Serious bouldering session
May. 1st, 2016 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylWith the weather a bit of a washout, we all went to the Barn for a classic Sunday afternoon of bouldering. In a break from the norm, HS drove and took Google's recommended route rather than E's faster but more complicated version involving all sorts of back roads.
The problems were a mix of old and new. We made easy work of the yellow problems and moved on to the blue set, where the more difficult ones required multiple attempts before we cracked them. A particular highlight was a problem which featured a single hold on the hanging slab: the first couple of moves were balancey, while the final move involved open-handed friction on the top of the boulder combined with a smear and a powerful top out.
We spent quite a lot of time working a problem on, I think, Si's Wave. The basic moves were actually pretty simple: start spanned out with one hand on a sloper, move up left and match hands, come all the way out right for an undercut, step through and flag, slap up for another sloper, turn round to get right foot on the second sloper, left flagged and a final big move up to the top. All apparently easy stuff, but everything was extremely overhung and the others struggled to reach the undercut. I was tall enough to reach the undercut statically using a toe-hook — a position that felt very solid and locked in — and I able to get to the top but couldn't quite latch my fingers over the top to stick the final move.
I also enjoyed a 6B problem on the Vert Wall that featured a move up from a rail to friction both hands on a sloper, followed by a move up and a pull-up on another geometric sloper, and then a very careful bit of balance work to catch the top of the boulder for the top out. I got all of it bar the very last move, finding that although I had a solid beta, I was too tired to latch the top once I got my hands on it, and because the final move was basically another trusty pull from a rather exposed position, I decided not to chance it.
All in all, it was a really nice break and a great way to spend the weekend goofing off with friends, throwing ourselves through a series of much more outdoors-y problems than the usual range of things we have in town...
The problems were a mix of old and new. We made easy work of the yellow problems and moved on to the blue set, where the more difficult ones required multiple attempts before we cracked them. A particular highlight was a problem which featured a single hold on the hanging slab: the first couple of moves were balancey, while the final move involved open-handed friction on the top of the boulder combined with a smear and a powerful top out.
We spent quite a lot of time working a problem on, I think, Si's Wave. The basic moves were actually pretty simple: start spanned out with one hand on a sloper, move up left and match hands, come all the way out right for an undercut, step through and flag, slap up for another sloper, turn round to get right foot on the second sloper, left flagged and a final big move up to the top. All apparently easy stuff, but everything was extremely overhung and the others struggled to reach the undercut. I was tall enough to reach the undercut statically using a toe-hook — a position that felt very solid and locked in — and I able to get to the top but couldn't quite latch my fingers over the top to stick the final move.
I also enjoyed a 6B problem on the Vert Wall that featured a move up from a rail to friction both hands on a sloper, followed by a move up and a pull-up on another geometric sloper, and then a very careful bit of balance work to catch the top of the boulder for the top out. I got all of it bar the very last move, finding that although I had a solid beta, I was too tired to latch the top once I got my hands on it, and because the final move was basically another trusty pull from a rather exposed position, I decided not to chance it.
All in all, it was a really nice break and a great way to spend the weekend goofing off with friends, throwing ourselves through a series of much more outdoors-y problems than the usual range of things we have in town...
