Sunday, November 01, 2009

Today I finally sent Beowulf at the YMCA camp area of Black Mountain after three consecutive Sundays of work. After Anthony Tarascio's ascent a couple of days ago this makes mine the fifth, unless someone else snuck a send in there in the last two days, but I'm gonna venture to say that's not likely. Consensus grade seems to be V11, which I guess means it's the hardest thing I've bouldered, although when I actually sent it (third try today) it didn't feel super hard. I guess that's how redpointing works though. It is a power-endurance, or "resistance" as the Euros say, problem, with a pretty hard throw to a jug at move thirteen, followed by a topout on a very very tall, yet highly featured slab. If you are interested in hard problems in SoCal, Beowulf should most definitely be at the top of your list. I asked Maya's brother Alon if he wanted to lend me his fancy new video camera, but he did not, so you'll have to settle for a still photo of one of the cooler moves (which is also pictured several times in the last two posts.)


Afterward, I tried a heinous little sit start to a beautiful V2, then drove back to Boulder Basin, where I repeated Where Boneheads Dare (highball V5, but the crux is the second move) and attempted Buzz Saw, a V10 with some bad edges on the same boulder, which did not go down.

If anyone wants to go climbing anywhere next weekend, Black Mt, Malibu Creek, Boney Bluff or Echo, Horse Flats, Tram, literally anywhere in SoCal, I am SO down now that I am free of this project. PSYCHED.

3 comments:

  1. Miss you, dude. Have fun. =)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good effort.

    But I thought of a better name for it:

    "Flight of the Dingleberry"

    ReplyDelete