Stealing Days

   Well guess what? Give up? IT'S BEEN RAINING!!!! A lot. I've also been taking advantage of the rainy days by training at home. Since Janelle and I built a wall in our living room, we've had the ability to climb with specific goals for each workout. We also have rings, a sling trainer and a hangboard. The hangboard in particular has become increasingly utilized. Before recently I didn't use one but as of late it has been proving its place in my training schedule. As with many climbers, I've always felt that my biggest weaknesses are my fingers and core. While hanging is super boring, it's ideal for targeting finger strength, and once the gains became apparent, my motivation has soared.

The Beastmaker and some motivation...

   Training aside we've had a few days to get outside. For Janelle and I, the count is two days in the past 20 days... Yeah. They have been productive though. One day we made it out to Freddy's. After warming up Janelle and I both got to work on our projects. Janelle set to work on Huggy Bear. A quality line on the Lookout Boulder. It went well and she made a ton of progress. Perhaps it will go next visit?

Janelle Working through Huggy Bear

    While Janelle worked on Huggy Bear, I set my sights on the Rail Project. A sit start to Huggy Bear that is perhaps the longest standing project at Freddy's. I first tried this problem my first summer in Juneau seven years ago, and it had been tried for years before that by several other local climbers. When I first tried it I couldn't envision the moves but after such a long time away it finally made sense and I was able to link the problem in two parts. It isreally cool to see these old projects come to fruition and change from a vague line of holds into a boulder problem.

An early attempt sorting out beta

The crux

   On our next day out we went out to one of our favorite but rarely visited areas: Granite Creek. To get there you travel up the Perseverance Trail Head located at the top of basin road. After about 2 miles you get to the beginning of the Granite Creek trail which takes you to the base of Mt.Olds. In this top basin is the house boulder. So far there are only a few established lines on it. My objective was the Crown Project, a beautiful sustained compression problem up the steepest face of the boulder.

Mt.Olds and the House Boulder

   After the 3 hour hike we were all pretty tired. We hung out enjoyed the sun, salmon and cheese and  then I was set to work. On all of my previous visits up there I could not figure out how to get out of the overhang, but after a few attempts I figured out how to finally get over the lip. Now even though I had some beta figured out, it's still not a done deal. The Crown is one of those boulders that you can only try so many times before you're worked. Add that to the brutal approach and you... don't send. Ha, oh well, it's up there for another day. 

The redpoint crux. 

Too High To Fail? I think not

 
   Hopefully with the arrival of July will come some more dry weather. Till next time Train Hard and Send Harder! Cheers