Pine Box

Yesterday I made an ascent of an amazing steep and tall granite arete called 'Pine Box V11/12'. It had exfoliated a little bit as it is a new problem found and climbed by my friend Justin Alarcon. The lips on two of the holds had significantly decreased which made the climb much harder and forced different beta than the original condition dictated. The boulder also goes under the full value category as the top out is committing and sequence dependent. The grade is a bit of a question mark but I had an extremely fun time climbing on it and it is double digit-something. I will add some images of the ascent soon and hope you are all out there enjoying cool conditions.

AR

On the Migration Station

Lack of a computer has done a bit to stifle the update train but lets get it back on track. A bout of really nasty weather pretty much California as a whole and unlike the dry rockies and desert environments Yosemite Valley holds onto its moisture like a pit-bulls lock-jaw. So that meant training on a wet 45woody in the back yard. After sufficiently loosing my mind with not climbing I acquires a radical camera and proceeded to take shots of everything under the sun, which ended up being little because we were socked in with gloomy clouds for quite some time. And just when the world seemed to be getting smaller by the minute without any rock-scaling in the over a week my phone decided to snap in half, which of course exasperated the walls that were actually closing in!!

But alas the clouds broke long enough to allow some modicum of climbing conditions and I knew it was time to get back to the Valley, wet or not. I permanently left my dwellings in Fresno and waved goodbye to all that chapter held and didn't hold alike. A one way trip to the Valley, it was not planned and logistically its been a bit of an epic but the absolute right move to make.

Upon my drop off I met up with the Colorado Crew and and the vibe was on. So Psyched to be back into it. As a psyched climber it seems that the overlap with drug addicts is closer than some might like to acknowledge. Life was good and the vibes were excellent and the session productive. I tried 'Yabo Roof V11/12' and surprised myself and then came very close to the 'Yabo Face V11' in just a couple of goes and Chris Shulte snapped up the second ascent, good work. I am super psyched on getting back to this boulder and it stellar problems.

The next day reunion with Pete led to some classic climbing in cap four which was a blast including the historical rocks such as 'Cocaine Corner V5', 'Blue Suede Shoes V4', 'Initial Friction V1' ect, ect.

Then came the rain. This would be extremely news worthy except my lack of tent and appropriate sleeping bag prompted quite the search for overhanging(read; dry) ground to sleep. And for those that know about Yosemite granite this can be few and far between. After some very cold sleepless nights and equally rough rest days the conditions allowed climbing again. I climbed an amazing problem called, 'Don't Make Me Kick Your Ass V9' on the infamous Columbia Boulder. I sent very quickly which set good spirits for me and the fun just continued. 

I think Bishop is next...

Note: The power of positivity and friendship in climbing has become more obvious than ever and it is the company we hold that makes the difference between a feeling of work and an explosion of excellence. Thanks to all the Bro's.

AR