2nd ascent. 3rd go. AMAZING line!!!! props to Nic on one amazing FA.

See video at Paul’s blog

Oxygen Cocktail from Neil Berget on Vimeo.

The Goat at The Cave from Neil Berget on Vimeo.

We started by getting on Tiny Bubbles – a nice, technical V3 that you can find by following the cliff band past Mike’s all the way until just before it ends. It starts on two little crimps and climbs up a crack feature and then back left to a jug and the top. I have climbed this before and after warming up on it started trying the sit start to it. The sit starts on the left side of the face and adds about 4 or 5 really crimpy moves to get into the start of Tiny Bubbles. Took me a few tries to finally not have a foot skate off or have myself barn door off but I managed to do it. I really don’t know what the grade is… someone who’s done it can feel free to comment but I think it definitely adds a grade or two. Definitely not a classic even by Taylors standards… but it was well worth doing and fun to climb. Brea worked on Tiny Bubbles for awhile and managed to make good progress.. she will hopefully get the full line soon.

After Tiny Bubbles, we went back to the Mike’s boulder so I could try the sit to Mike’s Left. I was able to pull off the ground – which I wasn’t so sure I could do at first – but was ultimately unable to generate any momentum for the first move.. Going to need some more oomph for that one. I quickly decided instead to try to repeat the classic stand – Mike’s Left. After a few tries I was able to do it and was happy to get footage of myself doing it.. I have posted this problem in the videos section before, but will post it again to show the slightly different beta for the first move that seems to work well for tall people. There’s a foot way out right that works great for those of us tall enough to be able to use it to do the first move..

Mike’s Left – Taylors Falls from Neil Berget on Vimeo.

There was still a lot of snow out there — but most of the 5 minute approach is along a well packed snowmobile trail, leaving just the final 100 feet of post-holing past our knees to get to the boulder. Fortunately, the sun was shining, and with temps topping out around 30 — it felt pretty good when the wind wasn’t blowing too hard.

We started by clearing out a bunch of brush around the boulder which should open up the possibility of a few more lines on the boulder. After this we began by goofing around on the most obvious warm up line on the boulder – which was actually pretty fun and pretty tall:

After this we started trying a line I was very excited to get on: A River Runs Through It — first done by Nic Oklobzija last March and given solid V7 for a grade. The line starts on an obvious jug and an ok foot with a big move to another jug. It then sets off and left into a series of small crimps which will eventually gain a left hand sloper. From this tenuous hold — you must stab a small right hand crimp and from there get the lip. To make it interesting — the landing is pretty awkward with a sort of pit between a smaller detached boulder and the boulder itself that you can fall into. Ideally when you fall off the upper moves you land on top of the smaller detached boulder.

The start and middle moves up to the sloper – although a bit tenuous and kind of scary, weren’t too bad – especially with my reach. The crux of the problem, however, was getting through that sloper. It’s bad enough that it’s quite hard to really pull on and you really gotta use some not-too-great feet as much as possible to stab the next crimp. I was able to sort of stick the move once after about 15 tries but took a scary fall a split second later off the edge of the detached boulder and down the 7 feet into the snow. Here’s a couple photos Eric Johnson took of Nic last spring showing the ending moves:

Unfortunately, while working the crux, the crimp undercling broke and became about half the size it was before. I know the problem will still go – but think that it will add significant difficulty to getting into the undercling and will perhaps add a grade to V8 – but we will see when it gets repeated. A River Runs Through It is a great problem and it is firmly entrenched in my head now as something I’ve got to get back up to and do..

In addition to importing all the old posts and just continuing the same type of content I’ve always had at borntobreathe – there are a couple of new features I want to get going pretty quickly. First — I have a new dedicated vidoes page. In addition to embedding videos right into the posts — I’ll put the decent ones in there for easy retrieval later. I’ve got just a couple in there so far but plan on going back and adding more as time goes on. Secondly — I want to develop and maintain a list of classic MN centered boulder problems from V0 – V12. I hope anyone who is not completely familiar with what is offered here will find this useful in deciding what problems to pursue. I’d sure welcome your input in deciding what makes the list. This page isn’t up yet — but hopefully will be soon.

I haven’t tested the site layout on very many systems or browsers (just two) — so if you see anything that’s off — let me know in a comment or email and I’d much appreciate it!

Click through to Vimeo to see larger size, or full-screen here.

We started the day by meeting up with Vince from Madison at the Camp B area who was psyched to show us around. We all warmed up on and near the Picasso wall which provided some fun introductions to the area.

Picasso Right:

Very quickly, however, we set sights on Sandstone Violence – a superb looking V8 in the area. To our knowledge, it has seen just 2 ascents so far:

The line starts standing on an obvious jug, then goes straight up into two really bad pinch crimps. Work your foot up, and go to a higher left hand crimp, switch feet, and go out right to a bad, side pull crimp and then a jump for the break. I tried it quite a few times but was never able to get past the 2 pinches but Nic quickly worked the bottom moves and after a few tries managed to grab the 3rd ascent! Video of the send (and more) is coming soon.. I definitely would like to get back out there and work on it more myself too — wish it wasn’t so far away.

After Sandstone Violence, we went over to the other side of the Backbone and to check out the Hangman/Excalibur area.. Hangman is a traverse on slopers culminating in a dyno to the top. Very fun moves.

And finally, we headed over to the Godfather boulder. The Godfather is quite a tall, proud looking line that goes at about V4/V5. The pockets were pretty painful to pull on, but that was probably because it was toward the end of the day. We both managed to get this one on our first tries:

Another cool line in the area is the jump start problem around the corner to the left — footage of this coming as well..

All in all, a fun day of bouldering. It’s a very scenic area with pretty fun problems although it’s too bad you’re always slightly afraid the holds you’re pulling on might break.

I had a great time this past Saturday showing Brian, aka the ClimbingNarc, and his wife Amy around to most of the best problems at Taylors. The 3 of us started by warming up on the river boulders down below the Cave area on the WI side and soon moved up the hill to the Pharoah and Cave boulders where we spent the next few hours. One of the largest groups of people I’ve seen at the cave was out and the energy level was great! After hanging out at the cave awhile — where Brian flashed the Midget Stand and did the Sit in a few tries and I had my best go yet on the Traverse (will send soon – somebody hold me to it) — we headed up to do the always fun Big Boy problems. And finally, to end the day, I gave them a tour of the MN side where we ended up hanging out in the B2 pit.

Anyway — had a great time — and although most readers of this blog probably know this already, Brian wrote up a great post about it too and has some sweet pictures of me not doing the Traverse:
http://climbingnarc.com/2008/10/taylors-falls-bouldering

B2 Bomber – Taylors Falls from Neil Berget on Vimeo.

B2 Bomber is one of the problems mentioned in John Sherman’s historical bouldering book Stone Crusade — first done by Jim Holloway in 1978 and at the time was considered “one of the last great problems in the B2 Pit” and is “now rated B1.”

It was cool meeting Justin — he is a very good photographer:

Check out his stuff at http://exposure.evidon.net — or go straight to his rock climbing pictures at: http://exposure.evidon.net/Rock%20Climbing. You can see more pictures from our day by clicking on Taylors Falls > July 27th, 2008.

After hanging out there we went over to the Big Boy (or is it Peeler’s Rock?) area and climbed Big Boy – a super cool V3 that I’d recommend to everybody to try if you are very comfortable at that grade and don’t mind getting up off the ground a ways (this problem has sprained ankles before). We also climbed the face to the left of Big Boy. I don’t know if it’s got a name so I’ll just refer to it as Big Boy Left. This ended up being another taylors classic in my opinion that I had not done before. It does have an awful landing but it is pretty easy – especially if you have a long wingspan – V0 probably if you can reach both aretes – but quite a bit harder and headier if you can’t. It involves starting with 2 foot smears and a slopey hold and then popping your hands up 2 aretes, followed by a high step to a foot smear and a long stand up to the top jug — really fun. You can find these boulder problems by continuing up the road past the Cave area and looking for the prominent prow to the right of the road and set back about 20-30 yards. Check out this quick video of Nic on Big Boy followed by me on Big Boy Left:

Taylors Falls – Big Boys from Neil Berget on Vimeo.

We finally ended the day by hanging out for a bit over at Mike’s boulder. It sure was a hot and muggy day – but with the right mindset it was definitely worth getting out there. I certainly didn’t expect to do a new line – let alone one as high a quality as Big Boy Left.

Right Martini from Neil Berget on Vimeo.

I must say I’m really impressed – these guys have thought really hard about how to make online video sharing a better experience for uploaders and watchers. I’d recommend anybody uploading videos to youtube to give vimeo a good look. I’m pretty certain I’ll be using it from now on. Here’s a video I’ve published before of a trip to sawmill last fall that I’ve re-uploaded to vimeo for comparison (the differences are even more noticeable full screen):

Vimeo:

Sawmill Creek Dome Bouldering from Neil Berget on Vimeo.

Youtube:

I have been climbing about once a week at Kris and Lynn’s on their backyard wall they built last summer. It’s been a lot of fun. On Friday there was a pretty good session going on and I took a time lapse video:

Thursday ended up being a pretty good day for me. We went up to the Garden of Eden area and I checked out Anatomy Act – a V7. The guide isn’t very clear as to what the problem is exactly but after talking with some other guys there I finally figured out it climbs up an arete. I almost flashed the thing. I fell off a sloper on the topout that I couldn’t quite hang on to right. Fortunately, I did the thing next try which is the fastest I’ve ever done a V7. It starts on 2 crimps without really any feet to speak of and a pretty big move right to a pocket. Then slap your left hand up on slopers a few times, get your foot up to the start holds, then another pretty big move with your right to a bad sloper. Adjust it and rock up to a nice rail and it’s pretty much over.

After Anatomy Act I checked out the other lines in the area and decided to try Arma – another V7. Not the most amazing line but it looked worth doing. I nearly flashed this one too! Falling off the topout again. After jumping onto the topout and doing it, I did it on my next try from the start. It involves 2 crimpy moves to a jug on the topout slab and then a couple of balancey crimpy moves on the slab to get your feet up. A nice little problem.

On Friday, I went back yet again to the Boy Size area but failed yet again on the same move. So it’ll have to wait for a future trip. I did try Boy Size Right, however, which starts on the same starting holds and goes right. It ended up being a great problem. One guide calls it a V4 and the other a V6. I was able to do it in 2 tries and was quite happy to do it.

Brea worked more on Peep Show and made great progress. She made the crimpy first moves look easy and she got very close on the higher moves as well. It was cool to see the progress and even though it’s too bad she didn’t send it — it’s something for her to dream about and it’ll be waiting for her next time …

We finished the day checking out the Gun Shot boulder and both of us climbed on the easy problems to finish the trip.

We still had some time left in the day so we drove out to the Gulch Overlook in the San Rafael Swell to check out the Little Grand Canyon. I had visited this spot last year and it is still amazing. Huge views of the canyon all to ourselves. A great way to spend the last afternoon of our trip.

We started Monday at the Boy Size area which I hadn’t seen before. I warmed up on a few easy problems and then ended up trying and doing a short unnamed V6 in a couple tries. After this I tried Boy Size – a very cool V7. I quickly did all the moves except 1 and thought it would go soon, but I wasn’t able to put it together.
Brea also climbed a few problems in this area. She did her first outdoor problem – Dos Mundos — a V0 on the back of the Boy Size boulder and then Sole Food – a really cool V0 technical slab on some very nice rock.
Sole Food:

After the Boy Size area, we headed to the Small One boulder which is right on the side of the road. Brea climbed 2 V1’s on this boulder – Tiny and Mini. I decided to try Runt – a crimpy V7 that I briefly tried last year and couldn’t pull off the ground on. This year, I nearly did it first try, falling off one of the last moves and then did it completely on my 4th try. Very glad to see the improvement.
Brea working on Mini:

On Tuesday we headed back to the Boy Size area as I really wanted to do Boy Size and I was also curious to try Golden Plates – another nice looking V7 in a picture I’d seen. I ended up making no progress on Boy Size but hope to get it after a rest day now. Golden Plates also shut me down — the crimps were too small for my fingers. Brea did a cool unnamed V1 on the back of the Golden Plates boulder. She really had to work for this one — got her first flapper in her pinky finger but it was fine after taping it up. She also did a nice V0 on the back of the Boy Size boulder. She then talked me into trying a V5 next to Golden Plates called Mono e Mono. I jumped on and did it first try. This is my first V5 flash so I was excited and glad I tried it. After this we hiked over the The Fit boulder which has a very cool looking wall on it with 3 problems. Peep Show is a pretty inspiring looking V1 that goes up the middle and The Fit is a V6 or V7, depending on what guide you look in. I decided to give The Fit a try since we were there and ended up doing in on my 4th try. Nice moves on solid rock on the face but then the topout was awfully sandy and quite scary feeling.
The Fit:

Peep Show:

After this, we headed to the Maxi Pad boulder to try the amazing looking V6 Maxi Pad. I must say this this line is among the best I’ve ever seen. It climbs out a huge prow that comes out of a big cave on amazing rock. It is set a bit up the valley as well in a sort of ampitheater section of the rock that is really neat to be in. The moves are huge and I worked it for awhile but couldn’t muster the strength to do the crux throw. This is a must-do boulder problem someday.
This doesn’t do Maxi Pad justice at all:

We finished the day by heading to the Warm-up boulder and I ended up doing a V1 called Scoopable that ended up being higher and scarier than I thought it was – but it worked out fine. Brea did a V0 called Whatever and we decided to call it a day.

Today is a rest day that we’re spending in Price.

Only 2 days of climing left — going way too fast. I really hope to do Boy Size, and I think I’ll get on They Call Him Jordan on Thursday.

Here’s a highlight reel of last year’s 2 trips that I put together a long time ago that I never bothered to post:

Once I had enough, we all joined up at Sizzlefoot and Chris bouldered the thing! Truly frightening and inspiring to watch all at the same time. This line is usually top-roped and is probably over 25 feet tall with the crux move coming at the top. Chris warmed up by climbing up to the jug at the midway point a few times and jumped down before doing the whole thing. Very nicely done! I wish I’d have gotten video of it but we decided a spotter would be more valuable than video.

After Chris did it, Nic decided to give it a go as well. He took a few long falls from just above the jug in the middle before finally working through the crux and making it to the lip. But he grabbed a wet spot that hadn’t been cleaned and blew off the top! Chris and I could only watch and attempt to spot as he fell all the way to the pads… somehow he managed to not get hurt and got right back on the problem. After taking one more pretty long fall from above the jug (at this point I decided I had to take video in case he fell off the top again) that is in the video he sent it too.

Here’s some footage Nic edited together from the day:

Pretty nice day considering we didn’t know what to expect when we got out there.. Hopefully there will be more days to come very soon.

Here’s the rundown:
3 of us got ridiculously sick (puking guts out/not eating anything for 3 days/losing 10 pounds sick)
everybody got injured at some point: a tendon in my left knee and a tendon in my arm connected to right ring finger (which will probably keep me from climbing for a month), eric and nic pulled hamstrings and couldn’t heel hook, chad sprained an ankle

Oh well — even an awful climbing trip is still much better than sitting at home on the couch. I had a great time hanging with friends and met a lot of really cool people from around the world. Hueco is beautiful and I do hope to get back again.

The exact moment of tendon injury:

Final day:

(PUNCH!KICK!POW!)

TAKEOVER-

by Nicholas Oklobzija

back to 100% my ass.

Let us take role

skin- well I have a full pad flapper (pointer finger) f’n power of silence (still not sent)
stomach- able to eat however I left Minnesota at 152 and am now at most 143…. WTF!
muscles- looking amazing seeing that i have rested and sunbathed more then i have climbed
friends- great as always, yet we could hang out in minnesota (did not need to spend 700$ to go chill in a coffee shop in el paso) not my idea of a good time.
family- lost a great woman in my family this week and a key player in my life (we will miss you bonnie!)
girl friend- is wishing she would have thought twice about “us” (joke)

but on the bright side i would change nothing… this will be the trip of my life (i just have to kick ass these next couple days) if all go’s well i will climb “dark age” v11, “power of silence” v10, and “diaphanous sea” v11/12. I do not want to sound like a baby i am just letting the public get the real story kinda like cnn?

well neil is coming to better go before he wakes up..

peace,

—————–

……..okay back to Neil here…Nic is right – this trip has really sucked at times and featured extreme hits to our psyche but we still have a week to go and things are on the up.

I sent Baby Face V7 on Friday on my 2nd try of the day which is one of the best lines I’ve done. My sights are now firmly set on Adjust Your Attitude – a roof V8 with some of the craziest moves I’ve tried. I have all but one of the moves worked out and it feels close.

Chad and Eric are both working on projects as well. Chad hopes to do Baby Martini V6 and Eric has done King Cobra V6 is making progress on Speed Bump V7. Nic has done the Right hand variation of Free Willy V9 and has his projects as well.

Jeff Fink joined us this weekend for his first outdoor bouldering experience — quite an introduction this was! He really enjoyed climbing on a whole lot of fun problems throughout North Mountain. Nice work Jeff!

Dan and Andy have left us to go back home. It was fun climbing with these guys and too bad to see them go.

Here’s my send of Baby Face:

Nic On Free Willy:

Jeff on a nice line:

Warming up:

Chad:

Adjust Your Attitude: