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News & Notes – 05/20/2009
Things have been insanely busy for me getting ready for a trip to the RRG this weekend and the long awaited move to our new home next weekend. Here are a few links to tide you over:
- Matt Wilder did the 9th ascent (by my count) of They Fly (V14) at Rumney the other day.
- Draper’s Bluff in Southern Illinois has been closed to climbing. The climbers that owned the land made the decision to close after a recent change in liability laws in Illinois.
- Interview with Phil Schaal at P&C
- An interesting article on how Black Diamond makes their carabiners.
- The El Cap Report, a longtime staple of the forums at Super Topo, has moved to its own blog. Check it out for incredible up close pictures from El Capitan.
- Looking for beta on the bouldering at Devil’s Lake? Stay tuned to the Wisconsin Bouldering Blog.
- Keith and Nalle Hukkataival explain a bit more about how the bouldering contest at Melloblocco went for some of the bigger names. To see what Daniel Woods may or may not have been up to click here.
- American’s Sasha DiGiulian and Andre Di Felice both made the podium at the Canadian Bouldering Championships this past weekend. How many of you tuned in to watch online?
13 comments
Where you moving Brian?
To the OC
as in Oak Creek
I'm confused . . . Is the video on Matt Wilder's blog his actual send or did he send it boulder style? On lead? Or just TR? Does that count as a send?
To my knowledge, only Jason Kehl and Kevin Jorgeson have bouldered The Fly. Doing it with a very very very very very lose TR is an accepted way of doing this highball because the landing is dangerously horrible.
Ooops didn't realize the only way to send this is by solo or TR. Guess it's a send.
I believe both Dave Graham and Daniel Woods clipped the 2nd bolt on lead. Either way you still clip the anchor so its not a full "TR" . The landing not so great and multi leveled since you start off a large block.
Thats true too. Sorry. I failed to mention the whole clipping the first bolt. I figure, if you're climbing at that level, I'd give you leeway on that. I know Rhoads would say otherwise, but thats okay.
I thought there were assents done of the Fly with only the first bolt clipped?
Either way it's impossible to clip the second bolt so I guess it doesn't matter.
And Brian.... Oak Creek hehe. Your moving even farther from climbing! :P
Closer to the Red???
The video is of my send of the route. The people who have clipped the second bolt have clipped it after making the move out right at which point the climbing is much easier. For a route like this, clipping is really not the focus so I just chose to have the second bolt clipped when I started. For me it was all about the climbing - the raw moves - and the rope was there just to protect me. I think bouldering it would be great and I would have liked to do it in this style. Unfortunately, you need tons of pads to make it safe and since I flew out to Rumney from Colorado, organizing the pad situation would have been a nightmare. Many of the other ascents of the route have been in this same style.
Great send! I've always thought, like you said, its not about the clips but about the moves and the climb. Anything you needed to do within reason for your safety is completely legitimate. Hope you didn't feel like anyone was attacking your send, because its awesome. Good job Matt.
Thanks for stopping by to comment Matt!
I think anyone questioning your style doesn't really understand the nature of this route. Nice work!