Lou, Leon, and I began with breakfast at IHOP yesterday morning. Leon, map in hand, I with my napkin and pen, and Lou later sharing my napkin and pen, planned out our course for the day. We wanted to do a trial run on the Bozeman Six and get some problems established on the boulders. We were all in agreement on that. So that became yesterday’s project.
First was the Langhor Boulder. It had the longest walk-in, so we put it first on the list. As we travelled there, Leon put on some Elvis singing “Now or Never”, which was perfect for the occasion!!! Once there, the three of us walked in along the community garden and over to the boulder. We did a really cool traverse around the arête and worked a V4/V4+ traverse across the face of the boulder. A couple of other problems were established, and then we moved on.
Our second boulder of the day was going to be the University Boulder, but we stopped at Starbucks for something to drink (and some more planning), and decided that, with all the work we had put in on the Langhor Boulder already and the late start that we got, we would skip the University Boulder for the day. It’s a difficult boulder on top of it all, which was that much more reason to save ourselves for the real deal. So our second boulder ended up being the Ace Hardware Boulder. We completed several problems on it, to include an arête problem, a pocket problem, a traverse, and a problem on the bulging arête at the opposite end of the boulder. On to the next!
Our third and final boulder of the day was the Bozeman Pond Boulder. This is absolutely my favorite boulder because it has a stemming dihedral with dime-edge footholds that involve high steps. It’s a totally committing problem, and I cruised up it. It’s a V1+ or so. It was a true test of trusting my feet in my newest shoes, which have worked better than any I have yet tried and fit my feet perfectly – the Lowa Rockets. I surprised myself and flashed another V1 on the same face, also with a high step. Lou filmed a couple of these and Leon had some great success with a few that I failed to get up on all the boulders. Lou, of course, took his turn at adding some problems and attempts to our numbers.
By the time we were all tired and hungry at around 1730 hrs, we had, between the three of us, 132 attempts and sends from VB-V5 on three boulders! Last year’s total on all six boulders was 164 attempts and sends. This year is going to be awesome!!! We only bouldered for seven hours, too, minus the travel time and time at Starbucks!
Tonight, I have a feeling we’re going to talk goals…as in the goal for tomorrow – how many climbs are we aiming for? The Bouldering Bombers’ Bozeman Six Endurance Challenge will live on in history forever… Tomorrow’s the day!!! This is going to be great!!!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 