Going into the bouldering leg of our trip in RMNP, I had pretty low expectations. The cast from my latest surgery had only been off for 2 months, I got bouted in Yosemite recently and didn’t feel all that strong during my most recent outing to Governor Dodge. However, I surprised myself on our first day of climbing by quickly sending Potato Chip (V7ish?) on the so-called Warmup boulder; thus I set the goal of climbing another problem of a similar grade before we left.
I contemplated Tommy’s Arete as an option being that I had worked on it during my previous RMNP outing. I ended up focusing my efforts on Mikala (V7ish?) instead; the short-lived crux followed by what is basically V1 climbing seemed better suited to my lack of power endurance and decided lack of skin. The problem ended up being sharper than I would have liked, and I realized that extensive pulling with my right foot toward the first hold would be key if I were to send while I still had skin.
Here is a patched together sequence from some of my initial efforts prior to the non-documented send:
At this point I was initially trying to finish out right toward the inviting tick mark, but it ended up being much easier to finish up and left. Anyone know what the deal is with this?? Going up right would seem to be a somewhat contrived eliminate.
About to take a nasty fall…
As for the argument that both Potato Chip and Mikala are soft for V7, I don’t have a great frame of reference having not climbed for so long. Regardless, I considered Potato Chip the superior problem as it is a more consistent climb. In any event, taking the higher points having fun is what is most important right??
