An amazing new highball!

Well, I finally roped down, cleaned and climbed a line I had been spying for years! You may recognize it right away from the video, but first Siemay demonstrates the ultra techy/slopey V6 "Siemay's Arete." Check it:



This new line is one of the most enjoyable tall V7 (ish) lines in all of Tahoe. Siemay and other friends were referring to it as "Noah's Arête" while I was working it and cleaning it, and the name stuck. I generally do not like eponymous titles, but my arête there is big and Siemay's arête right there is small and the thought of the two Arêtes just sitting there together for all time seemed kinda rad. Is that corny or what!!? I guess having a son makes you a little sentimental!

It is V7 off the ground, to 12a, to 5.11a to the top which is about 30 feet.



The crux, above. Very cool moves on good rock!


On massive jugs right here, a good rest and then a 5.9 big move to the top and an easy but airy top out!

Siemay's arête, from the video, is about 20 feet away from this roadside monster. There are some other climbs at this "locals spot" that will be included in the upcoming Tahoe guidebooks.

This area is high up in Woodfords, above the curves on Hwy 88, a couple miles west of Momma Cat right off the north side of the road. The big split boulder is just down the road from Sorensen's and Hope Valley Cafe (the cafe is owned by Lisa and has the BEST baked goods in the Tahoe region... There are also sandwiches and local beer on tap for a post epic highball celebration brew!!)

Call me anytime to do this thing! It is mega and I can rally mad pads, set up a proper TR and bring the psych!

...In other news, the Tahoe crew is coming together and doing new FA's all over: Joel Zerr has two new badass lines above white lines; one is tall and burly and one is short and burly.

Also, I added a cool V9 sit start to the "Great White" problem at middle Bliss yesterday.

The snow is melting fast and psych is high for another rad Tahoe spring season! Updates to come.

Seek perfection of character, respect others & Try Hard. Noah as usual.

Motion on Monzonite

Back from Joe's and feeling fit (but a little heavy at 190 lb!) I decided to cruise down to Bishop to hook up with my buddy Jon Thompson who has been living there. Jon has been capturing some super crushers doing there thing.

Here are some of them in a preview to Jon's new film, "Motion on Monzonite."


Nice work Jake! Such a cool line. I need to get on this thing.

Jon and I had a blast. We had the Buttermilks all to ourselves. Although it was a little warm in the sun, the shade offered nice temps. After a nice warm up session the night before, we headed up to Matt Wilder's epic line: "This Side Of Paradise" V10 Highball. Really highball.

This line is so good. I rapped down it and rehearsed the 5.7 top several times for a warm up. Then I did the long move at the transition. The climb favors a taller frame and I worked out the moves fairly quickly. I tried the rig from the ground several times, but mostly jumped off. We only had two pads, and now that I have a son, blah blah blah, yeah, I pussed out.
Mad props to Matt for his SOLO (ie. by himself send, and practical free solo) first ascent of this amazing world class line.

Here's Nalle crushing:


After TSOP, I went to try my hand at "A Maze of Death" V12. I had tried this beautiful line a couple times in the past, but I could never find beta that worked for me. I finally feel I made some progress and have a method that will work for me that involves long reaches bypassing the small sharp razors. I felt the session on it was productive. I was inspired to get back on it after Tahoe legend, Jesse Bonin sent the rig a few years back after posting up there and dedicating days to this amazing Dave Graham line.

Here is a bunch of dudes making it look doable nay easy:



Finally, the last day, Jon and I were beat and decided to do some moderates. The best of the lot was a newish V7 that Matt Birch apparently added to the Peabody boulder, although something tells me that the "Go Granny Ho" variation has been done many times before. It's kind of obvious and right there.

Here is Local Lisa and Jon demonstrating:


Nice.

I did this problem as well, but did the long man first move instead of messing with the shouldery underlings.

Check it:







Etc.

Doing this line made me want to piece together "The Mystery" which I have tried before. It was magical to have the Buttermilks all to ourselves and a nice way to end the Bishop season and get ready for the Tahoe spring season.

Now who wants to rally a crew to finish off "This Side of Paradise?!"

Seek perfection of character, respect others & Try Hard. Noah as usual.

Joe's Valley 2012

This was a really fun trip this year! Although somewhat of a rehabilitation trip for most of us, we met bunch of interesting new people and got to climb on some really cool new climbs:

Joe's 2012:



After coming out to Joe's in March this year we met up with our good friends Matt & Sandy Wilder and David Outcalt.

It was also very cool to see Matt and Sandy's boy Bayes play with our boy Zun!

Climbing highlights of the trip included a couple really cool v9s for Siemay, a bunch of cool new v10 problems such as death scream and lactation station for the boys, and a few really nice new climbs; fear factor V9 and how the West was won also v9 & highball (and four stars.) All are highly recommended.

Also very cool was meeting up with the Salt Lake City crew: Scott, Chad, Joe, Blake, Griffen and Duffy. Our good friend Kyle O'Meara and his friend Lisa also showed up later in the trip. Kyle made short work of the amazing new v10 on left fork called "superman" for the 2nd. He also basically did Black Dahlia in a couple tries, but I dabbed him accidentally on a concerned spot. ...Don't you hate that?

Here is the young and strong Griffen making the first ascent of this rad problem found and cleaned by an old friend and legend, Steven Jeffery:

Superman V10

The Salt Lake crew is hilarious and taught us how to "Tatonka" something and also validated my suspicion that other climbers independtently implemented the "Lookback" technique (although I may still have the lockdown on "the pump.")

To wit:

Beyond Life V10

And...

Bunny Crushers V9

Lol, anyway...

It's nice to be back in shape, and it looks like Tahoe may have an early spring season! The locals are getting excited! It's a bummer that the Mandala broke in other news, but there're so many other classics to climb that it's hard to complain too much.

Seek perfection of character, respect others & Try Hard. Noah as usual.