Bluff Wall, New Crags... and Frank Slide

I'm still, officially, on the couch.  My elbow improves every day, but it will be some time before I can pull on it hard enough to do any serious bouldering.  I'm fairly certain I could do a deadhang, but that's probably about it.  Open-hand grips aren't too uncomfortable, but if I try to pinch or engage my thumb, forgetaboutit.  I'll give it another two weeks, then try a little easy climbing.

In a way, though, having an elbow injury has benefits; it has allowed me to get to some of the non-bouldering things on my to-do list.  This past Sunday I went back to the Crowsnest Pass in order to check out the Bluff Wall (just to the west of Frank Slide) and do a little crag hunting.

From Frank Slide you can see the Bluff Wall clearly, and I have often wondered about a fairly clean looking section of the wall almost in the dead centre of the main cliff.  It looks like it is about 5 or 6 pitches high, without any ledges or breaks.  I wanted to hike into the base of the wall to take a closer look for a potential route (mostly to see how steep the wall is, and how protectable it is).  The Bluff Wall is Livingstone limestone, and while this rock often features faces with nice face holds, I'm not sure how much natural protection it provides.

Arriving in the Pass, I parked and hiked up to the wall with Lupin (my ever-eager dog).  I took a couple of pictures of the route from the valley, and many more directly below the route.  From the valley, the wall looks pretty sheer, but I was surprised to find that it looked like most of the pitches would go on natural gear! 

As far as I could see, it looked like it was about 6 pitches long.  P1: low angle ramps with a bit of slab to a small grassy ledge, maybe a few pieces of gear, maybe a few bolts.  P2 and P3: a real surprise, 2 pitches of what looks like continuous finger cracks in the back of a dihedral. Looks sweet!  P4: Can't really see it well, but I'm hoping that an angling crack will join up to another crack system under another small roof.  P5: Unless some magic pro appears up there, this pitch might need bolts.  This is where the route heads into the darker grey rock, which usually means coral-reef stone.  The good thing is that this rock often has really cool features, so hopefully it is a nice pitch.  P6:  This was the other big surprise, the last pitch is a looonnng wide crack, an opened up lieback that goes on for pretty much a full pitch (you can see it just left of the left-most huge roof near the top of the wall).  Looks exciting!

I scoped out another potential route to the left, it also looks like a great route, although it would likely need more bolts.

Potential route!  The line would (as far as I can tell) head up the nose between the huge roofs to either side.  It would likely start somewhere between the two conifers growing right at the base; a pitch of slab, then up a couple pitches of protectable dihedral (wall is stained orange), then a tricky pitch to gain another crack system. Above that the rock gets darker (and maybe steeper), but the last pitch is a fat lieback crack that goes on a long ways, pretty much right to the top of the wall! 

Another picture of the route, this time from higher and to the right of the route.  The dihedral is pretty much invisible, as it faces left.

The view from directly below the route.  The orange dihedral is visible, and the exit pitches head up through the obvious notch.  Straight up the wall, pretty much!

My second objective of the day was to try to find a sport crag in the Pass.  I had a couple of leads (from Google Maps, of course) I wanted to check out.  My first foray was into a canyon; I was excited to find lots of steep walls with cool features... but disappointed that they were composed of sandstone.  It's possible that they might turn into decent sport routes with a lot of work, but I am fairly certain that a limestone crag would be better received by local climbers.

My second foray was into a little watercourse on Bluff Mountain.  Lupin and I did find a nice little wall, nicely overhanging with climbable features. Room for maybe 15 - 20 routes, probably in the 5.10 to .12+ range. Downsides?  A 20 minute walk uphill (about 200m of elevation gain), plus it would take a fair bit of work to get the base of the routes in shape (there's a long steep slope of rubble and little cliff bands below the cliff, so landing pads and a bit of trail would have to be made).  Lupin and I spent a fair bit of time and energy adventuring up the side of Bluff mountain, and we came down completely knackered with sore knees and hips.  We're getting old!  A 2 hour bushwhack up a mountain nearly did us in...

Looking up at the crag from below.  It would be dangerous / tricky / adventurous to try and climb up to the base of the cliff from below, but luckily it looks much easier to walk along the base of the cliff (I think).  Another mission will be needed to find out how good the crag really is!  Looks good (and really steep) in this picture, though; it's about 20m high, perfect sport climbing height!

By the time we got back to the van we were pretty beat.  But with a little time left on the clock (it was about 5:00), I couldn't resist taking a stroll in the Slide looking for new problems.  I was surprised to find a stack of new problems not far from the road in an area I hadn't really explored before, including two hard-looking cave problems.  Lots of the problems looked moderate (V0 to V3), and the boulders were fairly close to each other, so it will be a great opportunity to develop another moderate circuit similar to the 'Superheroes' circuit near the House Area parking lot. So much to do in Frank Slide!

By this time, my knees were screaming at me, so Lupin and I drove down to the Crowsnest River, where I sat with my legs in the cool water for a half-hour.  A great way to end an exhausting day!

I would to thank Mike Doyle and Mark Guckert for sending me a link to a great website describing elbow injuries due to climbing.  It gives me hope that with a little work and a lot of care, I'll manage to get some climbing in this year all!    

Stay safe!  Cheers!
  

Tour de Frank... and an Injury.

Welcome to the Tour de Frank!  In the spirit of good-natured competition, a handful of Lethbridge climbers thought it would be fun to have a outdoor bouldering competition / festival event, but given the fact that those types of events are enormous amounts of work, we decided to have the next best thing; The Tour de Frank!  Really, it is similar to a stretched-out, super-casual version of the Hueco Rock Rodeo, entirely managed by individual climbers.  Intially we had thought it best to have three categories: (1) hardest ascents (where the score would represent the total V-grade sum of each climber's hardest seven ascents of the season), (2) first ascents (total V-grade sum of all first ascents of the season), and (3) total ascents (total V-grade sum of all ascents of the season).  However, upon reflection, it seems evident that categories 2 and 3 are problematic for a number of reasons (e.g. it may be difficult to determine what is and isn't an FA, and total ascents would get cumbersome for those who travel to the Slide often), so we decided to radically simplify the Tour de Frank and use only the first category.

So, if you want to play along, simply keep track of your 'V-points' (i.e. 1 point for a V1, 2 for a V2, etc.; 0.5 points are awarded for a V0) for your seven hardest problems climbed from May 18 (the beginning of the Victorial Day long weekend) to October 14 (Thanksgiving).  If anyone wants to send me their V-point total periodically (for the fun of it!), I'll post them here.  I'm "sure" we'll have lots of "prizes", so keep track of your points and we'll have a grand tally at the end of the season!  Remember, this is purely for fun, not to be taken seriously!  Maybe if I get off my butt, I'll make Tshirts or something.

Anyone can participate!  From anywhere!  One visit to Frank Slide, or every weekend, it doesn't matter!  Just send in a list of your seven hardest Frank Slide sends to me at the end of the season and we'll see what happens!

The rules (such as they are) are incredibly simple. (1) No cheating, be honest! (2) No bizarre grade inflation (use consensus grades, please). I think that's all.

So far, I'm not doing too badly, with (my seven hardest) ascents of...

Breathing Underwater (V7), Lost (V6), The Evangelist (V7), Giantsbane (V6), Trent's Cave (V6), Ben Kenobi (V6), and Sofa King (V5), for a grand total of 43 points.  I'm really hoping to get that number up to 56 points (7 V8s) before the end of the Tour, which brings me to the bad news...

I massively injured my right elbow this week.  I think I may have partially torn something doing Breathing Underwater on the weekend (it felt tight afterwards for an hour or so), but then climbing new problems on the 45-degree wall at the gym this week caused it to hurt a lot more (likely medial epicondylitis, lateral surface).  By the time I got home it was aching, by the next morning I couldn't pick up a glass of milk.  It's going to be a long time before I can boulder again, I suspect.  Right now, I couldn't open a jar or pick up a pitcher of juice with my right hand if my life depended on it.  I'll have to really re-think how my summer is going to go, probably a lot more hiking and trail running than I had planned, and maybe a little slab climbing.  Unless I can ferret out a LOT of V8 slabs at Frank Slide, I don't think my TdF total is going to be that impressive.

At any rate, I won't be posting updates as often as I usually do (because I won't be doing any climbing for a while!).  Have a great summer, and stay injury-free!

Mark D. and Mark G. sussing out the moves on The Glass Ballerina on the Whale Bones Boulder, Hulkamania Area. 

Frankamania!

Summer is in full swing in southern Alberta, and it always seems especially summery at Frank Slide.  The weather is usually sunny, and even the summertime thundershowers only seem to last a few minutes at the Slide.  Although it seems a little too warm sometimes, in reality temperatures rarely get above 30C, and the long hours of sunlight make late afternoon climbing a joy.  This past Sunday, I headed to back to Frank Slide with Mark G. and Mark D. for a day of bouldering and exploration.

Life in the slide.  Potentilla growing amidst the scree.

After a protracted discussion en route to Frank, we agreed to cross the train tracks and head toward the Hulkamaniac Area.  More accurately, we wanted to explore the area just west of the Hulkamaniac boulder, as it appeared to have a decent concentration of large boulders.  Although I had not previously visited that area of the Slide, I knew that it had been intermittently popular in the past, and that there was a handful of established problems scattered throughout the blocks there.

 Mark G. moving from the face to the arete of The Glass Ballerina (V3 or V4).

We crossed the tracks and climbed up a grassy ramp to the boulders above.  After spending a few minutes checking out the blocks, we started warming up on a decently large boulder near the top of the ramp.  Mark D. remembered climbing an obvious easy problem on horizontal rails in the middle of the boulder; I climbed it a few times, a really fun and satisfying easy line.  Mark G. and I also climbed a tricky (V3?) line on small crimps to the left, which, in retrospect, may not have been the best way to warm up!

It also looked like there were two unclimbed harder lines to the right, so we fixed the landings below them and set to work.  Mark D. climbed the fun right-hand arete from a sit-start first, calling it The Glass Ballerina.  Mark G. and I sent it straightaway as well, and then we turned our attention to a much harder line to the left.  We lined up to try an obvious and amazing-looking vertical problem that moved between large bone-like features (coral fossils?) jutting from the rock. With no reachable holds, we were forced to jump to the first hold, a half-pad crimp.  After 20 minutes or so, we managed to piece the moves together, and my ascent was rapidly followed by sends by Mark G. and Mark D.  Whale Bones (V5 or 6) is a great addition to the area; it reminds me a fair bit of the problem Worm World in Squamish.

Mark G. getting serious on Whale Bones (V5 or 6).  Tiny holds, big moves!

I had spied another promising-looking block just to the south, so I headed over to clean some more problems for us to try.  I cleaned up four promising-looking lines on two faces of the boulder; the first face had prominent horizontal rails, while the other face featured crimps and edges.  Starting on a low prominent edge almost directly on the arete between the two faces, I sent Bump Bump (V3?), a line that headed up and slightly right to a techy mantle, while Atlas (V5?) headed up and left using tricky heel-hook beta.  Shortly after we also did the two problems on the right face of the boulder, a V2/3ish line with edges, and a great V1ish problem I might call Balance, which was a lot easier (and more fun!) than I anticipated.  We finally wrapped up the problems on the boulder by starting on Bump Bump but adding a long lip traverse to make a long-ish pumpy problem that went around V3.

Me on the first bump move of Bump Bump (V3ish).  Felt very Squamishy to climb an arete with rails and a slopey lip...

In my earlier foray, I had realised that what looked like a short slabby boulder to the south was, in fact, a fairly large boulder with two tall faces.  When I went to clean some problems I saw that some of the problems had previously been cleaned.  Looking at the lines, I wasn't suprised; side-by-side on the boulder were two of the best easy problems I have so far seen at Frank, a V0 arete and a strangely-featured V0 steep slab.

Mark G. on the last looong reach to the final jug on the extension to Bump Bump.

Being mid-afternoon, though, we were in the mood for some shade, and the easy arete was in the full sun.  I saw that there was a unclimbed (and dirty!) line on the shady side of the boulder, so with a little cleaning (and landing-fixing) we had a new moderate line to try!  It turned out to be easier than it looked, although still a lot of fun!  One of the nicest V2ish lines I've done at Frank, it starts on the lower of two horizontal rails, then moves up to a very fun high-step-gaston move to reach the lip.  I think I'll call it Deep Blue Sea after all the marine fossils in the boulder.

We moved around to the sunny side of the boulder, and were rewarded with another half-dozen vertical problems from V0 to V4ish.  Mark G. made a stemming problem just left of the prominent arete look easy, while Mark D. and I found it to be stiffer than Mark G. had made it look!.  We finished up the boulder by doing the sit-start to the prominent arete; it looked great, and we weren't disappointed, it is a great problem, a four-star line!  The slab to the right was equally good, and it was a pleasure to climb on the crazily-featured face.

Mark G., sendage-style!  Posing, at my request, atop the amazing arete on the Deep Blue Sea boulder.

Mark G. and Mark D. wanted to leave the Slide to get ice cream, but I was hoping to get another problem in.  I settled on a steep compression problem not far from Deep Blue Sea, which looked both physical and technically-demanding.  Initially I thought it would be brutally hard, but I was surprised (and happy) to send it only after about 10 tries or so.  It suited my style really well, and I think it is one of the nicest moderately-hard problems I've tried at the Slide.  I called it Breathing Underwater (V6, maybe low-end V7).

The crazy features of the V0 slab on the Deep Blue Sea boulder.  This photo doesn't really do the features of this face justice!

All-in-all, a great trip to a new area of Frank Slide.  The Slide continues to surprise me, and I look forward to my future explorations of what the Slide holds.  I need to focus more on difficult projects, though; I think there are a lot of testpieces hidden away in the maze, and I mean to find them!  Also, there are lot of classic lines that I haven't tried yet, including Serial Killer (V5) and Healing Arete (V5), that I am hoping to try soon.

Until next time... Cheers!

Frank and the E-Town Posse!

Last weekend I was thrilled to have the opportunity to climb at Frank Slide with four of Edmonton's funnest (can I use that word?) climbers, namely Terry P., Selena W., Dan A., and Bob S.  On any given weekend, Frank Slide is usually populated only by a small handful of climbers from Lethbridge, with occasionally a few from Calgary or Fernie, so it was great fun to climb with some of my long-time friends from further north.  Sadly, I didn't have a camera with me, so I don't have any pictures (although I might try to borrow some from Selena to post here...).

Mark Derksen caught a ride out to the Slide with me, and arriving a bit early we went for a walk in the City of Giants to scope out new lines.  The City holds a great deal of potential for new problems, so I am always curious to poke around in it's nooks and crannies.  In one spot, there are two mushroom-shaped boulders lying almost side-by-side; I not-so-secretly hope these two boulders will yield several exciting problems.

Warmed up, we went to meet the Edmontonians at the Cinnamon Bear, a great local coffee shop with excellent cinnamon buns.  After coffee and a pastry, we all headed back to the Slide.  We started at the House Area, which, with the new guide and the 'Superheroes' Circuit, is a good place to start any day at Frank.  Indeed, Kyle, Ryan, and Logan were on the circuit, so we stopped and said hello.

We then walked in to the Salacious Boulder, where we dropped the mats and started warming up.  I worked to convince everyone that we should try the highball to the left of Plan 66, which had never seen a bouldering ascent as far as I can deduce (partially becase of its height, but mostly because it features a rather grim landing).  Once booted up, everyone who jumped on the problem made short work of it.  Luckily, the crux was very low, and the high, white-striped face features several good edges.  Terry, Dan, Kyle, and Mark then turned their attention to a potential extension of Lost (V6).  They worked out a bold sequence of pinches and small edges that traversed the lip of the Salacious Cave to a positive mini-jug on the far wall.  Eventually, in an impressive effort Terry managed to put all the moves together, sending what is one of Frank's hardest problems, Shelley was a Doctor First (V10).  Dan and I spend a half-hour working a tension-dependent problem with very sloping holds to the left of SWADF, but didn't manage to send it (to be honest, Dan was close, but I really could only do the first two moves). Selena and I DID manage to put up a new problem that heads up and left from the start of Lost, which I called Found (V3 or V4).

From here, we headed over to the Wild West Boulder so everyone could try Railway (V10).  Mark and Kyle have been working Railway for some time, and were keen to get an infusion of energy and beta on the line.  Terry and Dan did not disappoint, with both of them sending Railway quickly (What?!?  Quickly?!  I had almost starting thinking it was impossible).  Both Kyle and Mark made great linkage on the line as well, and for the first time I actually think they might be able to do the problem soon.

Not really keen to embarass myself on Railway, I started working an old arete problem to the right of Railway.  Not knowing much about the line, I wanted to ascertain the sequence and difficulty of the line for the guidebook.  I knew it was supposed to be about V5, but didn't know much more other than that a starting hold had apparently broken off.  I quickly realised that the problem was harder than I had anticipated; I was stumped.  Selena thought I should use a really extended heel hook, this helped me make the first move but not much more.  Terry came over to try it, and it seemed to stump him as well (for a handful of attempts, anyways).  He eventually climbed it using a bizarre toe-to-toe compression method (which I was unable to replicate successfully).  Certainly, a lot harder than V5!   
I did Wild West (V5), a problem I had always wanted to try, then we packed up and headed back towards the cars.  I thought everyone might like to try some of the lines in the City of Giants, so we marched up into the heart of the slide.  Terry flashed the Glassberg Project, topping out on a midway jug and calling it Fart Bathtub (V6).  Dan sent it quickly as well. While I came fairly close a couple of times, I didn't have enough steam left to link everything together.  Next time!

Frank Slide in the setting sun, taken with my iPhone.  Pretty.  Nintendo 69 (V9) is near the skyline in the middle of photo.

With throbbing fingers, we headed back to the cars, and went to find some pizza.  Another great day of fun climbing at the Slide with good friends!  This summer, I really want to spend some time finding (and hopefully climbing) some new problems at Frank, in order to produce a little more depth in the V6 to V9 range in the area.  Climbing with strong Edmontonians makes me think I should step up my training, though!

At any rate, it should be a fun summer, with lots of new problems getting done.  Cheers!

The Valley of the Karst!

At long last, all the stars properly aligned, and I managed to get to the City of Giants for a day of exploring and bouldering.  On Sunday we headed into the City, specifically to the Karst Boulder.  The Karst Boulder is, for Frank Slide anyways, a singularly unique block of limestone.  It features a highly eroded surface with intact karst-like features (in places similar to the Tonquin Boulder in Jasper), indicating it must have once been part of an exposed (or partially soil-covered) face high on Turtle Mountain.  During the slide must have floated atop the sliding mass without rolling or flipping.  In its current resting place, the Karst Boulder is tall, covered with climbable features, and overhangs at a perfect angle.  Unfortunately, the landing beneath the boulder is especially rough and blocky, even for Frank Slide. 

Even Mark is dwarfed by the Karst Boulder.  Karst (V0/1), Karst Low (V3), and Dark Waters (V5) climb the steep face to Mark's left, while Giantsbane (V6) climbs the face on the far right of the photo. The tall prow to Mark's right is a true king line, but you'll need at least a dozen mats.  At least.

Arriving at the Karst Boulder, we dropped all the mats and took some time to look around. Ashlee, Ryan, and Kyle started warming up on a fun lip traverse problem immediately adjacent to the Karst Boulder.  Mark and I spotted several nice-looking potential projects among the maze of blocks that constitute the City of Giants; it'll be nice to get back there to do some more exploring!

Warmed up, we started in on a tall, heavily featured face on the far left side of the boulder.  A stand-start on a beautiful incut jug-slot seemed to be the most obvious line, so we lined up to try it.  Kyle immediately climbed to the top of the boulder, following first a series of sculpted mini-jugs then positive edges and flakes.  It was easier than I anticipated, and soon I topping out on the amazing line as well.  We named it Karst (V0 or V1) after the amazing holds on the bottom half of the problem.  Certainly, one of my favorite lines at Frank Slide! 

Warmed up, we added two very distinct starts to Karst.  Karst Low (V3) starts down and left on a crimpy slot and either a sidepull or undercling, while Dark Waters (V4 or V5) starts on a flat jug to the right.  Dark Waters is really fun, but unfortunately it is difficult not to dab on a block behind you, which really detracts from the line.

Using my camera, I took a brief video of Kyle on Karst Low, the sit-start to Karst (V0/1).  When you climb Karst, there is another boulder behind you, which  is nice (in a weird way) because a spotter can stand on top of that boulder to spot the second half of the problem, hopefully directing the climber onto the mats far below in the unlikely instance of a fall on the easy exit to the problem. 

Mark on the start of Karst Low (V3 or V4). All those light streaks stick out of the rock like tufas or bones.  A really fun highball (about 20 feet high) on fantastically-shaped holds. Crazy.

Every problem on the Karst Boulder looks amazing, although the two most striking lines are the tallest and have - by far - the worst landings.  Maybe with a dozen pads they can be tamed; but even with that many pads a weird fall into the talus would send you to the hospital.  Anyways, here's the video, even though it doesn't do the problem or it's amazing holds any justice.

Kyle 'Schulte' Marco sending Karst Low (V3) with authority. 

While I was cleaning and climbing some easier lines nearby, Kyle shuffled the mats over to try a slightly overhanging face heavily featured with small tufa-like features.  He sent it relatively quickly, employing a long deadpoint to reach the finishing jug.  I almost flashed it (using a bowling-ball pocket to do a static move instead of a dyno), but had to settle for a redpoint a half-dozen tries later.  Mark Guckert sent it soon thereafter, and eventually Mark Derksen threw to the finishing jug as well.  Kyle named it Giantsbane; another great problem for the area.

After adding another few problems to surrounding boulders (including the fun, technical, and slightly exasperating dyno problem Le Swoop (V4), and a short but tricky arete I may call Father's Day (V4ish)), we headed over to Trent's Cave (V6) on the other side of the City of Giants to finish the day.  Mark flashed it (not surprisingly, it suits his style very well), and Kyle sent it a few minutes later.  I was surprised to repeat it on my second try, making me wonder if it's perhaps a bit soft for the grade.  We spent a few minutes working the moves on the Glassberg Project (a very cool 25-foot long lip traverse / overhanging arete), then called it a day.  We headed back to Lethbridge, fully thrashed.

Kyle styling his way out of Trent's Cave (V6).  Nice work, Kyle!

Mark on the Glassberg Project.  Only the first half of the problem is in the photo.  Bring all your guns, and don't forget the hipster glasses.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't try anything particularly hard, but I was psyched to finally climb on the Karst Boulder.  I won't be Frank for a couple of weeks; instead, I am looking forward to trying some of the new sandstone problems at Bear Mountain next weekend. 


Until next time, happy bouldering!

Frank Slide Bouldering: House Area Mini-Guide!

Finally, the new mini-guide to the House Area is finished.  It includes 71 problems from V0 to V11.  The next mini-guide to be published will likely be the Snakebite Area.  The House Mini-Guide can be downloaded here. Enjoy!

Aya ripping it up on her first First Ascent, which she named The Stripey Problem.  I couldn't be any prouder.  Happy Father's Day, everyone!

Frank Spring

Slowly, the spring season in Frank is coming to a close.  The cottonwood trees are green, and ferns have popped up throughout the talus. Although the mornings are still cool, daytime temperatures have become very summery.  Compared to the endless blue-grey-white palette of winter, the Slide in late spring is positively verdant.  I'm a little worried that summertime temperatures will be too warm for hard climbing, but I've been assured that it rarely gets too hot to climb.

Frank Slide!  Green!  Trees!  Looks a lot different than winter, certainly! Looking at the House Area from the parking lot, the boulder that holds The Evangelist (V7) is visible on the left (it has a flat top, doesn't look like much), while the Road Rage boulder is on the centre-right (the really obvious one).

The new Gripped article on Frank Slide has finally been published.  Entitled 'Speaking Frankly: Exploring the Limestone Bouldering of Frank Slide', it's a great article on the history, present, and future of Frank Bouldering.  Pick up a copy, check it out!

Last Saturday I was back at the Slide.  I was looking forward to climbing with Evan from Calgary, who is responsible for several of Frank's hard boulder problems including Nintendo 69 (V9).  When we arrived at the Slide, we went to the Sofa King / Curse / Teen Titans boulders to warm up.  I think these boulders will be a popular warmup area, as they are both close to the parking lot and right on the trail to the House and Heart of Frank areas.  Armed with my newly completed mini-guide for the House Area, Ryan and Ashlee climbed several of the problems, while I did a couple of the easier lines on the Sofa King boulder. 

Ryan and Ashlee at Frank Slide.  Wacky good times galore!



I spied an unclimbed boulder through the trees, and although it looked small, I walked over to take a look at it.  I was psyched to see that the far side of the boulder was much higher than it looked, and had a well-featured face over a good landing.  Looking closer, I realised that it also had perfect start holds (a rarity for Frank). Game on!  The moves turned out to be a lot more stout and technical than they looked, so I decided to recruit Kyle and Evan for a session.  After ten minutes or so, we started to link some of the moves, but it took another half-hour before Evan managed to send the line, calling it The Evangelist (V7).  The first move is hard and tricky; from two right facing holds that are near a right-facing arete, you have to reach up right handed to another right-facing sidepull.  It takes a unique combination of tension and technique to do the moves, and so I felt lucky ten minutes later when I squeaked through the start and finished the problem for the second ascent.  The Evangelist also has a sustained and sequential topout, which is unusual for Frank.  A great find, one of the nicest V7s in Frank!


From there, we headed up to the Mushroom Boulder where Evan wanted to try Dragon Fire (V9?) and Kyle wanted to try Dark Age (V10?).  Putting the mats down, Evan immediately made great linkage, and Kyle repeated Dragon Fire in just a few tries.  Kyle, an absolute master of the heel-toe cam, uses the technique to great effect on Dragon Fire. Booting up, I sat down to give Dragon Fire a burn, only to feel the start hold (virtually the only big hold on the problem, and an absolutely key foothold) shift and make a grinding noise.  We took a good look at it, and unfortunately it looks as though it is going to fall off.  If it comes off, both Dragon Fire and Dark Age will be no more.  I think Dragon Fire might still go, but it likely won't be quite as nice and will be MUCH harder.

 Evan hamming it up on Race to the Top (V2/3) on the Mushroom Boulder.  At least I think he's hamming it up.



Not wanting to touch the start hold of Dragon Fire for now, we looked around for other problems on the boulder.  I did Rhythmic Gymnastics (V5 or 6) and the juggy arete to the right (V3).  I had cleaned a couple of lines on the side of the Mushroom Boulder as well, so we tried them.  Evan did the first ascent of Race to the Top (maybe V2 or V3), a very fun Squamishy rail-to-rail-to-jugs problem, and I did the stand start to a cool (but not too hard, V2?) slot problem that I am sure has been done before.  I cleaned some of the loose rock chips out of the slot, making it a much nicer problem. Seeing a line of perfect edges that continued right from the horizontal rail on Race to the Top, I added an extension to the problem (Race to the Top Extension) that essentially doubles its length, although not it's difficulty.  A fun addition to the area.


Wrapping it up, we headed to Tim Hortons for coffee and doughnuts, and then headed home.  I've always been curious how much gasoline it takes to get to Frank.  I had filled up before we left, so I filled up again when I got back to Lethbridge.  My van had used 27 litres of gas ($34) in the drive to Frank and back, about what I had expected. 

So, what's next for Frank Slide?  Let's see... (1) The next mini-guide is finished (for House Area), so that'll be going online in the next day or so, likely on Sendage.com.  Work has already started on the next mini-guide (for the Snakebite area), so with luck that'll be coming out in July sometime.  (2) I have a bunch of projects I REALLY want to get wrapped up sometime soon; it's time to buckle down, and put some real attempts into these things instead of just floating around. Communist Project? Prism Project? The three potential hard lines in Trent's Cave?  Get to it!  (3) Time for more exploration!  I still haven't seen about half of the Slide, and I'd like to get into the Prow Area, check it out.  I practically need to go on a road trip to Frank to get these things done!

Until next time, happy bouldering!