So my final week in the Rocklands began in earnest. Day one 32 degrees, day two 35 degrees, it seems spring is starting to muscle its way in here. Day one I rested in the hope the high temps was just a blip and it would cool back down. When day two dawned and it was hotter I panicked and headed out.
I met up with the American couple (Brandon and Kat), as it was their last 24 hours here before heading back to the States. He fired his 7c bloc, really chuffed for him, and Kat...well she got close to a 6c which would have been new grade terrain for her, but also she got to see the first cobra of the trip. She sent it easily, calmly letting it move off before sidestepping around it, so cool in fact that myself/Brandon actually had no idea there was one there at all. I think I would have bolted for sure.
We also went back to the old campground, this is where the tea pot boulder is and id previously done the Tea Time link-up which is the must do grade 7 at this area I guess. Anyway the day id sent Tea Time id also had a play on Tea with Elmarie (yes its tea mad this place). This is a Lamiche 8a+ that starts as per Tea Time but then half way through the lip traverse it blasts straight up the overhanging face via two very thin sidepulls. It had seemed ultra sharp and I couldn't manage the stand up which goes at 7c/+ so I had disregarded being able to link into this from the start of Tea Time.
Anyway we were back here and Brandon showed me this funky way of camming your left heel which allows you to reach into the first sidepull on the stand-up start to Tea with Elmarie more comfortably. It takes more weight off for sure compared to my previous method of trying to roll weight over my left toe. 30mins or so armed with this new beta and id fired the stand start. I had pretty much given up on finding an 8th grade problem on this leg of the trip that I was suitably psyched for (and had some chance of doing of course), except maybe Nutsa which I had been thinking id give a sess to in the final week. Now this Lamiche link was a possibility but I needed good skin and lower temps for sure.
Tuesday was also forecast to be super hot so it was a no brainer to take a rest day. Wednesday dawned a little cooler so I headed back over to the Tea Pot boulder for a proper go from the sit-start on Elmarie. One of the American guys I live with came too as he wanted to try. Climbing with him makes me realise just how bad my skin is compared to some. Him being from Bishop, his view is most things here are not that sharp (for instance the Barracuda problem that I alluded to in my last post that almost split my tip in 5 goes), feels “ok” to him. I understood, pre my year out, that lots of time behind a desk and only getting out once a week was bound to result in soft tips, but I must admit I thought with me climbing pretty much exclusively outside since March this year it would have improved a bit.
Anyhow where am I going with this...oh yes so the American guy tried but was pumping out coming into the crux move of going up into the sidepull after taking the swing on Tea-Time. I was doing similar, hitting the sidepull on my best try but not holding it, but the guy was saying I was looking so much stronger/fitter on it than him and to be fair he was right. So how come I wasn’t firing it? Skin. I was purposefully allowing him to go twice for every go I was trying the problem, but after my best go still found me back on the mat I realised my tips were totally red raw and the skin had got to that soft slidey stage - game over.
So that was that 5 good goes in total. He was tired too so we moved on. He fired some hard stuff out, I was a bit despondent after the skin meltdown so dropped my grade. Flashed a nice 7a roof called John Denver and a naff 7c dyno called Lord Greystock, that you can just do static at about 7a. I headed home with 4 days left and in need of a plan.
In Magic Wood if id rested a little more towards the end of the trip im pretty sure I would have left there with Jack’s Broken Heart done and maybe also Sofa Surfer, instead I went mad and tried to climb every day just because it was getting to the end of my time there and ultimately killed myself. Success or failure in bouldering can be such a fine line that it is often difficult to take your experiences away and apply them perfectly to another problem you are working somewhere else.
However this time I decided I would try to do just that. Instead of going out again today im resting up and will not get back on the Elamrie problem till tomorrow late afternoon when I have the best chance with temps and hopefully my skin. If I send - great, of course if I don't then ill only have two days left with shredded skin again so that will pretty much put pay to any hope of doing Nutsa. Still im comfortable with the decision in as much as I feel this gives me the best chance of success with my time remaining. As my old Grandma used to say “you can only try your best dear” and that's true enough.
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