Wideness in the Voo

I am back at work, cranking out 70 hour weeks, and did a shift from 6 pm to 6 am last night with the wolf pack.  Lazy day today.

Anyways, a few weeks back I did a cool trip to Vedauwoo and got to climb some cool routes and climb with some cool people.  The people I got to see and climb with included Pamela Pack, Zach and Racheal the local guidebook authors, Matt and Molly the OWers and Nathan and Jim photo/ film guys and climbers.

All in all it was a great trip and alot of cool stuff happened.  Pamela established one of the sickest offwidths I have ever seen.  Matt got the ultimate sandbag tour, and I got to try a few old routes and a few new ones.

The crew hanging out as Matt prepared for Burning Man.  An all out Ved classic and cool spot to hang out.

Pamela helping me figure out the beta on the Glass Hummingbird.

Pamela showing how its done on Vedauwoo's burliest offwidth roof, the Forever War. (photo Zach O)

Nathan Smith sinks some steel on a soon to be new route.

Jim Aikman doing his thing

The Glass Hummingbird

Matt Cool on Burning Man (pic by Molly C)

A shout out to Pamela from the strongest man alive!

A flash of Lucile

Beginning the battle on the Forever War

An attempt on New Mutant (photo Nathan Smith)

Molly Chambers, in the chamber of Right Parellel Space.

OW's and Jim Beam?!  ofcourse!

Matt gunning for the second ascent of Empty Suit, great job man!

Matt again on Penetration

River crossings

Pamela crushing Simiantics

Pam on More crystal than...

Me on the same.

All in all a great trip with some good repeats and some even cooler new ones!  Thanks for letting me borrow some shots, Matt, Zach, and Nathan. 

Check out Pamela and Matt's blogs for more details as I turned this into more of a photo blog today...

Cheers,

Patrick



Vedauwoo

Climbed in Vedauwoo last weekend.  Worked and scoped a couple "secret" projects, and got an onsight of "Iron Maiden", an Andy Johnson masterpiece.  Its a very good route and a great example of the potential still available at the Voo.

An offwidth gangster keeping a low profile...

One project is an amazing offwidth roof at a terrible angle that I found last season hidden deep in the woods and brought Pamela to on Saturday.  The pysche was high and she managed to TR it cleanly on her second go, crazy!  I couldn't touch this thing last season on mini trax, but made much better progress this round with good beta and encouragement from below, though still have quite a ways to go.  Its a crazy hard inversion and shuffle at a 60 degree angle and should be the hardest wide thing in the voo.  The lead will be quite sketchy though, as the angle will almost certainly secure a head banger if you blow the crux.  Head bangin' heavy metal!!!!!

The next project is a huge finger crack roof that i also scoped last season and is beyond my capacity. (5.14?)  I think if Pee-Wee comes back through he's gotta check it, but for now, Im gonna keep it DL and flop around it a few more times before writting it off.  Its amazing though, and probably one of the most spectacular lines in all the Voo.

The project that I am most psyched on (read doable .12ish).  Is a flared seam to offwidth and squeeze, that is kinda steep and very asthetic.  Its on a somewhat obscure crag and is a very obvious line.  There is another cool undone steep hand crack right next to it.  Its crazy how much potential is available at Vedauwoo.  And there's more....

So besides a fair amount of hiking and scoping new stuff, I also got to check out Andy Johnson's masterpiece, Iron Maiden, (5.11) that has only had one previous repeat (Pamela) since the first ascent that I or Pamela know of.  It's touted as more difficult than Lucile, with a very similar crux lip and flared finish.  Its an amazing route, that is flared, sharp and steep; its certainly a classic and deserves more action. 

http://mountainproject.com/v/iron-maiden-aka-blood-drive/106164072  link to the beta on the proj, and the video of the onsight below.

All in all a very great weekend, with many things on the list both thin and wide.

Cheers,

Patrick

Giulia

Here's a (bad) profile picture of a route that Pamela sent last spring that I helped establish.

A find that looks much easier than it actually climbs.

Its baggy sixes in an overhanging corner, to run out squeeze, and finally a 9" wide 12' long roof.  The start and finish are the cruxes and it clocks in around .11+ or maybe a shade harder.  Its only 50', looks easy (haha), is a 1 minute flat hike from the road and is just down from newspaper rock towards the creek.  Get some!!

sent the same day as the red point of EHs second pitch.  props!!!!!

Patrick