More From Panther

We opened up two good new lines today, and temporarily lost a great one. We also started to clean and work a short overhanging wall that will have at least six good problems.

A problem we started to work on Tuesday, in the cave below the finish of Righteous Beast, was dispatched pretty quickly, and is now Nautilus (v3, FA Chris Prewitt).

Nautilus from Joe Kreidel on Vimeo.

We then walked 100 feet downhill to the Monkey Skull:

Curious George (v3, FA MAtt Fowls) climbs the bulge of the right side of his mouth, topping out through his right eye. The problem is steeper than it looks, with your body at one point being dead horizontal. Some great moves and fun heel hooks on this problem.

Getting o work on a short overhang on the back side of the Pyramid:

And on Righteous Beast, the fantastic long roof I sent on Tuesday, we made the decision to clean of a large and important jug cobble. The cobble at first seemed super solid, but after repeated attempts on the problem, and lots of weight being put on it, it slowly started to flex more and more. Rather than risk this rugby ball-sized cobble breaking off in some ones face, and knowing it would eventually come out anyways, we decided to pry it off. The line is now more difficult for sure, but is even better than it was before. Instead of 20 feet of roof jugs to two hard moves, you now have twenty feet of jugs into a series of hard moves that could be considered a quality boulder problem unto itself. We worked out the beta, but no one could manage a send. This will be a proud and hard line, for sure.

Matt working out the beta on the lower sections of Righteous Beast:

When cleaning lines at this place (or anywhere), it is a thin and difficult line to walk when decided what stays, what goes, how best to clean, what to do about landings and vegetation, etc. It was a bit heartbreaking to see the large cobble go on Righteous Beast, as this was my proudest FA to date. And while it is not something I really like to see, and something I had wanted to avoid at this area, I have to admit I was quite tempted to reinforce the cobble with glue. But there is plenty of that already on Tucson's boulders, and really should be a practice of the past. So while it was hard to do, I went ahead and broke the cobble loose. The result is another stellar, proud FA up for grabs.