Ali Bubba

Well, it's springtime at the New and with lots of the usual rain we've been struggling to find dry rock.  Many dry days were spent at the lakebed and a handful of new routes got bolted.  I put up some real classics this year like the Honey Badger 5.12d/13a, Michael Boltin' 5.13a, and what is possibly the best 11+ in the region, Porter for Recorder.  Kirk put up a new hard 12b called Blood Trail that makes Slash and Burn look like a choss pile.  He also bolted one of the finest 13- routes around which he should have finished up soon.  For those looking for a challenge, you're welcome to get on the Movie Screen project that I finally sunk some bolts on. 
  

It overhangs about 30 degrees and has perfect pockets all the way up.  It would be about 13c if it didn't have a 6-foot dyno to a three finger on it.  I've never been more tempted to drill a hold in my life but I would never answer that demon.  Come and get it before the lake fills up!  Bring your A-game.  It's 5.14. 

Recently I've reinvested all my time back into the Beauty 'mega-proj'.  I don't want to jinx myself but I've never been as consistently close as I am now.  I've fallen at the last move about 5 times this season and excluding the now infamous punt-in-the-gramma-section debacle of Nov. 11, 2008, I've never gotten closer.  Unfortunately the finishing 5.11+ slab has been a waterfall all year and with the flooding I see outside right now, it's not going to get any better for a long time.  I climbed the wet section to make sure I could do it and I succeeded pretty easily but add in a heartrate of 230 beats a minute and a 5.14 pump....I'd rather wear a space helmet full of yellow jackets than face that nightmare.  Oddly, I hope to be facing that situation soon. 

Also odd is the fact that I've been pretty psyched to boulder this year.  I found what I believe is a new problem at Beauty Mountain and dispatched it a few days ago.  So far it's the best problem I've seen in the region and although many people would say otherwise, I think it's a classic.  The sit start and the extension still have to go down but the meat of it came together pretty quickly.  I tried posting it on youtube but those A-holes didn't like my choice of music and banned it.  I thought this was America?