Well it's been some months now since I last posted a tale from the vault. I've been savoring the cooler weather, and making every bright day count. The Riverside has seen some of its best projects go down, with many more V11-V12 lines begging to be sent. Since the cold season is coming to an end, I've been making regular trips to Blood Mountain. This place has some of the best gneiss roofs I have seen, with rock quality very similar to Hound Ears (for those of you who have been). The hiking here is nasty, so if you hate approaches, look elsewhere!
The past two weekends, I was at Sandrock. So many people disregard this area because of spraypaint, trash, and rednecks wandering around hurting themselves, but let me tell you Sandrock deserves better than it gets. I have seen and climbed on some of the best sandstone boulders here, rivaling anything one would find at Horsepens 40, or Rocktown.
Last weekend, I was planning on hitting Blood on Friday, but it ended up raining. Alabama was the only dry state, and I had plans to meet up with Kelly Dalton on Saturday anyway to check out some boulders. I decided that it would be a good idea to go ahead and drive to Sandrock. When I got there, I threw on my pad, and was about to go off exploring when all of a sudden, a pickup truck races into the lot and pulls up beside me. It was Kelly, arriving early just like myself. He raced back to his campsite to get his pad, and I was immediately off on a quest to some of the coolest sandstone I have ever seen in the south...
We hiked down the mountain, stopping to show each other lines that we knew, with Kelly having a memory bank full of problems from a lost era. When we decended further down the mountain to a new area I had never been to, we stopped for some warmups. While warming up, Kelly told me about this classic line from back in the day called "Jack the Ripper," which he remembered as about a V8. He explained that it had a dyno in it (I hate dynos) but I figured I should try my luck on the testpiece anyway. Before finding Jack the Ripper, we detoured to this crazy 45 roof called the "Future Wall." This was one of the coolest roofs I have ever seen, with some amazing sweeping iron features, pockets, crimps, slopey rails, cracks, you name it. One particulary cool feature was a hold made out of a petrified tree branch. The crimp actually had the texture of wood bark! Probably the most intriguing thing about this wall, was that 6 out of the 8 or so odd lines were projects. Looking at the lines, they are all do-able. One can see all the pieces, yet they still remain projects after seeing some of the area's greatest from an era. After Kelly and I tried our luck on one project, to no avail, we stormed off once again to go attack "Jack the Ripper." Upon arriving to the bloc, Kelly exclaimed, "Aww man! This big undercling has completely broken off!" One of the opening cruxes used to revolve around a big cross from this pinch undercling (which was now broken to nothing) to a sidepull edge. After a few more moves to two huge right facing sidepulls, you must get a swing generated and then dyno about 6 or 7 feet sideways out right to a massive flake jug. I felt so apprehensive and pessimistic about how i would do this thing, with the dyno AND broken hold, but why not try? I pulled on, made a long reach to a small crimp right of the broken hold, then jacked a high foot and made the cross. Phew! A few more crimpy, but solid moves led me to the double side-pulls. Feeling juiced and unsure of my jumping abilities, I started swinging. One.... Two.... Three! I launched, sailed, and slapped the lip of the jug. I continued sailing past it, and landed hard on the pad. Well, at least I had thwarted the broken hold! I decided to just try the dyno, and see if it would ever go on its own. I hoisted up to the sidepulls, started swinging like a child (with different pasted feet this time) and flew right to the jug, sticking it solid with minimal swinging. I felt so surprised that I was able to stick the move, considering the fact that it was a low percentage dynamic move. I rested for a few minutes while Kelly had a few goes on the bottom section, then I pulled on feeling really nervous about ripping skin on that dyno... Once again, I rocked through the big cross move, made it to the sidepulls, and started swinging, all the meanwhile staring down the big shark-fin jug. When the moment felt right, I inhaled, took my last upswing, then launched to the jug, just barely sticking it with my fingertips and holding a wild swing this time. I got to the top feeling psyched yet pumped, and encountered a dirty sloped water groove. Somehow I pulled through the sandy/mossy holds and manteled my way to the top. I couldn't believe that I had done it. As for the grade, I believe it feels similar to some other established V8's I have done recently. I would compare it's difficulty, personally, to both The Tao, and the Helicopter Traverse at Rocktown. Both climbs can feel anywhere from V7-9 depending on heighth, wingspan, and hold type preference of the climber attempting.
After being taken on Kelly's tour, I asked if he wanted to see a few newer boulders myself and Ryan Harris had found a few years back. We entered the backside valley, and began descending into a long clustering of some really cool roofs. We checked out a few projects, then threw the pads down at some Horsepensey/Fontainebleauy slabs. Kelly immediately began eyeing this blank mossy section of the slab wall which had not been done. He remarked, "look at this start foot! This'll go!" After climbing at Boatrock for the better half of his life, Kelly is a slabmaster, able to generate tremendous leverage off of absolutely horrid feet. There seemed to only be slight weaknesses for hands, and Kelly worked out the entire problem, declaring the beta was mostly footwork. He finished cleaning the line, and was getting very close to the top just as the sun was setting. We decided that we should come back to these boulders on Saturday when Sean Reed and his gal, Melissa, arrived. Saturday was already stoked up to be an interesting day, as people were celebrating Johnny Arms' 60th birthday. For those of you who do not know Johnny Arms, he is the king of Sandrock, having bolted most of the lines there, and is still crushing hard 5.12's at age 60.
The next morning, Kelly and I raced down to the parking lot to see the hillarity as Johnny arrived to a cake, birthday wishes, and a commemorative "60th anniversary" pamphlet. After shooting the breeze for a few minutes, Kelly told me we would be trying out some new routes Johnny had bolted to warm up. After warming up with a pump on a really cool and juggy mid-range 5.10, I watched Johnny attempt "Plastic Trees," a hard 5.11 he had bolted ages ago. The route starts with a hard boulder problem, then cruises an easy 5.10 to the anchors. After watching Johnny finesse his way up the thin crimp line, I decided to try and flash the route. Upon pulling on, I realized the beta Johnny was using was a result of more years dedicated to technique and footwork than I have been on this planet. Being the wiry punchy boulderer I am, I quickly realized I had to move quick, or I would juice out very quickly on the small crimpy boulder. I heaved, deadpointed, made a horribly precarious clip on greasy crimps, then made one last desperate throw for the jug which would begin the easy sailing. I caught the jug with three fingertips, and managed not to grease off (no chalking stances+sun=death). I had made it through the crux, but there was still 3/4 of the route to go. The finishinng jug haul was very easy, yet pumpy as crap after the hard beginning. I managed to pull off the flash, and realized how much energy I could save if I begin to study slab footwork, and levitation...
The next route we (Kelly, Sean, Melissa, and myself) went to go try was a route Kelly had put up a few years ago called "Crimps Ahoy." It is a mid-range 5.12, with a slight slab featuring delicate, stretchy moves and a lot of very delicate crimping. The crux, ending the slab and beginning a jug haul, involves either a very long wingspan, or a pasted foot dyno off of a very small crimp/pinch, both methods are done by Sean and Kelly, respectively. After trying both methods, and watching both Kelly and Sean send it, I began getting into a rhythm of trying both methods, to no avail... Although this route is rather short and bouldery, it is in fact one of the first routes that has really grabbed my attention and made me want to return to it. We packed up, and raced over to the classic "Misty" so Sean could crank out a quick onsite. Some guy's draws were randomly hanging on the route.... with no one around... so Sean decided to hike the route quick on the already wired route. Weird.
Anyway, we all ended the day with a crazy sesh on the backside boulders. Kelly, Sean and myself all took our places on this one gnarly roof. We each instantly gravitated to a line, and began a funny little obsessive march on our projects. We all cleaned, configured, and tried with no success, each of our routes. Only after much more brushing and trying, did we all end up switching and trying each others' problems. I had been watching Kelly try his problem; this crazy slopey/pinchy watergroove which started from a high reach up to some okay crimps. After gaining the start holds, you had to jack a high left heel on a tiny edge, to generate a high throw up into the groove. The problem reminded us both of "Bradiation V9" at Horsepens 40. I love heel hooking, and it was the perfect application/opportunity to try out the heel on a new shoe I'm trying, The Diamonds from Rock Pillars. I was able to send the project first try, and dubbed it "Dalteration," for Kelly's good eye on the line, and its similarity to "Bradiation." Next on the roulette was my project. I was getting devastatingly close to the finishing iron jug, but kept falling apart on the lower moves which involved a hard right hand gaston, and some high feet which put your knees in your face. Kelly and Sean both attempted the line, and had different methods than I. We all sort of gave up on that one, in order to save some energy for Sean's beauty! Starting high on a sloped pinch/edge, Seans project traversed out the lip of the roof, finishing with a high cross and a throw to an iron jug. I had looked at this line years ago, and could fathom all the pieces of the stand start, with a very hard lower start under the roof. Kelly took a go on the problem, and I watched his beta carefully on a successful burn all the way to the last move to the jug. I then pulled on, feeling pumped from the other lines, and somehow managed to sketch my way to the top of this one for another flash FA. Due to the past years' politics at Sandrock, and the current events that are contributing to its demise, I named this problem "Season of Change." Ryan's biannual Spring Sandrock trip is next on the radar, and I hope I can get the crew on these lines, as well as finish establishing a few more cool lines in the area.
Check Vimeo for the latest vids.
