Halloween Weekend of Awesomeness at Black

This weekend before Halloween was pretty good to the Tarascio brothers and myself. On Friday, Anthony and Michael Tarascio went up to Black Mt and both ended up sending something, with Michael flashing Moondrops (v6/7?) and Anthony getting the first ascent of a project he and Ian have been working on for a while, dubbing it Brotherhood, v10. The new line climbs some powerful moves out a steep bulge, tops out on perfect jigsaw-puzzle-esque patina and sits on the hillside below the lookout tower and above Ex-Patriot.

Anthony Tarascio on the FA of "Brotherhood" (v10), photo by Michael Tarascio

Saturday the brothers T rested, and after coaching at the ABS competition at Mesa Rim in San Diego, I hauled ass up to Black to try to finally put Ex-Patriot to rest. I arrived at The Visor at sunset, ran two warmup laps on Center Visor without so much as putting on my climbing shoes or chalking up, then ran down the hill to Ex-Pat, which faces away from the sunset and was already shrouded in darkness. I set up my three crashpads, positioned one headlamp to shine right on the series of crux crimps in the roof and the other on my head, slipped on the climbing shoes and went for it.

I'd like to report that I sent first try and that it felt easy, but truthfully it was a battle for me. I snagged the crux crimp as usual on my first go and fell, then had a few bad goes where I didn't quite get the first hard right hand crimp correctly, then tried Anthony's beta once, going left hand out to the opposite arete that I don't touch with my beta, and then I came to a realization: it was already dark and I was alone, so it didn't really matter how much time I spent out there, and I needed to rest longer. After a few more tries and plenty of adequate rest, I let out a "Sharma call" that only the man himself could rival, then proceeded to scream on the next two moves on my way to the finishing jug. Thankfully the topout sloper actually felt quite good in the 55 degree temps, and exhausted and adrenalized, I screamed in celebration by myself on top of the boulder, overlooking the desert and the thinnest strip of pink at the farthest distance of the horizon. I believe Ex-Patriot was my longest boulder problem project ever and one of my proudest ascents to date.

After a lonely night camping at the group sites, I went down into the little mountain town of Idyllwild to enjoy a victory breakfast by myself at a quaint cafe, and later met Anthony and Mike T, who both showed up in their Halloween costumes, back at the Boulder Basin campground. 

Fuller Ridge (left) and San Jacinto peak in the distance, as seen from "Born Under Punches" on the road up to the lookout tower

We went over to the very nice relatively new problem Born Under Punches (v7), which Anthony was able to repeat and I was able to send after a few tries of slipping off the greasy right hand crux pinch.

SWAT officer (costume, lol) Mike Tarascio brushing 

Chef Anthony (pretty lame costume, since he's actually in culinary school) goin for the send.

"Officer" Mike on the slopers

The crux

"I got ya bro," Michael Tarascio with a classic "Rockreation spot."

After our time on BUP, we headed down to the OK Corral to do the old Dan Osman compression problem way up the hill. I guess Mike had come close before, but neither he or I could muster up the courage to commit to the high crux move and send. Luckily, Anthony was able to pull out a send (about his hundredth of this line), so our trek up the hill was not entirely in vain.

View from the Dan Osman problem

The Tarascio brothers in their Halloween costumes throwing down attempts on the highball Dan Osman compression problem.

Anthony celebrating on the topout jug

And no trip to the OK Corral with Anthony would be complete without a couple of super close calls on Man is a Bastard, the classic Dave Struthers dyno testpiece.

 Climbed up into the tree for a second angle.

So close, get some!!!

Anthony and his mouse friend, Feta, on "Man is a Bastard"

And so another great weekend at Black Mountain came to an end with another perfect sunset. Somehow, I never get tired of this. See you all soon out on the rocks!

Another spectacular Black Mountain sunset. 

Sweet "New" Area and Epic Failure at Black Mt (AND 1 SEND! UPDATED)

UPDATE about Saturday: Saturday, Brett, Marina, and Matt drove up to Black Mt to try to close the book on a few of their projects. If you've been following this blog, you've seen countless photos of Brett and Marina on Tour de France sit and stand, respectively. Well apparently it was a good day for the crew, and Brett sent TdF sit first try of the day for his first v10! Congrats dude! I wasn't there to capture the action, but here are a couple of photos shot by Drew Mylrea of one of Brett's better goes:

Brett almost doing Tour de France, a couple of weeks before his actual send. 

What's so funny, Brett?

Sunday, Jeff and I met up early, scarfed some breakfast burritos, and hit the road for another day up at Black Mt.

We warmed up on a couple of nice moderates on perfect rock on the slope just below the lookout tower, at the top of the talus slope that leads down to Ex-Patriot and beyond to the Lion's Mane.
A nice long v4 lip traverse in this sector has become one of my favorite warmups. There is also a v4 stand start on the same boulder that begins with right hand on an okay crimpy pinch and left hand on an undercling hueco. I did the obvious, yet not-so-stellar, matched undercling stand/crouch start, which may or may not have been an FA. If it was, I'm not going to pretend it was noteworthy, but it was a pretty hard 2-move wonder, probably v7-ish.

From here we went over to the vertical dyno above the visor, which Jeff came painfully close to sending multiple times.

Contemplating the dyno

The setup

Aaaalmost there

From this point we headed down to Ex-Patriot, but it had just gone into the shade and was still feeling somewhat warm. We ran up the slope to find Anthony Tarascio and Ian McIntosh working on a rad project with a steep overhang followed by a patina face that looks somewhat like a giant tortoise shell. Unfortunately, I left my camera down at Ex-Pat, so there are no photos of this rad project or all the other boulders I'm about to describe.

From this project we ventured around the corner to where we found another group of friends in a cool corridor of boulders, with a high concentration of great problems including a nice tall v2 slab, a tall v4 face, a nice looking v6ish sloper problem, a steep and crimpy v7 or 8 and a very tall, intimidating/balancy v7. I hadn't brought my shoes over, as I wanted to save my skin and strength for Ex-Patriot. After it cooled off a bit, we headed back down to my nemesis. 

I gave Ex-Patriot several tries, 7 in total, almost twice as many as last time...

... unfortunately, I didn't stick the left gaston crimp that you can see me falling after in the video from last week. My core just felt too tired for some reason, so it will have to wait for another day. There are lots of videos of my attempts, but since there is already one posted of me getting to a higher point from last week, I probably won't post any of them. 

Before we packed up and hiked out for Anthony to go try Man is a Bastard, he decided to give Ex-Pat a "why not" burn. (He has already done the problem.) Below are some pics of his VERY different beta, right up until falling. (That'll teach you to try to re-send my projects in front of me, Tarascio! Muahahaha)

Anthony going out left to the tiny crimp that I skip

Matching on TOP of the block.

Skipping my crux move to the left gaston, and coming up just a little short of the right hand crimp.

The "Once Upon a Time" boulder, as seen from "Ex-Patriot"

After hiking out to the cars, we drove down to the OK Corral, so Anthony could give a few good goes on Man is a Bastard. He came agonizingly close, grabbing the jug at the apex of the big dyno twice, but not quit latching it well enough to stick it either time! 

Cleaning the crimp on Man is a Bastard

First move

Setup for the dyno

SO CLOOOOSE!

Although nobody  neither Anthony or I sent any groundbreaking projects this week, it was another fine day at Black Mt. The conditions were slightly less than ideal, so the good news is it's only going to get better until the first dump of snow closes the gate and blocks entry to the upper areas of the mountain.  

Stay psyched everyone, the season is in full swing, and maybe some day soon this blog will have some media of some sending to share again!

Sends and Near Misses at Black

UPDATED  to include a second Ex-Pat fail.

Sunday was another day of fun at Black Mountain. The temps keep getting better, and it was pretty chilly by the end of the day. Kris, Anthony and I were joined by our new friends Luke Cudney and Cerre Francis, freshly transplanted from SLC, and we were looking forward to giving them a good tour of Black Mt.

We started by heading over to the top of an amazing chute of boulders that starts essentially right under the summit lookout tower and goes all the way down past Ex-Patriot and down further to the Lion's Mane (approached from the OK Corral, the lower parking spot.) 

After a quick warm up, we headed over to a hard compression problem at the top of the boulder-strewn slope. Anthony had done the stand start two weekends ago, and was able to put down the sit start to Little T's Big Bulge first try of the day, at a suggested grade of v9. 

Anthony on the first move of "Little T's Big Bulge"

The move to the heinous sloper

and from the sloper to the upside down pinch

Crossing to the crack

Anthony is psyched for the FA

Petri found a piece of wood shaped like a piton

From the bulge we went up the hill to a couple of little dyno problems. Not sure of the name or grade of the first one here. I've done it before and there are some pics of it on this blog from maybe a year ago too.

The second dyno, Face Meat, v6. Dan Mills told me he did a sit start to it, which, given the size of the "holds" on the lower part of the face, looks really freaking hard.

Luke Cudney sticking "Face Meat"

Kris Linstrom sending the same

I wanted to go give Ex-Patriot a few goes, since we were in the area, but first we stopped to show Cerre and Luke The Visor.

Luke Flashing "Center Visor," v6

Cerre on "Center  Visor"

From here we went down to Ex-Patriot (v11). I took 4 burns, doing all the moves with overlapping linkage, after being boosted through the first couple of moves after falling on my 3rd go. My last attempt was my best yet, falling literally one move from the finishing jug! I must have just been tired from the previous three attempts, as my foot unexpectedly popped off a pretty good foot hold. Alas, another one I have to go back to, but at least it looks like I'll finally do it soon.

Here is a video of my best attempt so far. My apologies in advance for the profanity.

EDIT: Here is how the second part of Ex-Patriot (the way I think of it, after matching on that block in the roof) should be climbed. Got tired and dropped in an attempt to save some juice for the send ... the results of which you can see above.

At sunset we found ourselves down at Dark Horse (v10) for Anthony to give it a few goes. Unfortunately, none were quite successful, but I'm sure he'll send this one soon too!
Video of what most of Anthony's attempts looked like.

Stay psyched everyone, and maybe we'll see you at Black Mountain next weekend!