apAdventures

Organic is the name. Custom, handmade crashpads is their game.

Ok everyone. No more picking on my old, beaten to a pulp, millimeter thin crashpad (aka “The Napkin”) anymore. Yes, it’s true. Tis a sad day indeed because I am officially….retiring…..The Napkin. Oh yes, you heard me correctly,….retirement. The Napkin will now enjoy a slow-paced, peaceful, relatively calm and quiet existence out in the backyard under the woody with the other old and frail pads. The Napkin will soon realize that it’s youthful energy-filled days have come to a close. It is time for The Napkin to pace itself, take it slow, relax, enjoy the scenery. Sure, every once in a while a little pizzazz may find its way out back to the woody and The Napkin may just happen to be in the right spot at the right time and will relish those glorious, youthful moments when a climber will rip off the woody, unexpectedly, uncontrollably, flaaaailing and come crashing down upon The Napkin’s flattened, flaky cells of it’s old and withered foam. Ahhh, those will be the days that will get The Napkin up and out of bed in the morning. Those will be the days to cherish.

I have been the biggest climbing news junkie ever, the past few weeks. I figured I’d share some of my news sources so others can see how the sport of bouldering is getting pushed beyond the current limits, right now!

Cool Sites:
1. Ben Moon’s site
2. 8a
3. Jason Kehl’s site (Rules of Chaos is SICK!!!)
4. Hueco Rock Ranch

At Hueco, some of the best climbers in the world are currently attacking the classics and developing new lines. From my perspective it is amazing to be a part of the sport and be so close to the development of boulder problems that are pushing the limits of the existing rating scale! Fred Nicole claimed V15 on his stand-up problem Terre de Sienne next to Diaphanous Sea, V12. He then linked it from Diaphanous Sea! So, ovbiously it must be rated higher? Right? I thought I read V16 somewhere. Recently Dave Graham repeated the climb (just Terre de Sienne) and disagreed. I think he suggests V13/14 for Terre de Sienne. Unreal! It’s hard to dispute his claims since he recently did Fred’s other V15 testpiece (downgrading it too) and sent Esperanza, V14, in a day!!!

So is “From Dirt Grows The Flowers” the real V15 out there? (Dave Graham developed that one and says it’s the hardest he has done) Or when is Hueco going to get a real V15. We might see it soon when someone repeats the link from Diaphanous Sea into Terre de Sienne.

As climbers we are always looking for the perfect combination of events that make us succeed. You know, after a day of success you look back on the things you did right before like, getting a good nights sleep, eating the right meal, warming up, stretching, drinking DECAF coffee because the caffeine kind will give you “sewing machine” or “Elvis” legs, and stepping just perfectly on the trail to your boulder problem avoiding the tree root BECAUSE LAST WEEK WHEN YOU STEPPED ON THE TREE ROOT YOU DIDN’T SEND!!! Yeah, that might seem extreme but after you’ve physically mastered a climb there is always your mind that plays trick after trick, making you crazy, making the send that much more rewarding.

The combination of events that worked for April started on Friday morning. First, we decided to sleep in. We never did get a good nights sleep since the tequila drinking binge last weekend. After sleeping we ate! Cracker Barrel in Las Cruces suited our need for sending fuel. April and I combined ate 4 pieces of French toast, a stack of pancakes, a side ball of butter, loads of maple syrup, bacon, eggs, orange juice, water, and coffee with sugar and cream.

When we threw down our crashpads at Warm Up Boulder I said, “Man I’m feeling kinda lethargic from that breakfast.” (It was about 2:00PM). April said, “Yeah, me too. I can’t tell if it’s the sunscreen or the grease and butter that I feel seeping out of my pores?”

Shortly after that conversation April sent the problem, “The Butterdish,” V2! A classic line with a slippery right-hand hold. When you grab the hold a timer in your mind starts ticking. 3…starting to slip…2…better grab something quick…1…opps too late, my right hand slipped…0…I’m on the ground, crap! Oh well, looks like breakfast paid off. It’s better to fight butter with butter.

Realizing we wanted to hit up about 5 more areas and we only had a few hours to go before the park closed, we started moving quick. April made fast work of “Donkey Head,” V4, sending on her first go. We hurried up “the chains” to the 100 proof roof and set up the camera on a tripod. Good thing we got it set up and in place because it only took 2 tries today…April SENT “Mexican Chicken,” V6, 2nd go! It was RAD.

Saturday started out somewhat slow for April making minimal progress on problems like “New Religion, V7” and “Jigsaw Puzzle, V5.” But, by the end of the day she had 7 points…3 from “All the Idiots” and 4 from….MOONSHINE ROOF, V4! Yeah. I was pretty surprised she had the energy. In fact, I took out the video camera, turned it on and filmed her send (2nd go). A mega classic ticked off!

After typing out some of April’s tick list I’ve realized it’s hard to convey the magnitude of her accomplishments. Recently she’s made amazing links, progress on problems she ruled out as possible for herself. Most of her attempts ended falling on the last few moves, sooooo close but lacking the sending ingredient necessary to overcome the mental/physical barrier. After this weekend we both thought back. Hmmm, what was the sending ingredient? What did we do differently? I know…it was the 4 pieces French toast with butter smeared evenly between each slice and half a bottle of maple syrup poured evenly around the exterior of the plate at Cracker Barrel! Nah…it was hard projecting paying off and April proving she is climbing STRONG!

“So how’s the finger?”
It’s been 7 weeks since I blew out my ring finger but finally I’m starting to increase the difficulty in boulder problems that I try. I’m currently trying a bunch of V4s. I managed to do a few this weekend. I’ve ticked a lot of N. Mt. V4s so the remainder of problems are uh…unique? Here are a few of my sends from the weekend:

1. The Slash (V4): Didin’t send. Fell and bottomed-out on April’s horrible, napkin-thin crashpad (I’m buying her a new one tomorrow).
2. Pseudo Left (V4): Lowball. Kinda cool but really just one hard move getting into a slopy undercling.
3. The Pseudo-Feather (V4): Very lowball. Awesome slopers until you pull an easy roof.
4. Epilady (V1): Highball over a hole. Good to a weird top.
5. Shaved Pits (V2): This might be better than Seka’s Speciality (V2). Bad landing for a big move but awesome jugs to the top.
6. Mushroom Tea (V4): Overhanging wall with good edges. One of my favorite styles of climbing.
7. Thingfish (V4): Very crimpy. Not that great.

posted by pjv

It’s been a while since I’ve climbed with a very very *very* bad hangover. Well, today was that day. Another weekend at Hueco. Another stellar tour in the backcountry. High energy, crazy motivation, overloads of fun, and another GREAT group of new friends. Some big sends, some not-so-big sends, and some OHMYGOD-OH-SO-CLOSE sends that raised cheers loud enough to be heard in El Paso. The fun overload continued after the tour was done and carried us on over to the infamous climber’s fav restaurant, El Rancho Escondito. What do you get when you combine a psyched & frenzied crew of lightweight dirtbag climbers with pitcher after pitcher of margaritas after a long and exhausting day of “sick dude, suck it in, breathe, keep it tight, sweeeet, awe yeah, launch for it, c’mon!!, send this!!!!, YYYEEEESSSS!!! NOOOOOO!!!! Niiice”? Four straight hours of loud, obnoxious rib-splitting laughter…..and a hangover the next day that puts my college party years to shame. Work hard, play hard, celebrate hard. Livin’ the good life.

posted by arr

My road to recovery is really my road to revenge against the boulder problem Dark Age. I walked by it today, exactly 1 month since I blew my ring finger out while linking a crucial section of it. Today I only looked. I’m staying low key, listening to the D.R.E, not climbing that is… Over the las few months in 2005 I had only tried the moves and made some progress but in December I was feeling really good, linking sections and doing moves much easier than ever. Rather than setting little segments as my goal, my goal became sending the line. Now, I’ve got this unchecked box on my to-do list, a nagging feeling in the back of my mind reminding me daily of unfinished business. I guess in a way I’ve learned to feed off of this feeling: Wake up, pack two lunches, go to work. Eat the second lunch in the late afternoon so as soon as I get home I can run, do crunches, the “circus ab” routine, leg lifts, pull-ups (on jugs), push-ups, wrist curls and of course, long trail runs in the desert! When I first got injured I thought, man, I’m going to have a lot of free time to get stuff done. Instead, I’ve got plenty of time to plot my revenge against the boulder problem that spit me off when climbing at my peak.

April and I returned to Hueco this weekend. It was nice being back but still torture for me, not climbing. I took out a tour on Saturday to a variety of places on E. Mt. and E. Spur. Sunday, I did a lot of push-ups and sit-ups. ha ha. April did pretty darn good for being away from Hueco for such a long time. Saturday, she made some strong attempts at Uncut Yogi V6, El Burro V3/V10?, and Smokin’ Sausage V4. Sunday she almost sent Donkey Head V4 and made several of the moves on Winking Jesus V7. As we left Hueco I was thinking, “Wow, how is she staying so strong?” But, then I remembered that she has been doing hangboard, campusing, woodying by her lonesome, and running with me very consistently over the last month. Its been nice, we’ve kept each other well motivated.

Do you ever crave a nice juicy burger for breakfast?
Do you ever crave a All-American beef patty when going out for Mexican food?
Do you ever crave a quarter pounder with a couple donuts?

I don’t. And I don’t plan on eating here…

Deming, New Mexico.

posted by pjv

Damn. Oh well. It sucks to get injured but I couldn’t be more happy showing off my battle injury. I was making my best link yet on Dark Age (V11). I started matched in the undercling and was going to make it into See Spot Run (The V6 finish). I had my left hand on that weird sidepull on the arete. I move my right hand down to the horrible pinch and then over to a right hand sidepull. I’ve never stuck the sidepull before but yesterday I was feeling stronger than ever. I stuck the hold and then the most disgusting cracking noise ever!!!! For a split second I thought, “I should keep going.” Nope…the pain quickly set in and I was off, swearing, “Oh Shit, it’s my finger Apirl…Shit.”

Today I spent most of my day at the doctor. I got an x-ray because I was sure I broke my ring finger. See, isn’t it good that I don’t wear my wedding ring climbing? So, to my surprise they said, “negative.” I was like, “what? it isn’t broken? But I heard it crack, it was a crack not a little pop.” They just said, “It’s a negative sir.” Oh well, I”m off to the hand specialists, maybe an MRI or something like that.

In summary: Dark Age = 1, Paul = 0. When I recover from this Dark Age is going down! Mark my words…

posted by pjv

Another Hueco weekend for us. This time, with our dear friends from Pittsburgh, Jason and Kathy and their friend Stuart. Needless to say, a great weekend was had by all. Some notable sends:

Fri, North Mtn:
Unnamed Slopey (v4) – Jason
Nobody Here Gets out Alive (v2) – Kathy

Sat, East Mtn:
Tri Hard (v4) – Paul
Ostracizer (v2) – Jason & Stuart
The Ventral Fin (v5) – Paul

Sun, North Mtn:
Everybody Wins (v3) – Kathy [First v3 for Kathy!!! WOOHOO!!]
Lobster Claws (v5) – Jason
Lithologic (v4) – April
Right El Sherman (v2) – Paul & Jason
Local Flakes (v2) – Jason & Stuart

Extremely Close Sends (one or two moves from sending!!!):
Mexican Chicken (v6) – April
Fern Roof (v10) – Paul
Brutus (v5) – April
Crimping Christ on the Cross (v10) – Paul
Dragonfly (v5) – Jason, Stuart & April
Big Nose Milley (v9/10) – Paul

Once again Jason, looks like you’ve got some unfinshed Hueco business still. Start planning for your spring trip back. 🙂

So there’s this problem at Hueco called 99 Heroin Balloons (V8/9). Super rad, tension-y, explosive, committing moves. Super aggressive full contact, football player style, spotting required! Here is a little video clip of Paul and Justin getting tackled by gravity and by a sketchy landing.

Happy Birthday to me! November 10th was my b-day but finally I was able to co-ordinate my schedule with FedEx and I picked up my birthday present.

Thank you April for getting me a new crashpad! It is really cool. It was hard to tell what it looked like from the pictures on the So ILL website but the real thing is way nicer. I can’t wait to try it out next weekend in Hueco. Awww yeah.