Into The Swing

Tuesday evenings are climbing days for me, though unfortunately we have no staff at the shop right now and with Meg working that leaves me with most of the duties for management and daily operations, argg!! Anything cutting into the precious climb time must be rectified. We are currently looking at applicants and within a few weeks should have some new staff and thus free up time for play and other work pursuits. Meanwhile my Tuesday night session with the boys was somewhat abreviated, but no matter I feel fat and weak from being on vacation for the last 2 weeks, so a couple hours was sufficient.
I met up with Dylan, Clint, Matt and Bryant at the Cheese boulder as they were all finishing up except for Dylan who was crushing one of the harder variants when I got there (and whining incidentally about feeling weak - ha). We all moved over to the Ripper Point V5/6 for Matt to give some burns on. No one else was interested, as Clint and I had climbed the problem the other day at the end of our session. D and I spotted and Clint hacked a new trail around the dreaded tree/boulder squeeze leading from Cheese to The Ripper. After a few goes we headed up to the Tuned Boulder so I could warm up. This boulder has 5 or 6 individual easy problems and a link or two. Apparently Dan Miller had cleaned a new hold and established a cool eliminate last week, so after dispatching with all the established stuff and the new variant, we felt inspired to clean a few more tiny crimps and poor slopers. We ended up making a handful of new eliminates and now we have another good boulder to warm up on with a dozen different climbs to choose from.
Clint starting up Physically Tuned V1

The Tuned Boulder session ate up the most of the remaining light and our psych, so we headed out. As I waved bye to D and Clint at the parking area, I noticed there was a climber on the Wretch Boulder. Turns out it was none other than Kerrick Stinson, a local young (15 yrs.) powerhouse who is currently tearing through the hardest Cody has to offer. Having done the Wretch V7 and Dead Mans Harley V8 he was working on the link up, Wretched Harley which goes at V10. I snapped a few pics then grabbed my shoes and joined in. Too late for me, I climbed pretty well but was too sapped from earlier to have any sort of chance. Kerrick on the other hand motored through the beginning over to the starting hold for the Harley like 8 times, but was unable to stick the big move. Bummer, I know the feeling. I can do the Harley on command but it always feels so much harder after climbing over there from the start of the Wretch. Hence I've never been able to manage the link. I studied Kerricks beta which is fluid and smooth having done it so many times and plan to visit this bloc more in the coming weeks.
Kerrick is very close and will soon power it into submission or will refine the moves to the Harley until they are automatic and go easy after the taxing beginning.
Kerrick and I both did our first V10 this spring sending The Plague at the Sphinx Boulders. He is 15 and getting stronger every day and should polish off the other climbs in town in that range this summer. For me at age 40, V10 is the pinnacle of my efforts, though the Wretched Harley is definitely doable.
Here is Kerrick blasting the intro moves of the Wretched Harley V10