The Rhod Blog: Highlights of 2012

2012 was freaking awesome to me. I made a conscious effort to log my climbing, which I would recommend to anyone hoping to improve. I made an outlandish goal of climbing 200 days in 2012, but often times setting an unreasonable goal but still putting your all into can turn into something pretty fantastic. All in all I had about 139 days of climbing, I had a pretty broad definition (long days, couple pitch days, lots of time in the gym...). I climbed for the first time in California, specifically Bishop, Yosemite, and Trinity Aretes, all of which I hope to get way more time into. My bouldering grade outdoors went from a handful of V4s to a handful of V4s (Jedi Mind Tricks being a fantastic highlight) and sending two V6s (Saigon and the Hulk) in Bishop. Having been to Bishop in the Winter I got to try a few of these problems and fantasizing the exciting sequence of Saigon really helped me pull through a pretty brutal and boring school semester and really showed me the power of visualization. In sport climbing I went from a highest redpoint of 11c (Heresy, at Smith, which is pretty awesome but almost short enough to do with pads) to 5 5.12a's, a few 11d's (which are often harder than the 12s!) and flashing 11c's.

Finishing off the Hulk, most of they guys spotting sent right after, which was so awesome!

I definitely had to dig deep for those redpoints, certainly more so than my bouldering improvements. Some of the 12's took perhaps over a dozen efforts, and that really started to weigh down on me. When I counted my efforts it became easy for me to compare myself to others and think 'aw man my buddy flashed this thing and here I am falling endlessly on this thing'. I'm not sure counting attempts is really that important or useful for us mortals without 8spray scorecards, often times I felt worse the more attempts went into the book. Ironically my first 12a, Planet Mechanic went down second go, and in a way I felt almost cheated because I wasn't sure it was really as hard as the other ones were, but looking back now I realize I had to dig into the crux crimpers pretty damn hard and that the style of climbing (relatively straight-forward positive crimping) is one I am pretty good at. Next came Heinous Cling Start, which was a little bit of a head game but once I sent it I have climbed that section cleanly maybe 6 times in a row while working the upper section. On the Morning Glory Wall I sent the extensions to Overboard, Cool Ranch Flavor, and Magic Light, which were all long pumpy routes which surprised me as this Smith Enduro style was something I blew at. I also sent Zebra Seam, a sneaking 11d that when I first tried made me feel like an obese kid on his first day on the rocks. A couple of days working it with Alan Collins led to me sending on my first lead attempt, putting all the draws up, and having never gotten in clean before hand.

Me and Nic Sabo also did some rad multipitching at Smith, avoiding rock fall and choss on Evolution Theory to hit up a rad 11d roof section that Nic styled. We also put two efforts into Astro Monkey, a little climbed classic on the Monkey Face that adds a spectacular 11a trad dihedral and a 11d/12a knob start onto Monkey Space. I didn't climb either of these cleanly, but it really opened my eyes to where I can go in multipitching in 2013 with a little bit of improvement to my trad climbing.

Nic on Evo Theory

And improve I did in trad climbing, though not as much as I wished. Previously my best trad climbs had been a few softie 10a's that I knew well enough on my first leads and I didn't really push it on gear. My breakout trad climb was Cruel Sister, which although is also only 10a, I didn't expect I would do well at all on it and pretty soon I was panting up the final fist crack section, having onsighted my first sustained crack climb. I also put down a few 10b's the proudest for me was Badfinger which might be the best 5.10 finger crack in Smith. Towards the end of the year, I met two rad Canadian dudes (Fraser & Martin) and I kept hinting that I might want to try Wartley's, a phenomenal 11a in the volcanic tuff of the Christian Brothers. I had done it before with a top rope, but mentally wasn't sure I could pull the moves with gear below me, but I knew Martin would catch me if I didn't get the last move, rested well and pulled it off first try. Fraser and Martin then both proudly sent afterwards, and went on to kick some serious ass in South America. I can't wait to get a chance to climb again with them.