The South of France!

Over the last ten days or so I attended the Annual Meeting of the the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, in Nice, France. Nice is right on the Mediterranean Sea, and is truly beautiful! Beyond that - and more importantly - Nice is incredibly interesting. I suppose it's likely that and semi-medieval city set on the sea would be as interesting, but since I've only been to one - Nice - it is my yardstick.

The conference was very good, the city amazing, the food was great, and the weather generally was very sunny and warm. The only downside was that I had travelled to France without Shel (my better 60% - to call her my better half would be an underestimate).

This photo is of the street near my hotel - the St. Gothard. I was staying in less-than-ideal part of town, but since everything was so different than Canada, I took pictures of everything. There are little cafes, bakeries, bars,and sandwich shops everywhere, at least one of each on every block. It makes perfect sense to me - why can't we have that in Canada?

A visit to West Vancouver

On Saturday, despite the fog, I went to West Van to clean some boulders and maybe work on the trails at Area G a bit. I hooked up with couple of boulderers from UBC who are also keen to see more problems developed in the area.

We stripped moss off the top of several of the small boulders at the base of the slope - the problems there won't be very hard, but will be good warmups for the harder, taller problems up the hill. Due to all the snow, everything was still pretty wet, but it was good to get out and start getting problems ready for when it's a but drier.

We looked at some of the mini-bluffs further up the slope, and Ronald and I found an area with a nice concentration of problems. Probably a dozen lines, about half of them really nice-looking, all in a cluster. We started prepping some of those - they'll probably get cleaned up (and sent) first.

At the end of the day, we wandered down to the roadside boulder. It was finally dry enough to try the two problems that boulder holds. Ronald and I sent the harder lip traverse / arete problem fairly quickly (probably about V4), and Bill sent the easier, straight up line (probably V0).

So, Area G now has...
Problems = 2
Fully cleaned projects = 1
Partially cleaned projects = approx. 20

"New" Cypress Falls Problems

Ahem. It has occurred to me today, while sitting at my desk, that I have failed to report some new problems I opened this year at Cypress Falls in West Vancouver. Ordinarily, I might not worry about it, but because I think these are three of the best problems at the area, I am making a special point of describing them.

All three are on the Darwinian Boulder, near the parking lot. This boulder also has the hardest problem (I think it's called Double Decker) at Cypress Falls. Double Decker is supposedly rated V10. I have tried it on three separate occasions, and it is very stiff, indeed.

All the problems on the Darwinian Boulder share the same start - a low start on a long positive edge below the slot in the middle of the boulder. My three problems are (from left to right)...

1) Darwin's Riddle (V3). Start, then traverse left to the arete using all kinds of trickery. Climb the arete to the fun topout above using a small chicken-head. If it feels hard, you haven't solved the riddle correctly...

2) Survival of the Fit (V5 or V6). Looks impossible, but isn't. From the start, move a meter or so right, then climb directly up the blank-looking face on tiny knobs by underclinging the slot. High, tricky, cerebral, technical. An amazing problem, one of the best at Cypress falls.

3) Natural Selection (V1). From the start, traverse right using the giant foothold; using a hold on the arete and an edge on the face, climb up to the fun topout. A more challenging variation (Unnatural Selection, V3/4) stays left of the arete, and uses only the holds on the face to top out directly above. Another great problem.

Enjoy!

Area G

Despite all the (unfortunately) snowy weather here in Vancouver, I thought I should post of photo of one of the walls at my new Vancouver bouldering area. This wall is one of many - it's between 2 and 7 meters tall (approximately), with lots of interesting features. It overhangs slightly along it's entire length, and will likely have 20 problems or so on it. You can see my German Sheperd friend Lupin standing at the base, so you can get a sense of how tall it is. Some of the problems (well, most of them at this wall) will be well into the highball category. A real 'climber's bouldering area', not for the faint of heart.

When all this snow melts, and we get a few nice days, I'll start posting the problems I've done. Yes, this "Area G" is going to be interesting, I think.

Names for Problems?

With the growing number of projects in my North Shore bouldering area (let's call it "Area G" for now), I realize that the onus will be on me to come up with interesting (and exciting) names for dozens of new problems. I'm sure I won't be the only one putting up problems, but I still hope to get the first ascent of lots of lines.

My first project already has a tentative name - "How to Pull a Tooth". The name makes a lot of sense when you see it. It's just two moves and a mantle, but fairly hard, I think (V5 or maybe V6).

Pictures will follow when I get them.

It's super cold here in Vancouver this week, so I may be forced to go ice-climbing this week. ;)

T.

Hello Again!

Even though it's mid-winter, the time has come to update my blog. I've been pretty dormant (climbing-wise) for the last year, as I finished my PhD and helped usher my son Rowan into the world. But lately, I've been in the bouldering gym here at UBC a fair bit, trying to get back in shape. I set here at UBC, which certainly helps my motivation.

I am also motivated because I'm working on a new bouldering area in Vancouver. It's only about a 20-minute drive from my house. There's probably room for about 400 problems, lots of which will be pretty hard. The climbing is mostly on short bluffs, but there are 10+ free-standing boulders as well. I've been prepping stuff, and laying out where the trails will go, but now I'm almost ready to start climbing. I was working my first problem there on Saturday (just before it snowed) - a short 2-move problem that'll likely be V4 - V6, and it felt good to be working new problems in a new area.

I've got a bunch of stuff prepped, and now those lines just need a good wire-brush scrubbing before I get on them. On the weekend I found that a small boulder that I had previously ignored will actuall have a couple of really nice short power problems on it, as well. I also found a new boulder hidden behind a fir tree - the largest free-standing boulder yet, will likely have 5 - 7 problems on it.

Anyways, I'm pretty excited. I'll post some pictures when I have them.

"Where is this area?", you ask. When I get 50 problems cleaned and sent, I'll post the directions here.

T.

A World of Hurt

Don't worry. I'm not injured. Nor have I become a blues musician. A World of Hurt is the name of Jordan's new highball in Squamish. I'm psyched to get strong so I can get on it next spring, but my training regime isn't exactly turning me into the Hulk. In fact, my 'training' is starting to make my middle look a little bigger, and my lats a lot smaller.

I was in Squamish on the weekend, doing a little bouldering. I climbed a bunch of moderate slabs, which is supposed to be moving me towards my goal of climbing all the hard slabs in squamish. There's just not that many slabs over V4 - really, only Black Slabbath (V7) and Phat Slab (V4 or V5 if you don't cheat). I did my new V0 slab Sel de la Terre a bunch of times - it's such a fun bit of climbing. I also did a new slab / arete problem to the left of it as well. It's a bit harder, more like V3 or so. I'm trying to make a slab circuit - when I do I'll post it here. I haven't decided how many problems should be on the circuit, but probably 20 is a good number.

I also went crack climbing the weekend before last. Cracks are weird, and incredibly painful if you don't have the right shoes. Which I don't. My tight 'bouldering' shoes ended up causing me a lot of pain as I tried jamming them into hand and finger cracks...

I have some more pictures to post, I'll get them posted soon.

Happy climbing!