Marble Boulder and Suzuki Boulder

Wednesday was an off day and was supposed to be a great day to hang out with some cool people and check out the Marble Boulder in the morning and then the Suzuki Boulder in RMNP in the evening.

The morning went well and I'm happy to say that I was able to send Drew's problem Tobasco to the Eardrum V3 on my second go of the day! I was pretty psyched on that and so we just ended up chilling really for the rest of that session and Marty and I got ourselves worked over on a really cool new problem just to the right of the Tobasco's that could possibly be a V4. It works off of a really cool right and sloper and left hand crimp then a huge reach up and over with the left to a bad crimp. I can't wait to get back and work on it a little more and maybe send.

The afternoon I ended up working quite a bit and ate a moderately late dinner so that I could get to the park a.s.a.p. and really go hard on the Suzuki Boulder. Unfortunately, I guess everyone else except for Drew and I had lost some of their enthusiasm and they opted for climbing at the gym (aren't we in Colorado?) versus Suzuki. Stupid... So Drew and I spent a very frustrating few hours working things and getting weak. We both were able to send The Worm V3 which is a really awkward problem that climbs out a little prow and then makes an awkward mantle up. Cool all in all I suppose, but it got me worked really bad in my shoulders and so now I'm here in bed taking the day off so I can hopefully hit things nice and hard on my day off on Saturday! Here are a few new pics!

Routes on the Marble Boulder:


Marble Boulder without huge red lines:


Me on the bottom portion of the Tobasco routes:


Checking out the top out of The Worm:

Josh working a V1 with the over hung prow in the background being The Worm:


Here is a picture I just got from Drew showing me working the really hard reach to the crimp on the sloper V4ish problem:

The Marble Boulder

Well today we stumbled across a gem. After work Tim decided to show Drew and I a cool new boulder that he had ran across on the camp property and man is it amazing! There are several lines all along it with a nice over hung section about 20 feet long. On the back side there is also a very nice slabby type route which I nabbed a possible FA on. Back around to the front of the boulder though Drew was doing his thing and set several cool routes. First was a nice little warm up thing. Next, was a direct finish from a matched sit start low on the boulder that he named "Tobasco to the Face." After that we began to work out a variation to the direct finish that traverses a little further right and then works out on some crimps and nice slots. I don't think that Drew really came up with a name for this one yet but it's pretty awesome and I came close to sending and hope to finish this one up tomorrow. I'll post some pictures of the Marble Boulder up tomorrow after our day there in the morning and tomorrow evening at the Suzuki Boulder!

The Past Weekend

Well the past weekend was quite an experience. Drew and I headed down to Boulder and met up with his friend Jordan from ISU who is now living in Boulder. We also crashed at my friends Dana and Jacob's place too which was awesome and I can't thank them enough for the floor to sleep on!

On to climbing though. While in Boulder the three of us, on Saturday, headed up to the Sport Park sector of Boulder Canyon and got on some really cool routes. Being that I'm still a little wimp about leading I didn't get any true sends although we were able to get on some super cool routes. Sunday we headed back up to Boulder Canyon and worked a few more of the routes that were in that same area we climbed on Saturday. We did this mainly though because we had three newer climbers with us and we wanted to have some nice moderates for them to get used to climbing on. I did end up leading a climb Sunday day too which was my best to date; a super overhung jug haul .11a. Maybe I'll get over my fear of lead climbing sometime soon. Here are a few pictures from the day taken with Jordan's camera:

Me on TR on the .11a that we thought was a .9:


The view from the Sport Park:



Jordan working the crux of a cool .10a:



Drew on the one move wonder .11d:


I will have some pictures of the .11a up as soon as Jordan puts them up on the facebook.

When Drew and I finally got back to Estes we had really not had enough climbing I guess so we went up on a whim to meet some other people from the Y at an area called Jurassic Park right over Lilly Lake outside of Estes. The hike kicked my ass. However, we were rewarded with one amazing pitch of 5.8 climbing that used up nearly all of my 60m rope! Here are a few shots from that session.

Me going up the 5.8:


The view from the top:

Today's Session

Well I ended up making it out twice today. Earlier in the day I went out to an area called Moraine park and hit up a few of the boulders which were alright, but they really lacked any real quality lines. Later, in the afternoon I headed out with a crew of about 8 guys to Lumpy Ridge and hit up the Jaws and High Boulders and sent a couple of really cool routes.

Cool Picture of Twin Owls at Lumpy.


First we climbed a really sketchy and borderline highball V0 on the High Boulder that had everyone a little it on edge towards the top.


Next, was a really cool and softly rated V3 traverse on the Jaws boulder.


Then I sent the end section of the Jaws problem which was V2 and I powered through that on the very last burn of the day. It's a great problem and it actually felt more into the V3 range for me.


I really want to link the both together soon for the cool V4 problem of Jaws. I took some pictures today and I'll try to get them posted up soon!

And just to note, that I was not climbing in any of those photos. I'll try and get some up of me soon!

Estes Park

Well, I finally made it here yesterday and wow! This place puts Florissant where I was the past two summers to shame! All of the people here are extremely cool as well and it's been great because I've been able to meet some other extremely motivated climbers and it looks like all of my expectations for the summer should come true! I'll try and get some pictures of everything as soon as I can and post them up on here!

Here are a few pictures from my dorm:

Mountains to the North West:


Lumpy Ridge from the Dorm:

One Week off and One week Later

Well, it has been a week since the last time that I've climbed now. Last Friday I was at Kings with Mike, Andrew, and Jordan, and totally got my self worked over on some .11b. It was extremely frustrating for me. The whole day felt awkward and as a result I really let things get in my head and affect my climbing for the rest of the day...what little I managed after that at least. lol

Well now it is one week later and I think that it was definitely a good idea for me to take this past week to just chill and let my body work out some of the small aches that have been popping up in my back and shoulders. I really want to be in the best shape that I can for this summer so I can get as strong as possible, AND stay as healthy as possible because...I just flew in to Denver today and start my job at the Y tomorrow. That means that I am going to be climbing my ass off for the next 3 months. This is the time for me to finally get ahead of that bastard Mike! haha I'll definitely keep some updates posted and will try to post pictures as frequently as possible!