I told myself at the beginning of the year that I would be consistent at updating/posting to this blog, and have definitely slowed down significantly since. Part of it is the public aspect of this, as sometimes I overthink my writing, and think about how it sounds, reads, or appears to the <5 people that read this blog. So, I’m going to try and keep my voice and writing more personal, not worry about how I sound, and just put in the consistency.
With that, I’m going to cover two trips in one (long) post, but thankfully I’ve become a lot better at recording content on these past two trips, including more content of myself, to break up the text.
Back in early April, I went out to Red Rocks again for the umpteenth time. I’m starting to feel like it’s my second home; in fact, the style and rock quality has lost a bit of the novelty I initially felt when I went on my first outdoor climbing trip almost exactly a year ago. Obviously, this means I’m becoming a more seasoned, experienced climber who knows what to expect from outdoor bouldering/sport climbing, but I also definitely want to keep the adventurous aspect of climbing fresh and central to my experiences. I’ll break down the weekend into three main points:
- A focus on headgame:
- Highballs: One of the things I challenged msyelf on this time around was to push myself in trying things that scared me. Well, I say “push myself”, but obviously the adrenaline rush is part of the reason I chose climbing; otherwise, I would have been content to stick to running. I finally did a few highballs (Plumber’s Crack 5.9/v2, Perfect Poser v1) that I had been eyeing since before my first trip to Red Rock, and they were exactly as exhilarating as I had hoped. Plumber’s Crack in particular is probably one of my favorite climbs period, and because I chose to do it first thing on the trip by myself, I had a pretty personal experience. The climb doesn’t seem that high until you really walk up to the flaring crack. I ended up going up halfway and downclimbing after getting a little spooked, but on my second attempt I forced myself to breathe a bit more past the panic settling in, and literally felt my willpower calm myself down as I continued upwards. It’s similar to the feeling you have when you realize how high up above the last bolt you are when sport climbing, but at the same time the rational part of your brain recognizes that you’re currently resting on a jug and have very little chance of falling; that small moment of overcoming your fear feels like a triump of mind over emotion, or maybe it’s more like the proper harnessing of your emotion as you choose to let it pass through you instead of enveloping you whole. Either way, the top out of a highball is a serious rush that I can see myself chasing. even though I generally prefer walls to pebbles.
- Topouts/mantles: I have never been great at topping out boulders, but I was able to send two moderate boulder problems (Cherry Garcia v3, Left Exit v4) that had relatively straightforward climbing but insecure and scary topouts. These two problems were both in the Red Springs bouldering area, and were done on the last day when I was winding down in energy and psyche. Cherry Garcia was definitely much harder than I was anticipating for a v3, but the movement flowed well, and led into a big move, followed by hand feet matching for the topout. Meanwhile, Left Exit is I believe a 1 or 2 star problem in the guidebook with little traffic, but I found the undercling traverse to be challenging in itself. And then when it came to topping out, I had to put up a heel on a very small, hidden divot and trust it completely as a mantled over. Both problems, while low in the grade, were really valuable to me in building my overall pyramid/experience in bouldering, as I know I’ll be doing much more of those types of finishes in the future.
- Working on Compression:
- My preferred style in climbing is probably pretty close to that of a moonboard: powerful movement on medium crimps, with a slight overhung angle. In Red Rock, I was planning on finishing up Monkey Bar Right v6, (unfortunately it didn’t end up going) and trying Scare Tactics v8, both of which are really good examples of movement that I feel comfortable with. But I also tried some great compression style moves on Bubble Butt v7 and The Prowler v6. The former was a bit tricky in the heat, as the starting rail felt pretty slick and slopey. It has an arete on the left for your heel/toe for most of the compression portion of the climb, which is what I had a lot of trouble with. Somehow, I could not keep tension when making the left hand move from the rail to the left arete, so it’s definitely something to come back for and try for improvement. I ended up sending The Prowler, which is a very short climb that starts with a double toe hook (I ended up only using one as it felt more comfortable and saved some feet moves) and progresses to a jug rail topout. I actually blew the topout at the end of the 1st day after just being way too tired to even hold the jugs. Thanks to some shorty beta, I stepped really high and finished it on the first try following day 2’s sport climbing. I feel that toe hooks are some of the worst “tools” I have in my climbing tech arsenal, as it’s just never come very naturally to me unless it’s forced on an indoor set. I can naturally find nice heel hooks, flags, back flags, etc. but toe hooks have always felt a bit more alien to my body, so I’m glad I was able to employ it on an outdoors climb for the first time.
- Thoroughly enjoying the vacation aspect:
- I’ve mentioned in prior posts how I’ve always struggled to balance the fun vs. progression chasing aspects of climbing. I really felt that I did a great job on this recent Red Rock trip, and just enjoyed myself on every day out on the rocks. I got to do some classic climbs Day 1, including Pork Chop v3, and had a great dinner with the other climbing group (Teddy/Amira) we were hanging out with at Kraft. On Day 2, I felt stoked sending a moderate sport climb at Cannibal Crag (Have a Beer with Fear 5.11a/b) as well as The Prowler, and cheered on my friends who were working Jones’N v4+, most of whom are very close to finishing that problem. And on Day 3, I goofed around for half the day just making up stupid bathang shenanigans as we waited out the heat and sun in the cool cave of the Red Springs boulder. The only thing I can think of that I wish I had put more effort towards was social bonding while at the crags, since it was the first time Andrew joined us for a climbing trip, and I hadn’t seen my friend MJ in many months. Other than that, I felt really relaxed the whole weekend, and didn’t feel like I put any pressure on myself, even though my initial climbing goals fell through (Monky Bar Right). Definitely the best trip I’ve been on with friends in some time.
Part 2 will focus on a more goal oriented trip to the Red with the strongest group of climbers I’ve ever climbed with.
Richard Zheng 