Back in the Saddle!

It has certainly been a eventful year on the climbing front, although not in a pleasant fashion. This year started with a layoff from climbing, then progressed with a serious neck injury that completely prevented any climbing for several months. In the last third of the year, however, I have been climbing more and more, which is nice. I am certainly not up to my usual standard in terms of strength (or difficulty of climbs), but it feels great to be back in the climbing "saddle" again.

In January of 2010, we moved to New Zealand. My mind was filled with sugarplum visions of bouldering at Castle Hill, and I was really looking forward to getting on many of the hundreds (thousands?) of classic problems the area has to offer. However, a serious neck injury (a prolapsed disk in my cervical vertebrae (C5/6)) not only prevented me from climbing, it caused more or less constant (and sometimes brutal) pain for several weeks. No climbing, no running, no stepping off curbs abrubtly, no anything. I was pretty much out of commission all winter, and it was only by spring that I felt I could start climbing again.

Since then, we have been to Castle Hill several times (mostly bouldering on Spittle Hill). I am still getting used to the style of climbing there (low friction, hard presses, tricky footwork), and really hope to spend a lot more time there before we leave New Zealand. With my French friend Luc, I also went climbing in The Cave (in the Port Hills above Christchurch), which was incredibly fun - my Edmonton climbing friends would love it! Steep, bouldery, and lots of fun movement. I have also done some bouldering on the beach here, although the volcanic rock is painful.

I'll try to get some photos posted here soon. Until then...

Cheers!

Trent.

Godman Creek - Bits and Pieces

Hello, again.

I'll precede any comments by first stating that the Godman Creek Topo is now online - it's on the Quickdraw Publications 'Free Downloads' site, and will also be featured in the next issue of Squamish Climbing Magazine, along with an article and photos on the area by Jonas Gagnon.

Was back at Godman Creek on Saturday. A fun day of climbing, with GREAT conditions. I watched Clairee *almost* climb Cheshire Cat. Almost. The FA is still up for grabs - I'm sure it'll get done in when the cooler weather hits us.

I climbed Moby Dick again. Twice. This is seriously one of the best problems I have ever climbed in my life (and I didn't even get the FA). I also linked the beginning of Sailor's Prayer into Moby Dick, creating a new long problem that I called Sailor's Dick. It's a rad line, probably only about V3, but climbs all kinds of cracks (although, frankly, I only jammed once). A cool line, check it out.

I started cleaning some new 'problems' in a new area I call Blurred World. The area is 'blurred' because I can't decide if the climbing is bouldering or route climbing. Many or most of the lines are in the 20+ foot range (some in the 30+ foot range), and many are cracks... Bouldering? Crack climbing? Routes? Who knows. Still, there'll be some fun lines there, including 4, 30 foot cracks which look hard. One looks VERY hard.

I'll likely be back at the Creek on Friday, as long as I can get my NSERC PDF application wrapped up this week. UGH.

Later.

Topo Now Available

The Godman Creek Topo is finished. Finally. It contains an overview map, maps of the individual areas, and the names and grades of 100 problems (including projects, which are included in the guide and are generally open to anyone who wants to try them).

There is one area in the guide (The Public Works Area) that is included but is not located on the overview map. You'll have to talk to me to get specific instructions on how to get there... :)

"So," you ask, "How do I get this topo?"

Hmmmm...

I'll try to post it somewhere, maybe Dr. Topo or somesuch.

Cheers

Fly, Bee, Fly!

That's what I am calling my project between Bee Train and Twice Shy. Rad name for a cool line. Of course, since I have no idea how to actually dyno, I may never actually manage to send it.

West Van Bouldering Continues!

Hey-dee-ho.

Was back at "The Creek" on Saturday with Bill and Ronald, and a few other UBC folks. Cleaned and established a few cool problems, a few of which are pretty classic.

Just right of Jenga, on a fairly tallish wall, I put up three new problems and a project. Once Bitten (V0-), Twice Shy (V1, maybe V2), and Bee Train (V2). Between Twice Shy and Bee Train I also cleaned a harder project, which involves an almost 6-foot move between holds. Ronald and I worked it for awhile, but never even came close to figuring it out.

Then we went over to the Superball Area, and actually cleaned off some new things over there. With a lot of work, I cleaned off Superball Crack (V0) and Superball (still a project, maybe in the V8 range). The SB Crack is pretty cool - a perfect straight-in fingercrack, ring-locks and all. It would be super-stellar, but it starts on a huge jug, so once your feet are on it, it kills lots of the difficulty of the jamming.

Ronald cleaned off a stack of new problems below the Superball, as well. We climbed two of them, but no names are available yet. I wanted to call the one line Horn of Plenty, but we'll see.

Topo will be available later this week! Promise (crossing fingers behind back)!

Upcoming ManCation!

Went to Godman Creek again this weekend with Shelley, Aya, and Rowan. Also along for the day were our friends Virginia and Matt, and their little boy Alex. We did a BUNCH of easy lines on the first tier to warm up - probably a half dozen V0s and V1s. Aya almost did a really tall V0 - but she couldn't work her feet up in two places so I had to boost her a bit. Still, she's SO fearless - it was amazing to see her climbing a rock face, perfectly happily, 10 feet off the deck.

I did get a chance to try Jenga this weekend - and to my complete surprise, I managed to send it easily! I've come to the conclusion that Jenga is super condition-dependent. I also sent TicTacToe and Snakes and Ladders on the same boulder. I also climbed on the Mountain Bike slabs. Fun - I just wish they were longer!

My ManCation is coming up! But it looks like the rain will start at the same time as my vacation does. Ugh.

Back in West Van

Shelley and I went to Godman Creek today, with Aya and Rowan in tow. Mostly I went just to get out to the forest (Aya loves going to the forest), but also to do a little climbing (not much of that lately, unfortunately). There are so many fun (albeit mostly easy) boulder problems there, and so much potential, that I've decided to start releasing more information on the place. I went to the Cube Boulder area first (which is home to a bunch of short V0 and V1 lines) to warm up a bit. This area doesn't really have anything challenging, although it is a great area to chill out amongst the ferns. I cleaned up and did Underthings (V0/1), which is probably the nicest line on the boulder. The hardest thing on the boulder will be the long traverse which starts on the V0 seam on the back, and crosses almost 3 faces of the boulder to finish on Underthings. I didn't spend too much time on it, and so it remains undone.



Then we crossed to road to look at the lines there. I wanted to do 2 problems I hadn't yet done on the Mountain Bike slabs, and maybe work Jenga (V4/5) for a bit. I did manage to do the slabs, but ran out of time and didn't try Jenga. I have done Jenga before, but was keen to try and repeat it. I sent the left-hand problem on the first Mountain Bike Slab, which has a very cool 2-finger pocket and a tricky high-step. I had heard it was possibly as hard as V3, but I sent it first go and figured it was probably V1 or so. Aya also did some bouldering on the slab - she's a natural! She'll be a top climber for sure!