Triple Right.

Matt was kind enough to introduce Masa, Satoshi, and me to this “new” area. New to us at least. It was recently featured in Rock & Ice and bigupproductions’ Tis the Season. Anywho, it’s quality rock, kinda tall, with flat landings. When we arrived we encountered a dozen or so friendly cadets from the West Point rock climbing club. We climbed with them a little while before moving on. Below Linda works a V4. Unusual for this area (gunks) to find a nice overhanging moderate with friendly holds and good movement.


As we meandered along this edge of the Mohonk Preserve, bright green plant life was bursting through the carpet of dried leaves. Masa said that in Japan they fry these plants in tempura. Next time we’ll have to add tempura mix and a frying pan to our bouldering gear.

Below, Satoshi 6'+, Matt 5'6", and Masa 5'10" warm up on something, maybe a V1 or V2.

Masa on the crux of a pretty neat V4 slab.
Below, Nicholas Cage on the V7.

V7 (redpoint) … Masa really worked this one. He bled for it. Masa just can’t keep his blood to himself.
The black flies and mosquitos love his blood as well. He’s better than bug spray. Just stand next to him, and all the airborne bloodsuckers flock to him leaving you unscathed. Must be something he eats. Of course the V7 was right above a pool of stagnant water filled with mosquito larvae. Matt sent on his 2^nd try. Unfortunately I didn’t get video of the send. I only got his pre-send slip-up followed by his patented rapid fire cussing.

V8 failure … This was my favorite problem of the day. Naturally- because I couldn’t do any of the moves. But it appeared to require a decent amount of core tension. There’s a cool undercling move on a sliver of granite that looks transparent and ready to snap off with no warning. Somebody better not break that off before I get on it again.

V5 (redpoint) … Masa uses the calf hook. When the heel just isn’t enough.

At the end of the day Eric’s girlfriend showed up. She’s super strong. They have a gigantic Nemo chalkbag. What’s Nemo up to?

34 point bouldering day and I’m not sore… plus I never send above V5 away from home. Although I’m in NYC/NJ so frequently it doesn’t feel like a road trip. I mean I know every inch of the NY thruway from NJ to New Paltz. It almost feels like home. Did my cocktail of bacon, eggs, pancakes, double espressos, creatine, and sudafed work? I would be tempted instead to downgrade everything by 3 but then MS might piledrive me…

See Spot Run.

Another belated Hueco sequence of Satoshi sending See Spot Run V6.

Kelly Canyon.

Donkey Punch V6 (at the end of the video)... I just punked out on the sandy dirtiness. My friend Tim suggested a brush, maybe even a broom. Man was he right. I think spade, trowel, and high pressure water hose would have been more like it. Yeah, that and uh, some climbing ability. Nonetheless, a beautiful line with fluid and rewarding movement. The setup for the crux is a thing of beauty with a flag to make the holds positive and then a deadpoint to a decent crimp. Just to give credit where credit's due, the flag beta was Matt's idea. Well, that's the first crux. I think the top out is the real crux. I'll need to suss that out next time for the send.

Then I lost a bet on a deceptively heinous V6 slab: Either I send V6 in 6 tries, or else 6-pack for Matt. A satanic bet. I lost. Matt is triumphant with his Dos Equis (last seconds of video.)

Dope Lounge V4 - couldn't yank after blowing my load on Donkey Punch and the slab. In fact I fell on Dope Lounge from the triangle sloper and twisted my friggin ankle. Arrg. Mental note: don't do tall stuff when you're tired. Plus: make sure your crashpad isn't going to slide when you hit it. Double plus: Try harder.

Props to Matt and Jay for their tremendous spotting, which saved my ass at least a dozen times that day.

Priest Draw.

Things I've learned about Flagstaff AZ.
1. it's cold. At elevation, it's 60s in Vegas, but this morning in Flagstaff it was in the 20s. Bring a down jacket in beginning of April. Apparently even in the summer, it only reaches up to 80.

2. It's a "dark" town because of an observatory. There are no street lights and parking lots have no lights. With my tinted windows at night I couldn't see shite.

3. A blizzard came through right before I moseyed into town on I-40. The snow is apparently able to stick to vertical highway signs so you can't read them. That combined with Flagstaff being a dark town, I kept searching the night horizon for the pink glow from an urban center (Vegas is visible from 100 miles away) but could find none.

4. There's a truckload of bouldering right outside of town. Priest Draw is approximately 8 miles away with well traveled trail approaches that are flat and easy. A lazy boulderer's (I know that's redundant) dream!

Ran into a couple kids who are students at NAU who took happened to be on a Hueco tour of the West Mountain with my friends and I back in January. Amazing how small the climbing world is. Here we warm up on some boulder where every hold is a jug.
Below I do some V5 called Whip and Cross or something like that.
Afterwards, we head to home depot to get a brush and extend-o stick to brush holds at Kelly Canyon. Jay and Matt react humorously to an asian wielding a camera in home depot.
Dinner... we had no pepper, so I used chili paste on a new york steak. Matt's skirt steak makes a guest appearance.

A meager day...

Triangle Boulder
V0 - flash
V3 - flash

Bat Roof
V3 Bat roof - flash
V1 fin thing - flash

Killer Wall
V1 - flash
V2 - flash
V5 whip and cross 2nd try and then repeated for camera. (2nd time was supposed to be staged for camera, but decided to do finish it anyway.) Soft for 5 but who cares.

Wife Beater V7... I couldn't get past sloper (2nd move). Matt was able to match on sloper due to his abundance of fur and gristle but chickened out before the huck- with good reason since we only had two medium sized pads and it was a stepped landing.

Anorexix V6 - failure. Couldn't get past the frickin first roof. My toe hooking sucks. All the moves are totally doable tho. I did the climb easily from after the initial roof. Definitely will go, just need to perfect the foot beta in the beginning since I don't have fingers of steel. In fact, none of my anatomy consists of steel. Tomorrow the plan is to go with Matt and Jay to kelly canyon for some sandstone bouldering. I'm secretly hoping it's closed so I'll have another espresso fueled chance on Anorexic...

Two finger lock off.

SM demonstrates some two finger lock off power. On first hard part of Monster Skank. I couldn't do this move, although now I see he sort of did a jump. I was trying a more static method. Next time, Monster Skank!

Front Corridor.

Without any prior overt communication, all sport climbers bend over simultaneously. One of the oddities of sport climbing behavior. Species from left to right: one homo climberus pilotus, two homo climberus teacherae (sub-species hubristis.)

Another common behavior observed especially in homo teacherae: Leader warms up fingers by cavorting with belayer's derriere.

The chalking ritual. These creatures believe that chalk contains magical properties that improve their climbing. Note the corduroy pink sequined chalk bag on left climber exhibiting more bending over behavior. The hind display is employed to ward off potential threats (like photographers.)
Entering the first crux on Monster Skank 5.13b (8a).