So a long time ago I promised some more vids of my friends and I climbing. After a long time procrastinating on it I finally put up a post. Gretchen and I got some great video of Dan Chen, Chris Mireault, Corey Phelan, Dan Corbera, Heather Sargent, Ryan Mateyko, Nalumon Michelle and of course yours truly.

Let’s start out with Ryan on a V6 problem that absolutely crushed me and many others. The video doesn’t show the mantle move which defeated so many, but it does show the high flying jump that Ryan nails. Ryan, ever the showman, really takes his time to up the suspense.

One of my favorite problems and one that several of the gang attempted to take down was a seemingly easy problem in the v5 range, but the finish took a brave soul who could throw caution to the wind and reach up and around the side of the stacked cubes. A miss ignaminously launched climbers through the air and crashing to the pads below. The start has some small crimps that can cause your legs to cut and requires some bearish shoulder strength to stay on. A well placed knee bar can give you some respite before heading up a series of compression moves. Dan’s vid will give you an idea of the climb. I love Ryan’s vid because he must have tried this one a half dozen times and every one ended with “fuuuuuuu-dge?”

Here myself, Chris, Ryan and Dan all get crushed by this long “roof” climb. This was certainly a crowd favorite and I eventually got it post comp – oh if I only I had gotten it day of. Incidentally Chris, Ryan and I all finished next to each other in the Advanced standings and Dan Chen won the division. So here are some props Dan… even though you do blow the very last move on this route! Okay, okay. So you went back and got it your very next try. Next year you will be open material though and I will be stealing your title .

Here is Heather on another fan favorite. That little crimp where she almost kicks off has defeated so many people. They just took the problem down, but I’ve been watching people trying to hit that left hand side pull for weeks. She makes it look pretty easy, but that’s the problem with rock climbing. The better you are the easier it looks. Maybe next competition I will get some videos of thirty people crashing and burning on a route and then show someone crushing with ease.

Nalumon and Heather both took a turn on this crazy V4 that requires your feet to literally stick to the wall. The footing is horrendous and I think you can see it on Nalumon’s face at the 38 second marker. You might have to switch it to high def to really get that “woah!” look.

Corey and I working a fun rails problem. The lower section of this problem is pretty awkward. Trying to keep your feet on the rails either via a toe hook or a heel hook then traps you from making the long reaches needed to hit the positive parts of the rails. The finish was super easy for me thanks to awesomeness beta from Ryan. I don’t think he even climbed this one for the comp, but he figured it out anyways. You toe hook around the arete to avoid a slippery peanut hold and its an easy reach to the finish.

An easy problem with the crux being a long reach to a sloper. Fortunately I nailed it on my first try. I tried this one a few weeks later and it took me five trys to hit. I guess I was more on for the comp than I thought I was.

Here is Gretchen filming from directly below me. My incentive to finish without a fall was to not crush my pregnant wife or my new camera. NuSchool Basic 1 students should also take note of the smear foot switch just after I come around the arete (50 seconds in). See! The stuff I teach is useful!