Wednesday, December 31, 2008

El Potrero Chico (Mexico) is teh sick

Spires

I spent the first three weeks of December climbing in El Potrero Chico near Hidalgo, Mexico. Basically, this area consists of several 2000+ foot tall mountains with shear limestone walls on every side. Crazy. Huge amounts of awesome rocks and established routes. Only a small percentage has been cleaned, bolted and established. Cragging, multi-pitch, bouldering, you name it.

I climbed tons of five star routes, but Timewave Zero was the one to remember. It is a 23 pitch (2300~ foot tall) bolted route that tops out at a peak. (!!) Many strong climbers are benighted and end up spending hours rappelling in the dark. I was pretty nervous, since I am not known for my speed in life tasks or in climbing.

Two weeks before our attempt, I had struck up a conversation with a balding/grey-haired Swiss climber called Lucien. His English was sparse, but better than my French. His girlfriend had only been climbing for 2 months and wasn't up for any big missions, so Lucien asked me if I would like to climb Timewave Zero. I pulled out the topo, pointed to Pitch 20 (5.12a) and said, "but this pitch is very hard." Lucien replied, "I can lead this, no problem" making some crimping and pulling motions and gritting his teeth.

I set my alarm for 5:45am, 1-1/2 hours before sunrise brings warmth to the desert. I performed each of my morning tasks according to the plan that I had previously devised. My bag and lunch had been packed. My clothes and breakfast had been set aside. I had written the topo on my forearm in sharpie. I had spent the previous day neurotically fretting over every detail, but this allowed me to be an efficient morning machine.

Lucien and I walked into the park, where the gatekeeper heard our voices, rolled over in his bed, opened the window of his hut and groggily asked us for the 10 peso entrance fee. That's job commitment! We made our way up the steep and loose approach, arriving just as the fist hint of dawn was appearing. I was unpacking when Lucien realized that he forgot his harness! "I will make very sure foot", he said, borrowed my headlamp and disappeared into the darkness.

When he returned, the dawn light was in full swing. He was very sweaty and asked me to lead first, since his heart was beating too fast to climb. I lead the first pitch, got to the anchor and proceeded to drop my belay device! Lucian linked the next pitches to an out-of-view anchor and we spent the next 15 or so minutes waiting for each other and staring at the rope. I was beginning to worry that Lucien had a heart attack, but it turned out we just needed to discuss the belay commands for French and English. This was not an auspicious start, but we were in good spirits and I was confident we would iron out the wrinkles.

The next twenty or so pitches seemed to melt away with Lucien and I swapping and linking. The climbing is mostly soft 5.9 with a few 5.10's and one each of 5.11, 5.12, and 3rd class. We kept a steady tempo, never rushing, but rarely pausing. It was almost as though my mind trusted my body to take over. I felt safe and didn't worry about the bolts, the runouts, or the exposure. Lucien on-sigthed the crux pitch. I freed the entire route, except twenty feet of the crux pitch where I french-freed (pulled on draws and the rope). We arrived at the top around noon. I had been smiling all day, but at the summit my grin was truly shit-eating. The feeling of moving over so much rock, so quickly is simply amazing.


Lucian

Taking off on Lead Again

Hanging around on Timewave Zero

Monday, December 22, 2008

Leap Frog

Rolling deep!

Leap Frog from EM on Vimeo.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

BEDWETTERS - LRC

Bedwetters at LRC, produced by Jordan Shipman over at
louderthan11.com. Super nice guy producing some creative and well done videos. Got me all pssssyched for the climboiding!

This is a really fun problem, you guys will crush once YA'll are down here.
Unfortunately no send for me. Saving it for the Dabtronics Train, hahahaha. Yay-er!!!


Send Train Meter - Bedwetters (V9) from Jordan Shipman on Vimeo.

Check it! The video of "Living Spree" is also quite entertaining, if you haven't seen it definitely go check it out. Do Eet!!!
louderthan11.com

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

...

It is as good as you could imagine. Yes. Tried it yesterday for the first time. Ye gods!!!! FELLTTTT SOOOO GOOOODD!! Like a little noob livin' his dream! Gah! AMAZING.

Anyhow, it's snowing now, glad my last hours of climbing were spent trying it!


Coolest. Problem. Evar from Garrett Koeppicus on Vimeo.

SOUTH-EAST CLIMBING

Heyhey Dabbers,

Just finished up with finals on Monday! Psyched for you guys to get down here and I'm going to try hard to get into shape so we can do some simul-crushing come X-mas time, oooohyay-er!!

Here's a short* on the southeast climbing scene that was screened at the final Triple Crown event at LRC on Saturday. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it due to the call of teh nerd, but the power of teh internets is quite formidable. Created by Andrew Kornylak and Josh Fowler. GET PSYCHED~!!!!!!

*The following vid is NOT a Dabtronics production.


Heart of Stone - Standard Def from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.

Saturday, December 06, 2008

Send Train Is Coming

A sampling from the archives. More to come...

Send Train from EM on Vimeo.

Friday, December 05, 2008

Gruezi from Snowenia!

Why Hello There! You may have been asking yourself, what is that crazy dude up to? Where have his posts gone. Well let me tell you, it's been crazy. I've been hanging out with Team Sweden and they rock so hard.

Enjoy!


Snowy Sweden from Garrett Koeppicus on Vimeo.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

If we're not going to Hueco...

the south 'aint too bad.

LRC
BenG crimp-mastah on a non-crimpy arete.






























































ROCKTOWN

Croc Block Sit
Aussie Sheila and LukeU
































The Mighty Hur, J bicycling.

















Another angle of Rescue 911. B-Mohnay.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Japeezy - Part 3 (AKA Neko Punch) - Ogawayama, Japan

Neko Punch. Don't know the term? Hang on to a hold as tight as you can. Slip off it and your fist clenches, then rams itself (and your knuckles) into the rock. That's a neko punch...

(Today's Japanese lesson: Neko = Cat, Punch = Punch... it makes sense when you see/do it.)




Japeezy - Part 3 - Ogawayama from joshunojoshu on Vimeo.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Kitayama Koen - Part 2

Silly Vimeo. I'm sitting on the third and last video, but it won't give me enough space to upload Parts 2 and 3 together. Next week, then. For now, a saweeeeet glimpse of Kitayama Koen, situated up in the hills of Nishinomiya, Hyogo. Depending on where you are in the park, you can climb some sick problems with Osaka and Kobe sprawled out below you. If you can stand 14 hours on a plane, it's worth visiting.


Japeezy - Part 2 - Kitayama Koen from joshunojoshu on Vimeo.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Keepin it eezy.

Hello Dabbers,
it's been long, sleepless, and a now jet-lagged adventure, but I'm back from Japan and have the hard iMovie-fought goods with me. Forgive the lack of Problem names and grades.. I'll have them eventually, but wanted to put this up instead of waiting for all of the email responses to come in. (Truth be told, I don't know for sure that I could even translate the names... or grades for that matter, anyway.) Mr. GK, Mr. CL, I've stolen the eezy theme. It fits. If you want it back, leave 20,000 RMB and a cold stone creamery gift certificate underneath the 45 at the dentists.


I'm sure we can work something out.


Two more areas in the works. Later all, see you soon.


Japeezy from joshunojoshu on Vimeo.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

¡DAB!


¡DAB!
Originally uploaded by yangwave
um. yeah.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

a day in the woods

From climbing

since no one else was willing to ditch work, school, or whatever obligations they felt beholden to keep, I engaged a stealth solo mission to pcg. it was a prototypically amazing fall day on the gneiss. I almost ended my day early by re-spraining my ankle on the walk in!
wtf?!?

undeterred, I recalled the advice of my middle school football coach, "walk it off son" and proceeded to the boulders with ginger step. not so secretly, I wondered if my ill-luck on the approach would translate into the same such for climbing. Fortunately, after a slow, tentative warm-up, it turned into my best day ever at the ice pond.
deep woods off

officaldom


I also returned to settle scores with "birds of a feather (on which I sprained my ankle last time). There is some weird mojo happening with injuries right now. beware, climb safe.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Holy. Epic. Batman.

Well, it's been an epic week. To say the least. Last Tuesday, Mr.Robinson was topping out his nemesis, the Never Ending Story. He was a move away from the finishing jug (for the second time that day) when his right foot slipped off and he took an extremely uncontrolled fall. I was unable to get a solid hold on him, and he landed on his foot, very awkwardly. The landing zone under Never Ending Story is all rock, and the first thing out of his mouth was "I broke my ankle!". We immediately submerged his foot in the river and with the help an amazing Swedish couple, and a nice British crew, were able to get him out safely, and into a hospital in Chur, which is about 30k away from the Magic Wood.



One screw, some sewing, and three nights later Paul was out of the hospital, and just flew back on Monday. On the drive back to the apt on Friday, Ryan and I stopped over in the Magic Wood to head back over to the Bruno Bloc (the river boulder). While warming up on the Super Nova, the slopiest problem one can imagine, he tore the gnarliest flapper I've seen. Seriously. I though I heard his fingernail ripping off. It wasn't. Good lord it was heinous. I did put down the Never Ending Story part II, 8a with authoritay. Snap.


Anyhow, here's a vid of Paul killing it. Footage of NES II and other dank things to come. JYEAH


The Riverbed from Garrett Koeppicus on Vimeo
And you can peep more info from our trip over at Trill Talk: With Ryan Sewell

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

AHEM! Random Pics from Teh Souf.

Just a few shots I found on the desktop *cough*

LRC - Chattanooga, TN
G on The Shield






















Tennesse E, working Redhouse, Super Mario Boulder

















ROCKTOWN - La Fayette, GA

Rescue 911
You guys haven't seen this problem. But I think you'd all like it.
Slopies, the bit of chalk cropped out at the very bottom of the frame
is the 2nd or 3rd hold on the problem. Starts in an open-pit type thing. Climbs up, out, and up. Spotter on the platform.
Spotter down in the depths...if yer feelin scurred!























Left Side of the Photo Sherman Roof - Brown Hole































































Inspired by an Idiot Roof



















Just Sayin.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Dabbing in the Orient

Hi all! Remember me?

Last week I finally got to climb on some real rocks out here in Singapore. The Dairy Farm is an area with a few sport routes in an area that was a quarry at some point in the past. These days it's more or less jungle, which makes for some dramatic approaches.

Climbing there is a little risky, since the blasted rock can apparently come down at very bad times. However, I was climbing with a few folks who run the local gym that I've been climbing at, and they seemed to know what they were doing.

After some delays owing to all the belay devices being with someone who had wandered off to get some food, we climbed a 5a and followed it up with a 6a+ (about 5.6 and 5.10a respectively). All the climbs were super slopey, and the humidity didn't help matters. Nor did my overall lack of skillz. Still I had a lot of fun.

Cap it off with a bit of abseiling and a quick sprint back to civilization while being pursued by an absolutely epic thunderstorm and you've got a more-or-less perfect day.

Great to see all the updates. Keep 'em coming, wherever you are!

Monday, October 13, 2008

ROCKTEEZY

DABBERS!!!

Short vid from the rocktown session today...well I guess technically yesterday now, haha. I was going to wait to use a better song and work on the editing, but impatience got the best of me. Hope you guys like it. PSYCHED!!! Weather is getting good down here and the leaves are just starting to turn. W3RD to what EM said, psyched to see the updates from all you guys, keep it up!

Vid: Helicopter Sit and some variation on the Tractor Traylor problem on the Idiot Roof. Yay-er!!


ROCKTEEZY from Redcrashpad on Vimeo.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Dyno!?


Enjoying all the various posts from near and far and looking forward to dabVoltron reuniting in the near future. ¡Saludos!

Monday, October 06, 2008

The Black Mirror



This is The Black Mirror. It is classic. It is high. It is 9-10 meters tall. The crux comes with your feet 4 meters. It is V7. And it is amazing. YOU GUYS WOULD CRUSH. And yes, I did pitch off the middle a number of times.

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Peepee'sKill

Sounds like Brione provided Garrett and Paul the same kind of weather that Eric and I experienced at Peter's Kill yesterday. In our case, we may not have had quite as cool a setting, but we had a dry late afternoon and got some great climbing in. Can we get a huge posse out sometime soon?




Friday, October 03, 2008

Brione



Yesterday we hit up Brione. It was wet, and rained on and off, but was the driest of the areas. This place is amazing, it is rapidly becoming my favorite area. Sick boulders, great rock, unbelievable setting, wether it's climbing right next to the river or up in the meadow (granted there are some cow pies here) it is AMAZING. One of the best locations I can think of to warm up, at all levels. Nice high slab/face, aretes, all moderate, steep jug hauls, all while being surrounded by mountains, meadow, and old houses.

Ryan Sewall has joined us from Texas. He's a strong lad, and quickly hooked up the moves on The Cellar Door. Paul nabbed the guessed second ascent of it. Dosage III doesn't do this problem justice, both in it's beauty and scariness. WERD. Here are a couple of pics, more vid to come in a few days.

Rest day today, and then back to climbing tomorrow. Psyched to have a camera again!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Fall is Coming

Hullo dabbers,

So the fall is fast approaching down in the south. I was able to get out last Sunday to climb at little rock city, w00t!! It was a fun day of moderate sandstone climbing, trying to warm my body back up in preparation for the seaaaaason! Kinda late, I know. That's what too much time in lab and the library will do. FATSAUCE!! Haha, heading up again tomorrow with Tommy C and Greg (will be his 1st time climbing outside, I'm psyched to get him on real rox).

Here's a shot on a fun face climb, you actually have to pull a couple real moves closer to the ground and the moves are sooper-lax the rest of the way, nice to get some height without having to worry about blowing it. Esp. without a spotter, hah!



















LRC : A 2 Problem Short



LRC : A 2 Problem Short from Redcrashpad on Vimeo.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Sick Day

This morning my tips are pink for the first time. Probably because of how hard we raged at the Magic Wood yesterday. I've made a little goal for myself to climb every V9 at the woods. Doesn't matter if it's turdy or sweet, have to climb it. Yesterday I did three in a day, I'm pretty sure it's a first for me. However, I must say hats off to Paul who threw down so hard.

He started the day with New Base Line V14, moved on to Deep Throat V13, Steppenwolf V13, The Arete V12, Free for All V12 and Son of a Gun V9. Which makes for 73 points of new problems in only 7 boulders. Ahem, GNAR. Not to mention we only climbed for about 4.5 hours. Jyeah-yah.

In other news my camera is BROKEN. Paul's off to Romania tomorrow for a comp, so I'm going to rectify the sitiation in Zurich. Keeeeep on crushin'!

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Marathon Boulder, Day 2!!!!!11!

So after a second day of effort, the proud project on the "Marathon Boulder" (formerly the "Matterhorn") still has yet to see a send. Ivan is closest, while the rest of us are getting to just below his highpoint (the real business move). I feel good, but scared as fuck that high off the deck (which is pavement) with only a few pads. Let's take some serious padage soon.





Also, this line on the right arete got some attention at the end of the day. A different style, and perhaps not as classic, but still stand out in its own right.



Tuesday, September 16, 2008

P-Rob vs. La Pelle


P-Rob vs. La Pelle from Garrett Koeppicus on Vimeo.

Hullo Hullo. A quicky from a short moist sesh in Cresciano this past Sunday. Mr.Robinson was psyched on getting this footage up on his blog so I cut this together today while resting. Jyeah-yah.

Also, there's a pic on the front page of 8a.nu taken by yours truly. Lofls.

pysched on magic wood tomorrow! should be gnar!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

BIG UP FROM SWEEEZZZZYY!

HALLLLLLLLLOOOOO FROM SWEITZERLAND!!!!!!

How are you all? Well I hope!

As I see it, You can't facebook until you flickr. And you can't flickr until you update the Dab. And you can't update the Dab without climbing. So I've been climbing.

Everything went smoothly on the 2nd when Paul and I flew in. We rendezvoused easily, got our car, and even made it to our apt with no major hassles. The day was hot, and we were super jet-lagged so we just hiked up to Cresciano to scope it out. Dreamtime is REDUNKULOUS. First boulder we checked out. Psyched on having scoped the area we headed back to the apt, and planned on hitting up the boulders the next day.

Except that it rained. It rained for six days straight. Hard. With one brief interlude to the magic wood on friday the 5th when all of two boulders were dry. Oof. But the weather broke, and we've been shredding it up!

Paul and I are living in the town of Claro, which is:
-5 minutes from Cresciano
-25 minutes from Chironico
-35 minutes from Brione
-50 minutes from The Magic Wood

In those rainy days we scoped all of the areas, and they are pretty bangin. Bouldering by the river is pretty hard to beat.

In the sunny weather we've been hitting up the Magic Wood which is SPECTACULAR. The river boulder (supernova, neverending story etc, is quickly becoming one of my favorites, the setting is redunk).

There's a rad british crew that we've been climbing with, and we're already getting requests for UK editions of dab shirts. Haha EXPANSION.

Uploading here has been somewhat frustrating but to quote Paul "Dude, consider that we're hijacking wireless by sticking our computers out the window". LOFLS. so yeah. The seal has been broken, you can expect regular updates.

We're off to Chironico. Flickr update to begin this evening!

ENJOI.

xo,
G.

p.s. To envision cresciano, Imagine PCG, but more of it, and with bigger bouldarz. Yes, that is correct, more PCG. SNAP. So psyched for the days of 0 C.


Dabbing in Swizterland, Part I from Garrett Koeppicus on Vimeo.

Saturday, September 06, 2008