Running out of time...

Hey Blogosphere, sorry updates have been scarce recently but internet access has become something of an issue...

I'm mildly break and entering to update this now...

so we'll keep it brief.

My time here is running out. Only a few days left to climb then it's back to St. John's. I'm actually looking forward to getting home at this point. Having a whole new bouldering area to go home and develop really helps.

Um, here's a video of Cedar climbing her man problem and myself and neil phillips climbing the Fuzz.

There are a couple more videos i've shot that i will hopefully get around to editing and uploading in the next couple days...

Success for MATT LUCAS

Today MATT LUCAS sent "No Troublems". MATT LUCAS started celebrating immediately by kicking several nearby puppies.

Autobody

Had another fun day in the boulders today. Went to try climb the Problem "Auto-Body" or "Fixing the Car" (there seems to be some debate over the name) I worked out all the moves pretty quickly then got super psyched to send it. So psyched that Thomasina accused me of being overconfident and told me not to jinx myself... I'll let the video show you what happened next...

So maybe I was a little overconfident... it still all worked out in the end.

After that brad sent the ever popular "Easy in an Easy Chair".

Then I was a belay slave for Thomo for a little while while she tried "Smell the Glove" which is what Ben called "Silent Menace" after he re-climbed it after the crucial starting hold (that you have to jump to) broke off. It was 5.14a pre hold breakage. Now its pretty crazy. Thomo gets credit for trying the jump start over a big drop though, i was scared just belaying.

Anyway its midnight and i am tired so this entry is being cut short...HEY LOOK! its brad trying "Viper" v5

Oh! One more thing! I did not see MATT LUCAS in the boulders today. Did you know MATT LUCAS used to work in film and is now studying computer science?! 

MATT LUCAS

So, today I finally got it done.

 As you can see from the video MATT LUCAS was there. MATT LUCAS didn't manage to send today but I am sure MATT LUCAS will get it soon. Did I mention MATT LUCAS is an excellent spotter?

Brad had his first day of squamish bouldering today, i think he found it a little hard on his skin but he made short work of Titanic and did some good work on a bunch of other problems that should all go quickly.

Did I mention I don't have to try No Troublems anymore? Did i also mention MATT LUCAS?

Today was going to be the day; I had my new shoes, I was well rested, I felt strong, the conditions were good.

It was time to send "No Troublems". After a few tries I was feeling pretty good. I was sticking the first move really consistently, but kept popping off a couple moves later. Still I felt like I was going to make it. Then it happened. I pulled on to the start, fought my way across the roof moves and there I was, at the jug. Nothing left to do but top out.

"(though I have yet to try to moves on the kind of scary top out, I dont think they are that hard)"

I said that two blog entries ago... 

I went from the jug to a hand jam, then cross over to a pinch...then pumped out and came off reaching to the next hold. I blew it, after that I didn't  have the energy to make it through the problem again. Thomasina had told me to make sure I practice the roof moves before actually getting there. I didn't listen.

Oh well. Now I have done the top out on its own and I know I'll get it eventually. 

While I was there working on it Thomasina sent it for the first time, and Ben and Sonnie Trotter sent the lower starting version. Sonnie actually did it twice because he dabbed the first time...

T-Bird using her vulcan death grip on "No Troublems"

After that I went to work on "ATD", V7, while Ben, Thomo and Sonnie worked on dreamcatcher.

Thomasina working on "Dreamcatcher"

I Didn't fare very well on ATD and was starting to get a little frustrated. Then I watched T-Bird send "King Kong", and we went to try "The Fun Factory Low" v9. I didn't get anywhere on this at all.

By now we'd been bouldering all day and I havn't successfully climbed anything. In fact, i haven't successfully climbed anything I've had to work on this entire trip.

Ben and Thomo called it quits for the day, but I managed to convince a few people to go get on "The Rookie" V8, a problem I had worked on with Luke one of my first days here.

Much to my relief it went after just a couple goes and I instantly felt better about the whole day. I had been starting to feel like I had some kind of block from actually finishing anything. So it felt really good to finally top something out.

Hopefully it will continue. Brad gets here tomorrow, and the rest of the Newfoundland crew follows sometime shortly after.

A Cry for Help

In recent crosscanadaclimbing blog news, Chief Blogger Dave Stack has admitted that he does not have the grammatical capacity to properly edit his own blog, and has called in reinforcement. 

Introducing your new Editor in Chief:

I promise to stay behind the scenes from now on.... maybe.

-Ed.

Mini Metal and goodbye luke!

There was a really big mountain bike race in Squamish this weekend called the "test of metal", as part of the race related activities there was a "mini metal" kids race. Yesterday I went down to watch Cedar get her race on.

Fierce and determined to win...

At the starting line...

Uh-0h...

Ben gets Cedar to practice her tricks...

After the race me and Ben went into Vancouver to see Luke off who left today to start the long drive back to St.John's.

We met up with Luke in North Vancouver and spontaneously decided to do the Grouse Grind, which is hiking to the top of grouse mountain. We got some props for tackling "one of the hardest hikes in the world" in our sneakers and jeans. It really isnt a very hard hike, that was just what a guy decked out in full trail running gear called it as he past us. we told him all we'd heard was that there was a bar at the top...

Later as Luke was taking his bike off his bike rack he had a little accident involving his finger and his disc brake... Luckily meaghan had her "first aid kit" handy.

Deliciously sterilizing...

Today we got up then said our goodbyes to luke. I picked up some new climbing shoes at MEC and then me and ben spent some time skimboarding before heading back to squamish. Or well ben spent some time skimboarding... I spent some time jumping onto a board then falling.

Tomorrow the plan is to head into the boulders and send everything with my sweet new kicks...because clearly the only thing holding me back was footwear...