Git your mind outta the gutter! I'm talking about some long-standing problems at Tram that I thought I'd never be strong enough to work on. Now they seem not just possible, but very probable to do in just a few sessions.
Vanishing Point: Great progress thus far. I've managed to do it in 3 parts; Flight of Osiris (the V6 ending to the problem), the start into "The Big Move", then actually doing the big move. Didn't stick the swing but was able to actually make the swing and it felt pretty easy...just that when you're swinging that big it's more fun that serious. Kinda like when you were a kid on a swing and you yelled out to your mom "Yay! Mom look I'm swinging!!" hahha Yeah that was good time. Overall A LOT of progress on this as that Big Move seemed so hard when I first tried it a couple weeks back. Then trying it yesterday it felt so easy, I think I stuck it second or third try.
Master Blaster: Damn you Laggy for showing us this problem! Short, powerful, crimpy and sharp as hell. Great problem! I must join Laggy on his next session up here for this problem. Damnit! Had to add this to the project list. Pretty short though for this season as I'm concentrating only on a small handful of problems
Byron's Roof: Henry D's big summer project. I can see why; the big move into the roof is serious shouldery business. And HD's big-ass shoulders serve him well on this problem. hahah As for myself, I was able to actually do the first few moves on this thing. That's big thing for me considering we were near the end of the day and it's a V9+. haha
Now a bit of discussion over the starting point of Byron's. Take a look at the pic below (courtesy of Vimeo and our lovely and UBER-strong LA Bouldering Queen Jess Chen):
The blue circle indicates the accepted starting hand position for Byron's Roof, where the climber can match, cross-match, etc. Upon observation of ma' boy Laggy working the problem, I noticed a bunch of chalk right where the purple circle is in the photo. Tried it out and to my surprise, starting left hand on the low part of the sloper (blue circle) then right hand pinching the slopey arete (purple circle) felt much easier as it facilitates a compressive start vs. a pull-down start. Establishing in this fashion, you simply fall into the first move.
I realize this may get some backlash from people who've sent the problem saying the "official" start is matching on the lower part of the sloper, but then again I'm actually starting the problem with my right hand at a lower point, thus not violating the "Unwritten Bouldering Laws" that state you cannot start a boulder problem any higher than its first hold (i.e. anything below the start hold is fair game).
It's also worth noting an email conversation I had with Wills Young a few year's back when it came to problems in general. His words of wisdom: "Names, grades, even the problems themselves are not real. They are mere mental constructs in the mind of you and I. The rock is simply inert, unaffected by all the naming and grading, the defining and constricting. It has no knowledge of these things."
What I took from this statement was simply ... climb it how you want; the only one it matters to is you~ =^D
Lastly, shout outs to ma boyz Laggy and JPace for making it an awesome Tram session. Props to JPace for sends on Vanishing Point and Master Blaster! Puttin' 'em down hard brother!
Cheers~Noel
No comments:
Post a Comment