Monday, September 1, 2008

Maneater 5.12a.

The morning started auspiciously when the Starbuck's on Buffalo gave me a complimentary espresso shot to power up my triple to a quadruple. Plus I got a coupon for a "free iced latte after 2pm good at any Starbucks." I wanted to ask, "What the hell is an iced latte?" and add, "Who would want one after 2pm?!" but there was no time for Starbuck Shenanigans. We had to race against time, heat, and golden Apollo himself.

It's only 4 bolts but I'll take it. Shawn magnanimously hung the draws but I'll take it. It's therefore a pinkpoint, but I'll take it... at last, the mystical 5.12 (7a+)! I've been climbing for 7 years, so this is sort of breakthrough. Granted, it could have been a freak occurence... I haven't done any 5.11ds, and Red Rocks is known for its "hero" ratings.

Maneater gently overhangs the entire time and is peppered by incut crimps with exceptional feet, minus the crux move, where for a moment the left hand crimper is not so good (no incut) and the right foot is not as solid as one would like, so it elicited a vocal commitment. Thanks also to Shawn's encouragement, which helped a bunch because I was sort of out of it, especially after the crux move where you can easily take the final moves for granted and blow it if you're overzealous. I used my old Tenaya laceups from Spain (masai I think), which are uncannily precise if you pay attention to their placement.

In any event, I think this is the last sport climbing video I post because they are amazingly boring using a digital camera placed on a rock 50-100 ft away. It was an experiment in anti-climbing porn. No hip hop soundtrack, no closeups, no zooming or panning or crabbing or adobe after-effects on a mac. No nothin'. I was thinking Godard or Warhol, or a chinese painting where the human subject is subsumed by surrounding nature; but instead it's merely dull. Porn wins.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats!
Your move is so smooth on the movie. I hope you send 2nd 12a soon as proof for your climbing skill.

Unknown said...

Thanks climarathon! You bet I'll try my darndest to ensure this is not a fluke. Stay tuned.