Anticipation boulder

Well the semester is winding down, and I'm hoping to get some work done on the Lake Brownwood guidebook. Here's a topo of the Anticipation boulder. This boulder is located just right of the Mission Impossible boulder.



1. Project- This line has been climbed from a crouch, but a true sit has yet to be completed. Establish on small crimp and rubbish undercling and head left towards the sloping lip. At the lip traverse right, topping out Anticipation.

2. Anticipation (v2)- A surprisingly tricky problem. Climb the arete from the sit, staying on its left side. Tops out on the slab left of the arete. The top-out is the crux.

Inspiration

Since Thursday, the weather has been pretty lousy (although its been great in general recently, so I cant complain). So lately, I've been doing a lot of this...



And dreaming of this...

More Photos!

Here's some more photos from Scott.

Me on the last moves of Smooth Sailing:



A good shot showing the angle of wall and holds on Smooth Sailing. Both Smooth Sailing and Jack in the Box start on the flake in the right side of this picture.



Colter sending Smooth Sailing, for the third ascent. Colter's right hand is crimping on one of the most unique holds at the lake.



Scott on the first ascent of Jack in the Box:



Finally a picture that shows the angle of this wall, and gives you a hint about the terrible landing. Where i am in the picture is actually about where a fall from the dyno lands you. The two spoters (Dave, Asa) are standing on higher blocks.

Scott's right hand is on the higher of the two holds used to make the dyno. The key to sticking the dyno is keeping your right hand on that crimp to control the swing.

Ha, i still can't believe its been climbed! Crazy

Photos

Here's two photos from Scott from the weekend. I'm in the process of collecting photos from the many cameras that were there. More to come.

Anne crushing on the crack climb in the maze:




Me on the first ascent of Smooth Sailing:



Check the posts below for a trip recap if you missed it.

The Weekend to End All Weekends

The Adopt-A-Crag weekend has come and gone. What a weekend it was though! Ben and Mary went out of their way to ensure that everyone had a great time. They sacrificed their time, money, and energy to make this event happen. Essentially it boils down to this: Ben and Mary are just good people.

This weekend really started coming together months ago. Ben and Mary had a vision for an event that would not only promote continued climbing access at the Lake, but also better the environment there, and introduce more people to the climbing experience at the Lake. They worked hard in the weeks leading up to the Adopt-A-Crag, gathering sponsors, cutting brush, putting together prizes for participants, finding a cook for Saturday night...the list goes on and on.

Colter and I arrived on Friday afternoon, and began to help Ben (who had been working since 7:30 am) start hauling off loads of brush. We worked for a few hours, and then bouldered for a few more. Colter was eyeing the third ascent of Burlfest, but fell off the last move three times on Friday! Worn out, we retired to Ben and Mary's house, ate pizza, and watched Dosage V.


(Colter on Burlfest on a previous trip)

On Saturday morning, more troops showed up and we continued to haul off brush and collect trash. In the end we cleared around 10 trailer loads, and 3 truck fulls of brush (all cut by Ben). On top of that, bag-fulls of trash were collected. I've never seen the lake looking so good.

After lunch we started climbing. Colter slipped off, laced up below Burlfest and crushed it! Well done Colter. I knew it was only a matter of time. By my count, this is the third ascent of the boulder.

The Chapmans then rolled in from Camp Eagle, and Scott began to systematically destroy every difficult problem and project at the lake. He nabbed the fourth ascent of Burlfest, and then FA'ed the arete on the opposite end of the boulder. Its a tough, holdless, compression arete, and now goes by Little Annie.

We then collected pads and returned to Smooth Sailing, which I had top-roped on our last trip to the Lake. We padded the landing, making it as manageable as possible...though it was still pretty lousy. I went for it and the send went smoothly. Scott followed, flashing it. Colter followed, sending it first go. I think the consensus was that the problem is awesome.






Well, while the pads were there, Scott decided to tempt the impossible (improbable)--the direct finish to Jagged Edge. A little history on the boulder: This is the most aesthetic line at the lake. Its a brilliant overhanging face, with an obvious starting jug, two medium-difficulty set-up moves, then nothing for 4-5 feet. And then a sloper. All over a terrible landing.

Jagged Edge avoids the "nothingness" by veering right to the arete. Even on top-rope no one had ever stuck the mandatory dyno on the direct version. But for some reason, Scott thought we should boulder it. We arranged a landing pad and went for it. Sure enough, Scott sent after 5-6 tries, naming it Jack in the Box. I was getting close, but couldn't latch the sloper, even after 15-20 tries.

We moved on to other things, but Scott encouraged me to go back and give it another go. After 5 more tries, I stuck the dyno and held on for the desperate send. Jarrod happened to catch a video of the send (I think someone has video of Scott's send--send that to me so I can make a proper video please!)

Short Commentary: So I'm pretty excited in the video (as you will be able to tell). I've looked at this route every time I've been to the lake for the last 4 years. It really was the Great Undone Line at the Lake. It may not be the hardest there, but all the elements- purity, quality of moves, sketchy landing, lack of top-rope success, history- all made it an unimaginable project.

Its almost bittersweet that its been climbed. But watching Scott realize the vision for the line, and following his lead with an ascent, was a really great experience for me.

All in all, a great weekend. One that wouldn't have happened without Ben and Mary. Thanks again for your commitment to preserving the access and climbing experience at the Lake.

Day 2 and 3 of Tyler’s Balcarce, Argentina climbing trip...

On Day 2 a group of us (Colin, Tim, Mariano, Matias, and I) headed to the front section of bouldering areas on the sierra because of the previous nights rain. Our hopes were that the sun would have dried out these exposed areas by mid-afternoon. Sure enough, the areas were dry and it was climb on!

We began our warm up for the day on a really cool boulder about midway up the sierra. On it were multiple V0 and V1 problems. For all who have climbed out at Brownwood, you will notice that it looks exactly like the boulder where Mission Impossible is found, just flipped around and with numerous holds on its face. Below is a picture of Tim working the traverse along the topside of the boulder.After an hour or so there me moved up and to the left to another boulder with a few more V0 and V1 warm up problems.

To the left of this boulder we began the hard climbs of the day on a really amazing V2/V3 problem that comes out from beneath a flake into some weird body positions, crimpy holds, and a sick knee bar that lets you throw throw for a right hand jam that leads to the top out. Pictured is Tim working through the bottom section of the climb. Mariano, Tim, and I all had proud sends.

From the same sit starting position a V5 problem comes directly out from the flake to two terribly small crimpers, up to a bigger crimper, then a left toe in on the side of the flake leading to an enormous power move up to a weird finger jam with the left hand. The “enormous power move” was extremely shouldery and proved to much for me. Mariano sent the problem on his fourth try however and is pictured below making the big move to the jam that is a foot out of the picture (it was huge).

From here we moved on to a boulder with a huge face full of super sharp crimpers and juggy top outs. Mariano and myself began work on a V5 left traverse from the right side of the boulder, which tops out in the upper left section. He sent it after a few tries, while I got shut down on my third V5 of the trip. I had to skip the first move and try the V4 version. Both problems require you to use almost obsolete feet, static body positions through crimpy sections, and a good deal of trust that your toes won’t pop. Pictured is me making a big throw to a slopey edge. Again, I got shut down.

After our time here, Mariano and I worked two really dynamic V3 roof problems to finish the last hour of daylight. After a few tries on each we both sent the V3’s to round out another amazing day of climbing. Pictured is me controlling the swing of one the problems as you let the right heel come off and throw the left heel up by your left hand for the top out. Super sick.

On Day 3 Colin and I went out by ourselves in the afternoon and I worked through the V5’s again. And got shut down again. I did send the V4 variation on the face climb that I’m pictured attempting on my first go of the day. It was an awesome trip and I look forward to maybe getting back to La Barossa some day.

Hey all it’s Tyler again with a new update from South America...

As you all know, I did a post on La Barossa (a climbing area in Balcarce, Argentina) about a month ago describing an ultimately failed climbing trip. Well this past week, Colin Barnard (one of my fellow combatants from the last trip) and I swallowed our pride and headed back to Balcarce for some redemption. This time we met a group of amazing climbers and had the chance to boulder with them for a few days. Pictured below is a handful of the climbers we met on our trip.

On our first day, Gabriella (wife of the legendary Tim Bratten) picked us up from our hotel and drove us out to their house at the base of La Barossa. Here we loaded up all the gear and headed for the “Boulders de Bosque” area on the backside of the sierra. We began warming up on the front of the boulder, pictured below is Gabriella on a V2 problem. We spent an hour and a half or so climbing through multiple V0, V1, and V2 problems. There were probably 7 or 8 problems just on the front of the boulder.

After our time at the front we moved around to the backside of the boulder to try our skills on some harder stuff. I began work on a V4 traverse that starts low and works up into the roof, topping out as you come out from crimps on the roof to a sloper, a jug, and high step mantle. On my third try I got the ascent and was super pumped about it. Pictured below are action shots of me moving through the traverse and up into the roof.

Abut this time a group of 6 more climbers showed up, all from the Balcarce and Mar de Plata region. One of them, Mariano Maceri, was an especially strong climber who I developed a good friendship with by the end of our trip. He and the others began warming up while I began to study the moves of the V5 traverse that comes from the opposite direction and works up into the roof. After warming up, Mariano came over and coached me through the moves. He sent the problem on his second go and after 5 attempts I got fully shut down, just didn't have anything left in the tank. Mariano also sent a really technical V6 after 3 attempts, pictured below is him working through the crux.

Overall, the climbing and community was awesome. I’ll have another post for day 2 and 3 soon...