Yesterday’s visit to Munson Lake didn’t involve much bouldering. The ground was saturated, the ditches full and Munson Brook had the by far the highest flow I’ve seen. All this was due to the forty millimetres of rain that had fallen the day before. My intention was to do some work rather than climb.
Upon arrival, it was surprising to discover that the South and West faces of the boulders were dry. Sunny and 15 degrees are ideal bouldering conditions so I tried to take advantage of the good friction on a sloper traverse at 7-10 Split. After a couple attempts, though, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.
So I set off for Big Slab, to see if something could be done to ameliorate the landing. The area of concern is on the right, directly below the starting hold that Jono and I played a bit on last weekend. (story here) Two rocks protrude about 30 cm from the ground, and are about 30 cm apart. One of them is fairly flat-topped, and from it the starting hold is just reachable. The other is a pointed ridge held in place by a big slab (not the Big Slab, a flat piece that’s roughly 1.5m x 1.5m x 0.3m). I wasn’t particularly happy with the dead tree trunk and rocks we’d piled up in this gap last weekend. They eliminated a catastrophic landing, but multiple pads and highly skilled spotters would be necessary. I thought I could do better, and I did.
Three-and-a-half hours of shimming, rocking, and levering moved the big slab off the sharp one then back from the boulder and down the slope. The sharp one was turned, others rearranged and more brought from the surrounding area to make a gently graded landing zone, while keeping the full height of the boulder intact. I’m happy with the results as it’s not excessively terraced, yet it’s one less thing to worry about.
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| 3 1/2 hours before this shot was taken, the biggest rock (bottom right) was in the middle of the frame against the thin stumps. |
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Today my goal was to send one of my projects. I went straight for Two Zig Zags, but found the crack/pinch hadn’t dried yet. Another one was muddy yesterday as I’d finished scrubbing it, so knew there was no point in going to work it today. It would have to be the sloper traverse on 7-10.
I’d completed a warm-up at home before leaving; therefore, didn’t feel I needed to do much before getting on something hard. So, after putting up a new problem (Pump and Dump V0) on Kingpin, I was ready to tackle the project.
Between attempts, I walked around a bit to the small boulder West of Curvy Trunk Cedar. I’d always dismissed it as not worth the effort. Many people have asked me about it (it does look cool) and my response was “I don’t think there’s really anything on it... I’m sure it’ll get done by someone at some point when we’re desperate for new problems.” Today, I walked around the whole thing, something I don’t think I'd done before, and started to consider the possibilities.
Another attempt on 7-10. Then lunch. Then I trimmed some branches around the small boulder. Another couple attempts, then I scrubbed the small boulder. Another attempt, and SUCCESS! *Goat Sucker V8
By this point I was pretty tired and my skin was pretty worn, so I decided to head up the slab of the small boulder rather than try the bulge. HandLESS V0. A sit start to the bulge seemed really hard, but I wasn’t ready to go home yet, so decided to try the top half. Despite the crystalline slopers, it wasn’t too rough on the hands, and the moves were really cool. I decided to try and figure out a sit start. Eventually, I did, then put the whole thing together. *HandSOME V4.
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| HandSOME V4, goes right up the little roof/bulge. HandLESS is in the back side. |
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