A little More

I have made some peace with the demon that is my urge to climb. I feel like I have spent more time this summer chasing around trying to get things done and have found a bit of success. This in no way quenches the hunger the demon possesses, but seems to distract it for a while, hopefully enough to regroup and shift gears. This is good because as sport climbing season comes to a close, the fall chill brings bouldering season.

The boulders typically see very little change as far as our local boulderfield goes. Occasionally someone authors a new problem or cleans up a new boulder or some jackass partyers make a fire ring and a huge trashy mess (that the climbers clean up). This summer has been different and momentum for improvement has increased in the recent years. This summer has seen landings flattened, large intrusive stones are literally gone, and many new problems on old well established boulders have been opened. I am psyched for circuiting this fall and trying some new games. The 100 point V4 circuit list has been made and now we have to go put it to the test. A similar traverse circuit has been bantered about and those with a bit of endurance are eager.

After warming up the other day at the Ethiopian we wandered next door to the Starvin Marvin Boulder to run through the fun problems it offers. We had a good crew so we shot some video and though it is not in the footage I managed to snag the FA of the link up Starvin Ape which we figured at V7. I had tried this on and off over the years but could never manage the Ape Index throw after crawling down into it, I just had to dig a little deeper. Here is the clip.

Starvin Marvin Boulder from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

I took the girls to Tensleep on Saturday because Meg said she was too busy to join us. Maya wanted some proof that she had crossed a raging river on a log because a kid at school called her a liar. We made a video of her and Eden crossing and excerpted some snapshots for her to take to school. Of course I had my own agenda and knew Alli and Kev along with their friends from Canada would be there. Kevin and I both had our sights set on Bro Job a 5.13a link up of Slim Jim into Esplanada. I had watched Kevin last weekend as he worked Slim Jim and hoped the bottom would be pretty easy, and with a recent ascent of Esplanada, I was secretly hoping I could flash it. No luck, the bottom turned out to be pretty stinkin' hard and dammit if I didn't poop out a bolt from the end and got the beat down by the crimpy finish. The weather conspired against me and keeping my fingers warm was tough. I ended up taking a short run along the cliff to get my body temp up and then tied in to send it on my third try.