Sorry for the lack of updates lately but I’ve been having some technical difficulty with my computer so it’ll be a couple weeks before I get a new video up.  

In the meantime we’ve been having lots of adventures up at Black Mountain.  Last week we climbed at the corral, the chappies, and the boulders near groupsite four.  At the corral Alan put up a new line he’s calling LohBoh which starts on Lobotomy and finishes on Loh’s Roof.  Later Ian found some secret beta for this line and we both sent quickly.  It is a fun one and is probably in the V8 range.  Bridget got agonizingly close to sending this one using short beta which makes it way harder.  She climbed all the way to the jug at the lip but didn’t have the wing span to reach the next flat hold in order to finish the climb.  

The Mountains

Later at the Chappies Ian put up a new sick overhanging arete that looked pretty hard, maybe V10.  He decided to send first try so I didn’t have time to pull out the camera for the send.  I couldn’t work on this one due to my bum leg and the intense heel hooking required.  So we went uphill and starting working on a problem Buck put up back in the day, Rapture of the Sheep V9.  It is a striking overhanging arete with crimps and sidepulls, finishing with a jug around the 15 foot mark.  I was feeling tired since it was the end of the day so I wasn’t sure if I had to energy to climb this one.  I managed to get up to the tenuous match midway up the climb and proceeded to grab the small crimp/knob just above in order to pull to the highest sidepull.  The holds on this climb are decent but the feet are really small and smeary so you never feel secure climbing the upper section of this line.  After setting up with both hands near the top of the arete I proceeded to smear a toe on the wall and lung for the jug.  I snagged it and reigned in the swing in order to top out the climb.  This is a classic at the chappies and I highly recommend anyone in the area to hop on this one.  

On Sunday we climbed at the boulders near groupsite four which apparently don’t get climbed often as even some of the established lines were pretty dirty.  We spent the day cleaning old and new lines.  The highlight of my day came with a likely first ascent of an arete.  Edit: Joe Morgan told me that he did this line back in 2002 and called it Rainbow Coalition Arete.  It is a rad problem and I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re in the area.

Ian McIntosh working Rainbow Coalition Arete V8

Ian McIntosh attempting Rainbow Coalition Arete

This past weekend was a little bit more exciting.  I drove my new beast up to Black Mountain for another weekend of bouldering.  Saturday was spent warming up in boulder basin and then working on established lines around the mountain.  I nearly repeated Bang On, falling on the last move twice.  See pics here.  We’ve got some video of the sports action that I may post later.  While we were at Bang On I worked on a project nearby which I think will be very very hard but there are holds so I think it may go.  It’s an overhanging face about 20 degrees with really thin crimps and large spans to better holds higher up.  I spent some time cleaning and working it and I was close to sticking the first move.  I’m pysched to get back to this one.  

After this we headed out to Ex-Patriot V11 which is a hard  steep climb that Ian found a few seasons ago.  I worked on this one once last season before it was done but didn’t make much progress on it.  Initially I felt the same on it but then Ian gave me some secret beta and I pulled off the send on my next try.  This one turns out to be my style, hard crimp moves on a steep roof.  It is a really good problem, probably the best hard line at black.  Just before sunset Ian repeated the line and I have video.  

Sunday morning, the Visionary woke up at 5AM to go exploring in the woods for new boulders.  He saw a lot of the usual black mtn style boulders but eventually he stumbled upon an area with a lot of potential.  He took us there later and we spent a lot of time cleaning and climbing on some amazing blocs.  I FA’d a moderate there and Alan climbed a tall face/slab but not much else went up.  I’m not going to go into too many details but I’m very excited about this area and if you want to check it out you should give Ian a ring and beg him to take you there!  

Anthony Tarascio working Ex-Patriot

Sunset at Black