So on Saturday Sam, myself, and Aubree led a trip out to Foster Falls for UTC outdoors to do some route climbing and it was awesome. The weather was super nice, we had an amazing group, and everybody did something they'd never done before. We had people lead climbing who'd never climbed outside, people trying climbing for the first time, and a lot of people who were just psyched to be outdoors. Then today Joseph and I hit up Cumberland boulders for the first time. I'd seen a video of the roof and thought it looked awesome so we went there first. I checked out the beta for a bit and was able to send Seven Eleven Stand (v7) on my flash attempt which was sweet. Jo put some serious work on it and did all the moves, but wasn't able to link em. I also tried the "sit" which I was really psyched on because it's just a huge campus move into the 7 start, but I wasn't able to latch on to the start hold of the stand variation (is that confusing?). Then we explored the boulder field a bit and ran across a really sweet problem I just found out is called Riverside. It's a v5 dyno thing that I was actually super psyched on which is crazy cuz I don't like dynos at all. I hit the top a few times, but wasn't able to send. That might be the prettiest line out there. Overall, it was an awesome weekend of rock climbing. Here are some pictures from Cumberland:
Seven Eleven Stand
working the "sit"
the left hand hold on the start to the Seven Eleven Sit
So last night was the second wave of the three part competition series that TBA is doing. The problems were sick and it was tons of fun as usual. Elliott got 1st in intermediate (although, by our math Jo won) Joseph got 2nd, and I got 3rd. Only one more comp till the cash prizes!!! Also, Spring break is next week and we're planning on getting out to HP40 and Rocktown with Chris, Josh, and other friends. So hopefully next week we'll have some sweet (high quality) pictures and videos to post.
So on Friday, in appreciation of beautiful weather, some of us took off for LRC for the day. We were feeling pretty strong and me and Joseph got a lot done. Especially Joseph. First we worked crescent direct and got frustrated so we bailed on that one, then we hit Cast Away (v7 dyno problem) and Jo sent it on his 2nd session of working it! I wasn't too into it at first because I couldn't get the muscle memory down, but after a few goes I started feeling it. On my last attempt I wrapped my fingers around the top but just couldn't stick it. Either way I was stoked because dynos aren't really my thing and I know that problem will go for me. Then we headed to the back 9 to hit deception which is one of the most beautiful boulder problems I've ever seen. We worked it for a while and I got 2 moves from the top on my best go, and once again Jo crushed it. He was feeling it today for sure. I don't have video of him sending because he was really sketched out by the top and Elliott and I had to spot. Elliott also hit some random problem to the right of deception that we had no idea of. We didn't know the beta, if it was a real problem, or anything but it looked sweet so Elliott hopped on and flashed it. We think it's a v5? not too sure but that's what we think the guidebook said. After that we headed on over to the chronic (v7) and worked that for a bit as well. Joseph got it but he's gotten it before. Our buddy Daniel crushed it after a full session of tearing up his hands. I got all the moves dialed in but was just too raw to capitalize. (in the video is a clip of my left hand blowing off the crimp start and shredding my hand) All in all, a great day was had by all. Javier and Rachel also came out with us and we ran into tons of locals so it was good to get to hang with everyone.
Then on Saturday the real stuff went down.
We headed out in the early afternoon and were real bummed when Lacey messed up her ankle on the very first climb of the day. Freakin' crescent boulder and that rock at the bottom of the face proved to be treacherous once again as she fell on it and hurt her ankle. So then I helped her walk/carried her out of the boulder field and took her home. Drew Meyer was also with us on Sunday and he crushed hard when he got T thong (Elliott's nemesis) for the first time. After I got back, I hit The Chronic for the second session and after receiving some crucial beta from Andrew Byrne I was able to get the send, which was an awesome feeling after it tore my hands to bits on Friday. Then we headed over to Cleopatra and to perfectly cap off his weekend of crushing, Jo got the send! It's his first v8 so we're all freaking pumped for him. Videos from Sunday will be soon to come as soon Drew shot the footage on his camera.
As for now, here's some footage of Jo crushing and me getting tore up.
Joseph Ezell climbing Cast Away (v7), the Chronic (v7), and Deception (v7). Jordan White climbing (and failing at) The Chronic.
A good time was had by all at TBA's first in a 3 part series of competitions tonight. Most places, me and the boys would consider ourselves advanced climbers, but TBA continues to keep us humble by setting freakin sweet and freakin hard problems. We all competed Intermediate (which was accurate seeing as how we couldn't send a single advanced problem). Joseph got 1st, Elliott got 2nd, and I got third. The problems were sweet and I snagged a used pair of 5.10 5xs for only $50. So psyched! Once again, we didn't get pictures or videos (i know i know) but we're gonna try and do better (promise). The good news is that my dad is sending me a camera in the mail that I can use for climbing and we found a flip video camera at the library that we can check out. What we really need to do though is get Chris Adams and Josh Ritchie to live in Chattanooga and document all our worthy sends. I'll have more soon. Peace.
So I recently decided that with all the climbing that me and my housemates have been doing lately, I needed to start a blog to keep track of all our noteworthy sends. I use the term "noteworthy" very loosely knowing full well that I won't be documenting any v13s by myself or my friends anytime soon. That said, this blog is a way for us to motivate ourselves to better document the climbing that we do (that way we can pick up more girls). Just kidding, but really Elliott is single. So for now I thought I'd give a little bio on the boys and what we do.
Jordan White (me)
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 125 lbs
Ape Index: +.25"
High Send: v7
Climbing Since: fall of 2008
Relationship Status: Single
Shoe of Choice: 5.10 5x
Joseph Ezell
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 160 lbs
Ape Index: +.25"
High Send: v8
Climbing Since: 2007
Relationship Status: Taken (by B-rat)
Shoe of Choice: 5.10 Dragon
Elliott Brown
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 140 lbs
Ape Index: +.1"
High Send: v7
Climbing Since: 2007
Relationship Status: Single (and looking)
Shoe of Choice: Moccasym
Sam Halleen
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 135 lbs
Ape Index: +.25"
High Send: v6
Climbing Since: 2007
Relationship Status: Taken
Shoe of Choice: 5x
Gabe Glass
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 205lbs
Ape Index: +1.0"
High Send: v2
Climbing Since: 2009
Relationship Status: Taken
Shoe of Choice: Air Jordan
You can also expect to see guest appearances made by the likes of Drew Meyer, Garret Venable, our dog Grim, and anyone else we see doing something cool. As long as this rain chooses to subside, this blog should be consistently updated with pictures and videos of us climbing cool stuff. So thanks for reading and please check back soon.