Triathlon

Eric and Abbie did the June Lake Tri a couple weekends ago. Abbie blogged about it here. I did my variation yesterday. So which is better? Swim, bike, run or climb, climb, climb?

Leg 1: Scary slab climbing
The race started at 6:30am when I had to get out of bed. Tom Gibbings and I went to check out Hair Raiser Buttress (5.9 R (V0-)). It's about 400' of perfect slab climbing with the occasional 30ft runout. It's three pitches up the left side of the formation.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

So, swimming vs. slab climbing?
Jeff's tri variation - 1
Conventional tri - 0

Leg 2: Deep Water Soloing
Jeff Honeywell and I stole a canoe and paddled our way across South Lake in search of the next Mallorca. We're headed to the cove just right of Jeff's shoulder where he swears there is a sick 35ft cliff with 15ft of water under it.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Apparently the water level is really high right now so we pioneered a new sport: Deep Water Traversing.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Since that it possibly the most boring type of climbing, we quickly switched to cliff jumping and trundling for the rest of the afternoon.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Anyone else know how to tie a taut line hitch? I didn't think so...

photo - Jeff Honeywell

Biking vs. canoeing, deep water traversing, cliff jumping, and trundling? DWT is retarded, but still cooler than biking.
Jeff's tri variation - 2
Conventional tri - 0

Leg 3: Rattlesnake wrestling
Jeff H. had to go cook some corn dogs, so I went up to the Buttermilks for the last leg by myself. I had to stop and tell this rattlesnake that the road is a bad place to take a nap. (Yes Eric, the white balance is all wrong; bite me.)

photo - Jeff Sillcox

It was hot. I did some moves on The Buttermilker and ran up a few classics: The Hunk, Green Wall, Go Granny Go. I didn't take any pictures of myself so here's one from the spring of me about to eat shit off Zen Flute (V10) with the Buttermilks in the background.

photo - Wills Young
(disclaimer: Wills is a badass photographer. Don't blame this piece of crap image on him. It's the sun's fault.)

Running vs. climbing at the Buttermilks when it's way too hot? Running sucks.
Final score:
Jeff's tri variation - 3
Conventional tri - 0

It's a shutout!!! Surprised? I didn't think so. To be fair, the conventional triathlon was pretty cool. Eric almost had me convinced to try one until I realized I would need to buy a wetsuit, a bike, and some running shoes. Plus, Eric and Abbie finished their tri in an hour or so. Mine took 16 hours. Bunch of sissies...

Golf

and Jeff

No flowers this time Andrew...

photo - Jeff Sillcox


photo - Eric Lang

Our newest sponsor

photo - Eric Lang

This one was shot later in the studio with a backdrop

photo - Jeff Sillcox


photo - Eric Lang

Yeah, that's right, golf.

More Highballin'

Kevin Daniels, Jeff H. and I went up to Way Lake yesterday afternoon to do battle with the mosquitoes. They're still winning, but we took out another couple hundred. Only 10 million to go...

After a quick warmup, Kevin got psyched on my new problem Who's Retarded Now? (V4). He quickly flashed it while I scrambled to get a couple pictures.



photos - Jeff Sillcox

Just around the corner, we all flashed this V2/3ish highball that probably has a name, but I don't know it. Jeff posed a very unconvincing swing on the last move and then gracefully topped it out.

photos - Jeff Sillcox

Then we headed up the hill and did Morpheus (V5), another tall problem with a less-than-perfect landing. Here's a shot of Eric on it last summer.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

We finished our session on Secret Pinches (V5) and I added a fun V3 next to it.

And from last Friday...
Abbie sending an unknown V3 on more perfect rock.

photo - Eric Lang

Me working on a project with some really bad lighting.

photo - Eric Lang

New Way Lake Highball

*** Video added below ***

Quick update from Way Lake yesterday. Andrew sent Crimp Ladder (V7) after fine-tuning his beta by falling off the last move a few times.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Jeff Honeywell finished off the burly Karate Kid (V8) after the hold breakage (by him).


photos - Jeff Sillcox

And I did one of my highball projects without dying. The picture doesn't really do it justice. It's about 25 ft to the top of the face (roughly V4) and if you fall off the last move, you might get lucky and land on the pads or you might take the 30+ ft fall into the pit (don't do it). Andrew shot some video of it so we'll get that up soon. Maybe I'll have a name for it by then too.

Andrew trying the line

photo - Jeff Sillcox

The highball video... still no name yet

video - Andrew Stevens

I wandered around for a while after Jeff and Andrew took off and put up a very nice 15 ft V2 face on perfect rock. Took a few more pictures also. (Andrew, this is where the climbing ends, so look away and go upload the highball video.)

This is where the mosquitoes live

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Mammoth Mountain from the backside of Emerald Lake at sunset

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Another Man vs Cat?

No, it's not another National Geographic post. It's a battle of potential boulder problem names. (You can figure it out for yourself.) I went to check out the project that Andrew and Jeff H. had been working on up near South Lake (Bishop, not Tahoe). It's a really cool offset seam that will probably go in the V7-10 range. Conditions were not very good even at 9000ft. We had a some rain and the mosquitoes were insane. Jeff killed nine with one slap.

There's a couple different ways to do the opening sequence...
The pussyfoot method involves a big move with the left hand and some technical footwork. Andrew demonstrates:



photos - Jeff Sillcox

Uh... yeah, so the other method is the manfoot. Same big move but with the right hand and a giant foothold. I decided that this way was a little harder but sets me up better for the rest of the problem.
Jeff "Full Moon" Honeywell demonstrates:


photos - Jeff Sillcox

Either way it's still not the hard part. I think bringing my feet up by my face on this move will be the crux and as soon as my finger bones recover from the fingerlock, I'll be back for it wearing my full mosquito suit.

photo - Jeff Honeywell

---

And a little Way Lake action... Jeff "Fat Ass" Honeywell broke the right hand undercling on Karate Kid (V8) with his giant (fat) biceps. I repeated it with a much worse undercling and it's probably hard V8 or easy 9 now. Here Jeff almost sends with the new hold...

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Should be more from Way Lake this weekend.