Me Climb Pretty One Day: February 2012

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Baby V climbs V5 at age 9... months

By the looks of this photo you might think this was taken at SBP but we weren't fooled here at MCPOD. You can tell by the heavy chalk cloud and the dingy lighting this is Stone Gardens Ballard. That is just one strong baby getting her Sunday pull on... and we aren't talking diapers in this case.

And the Oscar for "Best Idea for a Humor Post" goes to Becca for "Have V get on a hold so we can show everyone how easy the grades are at SG"

Day also picked up "Best Tag in a Supporting Humor Post" for "Dave Kimber"

Sam was nominated in 2 categories but failed to take home an Oscar this year.

Monday, February 20, 2012

“You’d have to be blind, deaf, and dumb not to know what you’re getting yourself into, so if there’s blame, blame yourself.”

Dear creator of the sit start 5.5: ~~WTF?~~ ~~Seriously?~~ Brilliant
PS: Unless you are an Ewok this was a waste of tape.
PSS: If you are an Ewok let me know I have always wanted to meet one.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Problems by a Dude Named Joe

Named after Joe Brown, Joe's Arete, is possibly the most climbed problem in Staffordshire. It's graded 5+ on the Font scale which is somewhere around v2 for us Yanks. This is a prime example of gritstone balance. It's really reachy to the point on the first few goes it doesn't seem possible at all, especially under 6 foot. On the day the picture below was taken several people I was with climbed v5 problems faster than Joe's Arete. Problems like this make you think through the little intricacies of your movement from foot placement to the tiny dimples you are palming off your left hand with. It's by no means the most powerful or hardest moves at The Roaches but it's simple brilliant when tied together to the top. Therein lies the greatness of Joe's Arete and many other problems. So instead of chasing grades this weekend chase those brilliant 3 star problems that you'll remember for years to come.

Orion stretching out for the balancing act finish of Joe's Arete (circa 2008)

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Snowldering at Gold Bar (& the first feature length video)

When the friction is on sometimes you have to do battle with the snow to get your granite on. In a last minute attempt to make sure I got a day in January outside, Ben, Tank and I packed his sweet new not-so-mini truck up and headed out to Gold Bar last weekend. The road up to the top looked pretty dodgy so we opted for 5-Star & 5-Star Warm Up. It was a bit of a slog to get to the boulders with the creek at the 5 Star parking lot not crossable.

Even with the snow 5 Star has 3 or 4 great options that seemed to be pretty dry. We couldn't pad Green Padded Ass (oh the irony) out enough but Sobriosity was relatively dry. 5 Star Arete wasn't bad either although seeping in a few non crucial places. After a bit of frosty warm ups and a few goes on Sobriosity Ben sent it. I continure to struggle in the same spot but feel like I have everything but the crux dialed. The real gem of the day though was the hard v4 on 5 Star Warm Up. Not sure on the name so if you know it add it to the comments. It's good wihc some really crimpy moves to start traversing low and left to a great super awkward and shouldery stem move that takes you out on a pair of Dolly Partons. Neither of of us got it this go round but I think fresh it will go. It's not a frequently climbed boulder but well worth a stop(and easier to find) in the winter.

Me Climb Pretty One Day steps deep into the video scene with our first mini short. It's basically everything a bouldering video should be minus the bikinis.