The Beastmaker has Arrived!

Woohoo, just got my Beastmaker 2000 series. After building a burly hanging spot suitable for this work of art, it's ready to go for the inaugural session tonight. Expect more boring spew about the Beastmaker from me in the coming months. Special shout out to the folks who turned me on the the Beastmaker: check out Will's blog dungeontraining and NizzaGrandpouce's blog increasingthecalibre . Now if you'll excuse me I need to go practice my British slang.

Surf Safari Day Twenty-three. Success!

After 23 days of effort over 10 months, I have finally sent Surf Safari! I started the day with no expectations, since I had been away from the route for 4 weeks. I expected some regression and was ready to spend a couple more weekends to get it done. The nano-climate of Surf Safari was it's usual self on Mother's Day, with pretty warm air temps but the usual freezing wind that was leading to numb fingers in about 90 seconds. After warming up at home on the simulator, I went straight into a redpoint attempt at the crag and came off at the fudgecicle/ear with cold fingers. Attempts 2 and 3 were similar. Finally around 6 pm the route came into the sun and the rock felt a bit warmer, although the wind picked up speed as well. Usually I would discount a fourth attempt, but my arms felt really good before I started and I thought I could actually do it this late in the day. Once I controlled the sloper of the surfboard, I had to reset my left foot in the letterbox before the final bump, and Ethan's encouragement to "go" was sound advice as I made the final bump. After that, I just focused on carefully finishing up the awkward mantle to clip the chains, which was uneventful, thankfully. Here's a video ; the first half showing the bottom is from an earlier burn, while the second half is from the actual send.

Surf Safari Day Twenty-two

Last Sunday, April 12th was day 22 on the route. After 4 weeks away from the route, I was expecting some regression, but at least hoping for something more. The conditions were strange. We arrived early due to family obligations later in the day, so the rock was still damp from the night's fog. As we started, there was no wind and it seemed like it might be a nice day. As we warmed up, the wind picked up and it became pretty chilly (but not death-zone cold like on previous trips). So, gave it few burns, first go, got through the crux (with some hand-wiping at the 4th bolt due to damp rock), and arrived at the ear with numb fingers and flopped off. After that, gave three more tries but couldn't even get through the crux again. The bottom of the route never did dry (we left by 2:30). It may have been really good conditions at last light if the sun got on the route.

Day Twenty-One Surf Safari

Cold, cold, so cold. The wind was icy, colder than last week, but at least the rock was dry. Cloud cover kept the sun away, so it was bone-chilling all day long. Most of the day was spent huddling in the Hotel (the one rock tall enough to be a wind-break). Every once in while, someone would jump up, run into the Death Zone (any area exposed to the wind) and give a quick redpoint burn. Despite the numbing cold I was able to get a new high-point (well, really, the same hold, but this time I stuck the surf sloper in control, but before I could move, my foot popped out of the letter box). Overall I felt really strong with 1st burn to the undercling/ear but no pop for the surfboard. 2nd go the aforementioned high-point, and third go felt great where I got the ear and paused for a second to let my left hand recover before taking the undercling, but just then my right hand blew out of the ear. So it seems to be coming together and I think the redpoint could happen soon.

Didn't do much livestreaming as it was just to cold to mess around, but one video turned out so-so. The interesting part is the audio track...nothing but wind.

Surf Safari Day Twenty

Windy. Day 20 was windy, windy enough to blow the stocking cap right off my head. While I was hopeful that today would be the day, it was so cold in the wind that everyone in the party had a tough day on the rig, with nobody even matching previous high points. The intermediate in the crux was pretty seepy which made getting through the crux tougher than normal. In anycase, I was able to link twice into the upper headwall, with the best go yielding a brief snag of the ear.