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Bouldering
News |
3/28/01 Farley, MA
Jon LaValley climbed his 4 year project at Farley
Ledge on lead. It is probably the hardest off-width east of the
Mississippi River. It had been tried by every strong crack climber in
New England since the 70's. Only one other person managed to climb it
on toprope. Most climbers couldn't get up the first 15 feet of 35 degree
overhanging offwidth. Jon styles it on top rope all the time, but the real
crux was climbing the first offwidth while pushing a huge cam along, then
climbing over it. Jon says it is the hardest thing he has ever done. Everyone
that has tried it has called it at least 5.13b, it maybe harder than that.
He named it Bullet Proof, for Gene Yazgur (who is out of intensive
care and on the road to recovery). The original working name since the 70's
was Phantom Crack. |
3/25/01 Rumney, NH
The sport climbing season has begun at Rumney,
here are some highlights from this weekend. John Mallery sent Coral Sea,
5.13b, after trying the route off and on over a couple years. Tino Fiumara
sent Big Kahuna, 5.12d, on his first day of working the problem. Justin
Hayes sent SubUrban Surfer, 5.13a, earlier in the week.
See John Mallery's photos. Tim
Kemple bouldered/soloed TABDITO, 5.13b/c on the far left side of Waimea
(Joe Kinder and Tim put the route up 2 years ago). Tim attempted the route
on rope (and fell) and then sent the route sans rope. Tim said it was, "Probably
the scariest hard thing I've done." Also of note, Aquarius has been
rebolted and is now safe classic 5.12d, Big Kahuna has been retrobolted
with a better location of the highest bolt, and the top two bolts on
Technosurfer were replaced. |
3/25/01 Bradley Mountain, CT
Dan "Berg" Yagmin just left for a five month
stone odyssey, but not before completing one of Bradley's long term projects,
the sit start to White Lines...perfect sidepulls well spaced up an
overhanging face with poor feet. Dan was too modest to grade it, but other
locals believe it to be at least solid v10, and an incredible classic at
any grade. Another new classic is the Cypher, long talked about but
ignored for some reason. This problem requires both power and technical trickery,
with a big move off a soapdish undercling on bad feet out a bulge, with a
scary steep highball finish. Done first by Dave Theriault and quickly
afterwards by Berg. |
3/24/01 Lincoln Woods, RI
A couple of new problems to report at the Yosemite
boulder. Lee Soares sent a cool dyno left of the layback crack on the left
end of this boulder. Red Bull starts with the left hand on the slopey
arete and the right hand on a crimp left of the crack, which is off-route.
Also, Kozo Nozawa squeezed in a variation starting on Midnight
Lichen and using a gaston on Noontime Moss then hitting the top
of the boulder. Neither of these problems have been rated. Back in February,
Adam Osterhoff added a sweet variation on the Heart boulder. Starting just
to the right of the sit start to the Scoop, Adam worked across to
the right to join the Heart of Glass arete. He named this problem
Shattered and proposed a rating of V8/9.
Lee Soares in motion on his new problem, Red
Bull, on the Yosemite boulder.
Photograph by Dave Jusseaume. |
3/24/01 Western, U.S.
Lisa Rands has been having a great year so far.
Besides winning both big bouldering comps in Salt Lake City, she has been
ripping it up outside as well. Sending Midnight Lightning on January
3 was an amazing start. Since then, she sent the superb Meat and Potatoes,
V8/9 at Ibex, Utah. It's really hard and punchy for shorter climbers
(most women) and requires a big drive-by from a sloper near the top above
a scary landing. At Josh ua Tree, she had an incredible day doing Chile
Sauce, V8, Facet Cut, highball V5-ish?, All Washed Up,
V6, Soar Eagle, V6, Bald Eagle, V8, and Pumping Monzonite,
V8, all in a single afternoon. She also ticked the super-classic Streetcar
Named Desire the day before. The latest news is that she did the sit-start
to Redrum, V9/10 at the Happies. The only good way to do the problem,
the sit-start makes Redrum into a real problem, and a classic too. |
3/20/01 Fontainebleau, France
Once again Dave Graham has ripped through the
forest of Fontainebleau, leaving behind a wake of hard sends. The list includes:
flashes of Miserycorde, 8a (V11) and Petite Folie, 7c+
(V10); and repeats of Partage, 8a+ (V12) (over the course of three
rainy days), Duel, 8a, Hibernatus, 8a, Neverland, 8a,
the bloc, 8a, Controle technique, 7c+, La Chose, 7c+,
De la terre a la Lune, 7c+, Raideur Digest, 7c+, Les Beaux
Quartiers, 7c+, L'arete, 7c+, Evidence, 7c+, Innacesable
Absolu, 7c (v9/10) highball, Maudit Menage, 7c highball,
Megawatt, 7c, Pancreas, 7c, and Megalithe, 7c. Dave
also added a new problem, Sideways Daze, 8b (V13) a longstanding project
at Rempart. Finally, on his last day he sent Mad Maxx, 8b, and
Surplombe, 8a+. Imagine what he could have done if he hadn't had 10
forced rest days due to rainy conditions. Based on his two trips to
Fontainebleau, Dave believes that Spectre is 8b+ (V14), that Nothin'
but Sunshine is hard 8b+ (V14+?), Centaur, Automater (both at
Rocky Mountain National Park), Black Lung, and
Buttermilker are all 8b (V13). Dave is now on his way to
Cresciano in Switzerland to have a go at Dreamtime, Fred Nicole's
8c (V15). |
3/8/01 Western Massachusetts
On the morning of Friday March 2nd, Boston based
climber Gene Yazgur was shot six times in the head, chest, and both legs.
His roommate, Micheal Lenz, was shot in the head and killed, and Gene's beloved
dog Samson was also shot and killed. The alleged assalaint was Daniel Mason
from whom Gene had recently won a $118,000 settlement because of a "road
rage" traffic dispute. Mr. Lenz died of a three gunshot wounds to the head
as he slept. Unfortunately the noise did not wake up Gene. Mr. Mason allegedly
started by shooting Gene in the head through his chin. However instead of
killing Gene this only woke him up. Gene was then shot three more times in
the chest, and as he tried to flee he was skillfully shot once in each leg,
breaking both femurs. The killer then left him for dead, but Gene managed
to call 911 on his cell phone despite his wounds.
He currently remains in a coma although his condition
has been upgraded from critical to serious. Gene has many friends here in
Western Mass. He went to school at UMASS and while he was there he befriended
many local climbers. He climbs with an awesome "take no prisoners" style
and retreat is never an option. His fearless and tireless approach has earned
him the nickname Gene The Machine among his friends. His ability to get himself
in the middle of fantastically difficult situations is unparalleled and nearly
everyone he has climbed with has a Gene story that borders on unbelievable.
In our small community his reputation so precedes him that the first time
he came into my gym I instantly recognized him and introduced myself before
he said a word. Although if he had spoken, his thick Russian accent would
have given him away immediately. None of us who know him are surprised that
he survived being shot six times, and while we are aware that he has a long
way to go to make a full recovery, noone is betting against him. He is after
all The Machine.
At Farley there is a boulder problem called Half and
Half (V6). The boulder looks like a giant cube standing on one of its points.
Half and Half starts under a 45 degree overhang on a small crimper with an
awful left foothold, chucks to hidden jug, and then tops out via a hard and
scary rockover on your heel. Since its FA last fall, Ken Majka has proposed
a sit start. His claims that it would go were so ridiculous that no of us
would even bother telling him he was on Crack before we shook our heads and
walked away. The move Ken envisioned starts left hand on the foot hold of
the original Half and Half and right hand pinching a horrendous obtuse arete.
There are no feet, and you must throw three feet to the 1/4 inch starting
holds of Half and Half. However because your body is in the wrong position
to start the problem you must campus to the hidden jug at the lip. I've seen
Slashface, I've seen the Buttermilker, I've seen The Fly. None look more
improbable to me than these two moves.
Today Farley is blanketed by over three feet of snow
as is much of the rest of New England. The sun from yesterday melted just
enough snow to make the few pieces of rock not covered with snow, covered
with ice instead. I like bouldering in winter. To me bouldering at Farley
today was not a option. This morning Ken woke up early before work for a
good breakfast, some coffee, and to read the latest on Gene in the Boston
Globe. The story is right there on the front page of the City and Region
section and the new details it gave about Gene's heroic survival sat with
Ken all day at work. Originally Ken and Gene were going to drive down to
the Red River Gorge next week for some spring break climbing and Ken has
spent the week since Gene was attacked wishing there was something he could
do. Getting off work at 4:00pm Ken headed straight to Farley. After the 20
minute drive, and a 20 minute hike past wet boulder after wet boulder he
arrived at the base of Half and Half and what must be the only dry holds
at Farley. The hard part was all dry leaving only the scary top out to clean
off. Ken did his best to brush off the lip but it was still dripping wet
when he started work on the sit start. To my knowledge noone else has even
attempted the sit start to Half and Half because none of us believed that
any amount of work by any person would get the thing done. After about 45
minutes of trying Ken hung from the jug on the lip about to mantle on the
FA. He tells me that even though the finishing move (which involves rocking
over on a shitty heal smear that starts out as a heel hook) was soaking wet,
he was never scared or even nervous. The only though that mattered was:
"If Gene Yazgur can survive being shot six times and
still call 911 there is no way I can possibly fall off this move."
Soon Ken was standing on the lip looking up at a 45 degree
slab covered in three feet of snow. Instead of downclimbing to a hang and
jumping to the pads he did what Gene would do in the same situation and dove
in, frontpointing to the top in his Red Chilis. When he was done Ken Majka
stood on top of what is surely the hardest boulder problem in Massachusetts:
The Machine (grade unknown) |
3/4/01 Pawtuckaway, NH
Joe Kinder and Luke Parady both sent Heart
of Darkness at Pawtuckaway on Friday. Dave Graham first sent this problem
a couple of years back, which had only been repeated by Tim Kemple. Joe and
Luke both spent three days each on the problem and were limited to only a
couple of tries per day due to the pain from crimping such small holds in
the cold weather. Both Joe and Luke think the problem is solid V11 and Joe
said he thought it was harder than Chunk of Blitz. Joe and Luke both
feel that Chunk of Blitz is also solid V11, not V12 as previously
thought. |
3/4/01 Lincoln Woods, RI
Ben Fuller brought the Due Diligence story
to a close on Saturday by sending the dyno without using the arete. This
problem started the whole thing when Adam Osterhoff broke off the left crimp
while working the dyno. Ben thought the dyno wasn't much harder than using
the arete and proposed a rating of V8. |
3/1/01 Lincoln Woods, RI
Despite the cold weather, Tim Kemple had a productive
day yesterday at Lincoln Woods. Tim did the first re-ascent of Barbed
Wire on the Tuoloumne boulder since the left crimp broke off of Due
Diligence (since resent by Ben Fuller at V8). Barbed Wire
starts on the right side of the roof (just left of the tree), traverses
the lip of the overhang, and used to finish up on Due Diligence. The
problem now stays on the slopey arete to get to the finishing jug of Due
Diligence. The new Barbed Wire checks in at V10 or so. Tim also
added a cool dyno problem at the Horse Cave. The Holy Grail, V8 or
9, starts on two decent holds a couple feet right of the hueco and dynos
to the lip of the overhang. A difficult match on the lip is followed by a
tough mantel.
Right: Tim Kemple on the first ascent of Barbed
Wire, before the broken hold. Photograph by Joe
McLoughlin. |
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3/1/01 Western Massachusetts
Even though western Massachusetts has been blanketed
by feet of snow, Pete Ward has had a pretty decent last month or so. At Farley
Ledge, Pete sent Teradactyl, V8, and the second ascents of Vertical
Limit and Stitches, both V8s. Best of all Pete did the second
ascent of Tidal Wave, V8, and added a sit start to this problem which
bumps the grade up to V9.
Right: Ken Majka working on Teradactyl,
V8, at Farley Ledge. Photograph by Melissa Ryan. |
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