The season continues to wind down at Lincoln Lake near Mt. Evans, CO. Dave Graham had his final days in the new zone last week before heading east to compete in the UBC comp. On his last day he managed to open 2 more hard boulders in Vanilla Sky (V14) and Tattooed Teardrops (V13). According to his scorecard Graham climbed 21 problems V11 or harder this summer at Linconln Lake with 11 of those being first ascents. A season for the record books if I ever saw one.
With both Graham and Daniel Woods busy on the east coast it was Jon Cardwell and Nalle Hukkataival’s turn to take advantage of the crisp (or not so crisp given the temps in Boulder lately) conditions at Mt. Evans. In the past week both have done 5 V12s or harder including 3 V13s in one day by Cardwell and a fast 5 minute repeat of The Exfoliator by Hukkataival according to their respective 8a scorecards.
The grade of The Exfoliator has been the subject of some disagreement with Daniel Woods originally suggesting V14, Dave Graham suggesting V13 and both Hukkataival and Carlo Traversi indicating they think it could be V12. Of course it helps to remember that Hukkataival seems built for the climbing at Mt. Evans with his flash of No More Greener Grasses (V12) and 2nd try send of Clear Blue Skies (V11 or 12) back in 2008. Maybe dude is just really strong?? Or, as commenter Scott points out, Hukkataival seems to start a move higher than Woods did if you compare the footage of their respective ascents. So make of it what you will…
Here’s a short video from Hukkataival and Cardwell that shows repeats of Evil Backwards, The Exfoliator and The Great War For Civilisation:
Wolverine Land – Season Finale from ZeroSkillz on Vimeo.
One really really cold, windy day at Wolverine Land in Colorado. One of the last days of the season. 9 days left!!!
Any news on if Nalle has gotten on The Game?
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I hope Nalle does hop on The Game in Boulder Canyon. However, with 78 degrees in Denver and Mid 70’s in boulder he most likely will wait for better temps…
Dwoods did the game when it was was like 25 degrees?
Let’s just hope Warrior Up and some of the other Wolvo hard lines get a repetition.
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Any reason Nalle started one move farther in on The Exfoliator than Woods? Looks like it would make the next move a good bit easier to start there.
Daniel starts matched on the rail that Nalle starts with his right hand on…
Video: http://vimeo.com/14993382
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Very astute observation. From what I’ve read the first move isn’t the crux but it doesn’t look trivial either.
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I think that was one of the things Carlo Traversi or Max Zolotukhin mentioned a while ago. Its apparently “more obvious” to start as per Nalle, rather than matched on the right hand edge. I really can’t see it making a large difference, there is a MASSIVE foot ledge for that first move anyway. Still a really cool looking climb though.
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um.. no..
Max and Carlo are talking about to “pHOBOS” (v11)..
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“The next day after Phobos, Carlo found out from Jaime that Daniel had started The Exfoliator matched on the right of the two OBVIOUS start holds which are at equal chest height off the ground and then moved his left to the other one. While this is neither obvious nor does it add any difficulty…”
from http://climbingczar.louderthan11.com/?p=216
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Spent a great deal of time talking to Carlo, Daniel, and Dave at the Nor’Easter this weekend. I’ll spare you my relatively lackluster insights on Wolvo land and instead offer these two tidbits:
Carlo thinks that Superfly at Rumney goes and will be the hardest problem in the east. He is PSYCHED on it. Dave did all the moves 10 years ago, and Daniel is going to get on it this week. Jaws II (unconfirmed .15a) also goes down in the next 5 days or your money back.
Rumor has it that Sharma is heading out to CO to repeat the Game.
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Cool, thanks for sharing! What exactly is Superfly? Some sort of extension to The Fly?
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Superfly is a line just to the left of The Fly – an old Rumney guidebook guessed that might eventually go at 5.15a – a likely candidate for V15, I would think?
Like The Fly, the line starts as a stand off a boulder – in this case from a tremendously obvious jug.
Interestingly, Dave also remembers doing a “very difficult” sit that finished on the jug, so theoretically the two could one day be linked into one of the stoutest lines in the country.
Of course, I can’t come close to this kind of difficult climbing, so I’m basically just pasting together my observations, old reading, and the insights of Carlo, Daniel, and Dave. Fun stuff to think about, though.
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Who is closest on Jaws II? Or, are they all getting it dialed in? Thanks for the update/observations.
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Daniel was looking VERY close – he two hung it in poor conditions on Sunday. Monday was very wet and he still made several good attempts. With dry weather heading in by the weekend, my money is on him sending ASAP.
Dave was also looking very solid on it, but didn’t seem to have decided on his beta for the lower crux. I’d be very surprised if he didn’t also nab it.
Carlo made progress but has already left for Europe, Sharma worked it in hot weather but is also gone, and Ethan Pringle said at the comp that he wanted to get on it but I never saw him at the crag.
The thing that excited me most as a New Englander was how positive they all were about the quality of the rock and the routes at Rumney. Carlo seemed psyched enough to want to come back ASAP once he returns to the states.
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has carlo seen all of the east? just sayin, yo.
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