Trad, trad, trad. TRAD!!
Those have been my thoughts for the last few months. Out of all the wonderful aspects of this sport, its the fright of being out on the fringe that I'm most addicted to. Body-lengths above my last piece trying to convince myself that I'm good enough, composed enough really, to climb the 5.8 that is making me piss my pants, thats the state of mind I appreciate the most. Since I purchased my rack a few months ago, I hadn't bouldered at all, and had sport climbed only twice. Last Sunday though, a few friends and I went to go work the infamous Bob Murray problem Jewel Thief, and my interest in bouldering was revamped entirely.
All of us made good progress that day, and all four of us slapped the lip of the boulder at least a few times, but nobody actually weighted the sharp crimp we would need to send it. We left that day determined to come back later in the week for a late afternoon session.
Thursday saw us driving up the mountain, hoping for good conditions on Lemmon while it was still 104 degrees in Tucson. Oddly enough the temps were perfect up on Windy Ridge and the air was dry. We wasted no time at all. Aaron made the first run, and weighted the crimp, and after that, though no one would say it outright, we knew it was going to happen.
Both Aaron and I sent Jewel Thief second try that day, putting the number of ascents at or around 8 in total. While Ryan and Andrew made progress by linking the first move, arguably the hardest before the top-out, with the rest of the face moves.
So here it is, an overly-dramatic video of one of Tucson's proudest and oldest boulder problems. Enjoy.
Jewel Thief from Dustin Payne on Vimeo.
No comments:
Post a Comment