It's What We Do: Some Recent Stuff, and Ibex...of Course

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Some Recent Stuff, and Ibex...of Course

Let's start with Tommy. In September I gave him the goal of climbing a V8 or better each week until the first week of December. This means 12 V8s or harder in 12 weeks. Tommy modestly accepted the challenge responding with something like, "There's no way! But I guess I'll try." Well today is October 30th and Tommy has already completed his goal with 8 V8s, 4 V9s, and a V10! Basically the kid hasn't even touched his potential and will surely be pulling down CRAZY hard stuff really soon.

Zach has also come up with some impressive FA's as of late. All of them being really nice additions to the Cedar City area. In Bunker Creek he climbed this neat roof hidden amongst the titanic boulders. He called this line "50 Degrees of Perfection" (V9) and I believe he considers it to be the best in the area. Another amazing FA is the the Wash project. It's a boulder that we found about two years ago and cleaned just this spring. It is really different from the other problems in the wash in the fact that it is gritty and climbs more features than face holds. I think it's pretty neato! He named it "The Bounty Hunter" (V10).

Zach put this video together:

Southern Utah Episode 4: Fall First Ascents from Zach Bradford on Vimeo.

Last weekend we took another trip to Ibex for a few days. It was especially nice because Sheralee's family came and brought their luxurious trailer for us to relax and poop in. Tommy and I tried Bruce Lee and the Atomic Bomb. I feel pretty close on both, but they just keep managing to evade me. Maybe next time. Then we climbed the White Arete sit, a beautiful boulder climb. Next we tried Bigger is Better, and it shut us down. Fortunately I was staying an extra day so the next day I managed to crawl up it. I absolutely love that climb. Sheralee has also been climbing really well lately. She climbed Captain Choss in two tries and nearly climbed this super fun V5 called the Blob, falling on the last move.

Bruce Lee: It won this round