My last couple of days were spend on the 19th and 20th in Hueco. The weather was incredible but maybe just a little bit hot. The temperature was upwards of 25 degrees Celcius in the sun.
On the 19th, I really wanted to get on Esperanza. I had tried the crux moves a couple of days before and it felt definately doable. We warmed up just outside of the Martinin Roof and Simon Parton and Jason McColl played around on Black Mamba. I had done that problem 3-4 years ago and I heard someone chipped it? I sent it pretty easily in 2 goes and if anything felt easier, it was the left hand gaston for the second hold. We looked at it pretty closely and it definately looked like some sort of tool marks to make it bigger…

After i finished warming up, i went into the Martini Roof and started working Esperanza. Because of our rest day the day before, I felt like i was really close to sticking the move. After numorous burns, I was still having trouble with the crux move and I had stuck it once and then had my foot blow off a second later. Since I was really close to sticking the crux move, I figured I should learn the other moves again. I climbed the moves easily to the crux move and almost stuck it on redpoint! After a bit of rest, I pulled on from the bone hold only to fall on the last move so I figured I had to learn the last move. After 10+ minutes of trying to figure out the last move, I found out I just can’t span it. I had Jamie Chong hold my body in as I tried to span from the jug down to the ear and I couldn’t reach it. I also tried just completely throwing for the jug but came still a couple of inches away. I tried a few more times but was unsuccessful. After the disappointment of Esperanza, I was feeling kind of unmotivated so i decided to get on another nemisis, Dean’s Journey. Afer just 2 goes, I sent the problem. A bit more relieved, I sat down and had a long Scrabble match against Jamie. When that was over, I felt a lot better and decided to climb again. I had always wanted to try Terre De Sienne, so when Jamie was working Luthor, I started warming up my fingers. Jamie came ridiculously close to sending Luthor and stuck the crux move of Chblanke before his foot slipped. I suggested he take a break so I could go try the epic crimp problem. In my head I wanted to flash it… I mean, it’s only 2 moves… right? I’ve been feeling the holds on that problem for a couple of years now and I figured it was time to try it. I pulled on, and fell on the first move… I stood up and just started laughing. I wanted to flash it, but I also knew that the probability of me actually pulling off was miniscule. On my second go, I felt like i was going to stick the move and my right hand dry fired off the first crimp and I went crashing down. Content that I had now tried the problem, I walked a few feet right and sent Diaphanous Sea second go.
We walked back up to Luthor and on his first try after his break, Jamie fell going to the first hold of Sign of the Cross!! Jamie felt that he was getting too tired to try the problem so we walked over near the Asylum to look at a problem that Sonnie Trotter had found the previous day. Sonnie had found the problem and showed it to me in hopes that I could send it in a couple of days. When he first found he problem, he thought that the sit start would be V13 or 14. Jamie and I played around on the problem for about an hour but it was getting really dark so we packed it in.

On the 20th, we were back on North, I had unfinished business on my new project and Jamie had Luthor. We warmed up and decided Jamie would try his project first, then we would go over mine. On another note, for the past 3 days I’ve been filming every attempt made by Jamie. My hopes it that I’ll get the send on camera and I can stitch together my first short climbing movie containing one problem… Jamie warmed up but felt a little bit tired from the last 3 days of trying it. His first go was not outstanding but not bad either, he easily gets to start of Chblanke but struggles on the moves to the pinch, then the crux move. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen him fall trying to stick the left hand pinch. His second try was even worse… falling going to the right hand pinch of Chblanke. Dissapointed, Jamie said he was too tired and decided to let it go…

We went over to my project and it took my around 6 tries to do the sit. The reason I’m being so vague about the problem is because I got all the work and send on camera and I’m going to try and put together a little video. They say a picture says a thousand words, what about a 2 minute video? It’ll also make it easy to see where the problem is, and instead of decribing the beta, you can watch it. I’ll probably have the video up and together in the first couple of weeks of January.

After a night in the El Paso airport with my brother Jason McColl, I flew home for the Christmas Holidays.

It seems that this whole trip I can’t climb harder than V11. The closest problem I’ve been to sending is Ice Scream and I also think with a little more effort, I could do Li, Full Throttle and Slashface. The problem is that all the Volunteer tours are booked and Commercial tours just got jacked up to 30$ a person.

Yesterday, we had reservations for North so we went straight to the top of the chains. After a 30 minute warm up in the Gymnasium, we threw our pads in front of See Spot Run. I ran up the highball V6 and was about to try Barefoot when another problem caught my eye. Just across from See Spot Run, there was this perfect left hand crimp and other holds to follow. Near the back of the roof, there was another perfect starting hold. There was only chalk on the start holds so I chalked and brushed the others and started working the problem.. After a handful of tries, I sent the problem. The problem starts on a low undercling and using the pedestal, you reach over the lip and get a double toe hook. From that position, you come into an undercling under the lip, bring your feet out of the toe hooks and deadpoint a couple of feet to a good edge. Sonnie Trotter and Jamie Chong also send the problem in the next half an hour. One of the funny things about this soon to be classic problem is that we all did the problem with different sequences. Originally I thought the problem was V10 but after some discussion with Jamie and Sonnie, we settled on V9. I’m also not quote sure if this is even an FA so if you know of anyone else who’s done this problem, please let me know. Either way, the problem is still there, it’s not sharp and it’s fun to play around on. If it is indeed a FA, we decided to call it G Spot Fun because its near See Spot Run but a little bit harder to find.

Later in the day, we were up at Daily Dick Dose and I was trying a problem called Rogered in the Shower. When I was working on Alma Blanca, I’d try this problem a few times before giving up. After a few painful tries, I found the good undercling that you grab at the end of Alma Blanca. I decided to try and go that way next burn. First time trying to go to the undercling, I hesitated and went for the corner again. The second time, I sent it. What a relief! I look back on my previous 10+ tries and i shake my head when i realize i never once saw that undercling. When I got down from the problem, Jamie was interested in my new found beta, I sprayed him down move for move and he sent second go… Good job Jamie! After that, we went over to Martini Roof and played around until it got dark.

Today, we warmed up at Warm Up boulder then went straight to Choir Boys. Jamie was close to doing Luthor and Jason McColl wanted to try Choir Boys. After fumbling with the first couple of moves, I repeated Luthor first go. Jamie tried it a bunch of times in the space of an hour but was unsuccessful. I ran over and did Power of Silence and then headed back to the Martini Roof. I wanted to get on a problem that I had seen on 8a.nu called Litz Problem. From what I understood, it started on Dirty Martini and finished in the jug of Esperanza. On my flash attempt, I fell on the hueco of Right Martini. I figured out the top sequence and sent the problem second go. It was getting late but I jumped on Esperanza anyways. I still haven’t stuck the crux move but today I got the closest that I’ve ever gotten. When I was too tired to give serious tries on the crux move, I ran through the beginning moves and called it a day.

So far this trip, I haven’t sent anything harder than V11 (excluding repeat ascents). Hopefully I’ll have a couple good days on Esperanza… Tommorrow is Sonnie’s last day here so he’s going to climb on North Mountain while most of us take a rest day and just walk around. We’re also planning on hitting up an Outlet Mall about 45 minutes outside of El Paso.

After picking up Vikki and my brother from the airport, our Canadian crew had now grown to 6. Since our old car was only a 5 seater, we had to upgrade to a minivan and Jamie took on the role of soccer mom. Our crew was now made up of Jamie Chong, Simon Parton, Sonnie Trotter, Vikki Weldon, Jason McColl and myself.

Our 3rd day of climbing was on the 12th. We had a volunteer tour at 930 and we were really psyched to get on a problem on West mountain called “The Feather”. Since it’s the hardest problem to hike to at Hueco, we stopped at some other problems on the way. We started our day on a long problem called Long Dong. This problem was a 25 move V6 with no move harder than V4. We figured if it was a route, it would weigh in the mid 5.12 range. After everyone sent that one, I wanted to go down and check out a problem called Ice Scream. This problem has 3 variations which start at different points on the boulder. Last season I had done the V10 and V11 versions so I wanted to try the full boulder this time. After a bunch of tries trying to remember the finish moves, I sent the high version and then I started working the low. It was hard!! The first move is a full extension deadpoint to a 2 finger pocket then you have to do a massive high step and lock off to the start hold of the V11. Countless tries later I had done every move. After a long rest I got psyched up and climbed through the whole bottom only to fall on the last move of the stand!! After another rest I got to the same move again, falling inches from the top. After that my muscles were too tired from the physical moves of the start so we packed up and moved on.

After a brief lunch break where Vikki, Simon and Sonnie played around on a stout V4, we started the hike up to The Feather. We didn’t realize it at first but after 45 minutes of rock hopping, tree fighting and slab climbing, we finally arrived in a the little cave that was home to The Feather. Before trying the problem, we all huddled around Jamie’s iPhone and watched Nate Gold work the moves from the movie “Best of the West”. On my flash burn, I made it all the way out on the roof but couldn’t figure out how to reach out left to a pinch. Jamie was struggling with the throw at the bottom but when I figured out a key toe hook to place before the move, we both could do the move a lot easier. After figuring out what to do with my feet for the top moves, I took a big rest and fired the problem. After a brief rest, Jamie figured out his feet and crushed the problem on his next go.

Yesterday, we were pretty tired from the hike out West so we decided to get on a bunch of easier problems the whole day. We spent the whole day on East Spur and did a bunch of realy good V8’s and 9’s. One of the best problems of the day was a V8 called The Egg. This problem started in a knee bar and came around a bulge and up the arret on slopers. I also tried the moves on Coeur Du Leon, but I wasn’t strong enough to do a foot movement in the middle. At the end of the day, we were all really tired but we had easily climbed at least 10 boulders each.

Today was another rest day spend at Kristophs’s. Before we came into town, we ran around North Mountain taking a look at the problems we wanted to get on. Tommorrow should be another hot day and hopefully I’ll be feeling strong.

The last time I was in Hueco was in February and that trip was a pretty short one, 5 days. This time I’m down here for 11 days which means 8 or 9 days of actual climbing. My first day was on the 10 and since I had signed us all up for a volunteer tour, we went to East mountain. Currently in our crew is Jamie Chong, Simon party and Sonnie Trotter. We warmed up at the warm up roof and I played around on a V13 called Liane. After that Jamie and Simon wanted to head to a problem that they were both really close on. It was a V10 called Full Service. I wanted to try it and I also try a link up that started on Full Service and joined up with another problem just left. The link up is called Full Throttle and is given V13. Since these problems were in a cave and there was a breeze that day, it was really cold down there. Jamie and Simon both showed me their individual beta and I thought that Jamie’s beta was better suited for me. After a few minutes of warming up Jamie decided to give it a re warm up burn. He pulled on and fired the problem first go! After seeing the beta first hand, I put my shoes on and gave it a burn. Thanks to Jamie’s beta, I flashed it! To finish up our sesh, Simon disbatched the problem a few tries later. I also played around on the link up Full Throttle, but the big span move in the middle was shutting me down. I could do the span but getting my heel hook over my right hand was too hard because I was so spanned. After that we decided to head over and try the ultra classic “Slashface”. I really wanted to give a good flash burn on this problem but I may have picked a bad day to do it on. After trying Liane, and then Full Throttle, i was pretty tired. Over the past couple of years, i’ve seen lots of clips of people trying it and doing it. I’ve also asked a few people to give me some beta on it but they didn’t tell me about the beginning. It turns out there’s a pretty cryptic heel hook that took me a bunch of tries to figure out. When I finally figured it out and stuck the gaston, my fingers locked awkwardly and my pointer finger started to bleed from under the nail. I thought the hard moves would start once i hit the gaston on the face but i was wrong, every move on that problem is pretty hard. I tried of a few more times then called it a day. Even though my flash attempt was terrible, I still want to come back and try this problem again. Today I ended up trying 3 different V13’s but I think after a bit of work I could send them all.

On our second day, I had another volunteer tour booked so we decided to go East Spur. I was still tired from my long first day but there was this highball called Rules of Chaos that looked cool. I warmed up on easy problems then went over to the problem and set up the pads with Simon. We each took turns trying it and in a couple of tries each we were at the crux move which was 15 feet up and just below the lip. Taking a closer look, we found an undercling out right and I decided on my next attempt I would go that direction. It felt good, so I committed myself for the seam below the lip. I said in my head I wasn’t going to fall but the holds had a different opinion. I missed the hold by a fraction of an inch and came spiralling down. It was scary, but Simon caught caught me and I landed safely on the pads. The next time I got up there I was confident that I just had to go a tiny bit further to hit the good seam. Once again
I comitted myself to the move but this time I hit it. Once I hit the hold I thought disaster! The hold was way worse than I thought but I past the point of jumping down. I threw in a hard backflag and threw for the lip. I hit the lip, my feet swung out but i was too high to think about faling and I held on. I took my time topping out but at least the send was in the bag. Comparing the problem to other V10’s in the park, it felt much harder so I decided to go with V11 for the grade. Since the problem hasn’t been climbed much, the rock was super gritty and my skin hurt so much after that problem that I didnt climb for the rest of the day. Since it was still pretty early, Jamie wanted to hike over to Full Monty and Simon wanted to try another V10 called Focus. Simon dispatched Focus in 3-4 tries but Jamie was unsucceful on Full Monty. After that, we walked over to Donkey Show to let some of our fellow tour members try Mr. Serious. While we were over there, Jamie threw on his shoes and flashed Mr. Serious, then flashed the low link up connecting into it.

Today, we’ve been resting in a cafe called Kristoph’s. At 9pm tonight, we’re going back to the Airport to pick up Vikki Weldon and my brother Jason McColl. We have two more volunteer tours booked for the next two days so we’ll probably head to East or West again.

I’ve just returned home from North American Championships. If you didnt already know, the competition was held in Montreal at a gym called Horizon Roc. Truthfully, after seeing a couple of pictures of the gym, I was a little worried that the walls were going to be too short. Now that the competition is over and I had a chance to climb 4 routes I would like to say that this gym is probably the best gym to hold a lead event in Canada. While some of the routes had to to up the sides of the headwall, the longer finals routes were the closest I’ve felt to a European competition. Great job Horizon Roc and route setting staff!

Full results of the comp should be up the ifsc-climbing.org site soon. I managed to walk away with first place finish in open men. Along with this title was a cool 2000$ For me, this money will be funding my trip to the World Championships in China this summer.

Aside from competing, at the comp, I was also nominated one of the assistant coaches for the Junior National team. While I was at the comp, I was trying to help the team as well as warm up and compete myself. There with me were head coach Andrew Wilson and felliw assistant coach Stacey Weldom. The hardest part about coaching this weekend was the amount of kids from Canada at the competition. With 73 juniors competing across 10 categories, it was impossible to individually warm up every kid. This comp was much different than Worlds for example because instead of 4 competitors in a category of 60 there were 8-10 in a category of 20. I think spme people had unreasonable expectations of the coaches and were then a little dissapointed.

That aside, I felt like every kid got a good warmup and I think team Canada climbed well as a group. During the 3 day event I had to be in isolation at 730 every morning. With the time change I didnt sleep much this weekend. Last night, I got back to Vancouver at 11:00pm only to go home, pack, sleep and them catch a 10:00 bus from downtown. Since I didnt have time to get onto my computer, I’ve done this whole post through wifi on my new iPod touch. Sorry if there are tons of writing errors, I’m still getting used to the digital keyboard.

By 11:00 tonight, I’ll be reunited with Jamie Chong and Simon Parton for 11 days of bouldering in Hueco Tanks, Texas.