Progression

The progression we all make in climbing, may be one of the most alluring thing that draws us to this pastime in the first place. Case in point, my good friend Clint. I've known Clint for a number of years and he has always approached climbing with a massive amount of power. How many times have I heard, "Liftin' weights, will make you bigger" when complaining about my lack of raw power. Until recently Clint's power has propelled him past his climbing objectives with brute force. Thats not to say anything has changed, but he now has developed a quick sense for problem solving and experience has shown through. This has catapulted him up some viciously hard problems this year and I believe he can conquer even harder things as well, we shall see.

In the meantime, here are some highlights from the past couple of months:

Clint Cook sends the Rattler V8 (FA) from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

Clint Cook on the Dimples Dyno V6 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

Clint Cook sends Cherry Tree V8/9 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

Clint Cook sends Ahona Verdugo V8 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

Clint Cook doing The Wretched Harley V10 from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

New Stuff

I guess you could say that 2010 has been very productive as far as new stuff, new boulder problems that is, are concerned.

There has been a guy named Joe in town that has put up a couple of new problems one of which we climbed a month or so ago. It is on the Tads Prow Boulder and climbs the beginning of the V0, and busts left along the faint lip on cool slopers to an awkward ending. A V5 or 6 on its own, we added a lower start and a handful of hard moves on slopers to create Full Retard V7.

A week or so later we came across another steep lip traverse on the other side of the Tiger Style Boulder (or Solo Roof). Unable to determine whether this line was climbed in full, we re landscaped the beginning to allow a proper non-dab start, and came up with two endings. The left is called The Marshmallow Door V6 and the straight up is called Coke Twitch V7.

This weekend we wandered out to the Tuned Boulder to warm up and put up several new eliminates using a variety of holds that hadn't been climbed on before which was cool. I maneuvered the troops out to look at a boulder I've been calling the Caboose for years but still hadn't the vision to establish anything on. Lo and behold the lip traverse fairy had struck again leaving another V7ish gem for us to try. This one had the name and grade written in chalk "The Mongolian V5+". The grade had me chuckling. The 5+ was the calling card for sandbag back in the day. A way of saying "its harder than the established V5's in town but how much harder was yet to be determined." Of course this was before anything really hard had been completed in Cody. Here is a video of Marc riding the Caboose (pun intended) of the send train, Clint and I had started.

The Mongolian V5+ from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

Speaking of hard things and new things in Cody, Kerrek Stinson has been on a tear in 2010. He has established multiple V10's and V11's, and Codys first V12 and V13. The list is too long to list them all but here are a few highlights. The Dragon Force project which is now called Living in Infamy V10 and its sister to the left Fossilized Dragon Poo V10. On the Spear Point Boulder, The Pookster V11 which is the SDS and direct start to Spear Point Crack V9, a repeat of the enormous linkup Spear Chuckin Baby Throwin Hoedown V12 established by Canadian Terry Pahallick, and BJ Tildens epic Tribal Vibrations V11. He also managed to put Down The Grim Ripper Project in the summer heat, calling it Dope As Chrome V13. Also in there, a quick repeat of Pistol Whipper V9. On the burgeoning backside, several V9's, an unnamed V10 on the Mothership that Marc repeated and downrated to V8, and a V12 which I don't know the name of on the back of the Roof Boulder. All of this sandwiched around about five weekends where he travelled to Tensleep or Lander and climbed his first 5.13, a 13b/c, flash. He also ticked 13d and 14a before retiring back to bouldering. Not bad for his 16th year... of life, not climbing.

To reinforce this posts topic, I would be remiss to leave out Drews commitment to the South side of Cedar. Despite sensitive access issues, Drew has established possibly over 100 problems to add to the 20 or so that Clint and I had put up back there. The surface just barely scratched, we are psyched!!

Visitors

Drew was in town last weekend, and with him five Bozeman climbers, all hungry for some sandstone. Clint, Jason and myself offered up some direction in the form of a tour. I just love spending a day on the Mountain wandering from boulder to boulder trying to sew together the best combination of problems.

The folks from Bozeman varied widely in ability and direction from only motivated to try super hard stuff or projects to up-for-anything. So the day went, from the stacked with easy problems Fort Boulder, to the strange but brilliant Ra Boulder, down to Tiger Style, Ahona and Preclean and finishing off with some well deserved sends on the Pugilist Boulder. The highlight of the day for probably all of us was watching Clint somehow fire off the rarely repeated Prizefighter V10 at the end of the session. Normally I know when he is about to do something cool and I'll turn the camera on, but not this time, it just happened.

I managed a send of the new V6, Marshmallow Door on the back side of the boulder Tiger Style is on. We have been trying to find out who found and chalked up this steep little beast but no one seems to know. We lowered the start by relandscaping the base and envisioned two different endings a few weeks ago, Marc then sent the left line and Clint did the straight up one. Unsure as to the origin of or previous success with, we decided to name and claim FAs until we discover otherwise. Both are very good steep problems with the straight up having some dangerously sharp crimps at the end. It has yet to earn a name and goes at around V7.

The Bozeman toughies Kevin and Fletcher were enamored with my stout project on the Ahona Boulder. They worked out the moves to Ahona Verdugo V8 and Kevin sent with the quickness. They set to work on the arete project and made great progress and almost sent but not quite. This problem is super cool, a king line you might even say, that will go at around V8 or 9. There is a lower link over into the start of Ahona that should go as well at V10 or harder.

Great sessions at the Fort, Pre Clean and The Pugilist was enough to torch the entire group by the end of the day. We limped off the Mountain each of us wild eyed and crazy for food, beer or whatever else might slake our depleted bodies. Fantastic!!! Love it.

Shot some stuff, made a vid, check it.

The Bozeman Visit from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.