Hairpin Boulders

This week was a special one because our old Team Tueday co-conspirator Tyler was back in town. I got to climb with him at Ventana last week and Silverbell on Monday, so it was great catching up and climbing with him again.

This Tuesday found us at the Hairpin Boulders after we got scared a little by the weather forecast. We had planned on heading out to Cochise Stronghold and doing some bouldering there, but the forecast didn't look too good for anywhere in Southern Arizona. So we decided to stay close, and not risk waking up extra early then driving an hour and a half and being rained out. IDIOTS! We woke up to perfectly clear skies and perfect temps. Oh well, off to Hairpin.

I've been to Hairpin a few times lately, but was excited to go back and take care of some business. First, I needed some pictures for the website, and a little more reconnaissance for making a topo of the area. I also needed to finish a project, the unfortunately named Cop Killa. This problem is a slightly contrived variation on the Hairpin Roof, but has outstanding moves. My last visit I got the moves worked out pretty quickly, but kept falling going for the last tiny incut crimp. I managed to send first go, but we didn't get any footage of it. Oh well. If you want to see Cop Killa and a few of the other harder problems at Hairpin, you can check out this video from the mutant strong Matt Fowls on vimeo. See if you can catch the cameo from Asher...

After Cop Killa, Dustin worked on Widowmaker, a cool but very committing problem over a pretty bad landing. It is a problem much scarier and a little harder if you are not tall, and scarier with just two pads. He'll get it for sure with a little more foam under him.

We then went to the other side of the roof, where there is a cool juggy, v1sh overhang. Having not climbed much this semester, Tyler tried valiantly to link this one together, but couldn't manage to send. Dustin and I worked on the low start, which supposedly has thwarted some strong climbers, but we figured it out pretty quickly. Then we made up a pretty sweet dyno we dubbed Archaeopteryx. This is a sweet dyno because it is not real far, but is very steep, requiring good technique and precision to nail the lip.

Check out some of the results of the day below: