Finally, a climbing session! Went to BKB in the freezing cold with Brett to squeeze in a last bit of climbing before the holidays. It's been a while since I've gone, and a lot of new routes and problems have gone up. Spent the first half working various problems, managed to onsight a cool V4 (weird left hand reach over your head to sidepull transition and hand-foot match heelhook) and beat my head against a few V6-9 problems, including a slopery overhanging V8 that Brett had dialed.
Roped up for a few leads too, starting with a roofy 5.12. Couldn't get past the fourth bolt, kept peeling off trying to clip past a lip while laid out horizontally below it - think the answer was to skip the clip there and gun for a jug another 4 feet above (big move), but I didn't have the strength or the guts. Brett worked it relentlessly, and took a couple of nice big whippers (good practice for soft catches). Managed to onsight a fun roofy 10+ at the end, though.
Brett decided tonight was time to hit some of the new bouldering problem at BKB. I arrived an hour after Brett to find him hanging around (in the air) with Colin? one of the managers on a new lead climb. I bouldered to warm up (in memory of Begoña) and check out some new problems doing a V0, V1, V2 (maybe partially stripped? I couldn't figure out how to finish it), V3, and then did 90% of a V5 that was big stretchy moves but with large holds. Brett tackled some V7-8s and then we did some slack lining (in memory of Joana). After watching Brett leap onto the slack line a few times (and managing to balance for a few minutes myself) We did some lead climbing with Brett doing two new 10+ and I did a 7+ and a 9+. BKB was closing early to do some work on the mats so afterwards we tried to catch a movie at the BAM but arrived too late so we had to go for beers instead.
We hit Brooklyn Boulders today for an afternoon of climbing. Kenway, Brett and Begona started with some bouldering. I arrived a bit later and warmed up on some bouldering problems (V0, V1, V1+, V2+, V3) and then joined Begona for her belay test. She passed with flying colors (well, actually, she forgot to say 'on belay', but blamed it on the language barrier). After that I warmed up on some 5.9s and Begona tackled a couple of 5.7s and a 5.8. Brett and Kenway worked on getting Kenway lead certified (and warmed up on a 5.9) and then Kenway tackled a 5.10+ and a 5.12. Brett paced through the 5.10+, a 5.11+ and a 5.12 before finally being defeated on a crazy 5.12. I finished off trying a 5.10 (turned out it had no anchor) and then a 5.9+ with some tricky first moves).
Begona and Kenway took of and Brett and I finished up with a few more bouldering problems and finally a round of pull-ups on the hang board. Unfortunately, no slacklining today as there was a kids b-day party.
Begoña, Brett and I met up with Jill and did some climbing at Brooklyn Boulders. For me and Begoña it was a bit of a short session, but everyone seemed to make some progress. Begoña progressed through a bunch of boulder problems that she'd been working on and ended up with a TR as I was leaving. I worked through a V0,V1,V1+,V2-,V3 progression as a warm up and then did a TR 5.9 that gave me a bit of trouble last week (and still a bit tonight). Then I worked on a 5.9 lead problem that I was stuck on last time. This time with a hang I was was able to finish it off and next time I'll try to send it in one go. Then, with much encouragement from Brett, I tackled a 5.10+ which was very, very overhung (mostly under the roofs) but also juggy. I had to stop multiple times to find clipping stances and I screwed up the sequence getting out from under the roof twice, but I managed to finish it and felt pretty good. Next time I'll shoot for only one hang. Brett ran up the 10+ and then hit a couple of crazy 12s on lead.
We all attempted some slack-lining at the end. Well, I should say, Begoña and I attempted to stand up and Jill and Brett walked back and forth and tried to unbalance each other. In a show of sheer talent, Brett managed to jump up onto the slackline from the ground and land (pretty) gracefully.
Climbed with Brett, Joana and her sister Luisa at Brooklyn Boulders. Place was pretty packed, but we didn't have any trouble getting on routes. I warmed up with some bouldering, finishing a few V3s, including one that stumped me last time (crazy sidepull on a very high foot to a small crimp and a lunge to the top). I wasn't planning on toproping, but Brett convinced me to give it another try. Climbed a very nice 10+ that Joana recommended (set by MH, very crimpy and balancy). Also climbed a 9 with a campus only start. Joana couldn't quite get the third campus move, but came up with an insane heel-hook to get around it. Luisa, climbing for the first time ever, flew up some 5.6s and 5.7s. I think she takes after her siblings. I saw Brett climb a nice 12 with some neat laybacks, and he gave a nice attempt and the crazy high boulder problem (gold/black) that Kenway tried a couple of weeks ago. Made it to the last move, but ran out of juice.
The staff added some a pair of rings in the back, so we spent some time at the end going through some ring basics. Brett nearly had an aneurysm, but he did manage to get a muscle-up!
Trekked out to Brooklyn Boulders to climb with Joana and Brett. First time back in some weeks, and it really felt bad. Neat gym, much larger than I thought it was from the early photos. Got less than 2 hours of climbing in since they close at 10PM *sharp*. That was more than enough though, as I was so freaking out of shape it was embarrassing. Bouldered a bit, working on some V2s and V3s, and toproped a couple of climbs (10+,10-). Routes and problems felt insanely reachy, quite a few moves right at my limit. There is a really neat feature, something like a giant stalactite. Joana was working a climb on this thing that involved some upside-down crazy heel-hooking. Pretty unique.
Definitely looking forward to going back when I'm less tired.
We were spurred to new heights of stupid humor and awesome climbing tonight by: 1) Guillaume finally getting his minivan to the shop (to replace shredded tires; I wonder how that happened?) and borrowing a brand-new Jaguar as a loaner, and 2) getting news that our favorite Brasilian will leave us soon to return to her homeland. Boo-hoo!
By the magic of even numbers we all got a good amount of climbing in. I went with all new climbs; 9- (dark blue), 9+ (teal), 10 (brown), 11 (orange), 11 (dark blue) and 12 (green), without finishing the last two. Brett went 9-, 10 (orange), 11 (yellow; an Obe special, 35 ft of burly bouldering that Brett made look easy), 11 (orange) after which I lost track. I saw G and Kenway working the purple 12 under the arch (those first few clips were sketchy looking!), and I heard that Joana and Chloe worked their 11 (black) project, and stemmed their way up a 10b in the corner. At the end of the night, Joana mock led a nice 9-. Now that she has a deadline, she is determined to get her lead card, although I don't know what good it will do her in Brasil.
Brett, Chloe, Joana and I headed up to the Catskills Saturday morning to meet Guillaume for our first ice adventure. We arrived in New Paltz in good time; Brett's driving skills overcoming our Scion's aerodynamic inefficiencies. We stopped at Rock & Snow as they opened to rent some gear, and after some discussion with the nice folks there we settled on Moore's Bridge or Stoney Clove as having the highest likelihood of decent ice.
Guillaume and I crossed some signals on where we were going, and before we knew it we were looking up at ice that looked like East Side Corner. Somehow, the hike up to the base didn't look too bad from the road, so we shrugged off the Guidebook's description of a "seemingly neverending hill" and "an approach that may be repayed by less crowding" and set off uphill. The n00b moments were just starting though, as by the time we were gearing up at the base of the climbs I had managed to lose a glove, Chloe had nearly died because she was carrying stuff in paper Whole Foods bags instead of her pack, and Brett and dropped his brand-new (like purchased where we rented our gear) helmet down the 150 foot hill. Go figure the beach-loving Brazilian would be the only one who ultimately did not fall or drop anything ...
Phfew. Ok, you'd think we had gotten all the early morning jitters out, eh? Nope, I managed to only rent crampons for half of us, figuring that only the climbers needed them (I'm cheap, what can I say). Well it turns out that walking around the base without them was an invitation to roll all the way down to the road (Brett was the only one heedless of this danger; he kept hopping around like a mountain goat). And to top it all off, there was no obvious way to walk up to set up top-rope anchors. Like I said, some n00b moments.
It didn't take Guillaume long to decide that rather than hike back down and move to another site that he would find some place to lead to the anchors (kind of crazy considering we had no screws, which wouldn't have mattered cause none of us knew how to use them anyways. I mean, fuck, downclimbing rock is hard enough, but downclimbing ice???). So he and Brett set off and within the hour Guillaume was at the top sending some rope down. We couldn't see what he had led to get up there at the time, but we could hear him cursing (in that childproof Guillaume sort-of way). Turns out he climbed a grovelly chute that ended in a short vertical section of ice, all protected by a sling thrown around a ~2" thick sapling and another sling around a column of ice (pretty sure Brett was just there for moral support). Uh dude, nice way to make your leading debut. Thanks to G's gutsy effort, we soon had two topropes setup (of course, only after dropping a pink nalgene bottle-which passed suspiciously close to Brett's head-and one of Kenway's new ice axes down the hill).
One rope was setup on the chute that Guillaume led, and the other was setup on what I believe is East Side Corner proper. Everyone had a go at East Side Corner (WI3?), which was a great start for us beginners. Soft ice, good rests, with a couple of bulges to keep it interesting. The flow was pretty wide, so there were some variations on repeat climbs (I think Joana made it to the top 3 times). Turns out that top-roping ice can be pretty dangerous; the rope kept sending shards of ice down, and at some point Guillaume got beaned in the shoulder by a big rock. Kept things exciting! I didn't try the chute route, but Brett and Chloe did, with Chloe taking a spectacular flip-over-your-harness fall. She managed to keep hold of her axes though, and finished off the vertical section at the top. Guillaume also climbed it again, using a variation that required a bit of mixed climbing.
We had time for one more route, which we had spotted earlier. It was about 50 feet further south, and a bit steeper and longer than East Side Corner. After a few hilarious failed attempts to get the rope past some branches, Guillaume managed to rappel down to the base (with no rope to spare, the ends barely touched the ground!). This route was my favorite, starting off in a dihedral which meandered over to a nice vertical section set next to another dihedral. I think Brett and Guillaume would agree that stemming with crampons is pretty awesome.
Some more pics courtesy of Joana, Brett and Chloe:
In the end, we made out just fine (although I think we came awful close to getting murdered by a spooky dude in the parking lot). On the hike out we managed not to die coming down the hill, recovered Brett's helmet (with nary a scratch) and found my lost glove. It was tons of fun in what-more-could-you-ask-for weather, and I'm most impressed we made it out with only a lost Nalgene bottle and some bruises! All-in-all an incredible introduction to the world of ice climbing. You know it's good when the cold-averse Brazilian is praying for more snow ...
Seems unlikely that the weather will permit another trip, but keep an eye out here and here for up to date ice conditions.
Brett, Kenway, and I headed to TRC on Sunday while Brian was preparing for Portugal and Joana was putting in extra hours at work. It took forever to get there as there seemed to be traffic everywhere.
We started on fun times, 8- orange. Then we moved to the wall facing the desk and K an I did a new 9 that seemed way too hard.
Brett skipped the 9 and went directly to the black 12 (ouch). He figured out the first 2 moves and then worked the bottom. He followed by a few attempts at the start of the green 12. Kenway and I were afraid to be upstaged so we jumped on 12s too. I did the green (hanging on every clip except the first...), Kenway worked the start of the green and the start of the black. Brett then tried the heart 12, he passed the crux but fell past the overhang.
Then both Kenway and I managed to work the bottom of the 12, getting passed the second clip, but we couldn't pass the overhang. Both Kenway and I tried the brown 11, and we both fell 2 moves from the top. Brett whose fingertips were hurting did the long brown 9 on the other side of the arch. I finished by finally doing the brown 11 clean, and Kenway gave a try to the hearts 12.
