A little over a week ago, I did the two V7ish traverses from the right arete sit start into the Kind. Since then I've wanted to link the two together into a loop by going left on the upper traverse, then down to the lower traverse, and climb right on the lower one back to the start. Just like problems at Morrison where it is common for climbers put two problems together, give it a new name, and a higher grade.
Now it's quite likely that someone like Dean Potter did this problem before I even knew the boulder existed, and named it something like "Black Pearl Necklace", but I've never heard of it before. People I've met lately at the Kind boulder have never seen anyone work on it. So it could be new. I showed Ashley my idea, and mentioned I wanted to call it the "Kind Circuit." Ashley started to work on it too, and said that if she got it first she would call it "Kind of Loopy." I hated that name, so we were quite competitive over who would get the first send. My power endurance is far from being as good as Ashley's, but a couple big moves on the upper traverse were harder for her. I thought I had a chance. Long story short, Ashley climbed it today, and it's still a project for me. I did get her to compromise on the name though. She decided to call it "Kind Loopis" because of its similarity in style to "Air Loopis" at Morrison. It feels about V9 with the crux being a couple difficult downward moves into the lower traverse. It's a fun problem, and if you know that someone else did it first, then let me know.
5 comments:
bob horan, '84. duh !!
This is not a comment about this particular entry, however it is a friendly hello from your old friends Jeff and Caryn Snyder smoltering down here in Texas with our 19 month-old son, Collin. We stumbled on your blog and reflected on the "lost years" back in Colorado. We miss you guys and the mountains.
This is actually the only undocumented problem I know of around here where I am reasonably sure that Bob Horan didn't do the first ascent. Last year we were climbing at the Kind Boulder when Bob Horan showed up with a camera, and some printout guides from the web. He said he was working on a Colorado Bouldering Guide for Falcon, and that it was his first trip to Emerald. He said his guide was due to the publisher last year October, but I haven't heard about it since.
Hi Jeff and Caryn. We miss you. I'd like to see recent pictures of Collin. Could you send some to my e-mail? It looks like I'll be heading up to try the Diamond very soon. Reflecting on your experience up there makes me a bit nervous.
fun fact: many staple frontrange gurus are "reasonably sure" that bob horan didn't do the first ascent of many of his first ascents, or, did such first ascents via a gill start from a large cheater block without mentioning the same in the text of the guides.
i owe him about 56 shots to the belly for wild goose chases when trying to locate obscure v5/6/7/8/9s that either do not exist, have somehow shed all of their holds, or go at something around v23.
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