Memorial Day Weekend at the Rock Shop

Open spaces, an open calendar, and a new zone of easily accessible, high quality bouldering near Wild Iris.  Things don't get much better!  Three day weekends allow so much more climbing than the two day ones.  And for this one, Justin, Jamie, Collin, Mike, and Jared joined the standard Lander bouldering crew of Chris, Jesse, and me.  Chris has been the most active at the Rock Shop, and he led the tour.

Chris stretching for the session, while Mike climbs Chris's problem "Lord of the Flies" V5.

 Everyone was psyched, we had plenty of pads, and a lot of media was created.

Mike climbing "Zef" while Justin gets the shots.

 "Gem Thief" V11 got a lot of attempts.  Here's Mike checking it out, but this angle doesn't show how steep it is.

Jamie got the second ascent, and these shots show the true angle.

Collin and Justin worked on it too, and I saw Justin come close to getting the third ascent.  After I left, Justin managed to do it.

Justin is climbing strong.  He also flashed "Zef" and I think he flashed "Starry Night" V7.

He seems like a nice guy, and he's quick with a joke, but watch out!  Especially when he has his camera.

While most of the crew worked on "Gem Thief" Jesse cleaned a beautiful highball.

We knocked down the dead tree, which fixed up the landing.

And made the line look even nicer.

I wasn't around to witness Jesse's first ascent, but I saw Collin get the second.

The line is a classic called "Young Blood" V4.

Snow moved in, and I left to finish some work at home, but I got back as soon as I could.

On Monday, I repeated the tour with Ashley.  We warmed up on "Piggy" V1, and Ashley climbed "Lord of the Flies."

Here is Ashley climbing "Piggy."

I still had to finish "Zef." I made many attempts to grab a poor undercling on Sunday, but it never worked.  I was trying to follow Justin's beta, but on Monday Ashley found a better way.  We both sent the line, and I realized that while the energy of a crowd can help you try harder, sometimes taking the time to rest and work out beta is even more helpful.  The taller climbers use a sequence they call V6, and with Ashley's beta the line goes at V6 for shorter climbers as well.

"Starry Night" forced Ashley to do some extreme moves, but we discovered that it will be possible for her to send it.  The "Rock Shop" is already her favorite Lander bouldering area.

It was a great weekend, with a fun and talented crew.  It's good to see that people are getting excited, and the season is getting off to a fantastic start.