Mortar Rock in Berkeley is the closest bouldering to my house, at least in terms of driving time outside of rush hour. Until late 2012 I hadn’t spent much time there; the rock is sharp and I’d done all the “easy” problems worth doing. The remaining ones start at v8, and I thought they were impossible for me.

I was talking to a friend at the gym who said I should start working Nat’s Traverse, perhaps the most classic boulder problem in the Bay Area. It’s a long and burly sequence of moves with plenty of options for different body types (none of them easy, of course). It starts around a corner, has a crux move to gain the main wall, then another difficult sequence around a bulge, and then it’s about having enough juice left to go up The Ramp (V4). I thought I’d give it a try. It’s been a relatively dry winter in the Bay Area, so I had plenty of days with great conditions to figure out the moves.

A couple of weeks ago I finally had every single move down, so it was a matter of linking them all together. Last weekend I fell three times on the next-to-last hold of The Ramp, which I’ve done at least a hundred times. Yesterday I managed to fall on the last possible move: I choked and didn’t grab the Cheese Grater hold properly. I wasn’t pumped, so I knew that I could do it. I rested half an hour and finally managed the send.

It’s the first time I climb a relatively long-term project after putting in a number of hours into it, so now I have a glimpse of what it must feel like for those persistent climbers who constantly push their limits. It feels great. On to the next project!

I went to Bishop again for a couple of days. It was a fun trip and the weather was perfect. I stayed between Wednesday night and Saturday morning, spending two days in the Buttermilk area and one in the Happy Boulders.

What I wanted to climb on this trip was High Plains Drifter (V7) but I caught a cold and wasn’t feeling strong. I fell at the last hard move a couple of times and called it quits. My friend wanted to try Seven Spanish Angels, so we went there and gave it a few good burns. It was getting dark, and I could not commit to the final dynamic move.

I climbed a few easier problems, including a flash of a V5 called “Son of Claudius Rufus” just because it was near the Hulk. It seemed easy to me, I would not have rated it B5. I also climbed some easy highballs just to improve my mental game.

I tried to film a problem called Go Granny Go (V5) at the Grandma Peabody boulder. It’s quite popular because it doesn’t get high off the ground, and it’s almost always in the shade. I couldn’t aim my GoPro camera correctly because it doesn’t have a screen, so you can’t see the jug at the end. A jug is a jug is a jug. Anyway, I have this problem wired so I use it to gauge if I’m feeling strong enough for harder ones.

Some thoughts from this trip just for myself:

1) Never boulder three days in a row, no matter what. After 40 this is flirting with injury, and it’s not even fun.
2) For my next trip to Bishop, go for quantity. Try to get on as many good problems as possible within my ability, and don’t spend many burns on any particular one. Bishop is too long of a drive to have long-term projects, and I can only go there maybe 3-4 times a year.
3) Try to avoid weekends in Bishop during peak bouldering season. The place on Saturday felt like a climbing gym, complete with dogs and screaming babies. At the very least, try to go off the beaten track.

There are two main chains of climbing gyms in the San Francisco Bay Area: Touchstone and Planet Granite. Until now Planet Granite in SF has been the best gym for bouldering. This is about to change with the upcoming opening of Dogpatch Boulders.

Last night they had a preview climbing session for Touchstone members, announced on Facebook. I do not use Facebook, so I didn’t know. I randomly found out about it when, at the end of my training session, I asked a staff member about the status of Dogpatch. Learning that it was open, I was there ten minutes later. I was able to take advantage of the last hour of the event, and it was just fantastic. I loved the texture of the new holds, the height of the problems, and the thick padding on the floor. Many of the problems I tried were really good. I didn’t rest much during that hour, but still managed to take a couple of pictures. I can’t wait for this place to open officially!

This is as much of the place as I could get in one picture. There’s more!

Spent this weekend in Yosemite. The weather was as good as it gets: 30s and 40s, sunny, perfect friction. My main objective was to make some progress on Midnight Lightning, which I did. Still not close to finishing it, but it feels possible.

I also climbed a few easier problems, of which my favorite was Atlantis. It would have been even better if some key holds hadn’t been soaked and dripping. I avoided grabbing the left side of the rail, but for the next move I had to step on it with my entire sole. When I got to the top my shoes were wet and I was stepping on ice. That was exciting. I imagine that when it’s dry it must feel easy for the grade.

Another cool problem at Camp 4, called Hit Man. Tried with a few other people. It took us a while to figure out the moves, then it seemed relatively easy.

There were not very many people around, perhaps because it was the Superbowl weekend. That made it even better. I don’t like being in Yosemite when it’s crowded, so I’ll try to take advantage of good weather in the next couple of months. Hopefully there will be a few more weekends like this one.