The gnar needs rock

Mortar Rock
Day 5

Canadian JP from Montreal

The psyche has been on the rise for Mortar Rock. The weather, prime. The skin, in good shape. I have been steadily ticking off projects one by one. Working them till I figure it out and launch an all out attack. Full Stan's (starting on the Kraken and climbing Nat's Backwards aka Stan's Traverse) was the latest to fall. Granted, it's not aesthetic as most of the lines there (and there's very few at Mortar), it was a challenge. Mostly endurance. 25 moves in all. I remember doing 23 moves for regular Stan's starting on the jugs for the Ramp. Since then, I was shown a crucial toe hook at the bulge that changed the way I do regular Nat's Traverse AND Stan's Traverse.Instead of 23 moves, it now became 18 moves. Five movements less = less pump factor. Full Stan's add a further six additional moves in the beginning, bring the total number of moves to 24. It took me one day to get to be able to pull off the ground. I must have been in pain that day because every other day has been subsequently easier.


Last Thursday I came close to pulling the corner of Full Stan's (the mailbox hold) three times in a row. I would pump out. I couldn't figure out why until walking back to the train I realized, I can't recover! Not a boulder problem. Next time I would not stop and "shake out" (if you can call it that, I barely shook, just wasted time) and get pumped. And I did that today. After falling once out of the toe hook, and once dabbing on the tree (it used to be higher so be thankful it's low now kids), I turned the the final corner. Granted that it doesn't top out, it was satisfying.

Another thing that I never thought would happen would be getting stoked by a little kid.

Nick Bradley.

He pulls off Mike Papciak Pipeline in a couple tries, then proceeds to piss on Impossible Wall in a matter of 10 minutes. Inspiring? Yes. Impressive? Even more so. The guy is also super quiet, and one nice kid. In a day and age where most little kids from the gym aren't focused, it's nice to see he's getting outside and putting all that Zero Gravity training towards outdoors as well as doing well in comps.

Mike Papciak Pipeline V7

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Work in progress

The last couple of days I have spent climbing outside at Mortar Rock. I'm pretty excited to do somethings up there right now in this perfect weather. It's unusually cool and dry for May. A typical May day at Mortar results in humid conditions or the rock is too hot causing your finger tips to sweat profusely resulting in holds feels even worse than they do.

Tuesday was a break through day for myself as I was able to actually do the start of the Kraken. Now if only I could do New Wave or Jungle Fever then I would be able to do Full Fever or the Kraken. But for now, I'm trying to link the sit into Stan's Traverse for Full Stan's. Rebecca Taggart mentioned that their was a sit to it after I had mentioned something about doing Stan's Traverse Extension Back in February.

Being able to actually do that start to the last hard move on Stan's three times in a row made me realize that it's training. It's 26 moves in all (utilizing the toe hook in the undercling). Sue mentioned that I should be doing routes as well. I joked about how I should do routes to train for bouldering. Which makes some sense now. Why not learn to recover faster when I'm resting? I made the mistake of trying to shake out at the undercling. I just ended up pumped not being able to pull the trigger on the last move, falling out of the mailbox hold three times. My arms felt like the old time glass soda bottles shaken up, ready to explode in your face. It also helps when you can go straight to a place and have a warm up circuit. In time, it'll have to be modified, as it happens when you get stronger.

Who needs "Better Settors" when you can go outside?

The psyche for plastic did not last long. After a brief upswing on Sunday, the burn for plastic has, once again, left me. If it was a country song, it would have left me with nothing and took my took my truck. Thankfully my life does not, and will not, mirror the stereo typical country songs of old times. And by old times, I mean the 1990s. Do people even remember back then? I don't. Not really.

Lines for getting on a train. What is this garbage?

It's an awfully long walk....

Today was the first day back at Mortar wanting to climb. What is it with this place? One month I'm excited to climb there, the next six I'm over it. Lately, I have wanted to be going there. And the weather could not agree with that want more than right now. 60º, foggy mornings, perfect afternoons. It seems to make the rock sticky. I put on my pad, walked from the North Berkeley BART. A quick stop at La Farine and Peet's for coffee, I made my way up through the houses and neighborhood streets to a dismal piece of rock. Brown, sharp, greasy. To most it's a pile of a place, not deserving of attention or time. For those of us who have lost a few brain cells hitting our head on the branch that hangs so low, we return all to often. It's a local area. Where's what's on, is off. And if you think it's on, guess again pal.

If by some chance you do something new, rest assured it has been done before, long before you were a glimmer in your parents eyes in the back seat of their busted car.

I called my friend Sue Patenaude to come climb there with myself. I figured since neither of us did much at the gym the day before, today would be a much better day for climbing. As I waited for her to arrive, I redid the moves on a problem I had done a couple years ago. Thinking that I didn't have much time before the humidity set in and my hands oozed with sweat, I decided to see if I could link the classic Nat's Traverse into the eliminate up problem.

Fresh out the box

Thankfully, I only needed one try as my hands and fresh Mad Rock Concepts stuck to the rock. I'm also thankful I stuck because the tree is much lower than it originally used to be (as I am told constantly by the original locals/friends of mine) that if I had fallen I would have landed butt first on the tree or broken my ankle on the rock (like the Brink of Disaster fall that almost took me out last August). While the climb is most certainly a link up of a natural traverse line into a eliminate, it's pretty up there on the fun scale (in regards to not using certain holds). There is no name for it as most of the conceivable ways up the wall have most likely been done (left of Don't Worry Be Snappy jug).


Thanks for reading!

Last call!

For the Bishop season! It's over with. Over and done with, done and over with.Technically the climbing season for Bishop bouldering ends around mid to late April, with May beginning to be to hot to boulder in the day time. The snakes start to come out of their dens and hiding among problems.

Are you high to buy?

Last weekend was a freak weekend. Friday and Saturday were both in the 60's and Sunday's high was 71. Scott Cory and I made one last final trip out there to see if we could get somethings done with. So we left Friday morning and arrived to the Buttermilks around 3:30 in the afternoon. Scott talked about his long term project The Sharma Traverse and expressing interest in finally putting it to rest. The climb is sloppy and requires shade so we had to wait till the sun went down around 7pm. That gave me enough time to go try Center Direct. It's one of those problems I have in two parts: the beginning three moves and the ending three moves. I was able to do the crux move one time this trip. I wasn't really focused on it as I had another project I really wanted to do. After doing the 5.9 arete, the sun finally went behind Mt. Tom. Perfect for Scott's project. We hiked past Mandala and set up. I had never really looked at the climb until now. It's pretty straight foreward. Scott ran me through the beta and encouraged me to give a go. I honestly thought I wasn't going to get far on it but somehow made to to the crux through from the bottom. It's almost full span for myself, but you're throwing off a good right hand to a decent incut left. I decided not to wreck my self first day on it and would opt for a return to it next season. Scott however was close. After falling off the top move once from the start, he got back on and sent. So rad!

Dinner at Amigos

The next day, we woke up and went to the Happy Boulders. We didn't want to stay for too long as we had other plans for the day. I really wanted to put Acid Wash down for the count. After working for two hours on my last trip, I knew I had it in me to climb it. The start took me more tries than I would have liked that day, but I can't complain. I moved quickly and precisely through the holds and held on to the finish. V10 was always a goal and to see myself complete this climb let me see that I can climb "harder" problems. After packing up, we headed to the Bardini Boulders to go to A Maze of Death. The hike makes the problem worth it. It's a rad looking problem in a beautiful setting. Even though we didn't do much up tehre, it was a new area for myself. After a couple hours up there, Scott wanted to go into Dale's Camp to try Zen Flute. Walking over to it, he put in a solid session on it before realizing it was a little warm and needed to cool down. Xaiver's Roof was the next stop. I had heard many things about this climb. And I didn't know if I had it in me. Doubts aside, the climbing to the lip is pretty cool and getting over the lip will be the hard part. After a couple of tries Scott wanted to go back and do Zen Flute. We walked back down, set up and 30 minutes later, he held the dyno. He said he was never so psyched to do V10 then on this climb. I think the motivation of me betting him a dinner helped as well.

Third day. Final day. Our skin was holding up. Scott wanted to check the Druid Stones out. And since I had never been, I was down. The book said the hike was "anywhere to 20-45 minutes depending on your fitness level". Our goal was 20 minutes. How naive we were. It took us about 20 minutes to get 1/4 of the way there. It took us about 52 minutes from the start to the boulders, up hill, thank god not in the snow and both ways. The rock is superb up there. The Golden Child is on impeccable rock. I've only seen the problem in the old Tim Steele and Steve Montesanto classic, "West Coast Pimp". The only climbing movie I'll ever really enjoy watching. After trying it we moved on to the Thunder Boulder. There's a V7 on the boulder called Denton's Diversion. And while I wasn't able to do this hard  problem, Scott was able to do the sit, Denton's Remorse, after a hour or so. Can you frustratingly hard? It's around the time I started to get a headache. The hike dehydrated me a bit so I started to pound back water. It didn't take immediate affect and the headache lasted till we got back to the car.

The heat has returned to Bishop and the season is finally over. Until next time, projects await!

The start of an epic hike to the Druid Stones with pads...

Almost there...

The town of Bishop from the top.

Bloom!

Spring time in Bishop means flowers a the boulders

Mt. Tom from A Maze of Death

 Thanks for reading!

Acid Wash V10

Here is the footage of me sending Acid Wash in the Happy Boulders. Three hours of total work time to piece it together. Really fun with cool holds.

Here you go!



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