Jade, V15

Dead Point Magazine posted a video of me climbing Jade, V15 in R.M.N.P. The footage is from June, in some very interesting weather conditions. To read more about my ascent, check out my earlier blog post.

Livin' Large in South Africa

It's been a while since I last time updated my blog. The African internet connections can be unbelievably slow, if they even work. Anyway, once again Rocklands was amazing. I even found that really hard and perfect project I've been looking for. Last season I found this pretty small, but compact area while hiking around in the Kleinefontaine area. In the middle of the area stands a proud, tall, independent arete that looks a lot like a typical gritstone arête. Last year I didn't really get a change to climb in this new area, that we later dubbed the Champagne sector, but when I got to South Africa this year, the arête was the first thing in my mind.

The Champagne Sector

First time we decided to hike to the new area, we ended up wandering around for hours in the heat without finding there. Next day we hiked in from the same direction as I did last year and we actually found the area. First thing I went to check out the arête and it looked just as good as I remembered, maybe even better! To get things started I put a top-rope on it and started working on the moves. Normally I'm not a big fan of working boulders on top-rope. Infact, this is probably the first time I've ever done it, but for this arête, or 'Project Real Big' as we started calling it, there was just no other way. Before I put chalk on it, the starting hold and the top of the boulder were seemingly the only usable holds, and there is 8 meters distance in between them.

Project Real Big

After 4 or 5 days working it in top-rope, I had done all the individual moves: all 24 of them. And that's without including the super intensive foot beta. It was time to start trying it with pads. If it only would have been that easy! Talking people into hiking 45 minutes with their pads, to an area with only one really hard project so far, turned out to be hard, especially day after day. Still, everytime we went up we manged to get pads. Sometimes more, sometimes less. First days trying Project Real Big ground up were not very successfull, but everyday I was getting progressively a bit further. One time I got through the section I thought was the crux, but then fell 2/3 up. I was really dissappointed, because I honestly wasn't expecting to fall there anymore. Next time I fell from the VERY last move! I can't remember the last time I've been so dissapointed. I took a huge fall, but as I was falling I wasn't even thinking about the landing. All I could think was that I jut fell from the VERY last move of something really hard. Next time I fell there again. Turns out that the last move is actually the redpoint crux. That got me really syked again. I mean, how cool is that! You find a perfect, tall highball project just at your limit and the crux is the last move 8 meters off the deck! It doesn't really get any better than that!



One day we finally got really good conditions. Everything was perfect except that it was my second day on the project and i felt like I needed to rest, but the conditions were just too good not to take advantage of. Besides, I was starting to run out of days on my trip. Another problem was that we only had 4 not-so-good pads, which was very little compared to the more reasonable 10 pad we had a couple times before. However, at this point I was willing to take the risk if I got to the last move again, so I gave it a good burn and made it about 2/3 up before falling off. After a longer rest I tried again. I made it through the first crux again and the my foot popped. I surprised everyone, including myself, by somehow staying on. I got into the position to quickly chalk up the left hand, but my foot was sliding so i had to skip it. Every single move after that I felt like I was going to fall for sure, but somehow I found myself at the last move. Without hesitating a split second and trying my best not to think about the 4 small pads 8 meters below me I did the scary highstep and launched for the last sloper. Grabbing the hold instead of hitting the ground really hard felt unreal at that point. 12 days of hard work and mental torture paid off that moment.

After the send

I named it Livin' Large in the theme of the project name. Livin' Large is by far the hardest thing I've ever climbed and I feel confident saying that it's a proper 8C. Before this, I believe the most time I've invested into a single problem is 5 days. Another interesting thought that crossed my mind is that Livin' Large took me more days than Jade took me tries. That being said, the crux on Jade is a very powerful yet simple move, whereas the movement on Livin' Large is anything but simple. Apart from the difficulty, Livin' Large is pretty much a perfect boulder problem in my eyes and I hope the upcoming seasons other climbers will get as psyched to try it as I was.

My focus on this trip was pretty much fully on Livin' Large, but after I sent it, I was happy to be climbing on something easier. During the trip I repeated some classics, that I hadn't done last year, like Splash of Red V11 and Black Shadow V13. I also climbed some problems that I had d0ne before, but that are just so fun to climb on, like In Between Dreams V12, which I've probably done 10 times now, with Chuck yelling "Dance, monkey, dance!" from behind his camera. Chuck shot a lot of video with his new rig and just the raw-footage looks awesome. I can't wait to see it on a big screen.

Splash of Red

Most of my trip I spent at the developing the Champagne Sector together with Chuck. We put up about a dozen quality problems like Spudd Webb V8, Scorpion Slab V7, Mrs. Balls V12, Bob Saget Left V9 and there is still potential for more, if a 45-minute hike is not a problem.

Photos: Chuck Fryberger

FA of Leckerbraai at Death Jungle Area

Change of scenery

My trip to Colorado in now over and I’m on my way to South Africa. I’m really satisfied with what I managed to climb in Colorado, especially since the weather was really bad at first. Climbing Jade was my primary goal and after quickly dispatching it, I was able to focus on other things like making one of my best FA’s, Sunseeker and repeating classics. Check out this excellent video of Carlo Traversi doing the second ascent of Sunseeker at DeadpointMag.com.

Nuthin' but sunshine, V13

My flight arrives in Cape Town tomorrow at 4 PM local time. I can’t wait to get to the Rocklands! As much fun as Colorado was, I don’t think I’ve ever been more distracted from climbing on a climbing trip. It was interesting to see that even though climbing seemed secondary most of the time, I could still climb really well. Rocklands will be different, though. I’m really psyched to get back to the same routine there, as I had going on last year; getting really fit by climbing pretty much every day.

Jade, V15

This year the name of the game will be first ascents. I have plenty of time and only a few problems that I want to repeat. My goal is to find and develop new areas and problems. I also hope to find something really hard and inspiring, that I get psyched to work on for a longer time. That’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, but never really have. That is because for me it is very important that a line I’ll spend a lot of time working on, is actually a good one, not just hard. A project that is hard enough, but not too hard and inspiring to work on at the same time, is incredibly difficult to come across. However, I believe that if anywhere, Rocklands is the place where you can find a line like this.

In South Africa internet access is very limited, but I’ll try to update the blog when I can.

8th Day of Rain area in Rocklands

Here’s my ticklist from Colorado:

Jade, V15
Sunseeker, V13 FA
Whispers of wisdom, V11
Kind traverse, V11
Storm Shadow, V12
Gobot V11, Flash
The Automator, V13
Wildcat, V11?
Nuthin but sunshine, V13

Sunset at Mt. Evans

Nuthin' but Sunshine

Mt. Evans

Lake Kayaha

Alpha Farms at Rocklands

Sunseeker

Yesterday was Mt. Evans day again. I wanted to go try a project at area B, that I had seen photos of earlier this week. I thought it looked really good in the photos, but when we got up there I was blown away. This tall and proud line climbs a sloping rail on a perfect steep overhang, leading to a horrifying mantle high off the deck. It has a good obvious starting hold and about 21 moves, all of them upwards. The bottom part climbing into the stand is probably around V12 and after that you still have to do do stand start which is a technical highball V10. At the moment there is still snow on the landing making it possible to take falls without getting hurt, but when the snow melts it will most likely be a death landing.

After flashing the stand start and almost shitting my pants doing the mantle, I started working on the bottom part. I tried the beginning for some time and I got trough the crux and all the way to the mantle. I felt solid, but then suddenly my heel slipped and I took a really scary fall from about 15 ft, landing more or less on my face. I was lucky and I walked off with only a sore neck. After taking a bad fall I was really nervous to try again. However, next try I made it to the mantle again, scared as hell, and managed to keep it together. I pressed out the mantle, highstepped my foot on a bad smear and grabbed the top. Sunseeker, V13 got it's first ascent! I dare to claim that it is one of the best problems in Colorado and I still can't believe nobody climbed it before me. Big thanks to Carlo and Chris for the real effort; carrying up the pads!

Sunseeker, V13

View from the top of the boulder

Mt. Evans

Rocky Mountain granite

Photos: Jon Cardwell and Nalle Hukkataival

Colorado

I've been here in Colorado for a couple weeks now and the weather has been anything but good. Actually it's been raining pretty much every day. Still we've managed to get some climbing in. The season is just starting in the park and a lot of the problems in lower and upper chaos are still buried in snow.

Freaks of the Industry, V13

Despite the snow, the Green 45 is in the prime right now meaning that I finally got to try Jade, V15. First day that we hiked up there I was definitely not used to the thin air at 11 000 ft. After a desperate effort to warm up I started working on Jade. I suprised even myself by doing the famous crux move on my third try. It was too cold to stay warm while resting. I got really close after a few tries from the start, but then split my tips on the tiny crimper.

Jade, V15

Yesterday we hiked back up, even though the weather forecast was bad. After I got warmed up up it started snowing really hard and we had to hide in the cave. Luckily it didn't last too long and the topout on Jade stayed pretty dry.

Whiteout at the Green 45

On my first try of the day I got trough the crux and felt solid. Then my left foot slipped. On the ground I noticed that my shoe was wet from the pads. I was really frustrated, because that try took a lot of skin, and you only get about five good tries before you split your skin on the tiny spike. Second try I stuck the crux hold, but my feet swung and I let go to save skin. Right when I fell on the pads I looked into the valley and noticed it was already snowing and saw a huge blizzard coming towards us. I knew this was my last change and with no rest I started climbing. I got through the crux, stuck the sidepull and got to the good rail. At this point it was snowing really hard and I saw some water dripping from the top. Carefully grabbing the holds I topped it out in the rain! In total Jade took me two days and around ten full tries from the start. Such a good problem! Video and photos coming up soon.

A cold day in Upper Chaos

I'm hoping the weather turns better soon, because I'm syked to climb in the park and Mt. Evans. There are a few hard projects that I want to get on before I leave to South Africa. This week we might escape the cold weather and go to Joe's Valley in Utah to climb on sandstone.

Benson

Lake Haiyaha