A New Decade

Posting has not been a priority lately because I have decided to take a two month rest/break from climbing. I tried this last year around this time and found that 2009 was more productive than any season I can remember in the last decade. I have never really ever stopped climbing for longer than a week in the last 16 years, save for a few injuries that sidelined me. My theory is that while the muscles tend to rebuild and recover quickly, the tendons need more time. I feel all sorts of strange creaks and tweaks during the rest, but I can generally get back up to speed in a few weeks after I resume training and climbing. Also the short days, crap weather and Holiday stuff make climbing outside this time of year a struggle anyway.

I did do something different that was climbing related about a month ago. I managed to snag a job climbing an 80 foot tower and installing radio antennas to enable a local church to broadcast live programs. The existing tower a top McCullough Peaks was already packed full of antennas, wires and dishes, though I did spy a path up the west side that was easily protectable and relatively free of existing equipment. I treated it like any rock climb I've ever done mixed with some rap bolting technique as well. The task involved hauling equipment up, bolting it on the tower, wiring every thing together and strapping it all firmly to the tower. The engineer I worked with told me it would take two days of work and because I generally underestimate the time needed to do anything I set out to do, I wanted to do it in one day. The job was a lot of work though pretty fun at the same time with a killer view to boot. I worked fast but safe and managed to finish in five hours and everything now works as it is supposed to.

The two arrow-shaped antennas at the top right of the tower are my handy work.

I got Meg a hang board for Christmas. The folks over at So Ill hooked me up with a Blurr board which seems to have great texture and a variety of crimps, jugs, slopers and a pocket or two. I pulled down the old slicker-than-snot Pusher board that we have been greasing around on for years. I built a wooden mount for the new board and screwed on the old Metolius Rock Rings and a couple of Hera Climb for Life crimps to give us some more options. February 1st I'll start training and using it, Meg started immediately.


I was looking at a some old footage I shot years ago on VHS-C and decided to sew together a video of the homies and I working out Finger Paint back in the day. Its not great quality to begin with but I saved it as an AVI file and it looks like hell on Vimeo. Oh well, I 've got nothing new so maybe I'll bore you with more old stuff as I pick through it.

Finger Paint V7 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

Home for the Holiday

Ben and his friend were down from Billings this morning to do some Bouldering at the Sphinx. They showed up just before 10:00 am and I was a bit skeptical as to there relative comfort level as it was cold at 7:00 am when I went to work. They chose a good day though and it was soon in the 50's and sunny with very little wind. They were set on some shralpers, namely The Plague V10 and Fuck Germain V7. I wished them well and told them if they could salvage some skin I would meet them later in the afternoon at the Antelope Boulder for a session in the sun.

Unfortunately the climbs exacted a toll in skin and perhaps some blood, and the promise of Family arriving for the coming Holiday sent them packing early. Too bad, cause I rousted Clint and Jason and eventually a swarm of other locals home for the Holiday came to join in on a fine session. Clint, Jason and I hit it just about perfect, arriving at about 1:30 to revel in the sun window that lasts until 3:00. The Provart brothers caught the last half an hour of sun in time to warm up. Drew arrived with Matt and Dave Klug after shade had engulfed the boulder but this didn't dampen their spirits at all.

Clint fired off Pocahook V7 very quickly and finally sewed together the intricacies of the Run Like An Antelope Traverse V8. It seems like every one climbed or learned several new problems and even though it got pretty damn cold toward the end, we all had fun. This vid has a few highlights from the day.

Another Afternoon at The AB from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

A Few Afternoons in the Sun

Minimal Climbing lately has yielded, well, not much. I have been getting out once a week though and managed to make it over to Drew's new area North of town called Dry Creek. As usual the man has been busy cleaning new boulders and landscaping landings. I got a tour of six or so new blocs all of which were pretty good. My favorite was the Ecoterrorist, a cool albeit sandy V4.

Mike Snyder on The Ecoterrorist V4 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

I went back a week later with my wife and son and added a sit start to the right of this problem that has some great movement but is marred by being a bit contrived. I think it goes at about V6, I called it the Preservationist. Yeah I know, real inventive name... not my strong suit.

Drew, Logan Shane and I got out on Tuesday this week in search of some sun. The boys had designs on projects at the Antelope Boulder and I was able to talk them into warming up at the neighboring Sunshine Boulders. After a half an hour of V-zeroing, we turned to the arete in the entry corridor and ran through these great but kind of awkward problems as well. The Antelope beckoned, so we satched up what skin was left and headed down to this beaut. Surprisingly the warm up was just about right and we all felt strong.

We all punched out Sir Hugeness and the Tuk, two of the coolest V3's you'll find anywhere. Logan was psyched to do SH for his first time and we cheered him on to top it out. As a side note, no one ever tops these problems out unless succeeding for the first time because the down climb is a pain. Drew begged some beta for the best and most sandbagged V5 in town, Meathook. I gladly sprayed him down and soon after he sent. This seemed to be one of his most satisfying triumphs yet and he humbly sat in the nook above the problem breathing in his victory. I decided it was time for a go at Pocahook, a relentless link up of Pocahontas V6 across the high V5 link and into Meathook. I had become more and more interested in doing this since it was one of the few AB problems I hadn't done, and it forces the menacing Meathook move after considerable effort to get over to it.

I climbed through Pocahontas on my first attempt and was staring up at the Meathook move quickly thereafter. I reared back and hit it and as I topped out my mind raced with what to try next. Electric Nachos, a fussy one move V9 dyno piqued my interest, and so it began. I damn near stuck it in a handful of tries, but ultimately I had to walk away. Damn that boulder is good! Even if I finish it by completing every hard problem and goofball link up I can think of, I will still return because it really is that good.

This video showcases more the setting and angle of the AB than the problem being climbed. I would like to have done the beginning again to reveal whats going on at the start during the Pocahontas part but I had lost the light, so joining different angles may have been, well... disjointed. Hope you enjoy anyway.

Mike Snyder on Pocahook V7 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

News Story

Check this out. Angela Douglas from Q2 News in Billings, MT came down to Cody a few weeks ago and shot a story which aired on Sunday Night. Here is the Clip.

Some Inane Games

Fall is here and mixed with totally crappy days, have been some sunny, albeit windy days. Unfortunately, I have very few windows through which I can sneak away anymore so I have to take what I can get. This has lead to some pleasant and unpleasant outdoor sessions. The Antelope Boulder is always waiting to extract skin and power, it gets roasted from 1:00 to about 3:30 with sun so it can be great on a sunny but cold wintery day. The wind tends to blow at times and due to being very exposed sitting on a ridge it gets blasted when its blowing. Clint and I were determined to get in a session so we persevered.

Cold and Windy Day at the AB from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

The Billings crew came again last weekend with Joel and headed to the Sphinx area. They had warmed up at the Toadstool before I showed up and were moving to The Spinxter and Coffee Skills when the kids, dog, Dave and I arrived. It was downright cold when the sun went behind the clouds so warming up was difficult. The rock was super sticky and I manged to do Fuck Germain V7 on my first attempt but couldn't manage Mini Cave Center V6 at all. When we joined the crew they were working on Coffee Skills and making a mess of things. This is a shitty problem that is an ass dragging lowball on shitty rock with all the good holds being off. There are rules about how it goes and what you can grab. All in all its kind of a joke, the only redeeming qualities are that its a lot of fun to climb and pretty hard too. Clint held the camera as the batterries were running out.

Coffee Skills V6 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

We went up to the Holy Horizontals Boulder and played on the brilliant V3 tummy turner of the same name. Plenty of pads made the going for the last throw pretty casual though Clint and I were the only ones who sent. The camera died as I perched on top leaving me with nothing from here on. We then turned to the V5 on the left arete, Joel was psyched to flash this problem as I think it suited him to a tee. The Hueco Wall was next and we found the Wannabe V6, V5 getting a sliver of sun - perfect. This problem is very good and though a bit tweaky, people seem to enjoy it. Art and Joel were very close but ultimately had to walk away before sending. The rest of the Billings boys took down the climbs to the right, Smiley V0 and Terrible Twos V3, then they all headed out. It was so nice at this point and my kids were having fun, Clint and I decided to do some of the roof problems on the Red Garden Boulder. A pretty damn good day.

A bit a Bouldering

It has been a while since checking in and honestly not much has been happening in the way of climbing with me lately. A new climbing unfriendly schedule, three snowstorms with weather like February, and a cold have contributed to the decline. I have not been back to my sporty project on the granite and now fear the Bureau of Rec. may have helped themselves to my draws - bastards! It is their land and I had no intentions of leaving them there for this long so we shall see what is there when I can return. I have slowly lost my power and psych for climbing and am trying to chart a course of training activity for what could be a long cold winter.

Fortunately all is not lost, and with a call from Clint to tell me the Billings crew was coming for a Saturday session, I checked the weather and promptly secured a sitter for the afternoon (thanx Kerry!). Joel, Nate, Ben, Mike, Miles and Angela showed up shortly after 10 Saturday morning and finding 60 degree temps they were psyched. We all met at the Cornflakes boulder to warm up and though I felt my role may be more of a guide and videographer for the day, once I got warmed up, I felt pretty good and was having to much fun climbing to shoot anything. After running through the standard problems on Cornflakes we moved over to the Fishhead Boulder and did Tuna Town and The Bludgeoning, both of which are V5, one really hard and the other a gimmie.

Joel mentioned he would like to try Studs, a V8 a little higher up the mountain and with everyone warmed up, we hopped in the vehicles and headed up the switchbacks to begin our quest. Now Studs is a great problem but it sits right next to the Spear Point Boulder which is difficult to walk past with out your jaw dropping. The boys were psyched and with a quick problem spraydown and warning of small hold sharpness, they set to work. Spearchucker a great but painful V4 was first and after several successes we moved to Babies For Breakfast V7. This sandbagged sideways crimpfest repelled all but the mighty Clintone who fired it for his first time with the quickness, too bad I didn't have my camera running. We then moved to my longtime project, the Spearpoint Crack, a striking diagonal line begining in the center of the face and trending up and right. I surprised myself by doing the first move 5 out of 6 tries, which is usually very difficult for me, and of course falling a few moves higher due to my typical lack of core strength. At V9 this climb ranks in the middle of the 7 climbs on this face. Tribal Vibrations V11, the undone sit to the Crack and the right to left link up of Spear Chucker into Babies into Hoedown Throwdown (also undone) are significantly harder.

With the painfest over we headed to Studs and nestled the pads into the snow under the problem. I absolutlely love this problem, it is nearly horizontal and involves compression, big moves and slopers - dig it! I manged to do it my first try and fire the crew up, but being cold and in the shade it was gonna take a while for some more sends. Everyone had started to feel the chill and after trying a bit we decided to head down the hillside to find some sun.

We chose the Maze area and with a lot of great moderates to pick from we managed to send a number of good problems including The Gym V5, Sugar Pie V6, Medusa V5, Perseus V4, Crucified Serpent V1 and most everything on the Hueco Simulator Boulder. Also I did manage to finally shoot some vids for your viewing pleasure. Hope you enjoy.

The Billings Crew visits Cedar Mountain from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

Shut Down

Bouldering, Sport Climbing and most other out door activities have been halted today for what may turn into a week or more of early winter. Rain and cold are supposed to give way to snow tomorrow. I am not ready for this, but alas the changing of the seasons are upon us.

I have put six tries into my granite sport route in the Lower Canyon to no avail. I have good sequences figured out and have one hung the route 4 times now pushing my high point higher each time I try it. I need to be good and rested to do this route and with regular bouldering sessions every other day I can't seem to recover enough to fire this route off. My friend Aaron took some pics the first day and made some video clips with my flipshare camera, none of which were what I was hoping for. I then tried to make a video using a tripod set up 100 feet away, this was marginally better than watching paint dry. I have excerpted some photos from the vids to spare you the agony of watching it.
The last 4 clips seem slabby, compared to the bottom, though this is not the case.Some pinches and stemming down low. Cruxy turning the lip, though not super hard, you are pretty pumped.

Again, wrestling with the lip.

I planned on climbing the Scoop route on Saturday morning, and with Clint in tow we showed up to 40 degree windy and shady conditions at the base of the route. No go for this geezer, I wouldn't even pretend to be that tough. So Clint and I raced up Cedar to join Dylan, Clint had his sights set on Two Face one of the best V7's on the mountain or any mountain for that matter. One of the warmups here is called Batman, a long V4 traverse that magically switches boulders to top out. A very unorthodox thing to do in bouldering, Cody boulderers did not invent this idea, but we definitely advocate it. People seem to hate traverses and the concept of switching boulders during a climb, too bad because this is a gem. I captured the reclusive Dylan Etscorn for his 100th or more lap on this problem.

Dylan Etscorn climbs Batman V4 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

We have been hitting up Drews new area around Dining at the 'Y'. The High Boulder, the Pioneer boulder, the Cougars Den and the Dime Lady Boulder all make worthy additions to our Boulder Garden. Also Danscaping saw multiple repeats and may settle in to the V5 range. I finally climbed on the black streak on the Dragon Force Boulder and could do it from the stand but adding a proper sit start will be damn hard. The stand has V3ish moves to get on and then a handful of big moves up runnels to the top. The Dragon Force problem itself had some action too, with Clint solving the exit which itself is a V3 sit start. You can start lower in the cave for something in the V11 range, a fine FA waiting for some big guns. Also, I shot some footage of Drew caressing the Megarete, another fine new addition.

Drew Haman climbs Megarete V2 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.