Boy did I pick a bad day to stay home from Devil’s Lake yesterday.
Wisconsin Bouldering Legend* Nic Oklobzija was in town for the day, and he cleaned up in a big way at the West Bluff. He made quick work of the 2nd ascent of Moj (V8) and did the FA of the so-called Power Plant project at a surprisingly low grade of V6/7. Most noteworthy, however, was Nic’s fast 2nd ascent of The Keymaker over 6 years after it’s lone ascent by Brian Sandona. He registered it on his spraycard as V11, commenting that it could “be anywhere from 9 to 11”. Since Nic is basically the only person other than Brian to even attempt the top moves, it will be interesting to see what sort of consensus can be reached after more people (hopefully) climb this problem.
Here are a few pictures of Nic on Keymaker courtesy of Remo:
Props also go out to John Freaney for making a fast ascent of Massive Vertigo (V8), also on the West Bluff at the Lake. I’ve never been to that problem, but I’m very psyched to do so after seeing pictures and this video of his ascent:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awN0vFuDzgQ&w=540]
If you are looking for a high quality circuit of hard problems to climb on in the Midwest, all of these problems can be found along the West Bluff at Devil’s Lake:
- Keymaker (V11)
- Alpine Club (V9)
- Beautiful Soup (V8)
- Moj (V8)
- Massive Vertigo (V8)
- Anchorpoint (V7, although MUCH easier if you are tall)
- Jenga (V6)
Another weekend of beautiful fall weather is coming up. The clock is ticking…
*To clarify for those that don’t know, Nic was jokingly given the title of Wisconsin Bouldering Legend after his spring trip where he dispatched two of the harder problems at the Lake. In most states the ascent of two sub-V10 boulders would not be that noteworthy, but since this is Wisconsin and barely any hard boulders are ever climbed outside, proper recognition of Nic’s strong work was required.
AWESOME work Nic!
Also I like the surprise send of Massive Vertigo by Freaney, unexpected and cool. I didn’t think anyone was even touching that thing yet.
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Props to Josh Freaney? who is that 🙂
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Whoever he is, I think he’s avoiding me since he only goes climbing when I can’t…
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I left the grade at 8a because I have no idea how hard anything is. My gut tells me v10? But the area is heavily sand bagged. So we shall see, I think it could see another repeat this year.
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Paging ALEX JOHNSON, please report to Devil’s Lake at your earliest convenience…
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girl or boy?
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Both?
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I think John Freaney must be a myth. Like the Lockness Monster or a healthy and climbing Narc.
Also narc, u need to start staying up later at night to stay up on the climbing news. Jamie beat u to a story that occurred in ur own state? It is a sad day my friend.
Also, thank u for the shout out. The climb is really really good!
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I received the spray via text (I pictured Nic texting me as he was topping out, but I could be wrong about that) yesterday morning. If I had known there was a rush on this news I of course would have picked up the pace on reporting it…
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I kept refreshing the page hoping for the new, but all I got was some secretive spray from your Facebook and no real news. You can’t do that to us Narc. I feel violated.
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This is the cut throat world of climbing news my friend. There is no room for mistakes or lackadaisical attitudes when u want to be the best. I propose u don’t sleep any longer in order to be able to report climbing news at all hours a day. I propose 24 hour blogging. U may want to look into a red bull sponsorship when u switch to the new format.
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that looks like good stone…
and nic is a legend on all coasts.
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Indeed. I have my complaints about the style of climbing, but you can’t dispute the quality of the rock at Devil’s Lake.
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Oh NO! What have you guys done?! You’re feeding Nic’s ego!! He’s going to turn into an attention crazed beast now! Pretty soon he’ll be twittering every time he reaches the top of a boulder!
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haha, that may or may not have crossed my mind. However, as I stated the sending of hard-ish boulders is a rare occurrence in Wisconsin. We can’t be selective with who our heroes are…
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I already do that.
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EGO!
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ergo..
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about fucking time! thank god! we need to more more accents of that thing! Runnels your next brother!
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