News & Notes: Spring Break Edition

A few general bits of climbing news along with several links to check out what people were up to over Spring Break:

• Early last month, Dean Potter completed a 40 foot roof project he called Zen Garden near Moab, UT. He described it as “the hardest roof crack that I know of”. Besides the power endurance nature of the climbing, Potter commented about the tree situated below the topout adding a bit of a highball feel to the problem. Fast forward to last week when Matt Segal made the trip from Boulder to give it a try, and he repeated Zen Garden in two day’s worth of effort. Check out this photo from Mike Doyle of Matt topping out. Observe the spotter situated in the tree. You can see video of Matt’s send in the MVM premium section.

Photo: Mike Doyle

• Natasha Barnes recently climbed Ron Kauk’s Camp 4 classic Thriller (V10). This was the problem’s 5th female ascent. You can see footage of the 4th female ascent by Lyn Verinsky from the BetaBase blog below
• I’ll be the first to admit that crack climbing has always looked to me to be the least appealing form of free climbing. However photos from friends’ trips to Indian Creek combined with these photos posted recently at Climbing.com have me reconsidering this notion.
• Dave Graham recently repeated Kheops Assis at Fontaniebleau which he figures has to be V14 (and not V15) because he sent it in roughly 4 goes! Hopefully the arrival of the B3Bouldering crew to Font will yield some more picture and stories from the French Forests.
• This year alone, Daniel Woods has climbed 38 boulder problems V11 and harder in Europe including his most recent V14, Dave Graham’s Confessions.
• The Mammut Bouldering Championship Gravity Brawl was held last weekend in New Jersey. Winners were Matt Bosley for the men and Paige Claassen for the women. Nice to see the unheralded Jimmy Webb right in the mix placing 4th. Full results here.

Kevin Jorgeson pulling down at the Gravity Brawl – Kevin took 2nd place

Photo: Tim Kemple

• Ty Landman spent spring break in Southern California and Red Rocks with Harry Robertson and others. Most notable was Ty’s repeat of Matt Birch’s Somewhere in Time at the Tramway in SoCal that was originally graded V14 and proposed to be downgraded to V13 by Daniel Woods. Ty logged it as hard V12. Apparently Matt is on his way back to the Tramway to try and add a sit start, should be sick.

Ty bouldering at Red Rocks

Photo: Colette McInerney

• Paul Robinson didn’t have the success on the Rastaman Vibration sit start he was hoping for last week in Bishop. Unfortunately a badly split tip kept him from putting it together so he has vowed to make a return trip in a few weeks. He did manage to pull off a quick 4th ascent of Tony Lamiche’s Xavier’s Roof (V12) with the “destroyed” tip though.
• Hayden Miller has some nice photos from spring break in Joe’s Valley including Chuck Fryberger working Black Lung and the requisite pictures from The Wind Below.
• The Traversi brothers (Carlo & Giovanni) were also in Joe’s Valley before heading to the Red Rock Rendezvous. Giovanni had a good trip to say the least.
• Speaking of…The Red Rock Rendezvous was last weekend, Climbing.com has a photo gallery from John Evans from the event.
• Adam Lincoln is in Yosemite as part of his US trip and he posted some really awesome pictures that Wade David took of him climbing Midnight Lightning last year.
• While not necessarily Spring Break related, Gabor is bouncing around the incredible crags of Spain with the likes of Future Roden.
• Apparently Joe’s Valley is THE Spring Break destination, check out more pictures from the Straight into yer face lam crew…