.

 Murder of the Possible

Too Short for Sport

Stirring the Pot

I Smoked SuperCrack

Bolt the Planet

Two Bolts and Three Ironies

I Do What I Want

Sell Your Rack, Buy a Drill

What's an Ethics?

Durpy Durp

Coal Train

Back when I used to be a climbing guide, I had an impactful and memorable encounter with a woman I'd taken out for a full day trip at Endless Wall. I always enjoyed those rare one-on-one days with a reasonably fit person because I could take them away from the roadside top-rope crags of Bridge Buttress or Junkyard. I felt like the Endless Wall experience was more valuable for them due to the remote location and superior quality of the lines.

We roped up beneath some classic and I was excited for the lead/free solo since you can never trust their belay. I said something like, "You're going to love this route. It's a four star classic." The response I got still sticks with me. "What makes a route good?" she asked. I stood there a bit taken aback and honestly unable to answer the question on the fly. What makes a movie better than other movies? What makes a particular meal better than other meals? There are characteristics to routes that we all agree make them 'better' or 'worse' but, like a food preference, there are also feelings and sensations that accompany certain climbs that are hard to define. You could argue that vanilla ice cream is better than chocolate, or vice versa, and never be right.

I finished my Beauty Mountain project yesterday and my opinion is that it's the best route at the New and the best climb I've ever been on in my life. I'll go on to attempt a defense of that statement, but first a little history of Beauty Mountain.

Why is Beauty Mountain not part of Endless Wall? The answer is this little devil right here: Short Creek. One of the most beautiful streams in the region tumbles through the cliffline cleaving off the last mile of Endless Wall. That last mile is Beauty Mountain. Hiking down short creek is like a step into a magic forest with boulders, ferns, moss, and falling water everywhere.

Beauty is my favorite crag at the New. The quality and concentration of routes is unparalleled, even compared to Endless Wall in my opinion. Furthermore, the history of Beauty is a microcosmic display of overall New River history. You can look at just Beauty alone and get a feel of the progression of New River climbing. While some of the very earliest ascents were being done at Bridge and Junkyard, Beauty also saw late 70's action. In the early days, access was from the upstream end, and the core group of pioneers, including Bruce Burgin and Nick Brash were top-roping in the boulder field upstream of the descent gully. In 1979, the duo descended to the cliff base for the first ascent of Screamer Crack, a wide 5.8 on the Thunder Buttress, and a year later for Supercrack, the New's best traditional pitch of 5.9.  Steve Erskine, Hobart Parks, and T.A. Horton climbed Welcome to Beauty in big wall style, bivying half way up the 120 ft. pitch! Nowadays, climbers wonder why Welcome to Beauty is one of the last climbs they get to after hiking in for nearly a mile.

The next wave of development hit the Burning Buttress with early 80's ascents of Burning Calves, Wham, Bam, Thanks for the Jam, Happy Hands, Spider Wand and Rod Serling Crack; a line-up of the New's best moderate cracks. Just before the sport climbing craze took hold, boldness ruled the era. In 1986, Mike Artz and Andrew Barry established Will to Power, Steve Martin's Face and Chorus Line; all hairball  runout face climbs that connect discontinuous cracks and letterbox slots. And how could I forget Chasin' the Wind in '85!

Pat Goodman does some mini-trax mixed climbing to warm up on the ultra-hyper-mega-classic Chasin' the Wind.

As the late 80's approached, bolted climbs appeared like Doug Reed's Grace Note and Sportster in 1990. It was 1989 that two Frenchman showed up. As Porter Jarrard recalled, "We couldn't believe those Frenchmen had the audacity to fly over here with all that bolting gear. To hike the cliff and see that there was a line there. At the time it was too intimidating to even try it."

Porter spoke of Stabat Mater, located on an upstream facing wall on one of the first walls you'd come to when approaching from the upstream end.  When Pierre Deliage and Nicolas Richard established Stabat, they reportedly suggested 8a+ for the route which translates to 5.13c and the hardest route in the region at that time. Later that same year, it was flashed by America's best climber, Scott Franklin. It was one of the hardest flashes achieved by an American and possibly the impetus for its current and legit grade of 5.13b.

One of the best 5.11d's in the region. David Gibbons on Disturbance.

Onward through the 90's, every major player in New River history left their mark on Beauty Mountain. Rick Thompson, Kenny Parker, Porter Jarrard, Doug Reed, Eric Horst, Eddie Begoon; they all established classic routes at this beautiful crag. Significant ascents in Beauty history include Cal Swoager's back-to-back, in-a-day first ascents of Left and Right Sons of Thunder, Dan Osman's free solo of Gun Club, and Harrison Dekker's ascent of Travisty (the New's hardest for many years). Of course, no historically significant crag is complete without controversy like the chipped holds on Travisty, who actually got the first ascent of Happy Hands, and did Gus Glitch really climb Super Whiny Bugs (5.14a) in 1991?

Leslie Timms on Genocide (5.12a)

In recent history, Beauty's naturally seen the addition of some harder trad routes like Blood Meridian (5.12d), as well as Pat Goodman's Thundering Herd (5.13b) and his new 5.13 project that he'll finish up soon.

For the past 5 years, I've focused nearly all of my efforts at Beauty. It's likely that I've climbed at Beauty more days than I have at all the other crags in the region combined. And, fortunately not without productivity. Beauty now has four 5.14's and one more on the way. That's the same number as all of Endless Wall including the Cirque. That's also more than the Red River Gorge's Motherlode.

 Pat Goodman climbing above the only bolt on his 100 ft. project left of Gun Club.

It took me four years to finish off the Travisty Wall, adding in Climax Control (5.13b), the Tradjedy (a silly 5.13b variation), Mono Loco (5.14a), Picket Fence (5.14b) and finally Super Whiny Bugs (5.14a).  This conclusion in fall of 2012 left me wandering Beauty in search of a new project. I realized at some point that I'd never done Stabat Mater and needed to finish it off.

Picket Fence. Old photo from 2009 or so. Matt Stark photo

My first bout with Stabat was in  2008 with Porter Jarrard. Revisiting Porter's early impression of Stabat, he felt some unfinished business with the intimidating and proud line. Our first day working the crux was futile as I remember it. Porter claimed he needed a stiffer shoe so he returned home and dug through his boxes in search of an old pair of board-lasted Scarpa LeMenestrel's. He couldn't fit his aged and bunioned feet into them so he soaked them in water and put them in the microwave. Porter is a genius in many ways but this incident does not adequately display that. The microwave got the brass lace holes sufficiently hot to burn the shit out of the top of his feet, but it worked, and days later Porter was high-stepping solidly through the crux and clipping the chains. I gave up and didn't revisit the line until this past fall.

I was jonesing to climb at Beauty with not much left to do. I reopened Porter's Broken Dreams (now 5.13b) which hadn't been done since the first ascent in 1990 due to a broken hold that happened ten minutes after the FA. A few days later I went out for Stabat, figured out the crux and finished it that day. The upper face offers many opportunities to shake out and gaze left at the brilliant white wall that would become Coal Train and I knew then that I had to at least rap it to make sure it didn't go. It looked impossible.

Coal Train on the left, Stabat Mater on the right.



Back in 2008, Porter and I spent quite a bit of time discussing that wall. It truly was one of the last great faces to be climbed at the New. The really discouraging characteristic was the 12 feet of white glass about 1/4 of the way up that blocks any passage to the upper bit. I believe it was he that suggested coming in from Stabat and skirting the shield. But the terrain, even by that method, looked only marginally possible.

Of course when I rapped the wall the first time I nearly cried with giddy excitement. There was definitely a line, but there were also some big unanswered questions. Once the bolts and chalk are on a route it's all so obvious, but before that, there are so many questions. There are actually two lines on the upper face, each linking barely-there features. The left one looked slightly easier but would require another ten feet of traversing and the right one looked like one section might not go. Furthermore, the big question was the traverse off of Stabat. It looked very difficult. So difficult that I didn't know if I'd be able to do it at all. I hoped and prayed that a tiny chip would just snap off with a light tap of the hammer revealing a crimp, but was dismayed to hear it ring solid. If that section wasn't climbable it would still be possible to do the crux of Stabat and then traverse in higher but the true line climbed through that lower section.

I hadn't made any firm decisions yet when I put in my application to the NPS for a bolting permit. I actually put in three. One for Coal Train, one for a project left of Chunky Monkey that will be the fifth 5.14 at Beauty, and one for the wall right of the Rabbit Almost Died. Hurricane Sandy blew through and halted any progress on the permits for a month due to the all-hands-on-deck state of park recovery. I waited anxiously and during that time I'd climb Stabat, do a long hand traverse left, plug gear in a horizontal and lower down to top-rope the face. After a few days of this, I'd done the upper cruxes and finally figured out the lower crux. The line was there...barely.

In mid-December, after five weeks of waiting, I got word from the NPS. My permit for the Rabbit wall was denied but I didn't care. Only one route really mattered at that point. My Chunky Monkey permit was granted but the anchor had to be moved down 20 feet from the cliff top to protect some moss. No worries, I didn't want to climb that shit anyway. But I was devastated to see that my Coal Train permit was granted with the stipulation that the anchor be moved down 2 meters from the cliff top. That is simply not the route. That would be like painting the Mona Lisa but stopping before you add the smile.

The reason for this requirement was to protect lichen species that grow most densely in the upper 2 meters of cliff. A recent cliff ecology study done by Pete Clark and WVU suggested that many cliff side plants enjoy the light and water runoff of that last 2 meters. Since no lichens were present on this route, I saw this as a serious step down a slippery slope towards a blanket policy that might prevent climbers from climbing on the last few feet of cliff. That would be a terrible policy for climbing management in my opinion. I'm all for the installation of top anchors to keep people off the fragile cliff top soil and I'm understanding of a case by case analysis for each particular route, but shutting down the last 2 meters of cliff for no reason seemed like a bad call.

So, as part of the ongoing Coal Train saga; I read Pete's thesis, armed myself with knowledge, organized a meeting with NPS resource management, and walked out with a permit in hand to bolt Coal Train the way God intended.

These may seem like petty and irrelevant steps in the story, but to me they're important. There is so much more to establishing a route than what some people see as the easy way out. It's just rap bolting right? It's so much more than that. The vision of the line, the exploration of the wall, the permits, the equipping, the climbing... I cherished every step of the process. I've done this enough times now that I know it has to be enjoyed because even a three-month process of climbing one route is so fleeting. I almost ceremoniously prepared for the day that I'd sink the bolts. I used 10mm Petzl glue-ins for this masterpiece and waited for a perfectly enjoyable sunny day to install them. The view from the route is breathtaking, perched high above the trees with a long view upstream above the Keeney's rapids and the quiet breeze of winter intermittently broken by the distant sound of coal trains chugging by. Each hole was painstakingly analyzed for the perfect location and every drop of glue was meticulously wiped clean. The whole thing is just perfect.

Starting up Stabat/Coal Train.

The rest of the story is the same old stuff you've read 100 times. Small links, progress, regression, snow storms, good days, bad days, big links, finally a one-hang, then another, then a week of snow, then the perfect alignment of good days and good partners. Pat Goodman and I climbed out there together for a while as he worked his project to the left of Gun Club. Then he bailed to climb tepui big walls in Venezuela so Nic Spruill stepped in to work on Stabat. Yesterday was Valentine's day and I jogged out to the rig to meet my sweetheart (the rig, not Nic) around 1:30. The air was dry, the sun was baking the wall and I knew the conditions were perfect when I warmed up on Stabat with barely a pump.

As far as climbing goes, the only thing I truly pride myself in is my ability to keep it together under stress. I knew before I set off that if I kept it together mentally it was in the bag. Just knowing that is reason for nervousness and I felt so solid through the first crux that I almost scared myself off. But I shook it off and for the first time, stuck the 2nd crux on link. I smiled and gave a holler to Nic, "I'm doing it!" and laughed and smiled. It's very possible to fall at the next 13a crux because you're pumped, but I pulled it together, then again for the last 12d crux and the 5.12 victory bulge at the top. I enjoyed every second of it. It was one of those times where the pump is comforting, the rock is sticky, the confidence soars, you're light as a feather, and it feels impossible to fall off. It's that feeling for me that is the culmination of everything that leads up to it and I'm always sad as soon as it's over.  

The good shake before the final hard crux getting to the break.

 

Maybe a month ago, I boasted to original guidebook author and New River climbing historian Rick Thompson that I'd found the best route at the New. He responded expectedly with "...that new project sounds stellar. That's such a spectacular stretch of stone! Just remember, just because it's the hardest doesn't mean it's the best." It brought me full circle to the memory of the woman asking, "What makes a route good?"

Rick's right of course. Just because it's hard doesn't make it good. I can think of some terribly hard routes that suck! So why does Coal Train top my list as the closest thing I've experienced to perfection?

Rock: My belief is that Nuttall Sandstone is the best climbing medium on the planet. The rock on Coal Train is the best I've ever seen anywhere in the region and thus the world. If I had to look at a sample and guess what it is, I'd probably think marble. The route starts up a black and golden pillar of stone shared with Stabat Mater. At the fifth bolt you gain a flat jug and shake out for either the crux of Stabat, going right, or the crux of Coal Train, going left. At this point the rock transitions to white glass. I've never seen anything quite as smooth or bullet hard. It has to be seen to be believed. But climbing glass would suck. Fortunately the holds you use are textured. Consistent the entire way up is this pattern of a sheet of vertical white glass with a miraculously textured serious of crimps that lead to a shake at a textured horizontal.

Sustain: a musical note that is prolonged. Possibly the greatest downfall of New River routes is the lack of sustained nature. The Racist, for example, (that is world class anyway) is amazing and sustained 5.13 climbing to a huge rest to more 5.13. It breaks the flow. This is not to say that good routes don't have rests, but in my mind, anytime a route has a stopping point it detracts. I hate standing on a ledge and resting up for the next section. The 6 bolt section leading to the 9th bolt of To Bolt or Not To Be is probably the most sustained climbing I've experienced. It's never hard but you can never stop. Coal Train does have stopping points but you're never hanging out for long. There is nowhere to hide from the pump and not a kneebar in sight.

Design: This is why I think hard is better in some cases. Take a 5.10 and it's likely that you can climb it 30 different ways. Remove any one hold from it and it would probably maintain its grade, or at least close to it. The rock is most likely highly featured and offers many options. The moves on Coal Train are remarkable. You use every hold that's there and if any of them were missing, it might not go. Consider the 2nd crux. Your hands are on a horizontal. You reach as high as you can with the right hand to a half pad undercling/sidepull, put your feet where your hands were and jump to the next hold which is 7 feet above your feet. If that hold wasn't there...it wouldn't go. The next section is the same, campusing left and smearing feet on glass leads to a lunge for a crimp rail and a huge lockoff to a right hand hold that looks like someone took an ice cream scooper and scooped out a chunk, leaving just enough room for some fingers. Then you cross to another similar hold and set up for another dyno to overcome the blankness. The moves are incredible and unique. Speaking of the distance between holds, I had nicknamed this route Child Proof. I don't think Ashima can do this one. In fact, if you're under 5' 10", I think this route might be very, very difficult.

Position: Coal Train faces upstream and basks in the sun all day. On winter days when it's 40 degrees and the sun is out, climbing in a t-shirt is perfect. As I mentioned, the view is incredible and there is no one ever around. Even from the base you can see far upstream past Keeney's Buttress and South Nuttall. Once you're up high on the route, it seems like you're above the river out in the middle of nowhere. To get poetic about it, I feel like the route's position at the very end of the gorge is symbolic. It's like the entire wall from Fern Buttress, Endless Wall, and all of Beauty goes out with a bang culminating in a display of what it's capable of. It's as if it took everything that makes it great and spat out one wall, right at the end, that possesses every attribute of perfection.

History: I started out describing the history of Beauty Mountain from the very first 5.8 crack, through the era of boldness, to the modern day head points and hard sport routes. I feel like Coal Train is the cherry on top of Beauty's history. The biggest, baddest wall at the crag didn't go up until 2013. It's not the hardest, nor the last new route to be done at the crag but it does symbolically mark the end of an era of development. After studying the entire cliff line with Pat, I believe that his new route and this one are the last really good routes to be done.

Length: 35 meters. Taller is better.

Angle: starts with some 5 degree overhang up the shared Stabat section then transitions to about 15 degrees overhanging for the majority of the climb and finishes with a final 35 degree bulge.  It climbs like a face but you never get to unweight the arms. It's far steeper than it looks though, and you end up lowering out at about 30 feet from the base.

And there you have it. Take it or leave it, that's my defense of why it's awesome. That's a lot of perfection packed into one wall.

Grade? Of course it's irrelevant but I'm guessing 14a. It took me quite a while in really good conditions and I was barely able to pull it off just after climbing Stabat easily. I felt like it was harder than To Bolt or Not to Be which is my most recent 14a benchmark but this route is probably less my style.

Breakdown: 12b to where it breaks off of Stabat, then a hard techy crux that is 13c if the crux of Stabat is 13b. Then a bit of 5.12 to a 5.13b redpoint crux, then 13a, then 12+, then 12a? Something like that. What's that add up to? Definitely harder than anything I did last summer but it's not 14b, that's for sure...which reminds me. At the final break before the finishing bulge, it's possible to clip the 2nd to last bolt and climb straight to the anchor without traversing way out left like I did. This would add a V9ish boulder problem that will definitely put this route in the 5.14b range. The line I bolted is "the" line but climbing straight up would be a cool and much harder variation.

Name: I decided not to call it Child Proof because I didn't want to eat my words. J.B. Tribout once famously spouted that no woman would ever climb 5.14. Lynn Hill threw that in his face when she did Mass Critique in 1992. Since then, that quote has been thrown in J.B's face hundreds of times. I did not want to be that guy, made to eat my words when some 11-year-old 5.15 kid jumps his or her way all the way up this thing. Child Resistant would be more appropriate but doesn't have a nice ring to it.

When I first rapped the wall, it reminded me of my dream route Groove Train in Australia. Then I started thinking of the white rock and thought of "clean coal" and it evolved from there. Plus, I've always called Elissa "Coal Train" for some reason. That comes from her last name "Colley." Oh, and of course, it's possible to watch the iconic coal trains go by, far below, from the base of the route.

After traveling all over and seeing many areas and many routes, I realize that this will be the best route I ever put up or even climb on. It simply can't get any better. That's a sad feeling but also pretty cool. It's always about the route for me. That piece of rock always existed but only now is it personified and opened for the enjoyment of everyone. Well, not quite everyone. It's almost a shame that it's quite hard, but that's just the price of admission for getting to climb the best route. You've got to put a lot of time and effort into climbing to get the most out of it. Should everyone in Europe buy a plane ticket to come climb this route? Yes. Absolutely, it's that good. Will they? Eh...definitely not. In fact, it would be pulling teeth to get someone to set aside their crush on the Red for a week and come check it out. I'm OK with that. The climbing here at the New is different. I realize that what I view as the greatest thing in the world might not be seen that way by some others. It's totally understandable to want to dodge human shit piles on the way to the crag, wait in line, clip fixed draws, and break holds off choss. I get that. I mean, this route is straight vanilla and there are a lot of chocolate fans out there.  

Note: Pat shot some photos and video of this rig but he's in Venezuela. I also shot vid of him on his project and the plan is to put something together. I'd really like some good video of this route so if #JoshLowell @Bigupproductions wants to roll out, I'm just saying I'd pose down on it for #ReelRockTour or #Dosage 6 or #Queen Lines or whatever. #Peter Mortimer? #Sender Films? I'm kidding. If you do want to come climb on this thing though, let me know cause I'd like to shoot some video of it.