Eye Candy

A video reel with some Daniels Valley easter eggs (1:45-1:50)  and the stunning crux pitch 10 of  Sacred Stone can be seen at 2:47.


Click here --- >   Wildland Media Demo Reel

Video of some B Branch Boulders

A friend from Vancouver was recently in town, and despite only a few hours spent in the valley, in the rain, he managed to make some sends, including one FA, and work a few projects before the conditions became too wet.

The problems are:

FA of a V7 variation to Inverted Academics(V6)  (*Update, the V7 is now called Nameless Nirvana), instead of going straight up from the crimps, bump right to the good hold, bear down on a tiny left hand crimp, control the swing, and lock off to pull through to the lip. Super fun gymnastic problem!  (Warning: the jug that you leg bar off of is flexing, use caution)

Working the Ataraxia project (my guess is around V9)

Attempt to link  'Cheater' (V2) into the classic The Revival (V4)

A quick send of The Dark Crystal (V4)

 Most problems stayed dry despite a heavy overnight rain and off and on rain throughout the whole day.

Why the long silence?

 I haven't been updating this blog for awhile, but not due to lack of climbing news in Powell River.

Matt Hodgson has been crushing, developing a whole new bouldering area across the river in the Eldred, with a new zipline access.
 There's been ascents on the Buttress, and new stuff at the lake bluffs as well.

I haven't been posting because I'm back in school, living in Vancouver, and have been very busy working on opening a co-op climbing gym in Powell River. Between that, school, work, and climbing as much as possible in Squamish, I've been a bit out of the loop with the actual climbing scene in PR.

 For anyone who doesn't know, check out our website, at prclimbinggym.com for info, and join our FB page "Powell River Climber's Co-op" for updates as they come.

 In the mean time, enjoy a few videos! The first is one I made of one of the most recent problem's I've established in Squamish.  It might take me a while to get the hang of filming and editing, but I cant wait to start making some videos of the climbing in PR this coming season.

 Enjoy! https://vimeo.com/150876433  <--- Click there to see the vid.

 Here's one I dug up of Matt H getting the FA of Inverted Academics (V6) in the Eldred. I busted my knee on the second ascent and still can't do certain kinds of heel hooks. Injury aside, it's a really unique, must do problem in B Branch.

Inverted Academics, FA, V6 - Matt Hodgson  <--- Click there for the video of Matt!

Psyche Slab, Schizophrenia Video

https://vimeo.com/115652185  Here's a cool video of the classic 12 pitch climb Schiz (5.10). A great casual moderate, I'd say it's one of the most commonly climbed routes in the Eldred. A few shots of the campground, river, Carag Dur and the West Main Wall thrown in there as well.

The Leprechaun's Wand

Here's a brief clip of Matt Hodgson right before getting the FA of the Stillwater project, which he's named The Leprechaun's Wand. He's decided not to grade it yet, and it may need another ascent or two to come to a consensus.

Of course, the video doesn't show the brutally small, fingertip sized slit that you start off in matched, and somehow Matt makes hopping on with the awkward backstep look easy - after a dozen attempts I couldn't even get off the ground into that position.
Being much shorter and not being able to start without a pad stack, I tried to find a different beta which will likely add a few moves, but I wasn't able to put it together.

It's great to see gems like this coming out of an area once thought 'totally tapped out.'

New route going up, and a project going down.

Despite a whole lot of rain over the last few weeks, plenty of climbing has been going on in the area. For starters, here's a video of Matt H sending the John Galt project that was worked on back in 2008, which you can read about here. Matt and I worked the problem last trip up the valley, and he unlocked the beta just before the rain hit. 

New Problem:

First ascent!
Problem: Inverted Academics   Grade: V6 (unconfirmed)   -   Thanks to Anna for the video!

How cool is that massive leg hook? The micro crimps above it would be pretty much useless without such a solid set up.

New Route:
In other news, over the last couple of days I've been working on a new line immediately left of Major Attitude, in the Gappage zone at HiggyLand. The line follows the obvious arête, until it tops out on a ledge just below the end of Major Attitude.
  

Just passed 3/4 way up the line,  instead of following the arête you can go straight up the face to  finish on Major Attitude, and avoid the tricky ending of the new route. Luckily, this slightly easier finish in no way compromises the style of the route, as you still have to turn the final roof of Major Attitude. Both possible finishes are steep and bouldery. 

Grade wise, I'm thinking around 11c, but I'm terrible at grading anything, so who knows.
Hopefully I'll have a chance to bolt it soon, and maybe even get a photo up!

Speaking of photos, here's a random one of Mika sending Prince, before the power lines went in.

Open Boulder Surgery

And here's me cleaning a project in B Branch. Yes - that is a surgical mask that I'm wearing...it does wonders to keep the rock dust and mildew out of your lungs.

The Abyss - a totally non Powell River related climbing film

The Abyss - Still from the movie.

Well, I'm going to break from my regular routine of posting Powell River / Eldred Valley related content, and post a climbing video that I just watched instead.

 The Abyss is a short, very well done film about the development of North America's highest bouldering area, not too far from the already majorly famous Rocky Mountain national park in Colorado.

 It's often challenging for me to convey the exact feeling of developing an area: the challenge, the sacrifice, the love, and the reward that you experience are so unique that it can be very difficult to put into terms that climbers who have never had the same opportunity can understand.

 This video deals with issues like sharing a new area vs keeping it a secret - when and why to make the transition, and when and why an area will actually take off as opposed to just being 'some other area' that though beaming with potential might be entirely ignored.

Developing the bouldering in the Eldred Valley was at first a very solo project, because no one else in town was very interested in bouldering, and anyone from out of town didn't want to travel so far just to scrub boulders (or even clean big wall routes) when they could go to Squamish and climb a life times worth of classics. This film sums up the joys and frustrations of developing an area wonderfully.

Of course, it also has all the elements a good climbing film needs - beautiful scenery, and hard climbing!

Maybe this video will get people stoked to help me scrub more boulders this season....Enjoy!

The Abyss: America's highest bouldering - on Youtube
The Abyss: America's highest bouldering - on Vimeo

The makers of the film - Louder Than 11

"Theres always a few people out there that do the bouldering development. One percent of the climbing population does 90 percent of the devlopment. It's that 1 percent...they're wired like that, it's their lifes work. It's what they'd rather be doing than anything else"- John Sherman

PR à la electronica

 Check out this video I found on Youtube. A montage of some of the areas in town.  When I have more time, I'll list all the specific details so you can use it as a visual resource. Thanks a lot to "D. Flanagan" for putting this together.