Summer is coming to an end, September is a week away…
Who’s syked?!? 😀
Alright! The bugs are gone and lower temps are coming soon. Time to get back at it!
This past week I hit up Nine Corners four times, attempting to shake off the rust and remember how to climb. As always in August, the weaksauce flowed freely, but by the third trip I was starting to feel myself again.
First trip was quite shameful, haha. Took five attempts just to repeat Chillin’, a classic little V4 boulder problem that I’ve sent a thousand times. Slopers on an 90 degree day… so much struggle. It was fun to be out though. I roughed up the skin a bit and got some quality movement in. I even pulled into the crux of Overburdened, just to see if I could still do the match. It was tough in the heat, but I can still do it every time. Sweetness! I will be ready when the temps dip!
Overburdened match… still got it!
This was an insanely hot day though, so after a couple hours of climbing I decided to walk around and just enjoy nature. I wandered through the swamp lands below the damn for the first time in years, this is a really pretty area.
Even found a couple cute ‘lil friends along the way!
Psicobloc allstar
Baby dragon
Second time out was even better. I met two really great dudes, Mike and Steven. When I found them they were checking out Tower of Power, so I threw down my pad and watched them cruise it easily. After this we hit up The Origin and the Thorazine Stand — both of which were tough in the crazy heat, but it was all good fun. I really hope I meet these guys again sometime, they’re two of the best people I’ve run into out climbing. When the day got way too hot to keep climbing we chilled out in the shade of Thorazine and talked climbing, hiking, traveling, and surfing. Can’t really beat that! With any luck I’ll see these guys several more times at Nine/Snowy during early fall… and then maybe get a Pawtuckaway tour in the near future. Mike tells me it’s a must-see place. I’m stoked to make it happen!
Summer at Nine — so hot, but so beautiful
Third trip: met another newcomer to Nine, great kid named Collin. This dude is in his late teens, has only been climbing for a few months, and is already looking super strong. Over the next few years he’s going to become a total crusher. This was his first time outdoors and he flashed Meat and Potatoes and came VERY close to sending both The Origin and Chillin’ — amazing work, and by far the hardest I’ve ever seen someone boulder on their first day! Chillin’ was a heartbreaker, haha. Collin put in about 20 attempts, consistently controlling the sloper crux despite the heat and humidity, and just barely missed the finger crack on several tries. I’ll be super psyched to reunite with this guy in the future. He’s off to school down south for the next few months but will be back for Thanksgiving break. That week is gonna be a crushfest!
Collin on The Origin
And finally, yesterday! Yesterday was the best yet. I finally managed to get my friend Jess out bouldering. She’s been to the Colgate gym with us a few times, and top-roping at Moss Island last year, but never bouldering. Jess is super fit and has a very positive try-hard mentality, so I knew she’d do fine despite the fact that Nine is notoriously difficult for beginners. Sure enough, she killed it! Our goal was to get the largest variety of movement in — and we did just that, hitting about 10 different boulder problems in just a couple short hours. Jess pulled off a number of very impressive moves, got in a nice workout, and now has a little project list that she’s excited for. Excellent start to the season! We even got in a swim afterward — a sweet reward after a few hours of strong efforts.
As for me, I was pretty happy to repeat a number of moderates yesterday including Ice Cold and Thorazine. These are usually pretty easy climbs for me, but given that it was 80+ degrees and humid I was very happy to get them done.
Experimenting with video screen captures — blurry blurry. Meat and Potatoes.
So that’s that. I’m happy to say that I’m pretty much where I want to be right now. Feeling strong and mobile, technique returning quickly, and very, very psyched.
Bring on climbing season!
climblife 