Free and Open

I wanted to share with you all a project that my buddy Drew Mylrea has been working on for a while. Free and Open is a proposed webseries, which takes place in a post-internet censorship U.S. I'll let Drew and his Kickstarter campaign do the talking, but I highly recommend that folks take a look. If you're reading this blog, you probably believe in an uncensored internet, so take a moment to check out this project.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/226149635/free-and-open

Another Horse Flats Day

I spent Saturday up at Horse Flats with a great crew: Itai Axelrad, Charlie Andrews, Christina Pilo, Brett Gottdener, "Ninja" Kris Linstrom, and Richie Wong. Unfortunately, Brett is nursing an injured finger, so he didn't really get to climb, but everyone else went home with some new sends.

After a long warmup, during which Charlie, Itai and I did the Peanut Problem (v7) and the classic Bow Sprits (v2/v4 sds), we tried the nicely patina'd, steep face of Arbor Day. The three of us traded attempts from the sit start, climbing powerful, tensiony moves on incut holds, only to fall at least once each off of the top. After the rest of the crew arrived at the boulder and Kris quickly sent the stand start (v5), Charlie and I were re-motivated for the sit, but we were thrown a curveball when Charlie broke a crimp off the lower section. We figured out some slightly different beta and after a few tries we both sent the full line. Arbor Day SDS, is even better in its newly broken state, and Charlie and I both felt that it would be fair to call this one v8. The bottom climbs really well, but we didn't manage to get any good photos or footage of the full line.

Kris sending "Arbor Day Stand"

While the rest of the crew held back for a little while at Bow Sprits, I took Charlie and Itai over to Blank Generation, a short, powerful problem that I was able to send recently. Itai managed to FLASH the full line, and Charlie managed the send after a handful of close calls. Way to go guys! There is video of Itai's flash, so watch the Axelrad twins' blog for that.

Charlie Anrews sending "Blank Generation SDS" (v10)

Charlie sticking the crux of "Blank Generation"

Charlie holding that swing like it's nothing.

 

 

After Blank Generation, we met up with the rest of the crew at Orange Flambé, another area classic that I've tried here and there over the years. The delicate face saw ascents by Charlie, Itai, and Kris, but neither Christina or I could seal the deal. Looks like we'll have to return for it another day.

Myself starting out on "Orange Flambé" (photo: Richie Wong)

Ninja Kris starting "Orange Flambé"

 

Pulling the first crux (photo by Richie)

Itai past the crux and heading for the topout.

Kris

Charlie gunning for the top of "Orange Flambé"

From Orange Flambé, Itai, Charlie, and I explored the Titanium Man cluster of boulders for a bit, finding one amazing, tall wall of crimps that we figured would best be left for another climber on another day. As the afternoon stretched on, we decided to head out, but stopped at one of the earlier boulders in the main area to try a harder looking line to the left of an obvious jughaul, just off the trail. We all sent the unknown problem in short order and felt that it made a perfect ending to a nice long day of bouldering.

Itai on our last problem of the day.

  We made the long hike back to the car, parked way out by the gate to the Christian Camp, since the road to the campgrounds is still "closed for the season" and reflected on an awesome day on excellent California granite. 

What a view. Ridges of the San Gabriel Mountains, seen from Horse Flats.

Stay psyched you weekend-warriors and full-time rock grapplers alike. Hope to see you out on the rocks!

ABS Youth Nationals and the Malibu Roof

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated, and a lot has happened in that time. I spent last Thursday through Sunday in Colorado Springs, CO, coaching at the ABS Youth National Championships, enjoying a few days in a climate other than California's constant sunshine.

Natalie, Charlie, and Sami, all from Rockreation LA, made a great showing at Youth Nationals.
Natalie managed to flash all four qualifying routes on day one (going into semis tied for first place), but re-tweaked her sprained back on the third semi-final and barely missed making it to finals (by one point!) Charlie also flashed all four of his qualifying problems on Friday, and climbed very well on Saturday and Sunday, securing him an 8th place finish. For full results, click here.

Natalie Josefsberg flashing qualifier number 3

and 4

View of Pike's Peak from my hotel room window.

Walking around Garden of the Gods on Saturday before semi-finals

Some dudes climbing some sketchy sandstone at Garden of the Gods

We returned Sunday evening, and Monday I set my boulder problems for the new set at Rockreation LA. Check out the steep side of the boulder if you get in there, there are some fresh new problems!

On Wednesday, Maya and I ventured out to Malibu Creek State Park, so that I could try to send Chubbs aka The Malibu Roof, featured in my last post. Here are some beautiful pics Maya took from the day.

Walking in to Malibu Creek State Park

Lichen

 

Me traversing back to get my additional crashpads at the end of the day. The other guy was rocking a wet suit and kept jumping in and swimming, while I aimed for the opposite.

The Rock Pool

While I didn't send it first try, I did on my second! Luckily for me, my friends Alex and Dara were there to capture a repeat of the ascent on Dara's iphone for the uncut footage. Check it out below.


Untitled from Dara B on Vimeo.


After the long hike out (well it sure seems long if you're carrying three crashpads) Maya and I went to one of our favorite LA spots, Malibu Seafood, for a delicious dinner. You can't really beat sunset on the ocean and a plate of amazing fresh fish.

Psyched to have sent (twice!), I felt I deserved a big meal.

Full moon over the PCH, what a perfect ending to the day.

Stay psyched everyone and see you out on the rocks!!

A Weekend in Malibu Creek

I spent both days of this beautiful weekend in Malibu Creek State Park, an area for which I hold a lot of nostalgia, having climbed there very frequently with my late friend, Michael Reardon, throughout high school. The park is most well known for its steep, pocketed sport climbing; the water-smoothed Ghetto Wall, home to Shawn Diamond's 5.14 Lateralus and the classic 5.13 Ghetto Blaster, has the highest concentration of quality routes, and this is where I took the strong, young comp climbers Natalie and Pablo on Saturday. Natalie was able to Manage a redpoint of the wall's testpiece 5.12 Urban Struggle on her first try of the day and then she and Pablo each had an impressive beta burn on Ghetto Blaster.

On our way in, we had stopped to look at the steep black roof of Chubbs (v11), hiding in the cave under the Stumbling Blocks crag, and I was getting psyched to try my hand on the powerful, tension-dependent problem.

Luckily for me, Matt Moreno was psyched to go out to the Creek on Sunday to pull on some steep pockets, so we gathered enough foam to make the problem's sketchy landing safe enough, and headed back out for my second day in the park in a row.

We started by warming up at the base of the Planet of the Apes wall and did the boulder problems on the little bloc below it.

Matt Moreno pulling pockets on the "Kuan Chin Roof" (v6)

After a leisurely warm up, we headed back to the rock pool traverse, which we had to make twice to shuttle our multiple pads across, and down into the cave under the Stumbling Blocks. Although they appear powerful and intimidating, I was able to piece together the moves of Chubbs fairly quickly, linking through the roof to the lip on my best attempt. It seems like it could go on my next day out there, so I'm pretty darn psyched about that!

Myself on the 2nd move of "Chubbs"  photos by Matt Moreno

Once you match in that hueco, you get a brief shake out and then it gets real.

The small pocket ...

and the less-than-ideal pinch.

From that left hand pinch there is one more big move to a good right hand pocket, which I stuck from the sit once, but somehow managed to fall out of. Then there are just a couple more tensiony stabs on decent pockets before the inviting topout jugs. Next time!!

Matt working "Chubbs" 

Though it appears small, that pocket feels even worse than it looks!

On our hike out, a little comedy relief was supplied by a large group of tourists that had gotten in over their heads on the rock pool traverse. At least two of them fell into the water, but luckily nobody drowned, so the traffic jam that delayed our exit by close to an hour was well worth it from a spectator's point of view

Looking up canyon from the rock pool traverse. The steep roof of "Chubbs" sits under and adjacent to that huecoed slab on the left.

Traffic jam!

All told, it was a great weekend of climbing on rock other than granite for once, and I'm super pumped to get back and send the roof!  Stay psyched and I hope to see you all out on the rocks!

Rain at Black? Head for the Tram!

Sunday, we had organized crews hailing from Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego to meetup at The Republic area of Black Mountain to try to finish off one of the few remaining (discovered) projects in the area. Unfortunately, the gods had other ideas, and the western side of the San Jacinto Mountains was covered in fog and rain when our crews converged at the road up to The Republic. 

Scrambling for alternatives, we figured we would cut our losses and head to the Jupiter Boulders, but as we drove down the highway toward Palm Springs we could see that the side of the mountain range occupied by the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway had blue skies and sun overhead! A last minute cell phone consensus was reached by all three vehicles to head to the Tramway, and so we got to climb in perfect conditions on high elevation granite boulders in spite of the horrible weather at Black Mt. 

Kris Linstrom warming up

Christina Pilo getting her slab warm up on.

Anthony  Tarascio, so excited, not even that big Organic pad can slow down his run!

After we all warmed up a bit, which included a flash ascent of Swingdance for me (supposedly v7, but felt a few grades easier, imho), we headed over to Bridget's project, Mosquito Cove aka the left start to Byron's Roof (both of which are v9+), which she sent on her first try of the day. Way to go Bridg!

Bridget Enderle killin it on "Mosquito Cove" aka "Byron's Roof Left Start"

The heel hook core tensiony pull to the lip

Bridget topping out. Got spotters?

Brett and Christina watching Bridget topout

 I managed to fall off the last tricky move pulling onto the slab of Byron's Roof on my second and third tries, only to punt off going to a massive jug. As the crew was beginning to disperse to other problems, and I felt like I would need a long rest before giving another send burn, I decided to leave it for another day. Somehow I was lured by Ian to go with him, Al, and Chris Sinatra over to Somewhere in Time, an infamous line that went up a few years ago at a proposed grade of V14, which through consensus has been down graded a couple notches, but still feels ridiculously hard. I managed to get tips into the 4th hold/second move once, but did not do nearly as well as Ian or Chris, who almost sent!

Chris Sinatra pulls the first move of "Somewhere in Time" (v12)

Ian McIntosh starting the same.

First crux

Chris Sinatra on one of his best burns.

Chris's "Where the hell do I go?" moment. Apparently the topout is still hard! 

It was starting to get dark as we hiked out from "Somewhere in Time."

After sliding down hills of snow and ice on our crashpads, in order to more quickly reach the trail, we hiked in the dark back to the tramway station, rode the hanging gondola 6000 feet back to the valley floor, and headed for our respective parts of Southern California. With the I-10 West jammed and signs indicating a 3 hour delay, Brett, Kris, Christina, and I decided to attempt to wait out the traffic over a Thai dinner in Palm Springs.  It still took us twice as long as it should have to get from Palm Springs back to LA, but with good company and good tunes after an amazing day that didn't start out very well (remember, we started at 10:30 am in the rain at Black Mountain!), no amount of traffic could have dampened our spirits!

Stay psyched and see you out there!