Staying warm at Willow in 2009
A few winters ago Chris Lindner moved out to Gunnison for a
few months. My friend Ellis was in town too so the three of us went out to
Willow Creek to try some projects I had started working on over the summer.
That day Chris flashed the first ascent of Fight Test (a really highball V8),
did the first ascent of The World Is Your Burrito (a V9 until it broke
recently), and also got the first ascent of The B (a V10 that is still
unrepeated). To cap it all off he cleaned up a project on the roadside boulder that
we all worked on into the night. No one sent, but Chris thought it was probably
in the hard V12 range. Unfortunately Chris had to leave the valley before he
got back to the project, so it never got sent.
Chris working on the project (2009)
Despite being February, today was sunny and super warm!
Josh, Terry, Kyle, Caleb, and I went out to Willow for some sweet sweet road
side ice bouldering. Ice bouldering because the slope of the terrain around the
boulder causes all the snowmelt to pool in one spot, the landing zone, which
freezes into a 1-2ft thick ice slick. It is a great place to slip and wreck
yourself. Which I did. But not before I was able to send the Lindner Project!
The ice still hurt though.
I named the problem “The Hunted” (V12), after Roy found a
bighorn sheep skull that had been chomped straight in the face by a mountain
lion (you could see the teeth holes in the bone, it was awesome). The problem
sit starts and makes a few set up moves before launching into a sequence of
really hard moves on really small holds, to a cryptic top-out. Overall the
problem is good, but the rock quality in some places is lacking. All of the
critical holds are totally solid though and the movement is great. Check it
out.
-Will
