The Lindner Project

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