Happy New Year- 2012

2011 has been a year I think most of us would rather forget. We had a bad spring followed by the worst summer in many Newfoundlanders memory. I has a very short season. Not only that but Main Face suffered a lot of erosion damage.

There were also some good things that happened. Here are my top 5 good and bad things to happen in my climbing life this year.

5 Bad Things About This Climbing Season

5- Upper Face Access Climb. I have had a fixed line on the right side of the Upper Face since spring of 2010. I had every intention of bolting a nice long easy sport route up that line to provide easy access to the top. With the season so short and so many other things on my plate, I just never got to it. Definitely in 2012.

4- Bolt on Iron Hand. Terry is like a Pitbull with a bone. His unending whining about how he can't climb Iron Hand because the first bolt is so far off the deck now. He reminds me of a child who needs his neck throttled because he will not stop saying "Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!... .... ... ... ". You get the point. Well #%$&@ you Terry, I will NEVER put in that bolt!

3- Stolen Bolt off Lady and the Ramp. I was blown away to find that some one had taken bolt hangers off 3 bolts and a set of belay hangers as well. Sure Lady and the Ramp is only easy, but it allows safe access to the top of Noobie Squeeze. That one just pissed me off.

2- Bad Spring Weather. The last time Newfoundland suffered a spring/summer like 2011 was back in the mid 1970's. I got out 2 times before August and a handful of times in the fall. Brutal.

1- Flat Rock Erosion. This is the most concerning thing to me. I don't climb there a lot but it is the Premier area in Newfoundland. I would say in a few years, the access ramp is going to washed out all together. The only access will be to rap in, climb out. I believe that will significantly limit travel to those areas.

5 Best Things of the 2011 Climbing Season

5- DFO Climbing Area. I didn't know what had become of Justin after the 2009 climbing season. He had done some excellent route developing and seemed really eager. Well, he kept himself busy. He opened an area he had been working on by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. It is great to see other people developing here in Newfoundland.

4- Climbing Club. Phil and colleagues have taken the bull by the horns and begun establishing a regional climbing club. They are taking a well organized approach. There is talk about mission statements, annual general meetings and even becoming members of the Alpine Club of Canada.

3- German Face Popularity. I am so amazed by the number of people climbing at German Face. Every weekend there seems to be people out there. I keep getting great feedback from all kinds of people. I guess the area just struck a cord with the community.

2- Noobie Squeeze. The FA of this route was quite awhile ago. It was Kim's first time climbing with Bob and I outdoors (hence the Noobie). It was a trad line with 3 bolts on. The placements were not obvious and all quite thin. I never felt really safe on it. After a few years of developing and seeing other area's outside of NL and how they were bolted, I decided to retro bolt Noobie Squeeze. I am very glad I did. It is an excellent climb and still supplies a thrill but much safer now. Phil had commented that it is probably the best climb at the grade (5.7) in the area.

1- Hangover. After bolting Noobie Squeeze, I revisited a little over hanging face that was close by. I had not looked at it in about 4 years and wrote it off as too short. I have to say that I got almost a little giggly when I started scoping it out. Sure it is only about 30 feet high, but we have a lot of crags at that height. Then I started seeing features and possible lines. Suddenly I am looking at maybe 8 to 10 lines on a wall that is over hanging anywhere from 10 to 45 degrees. I managed to get 3 lines bolted but only one sent. The other two are waiting for spring. Very challenging to bolt but very fun athletic climbing. I can't wait to see what else will pan out.

I kept referring to face as the little over hanging face near Noobie Squeeze. I was hoping to name it after one of the routes but that is taking too long. So shag it, a play on words, "Hangover" for the over hanging face.

2012 looks to be very promising. There is so much rock left to develop out in Manuel's and so many area's outside of that. I am going to buy a new drill so I will be more efficient, and well, the old one keeps chewing thru batteries. I know of a couple of people who are interested in learning to develop. That is good because I will be old, wrinkled and retired before could touch half the rock around here.

So, here is to a New Year and good riddance of the last. Keep checking back, I have not forgotten about the Viagra Classic.

O Holy Night

Just had to share this. My daughter sings in St Bonne's Chamber Choir and they were asked to sing in the Holiday Festival on Ice with the Canadian Tenors. It was televised on Global but it also made it to YouTube. Peyton is in the second row (middle) with glasses.

Merry Christmas and Enjoy

Viagra Classic Having a Hard Time Getting Up!

I haven't forgotten about the Viagra Classic. I am having some work done on the house and they are using the garage as a workshop. We haven't been able to get the cars in there either. I figure it will have to go ahead in January.

The Sunday Night Training Sessions have started again. It looks like a good crowd is attending. Last night was the first night I dragged my ass off the ground in about a month. I was not ready to jump into training with Leo.

I have joined the Boulder League! What on Gods green earth was I thinking? I am quite vocal in my dislike for bouldering. I would much rather climb routes. I can boulder in the garage anytime so when I am at Wallnuts I like to do routes. So whats up? I need to get strong plain and simple. The best way to do that is bouldering. I just hope I don't drag my team down. We will see.

Inaugural Climbing Club Meeting

Leo has informed me that the first meeting of a newly formed climbing club is at Wallnuts Climbing Center Tuesday November 8, 2011. This club will be organized and maintained by climbers like you and I. It's mission statement is yet to be written but I believe it is to be a group of climbers who are proactively approaching problems concerning access and other liability issues. It is likely going to be a chapter of the Alpine Club of Canada.

Unfortunately I will not be able to attend but I look forward to what will become of it.

Looks like the end

Well it looks like the end of another season for outdoor climbing. I will not be able to climb outside for the next 4 weekends. That puts me squarely in mid November. I have two routes up I have not sent. I have a fixed line on another route begging for bolts. There is a small face we started to develop but never got back to. Then there is several other faces that people point out to me that they think will be really good.

For next year, I want a new climbing partner. This is a picture of her. I don't intend to climb, just watch.

If I can't find this new climbing partner, I guess Bob and Kim will have to do (I don't watch them climb like I would the new partner!).

Thanks to everyone who watches my blog. I seem to get a steady 20 to 60 visits per day. I will still put up the odd post but not weekly like I do in the summer.

Keep an eye out for the Viagra Classic coming next month.

Viagra Classic III

I have been thinking about having a Viagra Classic in the near future, but with a spin. Instead of having a prize for the strongest boulder, I going to have a prize for the best route setter!

Route setters break their balls (or labia's) trying to put up challenging routes in the gym for all of us. It takes a lot of work to be innovative and they change them up quite frequently. These are the same people asking me when I going to have the next classic because they can't wait to come over and route set. They are nuts!

My proposal is simple. I have 3 main sections; 15-30-45 degree overhangs (see pic), each about 7 feet wide. Each route setter gets a specific pattern tape. They set 3 routes, a V0 to V2, a V3 to V4, and a V5 or over. They can only put one route per section. On the night of the Classic, the climbers score each problem and the overall highest score wins.

Well what do they win? I'm thinking that I charge a small entrance fee per climber as a fund raiser; 50% to the junior climbing team and 50% to the winner of the Classic.

Thoughts and feedback please.

Open Project

I beat myself out today. My plan was to send Distorted Perception and then bolt the two line to the left of DP. John had placed a bolt on the left project last week so I only needed to put in two more bolts. I was able to lever against a tree so it went fairly smooth.

The project on the right was a different story. I had never really climbed it, just the bottom bit. I put in a directional above the meat of the climb so I would go flying into a tree. It was a strenuous climb for me and I had to figure out where to put the bolts. I fell up it several times until I was happy about clipping positions and bolt placements.

Bolting this thing was another story. I had to use aid hooks to keep myself into the wall so I could drill and stuff. I used a lot of energy getting those bloody bolts in. Your pulling yourself in with one hand while pushing yourself out with the drill. Regardless, I got the bolts in.

I figured that I had enough time to send the left project and play on the right. My first time up the right, I got to the move below the bolts but couldn't pull it through. I had to sit back. I lowered off and rested a bit. The next time I couldn't even clip the second bolt. My arms were absolutely dead. Crap!

I have had several people out on this little face and they have climbed this left project on TR. The general consensus is that the route is a 5.10. I can usually flash a 5.10a fairly consistently, I have flashed a 5.11a in the gym but it usually takes some effort. This route has taken me some effort and I think it will probably go at 5.10b but some may contest that.

The right project is definitely harder, 5.10d or maybe a 5.11a. I had intended on leaving the right as a project after sending the left but that didn't happen. I have flagged the left project with red tape so I can get the FA. I can't realistically see myself sending the right before the end of the year. So I open the project to you!

Post a comment to this blog with the time and date of your ascent, what you would rate it and your proposed name for the route.

Distorted Perception 5.9

I sent the route that I had bolted last week. It is kind of a neat series of shelves on an overhanging face. You have to be a little careful of the fall potential. I figured it was about a 5.8. After I sent it, Kim and Bob gave it a go. Both found it challenging enough that it shouldn't be a 5.8, so 5.9it is.

Looking at it from above, it reminded me of one of those impossible optical illusions created by Escher. Distorted Perception seemed to be a fitting name.

Please don't snag my FA.

John Bennett and I were out at Noobie Squeeze today. At little chilly first thing but stellar otherwise. I showed John the lay of the land and then put a couple of new top bolts above a line I liked. We then set up 2 ropes over 2 different lines. We decided to bolt the two lines.

The new line I bolted has several large ledges or steps the overhanging face. It was awkward to keep into the face for drilling and hammering. It took longer than I expected. Unfortunately that didn't leave much time for John to do any bolting. I took all the gear/rope off the line I had bolted and got John started on the other line. He only had enough time to get one bolt in before we had to take off.

I left my line bolted but with no FA. I didn't have any red tape to flag the lowest bolt. I figure the only people who know where the overhanging face read this blog. Please don't climb the right most (only) bolt line. I will post it as soon as I do send it. It is not hard, probably 5.8ish.

Aside for not having enough time, it was a good day. John liked the area and has already has a couple lines he is scoping out.

Just a few pics.

I was farting around with some software. I decided to put together a compilation of various rock faces out in Manuels. I went out earlier this summer and took a bunch of picture to scope out other areas. All of these areas have not been looked at. They could be crap or they could be stellar. I won't know until I get to the foot of them.

DFO Climbing Area

I have heard through the grape vine that Justin has been developing a sea cliff behind the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO). He has all the details of how to get there, access and grades on rockclimbing.com. I got to hand it to Justin, he finds a line and he goes after it. He has put up some bold lines on some really cool features. He has no problem lowering in over water. The man has nads!

DFO has 10 lines directly over water ranging from 5.9 to 5.11. It requires a 60 meter fixed line to lower into and to ascend out of the area. The feedback I have heard is that it is pretty cool climbing. I hope to check it out sometime but I seem to have a lot on my plate.

I don't tend to push my comfort zone, especially when developing. I am always looking for good approach, easy access to the top and escape from the bottom. I know that limits the rock faces I work on. It is great to know that there is someone out there putting up lines to challenge the heartier climbers.

Just too much.

Kim and I were at Noobie Squeeze today. We got above the new over hanging face. I wanted to put in a set of rappel bolts so it would be safe to lower into the wall. Before I slung a tree but I don't want to have to rely on webbing, long term, for a rap anchor. I went up through a few tree to the base of another crag that is about 30-40 feet high. It might pan out something?

We lowered off and set up a TR over the right sided bolts. Again, I grunted up this overhanging face and could not get it clean. Four attempts over two days and I can't send it clean. I am thinking the grade has to be more than 5.9. I have not flailed that bad on a 5.9 in years.

I then tried the line going up the left line that Kaleb thought was a harder 5.10. It has some really fun moves but I didn't get too high. I was worried about a pendulum into a tree. We were also looking at 2 more lines that should be fun and overhung as well.

As we were leaving, I had a look back at where we got above the overhanging face. Not only were below a small face but we were above another one. So much terrain to check out.

In the picture, The three black lines are Noobie Squeeze, Nice Bulge and Ankle Biter. The red solid line is the access above the overhanging face, the dotted line is the intended rap direction. The pink line represents the lip of the overhanging face.

Rumours of Phil

I was talking to Terry the other day. He had mentioned that Phil was bored on a raining day so he went for a hike. He started hiking in towards the climbing area out in Manuels. He kept on the main path instead of diverting up the climbing area. Apparently about 15 minutes further in he came to a wall that was "like another Main Face". I was pretty sure I knew which wall he was talking about. I have looked at it from a distance. It looked a little slabby but certainly could fit the description.

I think this picture is of the face Phil saw. The mature trees at the bottom are probably 30 feet in height making the wall about 100 feet, a little higher that German Face. The width looks to be about 500 feet. It still looks kinda slabby to me but it also has nice continuous. There are not a lot of ledges or breaks in the face. This could have potential. Unfortunately I have many other priorities before I would get to this wall.

Currently I am all excited about getting the little over hanging face bolted, work on Noobie Squeeze and finish a couple things on the Upper Face.

SO much work to be done and the summers seem so short.

Overhanging Face

There is this small overhanging face beside Noobie Squeeze. I haven't looked at it in years. I have grown as a developer since then. When I looked at it last week, I could see some very interesting potential lines. Bob and Kim were unavailable today. I was talking to Kaleb and Terry earlier in the week and they said they would be keen to check out some stuff.

We went up to this area today. I put in two top anchors over what look to be good lines. We spent the morning top roping them. I personally think that there are a couple of gems waiting to be bolted. I took some video of Kaleb and Terry trying out the lines.

2 Climbers

I went out to Manuels today to get a couple of better shots of the climbing areas and to scout out some crags further in. I was taking a couple of shout when I noticed someone climbing on the Upper Face. It was about 3:30pm on Saturday Aug 27. Any idea who these people are?

Nice Bulge 5.10b

Kim and I went up to Noobie Squeeze on Saturday with the intent on bolting my project. When we first got there, we scoped out a short overhung face which looks really promising for some hard terrain, something I have been looking for in Manuels. We briefly considered putting some bolts into that face but then decided to go with our original plan.

We climbed and cleaned Ankle Biter to get to the top bolts, which are also the top bolts of my project. As Kim lowered me off, I worked the crux moves to figure out the bolt placements. Then I bolted it (10 new bolts). As it turned out, I finished in time to give it a burn.

It starts on Noobie Squeeze using the first 3 bolts to get to ledge below the main part of the climb. Use long draws here to reduce rope drag. Once on the ledge, the Bulge bolts start about 15 feet right of the Noobie bolts. It follows the fairly vertical face climbing in the 5.8 range until it ends under the bulge. There are good feet and underclings to get a bit of a rest before going into the crux. The first moves require the use of slopers with hidden edges. Then find the crimp out left. The feet are hard to find because the bulge hides them. Use the left crimp and the right slopers to gain another crimp higher up. Pull through as your feet try to find a bit of purchase. Above the bulge it is a bit of moderate slab climbing (5.6ish) until you reach the top bolts.

Prior to working the route for the bolts, I would have considered the Crux to be 5.10d. I figured out a sequence that made me re-evaluate the grade. I sent to on my first try. I felt really stoked about that. I would appreciate feedback on what other climbers think the grade of this climb may be.

Bob at Rumney

It been over a year since Bob and I went to Rumney. Great climbing spot for all grades.

The route just behind Bob to his right (you can see a bolt just in front of his head) was a 5.3. It was very vertical but it climbed like a ladder.

I hope I can get a few people on a road trip next spring.

Next Project

I have my next project!!! Kim and I went out to Noobie Squeeze today. Both Noobie Squeeze and Ankle Biter climb well with the bolts (much better than before). Kim reminded me why I called the climb Noobie Squeeze. The first time she came out with us (5 years ago) she TR'd Noobie and kinda got stuck at the top of the corner section where it narrows. Today she made simple work of it. When she came down, Kim said that even after all the developing we have done in Manuels, Noobie is still her favourite climb (cool).

Between Noobie and Ankle Biter is this large bulging section of rock. I TR'd it today. It is a pretty thin sequence with little feet and slopers for hands. I think it will go at a hard 5.10. Next time out I will have to figure out the bolts but it may take some work to send...a project!

Flat Rock Fest

Kaleb has arranged the "Flat Rock Fest" for tomorrow Aug 14th. It will be a day to go down climbing at Flat Rock. Kaleb is sponsored by a rock shoe company (Evolve) and will have a couple of runs of different shoes for people to try out. It sounds like he is trying to get a BBQ down there and everything. It will be good fun for those who go down.

I hope to be out at Manuels putting up a route or two.

Rainy Weekend

Another rainy weekend! Everybody at work is talking about the summer that wasn't. Apparently the summer of 1993 was just like this. I could bitch and complain for hours about the weather. I have even been a bit tempted to look for a job on the mainland. But regardless, it looks like no climbing for me again this weekend.

Kaleb is going to Vancouver next spring for training in the culinary arts. Cooking has been a hobby of mine for years so I am a little envious. I saw an apron he might like while on my travels recently. Cheers man!