New Shoes, No Skin, No Problems

 

I'll Take Black 5.12c

Best mini-rig in AF Canyon

(See the send of this route in Episode 4 of Every 5.12 in the link below)

http://www.epictv.com/media/podcast/climb-something-big-for-yourself-|-every-512-ep-4/254680

 

 

Well it has been probably way too long since I have updated this blog to be able to fill in all the gaps. I will do my best here though!

 

So to start off, I have been climbing a lot and have managed to put away some really classic lines, including a handful of brilliant hard 12's. I am also really excited to announce that I have been welcomed onto the GEIGERRIG Athlete Team.

 

 

GEIGERRIG is a pretty rad company, and are definitely worth checking out!

 

I recently went on climbing trip to Joe's Valley, just for 2 days. I was looking for a change of scenery from AF, and I was really curious how all this route climbing was effecting my bouldering. I have been bouldering here and there in the gym, when it is to wet to climb outside, or when I can't find a climbing partner, but I certainly have not been focusing on it. In fact this trip was my first bouldering trip in over 3 years! I was really pleasantly surprised by how things went. I definitely didn't feel the raw power you get when you are a focused boulderer, but I felt a ton of endurance. I managed to flash a handful of V5's and V6's and did a couple V7's second go.

 

 

(Pimpers Paradise V5)

 

It was an interesting experience because even though I was able to climb V5-7 pretty quickly, and in some cases pretty effortlessly, V8 felt almost impossible, and of the ones I attempted, I didn't really even feel close on any of them. On the other hand I felt like I could climb V5-7 all day without really getting tired. For me this was really cool to see what climbing so many 5.12's has been doing for my endurance! I am excited to do a bit more bouldering throughout the winter, and see what that does for my onsighting in the spring. I have gotten on some pretty bouldery routes recently including I'll take Black, and Knuckle Up, which are both really great routes in their own way. Both have very power oriented cruxes, which I really enjoyed. Another really great recent send was El Diablo. The book calls it 12d/13a. I call it amazing! After doing I'll Take Black, I thought of my friend Tyler Sobotka who I thought would do really well on it. I brought him up to try it, and decided to hop on El Diablo while I was up there. The top half was soaked, and after my first burn I wasn't super optimistic. I took another burn and had my friend hand me the stick clip with a sweater on it. I used the sweater stick clip to soak up as much of the water on critical holds as I could and then lowered off.

 

(Drying a crucial hold on El Diablo)

 

I caught Tyler on a good go on I'll Take Black, then went to try El Diablo again. It was about that time when one of my best friends ever George Bruce Wilson, (the guy making the Every 5.12 series for Epic TV), came up the trail. With his and Tyler's encouragement I gave El Diablo a fierce effort. Even though I soaked up some water with the sweater stick clip combo, the holds had become soaked again. I tried to just pretend they were dry, and kept moving. After some intense over gripping, and some slippery foot placements, I found my self at the anchors!

(The Post Diablo Pump)

 

After lowering off I realized how hard I had tried and I felt the pump set in. It was one of those special, "There is no way I am gonna be able to untie my knot after this," kind of pumps. I must say that it had been awhile since I had been that pumped from a single pitch! I love that feeling! It fed the fire, and I have been chasing that pump since!

 

Since then I have sent a handful of 12's  but haven't quite felt the same feeling I got at the top of El Diablo. I am hoping to feel that again soon!

 

My current hard line I am working on is looking promising for that. It is not my specialty by any means. I have been trying Something Wild 5.12d at Cannabis wall. Just like everything else at Cannabis wall, this route seems really really hard, and maybe just a bit sandbagged. It is not my style exactly. It is a technical slab, and it is awesome. 12d slab means really small to imaginary holds, and super tenuous foot and hand placements. I have never had to be focused on a sport climb as I have had to be on this one and I love it. I have also never had to pull on 1/8 of a pad mono crimp on a sport route either, but I definitely do on this one!!  

(Right after the crux on Something Wild 5.12d)

 

 This route will be one of the featured routes in Episode 5 of Every 5.12, which will be coming soon! I am heading back up to this route Saturday as soon as things dry out a little bit, and will hopefully have a good Sunday blog for y'all! Until then stay psyched everybody, and climb on!

 

 

In closing I just wanted to give a huge shout out to my sponsors and to everyone that has been supporting me on this Journey! Special thanks to Darren Knezek and Mountainworks for being such an amazing supporter and mentor, and for helping me to stay psyched on this goal! Between Darren and my friend Bruce I think I have all the support I could ever need to get this done! I am very blessed though to have even more amazing supporters than that, so I also want to thank Five Ten Shoes for the new Dragons! I have been putting them to work for sure! As always big thanks to Haven Climbing for the sick custom gear, and the support and encouragement! And of course huge thanks to my newest sponsor GEIGERRIG for the sick packs, and rad support! I feel very fortunate to have met so many awesome people while working on this goal! So thanks everybody! 



Gaining Momentum

 

It has been too long since my last post, and a lot has happened since then. I have sent a handful of really fun 12's, and I wanted to take a minute and highlight a few standouts.

 

Field of Screams 5.12a: Once again, I have been really impressed with a Cannabis wall route. I went up to the wall after work last Tuesday, and I was feeling pretty tired after a morning battle with Guillotine, and a somewhat stressful day at work. My psyche was not super high, and to be honest I just wanted to get another climb ticked off the seemingly never ending list. (WRONG FREAKING ATTITUDE). 

 

I met my friend Ryan Stott up there, and after a warm up on the first half of Tear Drop, I decided to get on Field of Screams. I was interested in the name, and for those who don't have the Ruckman and Ruckman guide, you might be interested to know a little bit about where the name came from. This was an old Jeff Pederson/Bill Boyle route. When Bill redpointed the route, he called out take and looked down, only to find that he had not properly fastened his harness, and that the waist of his harness was held in place by a piece of Velcro and nothing else. I can only imagine the heart jolt that one must have caused! After sharing that with Ryan, he shared a funny story about the route with me as well. He had gotten on the route last summer and told me about his experience with what he thought was a sharp hold. Near the top of the route there are a couple of finger locks in a thin crack. When Ryan got to that point he jammed his hand into the crack and felt two sharp points digging into his palm and the hold seemed to creak faintly when he pulled on it. He let go thinking it was just a sharp loose hold, and searched for alternate beta. Upon finding no alternative, he jammed his hand into the crack once again and felt those sharp pangs again, accompanied by the same creaking sound. Again he took, and looked into the crack only to find that he had been smashing his hand up against a bat, and the bat retaliated with a couple of bites.

 

Ryan's hand after the Bat.



 

I laughed at the story, and he showed me the picture of his hand after the bat bit him. With that for encouragement, I set off up the route, only to get shut down by the same finger lock moves near the top where the bat was previously found. I checked for bats, and upon finding none, I started trying to work the moves out. Try as I did, I just kept getting shut down trying to hang a draw. I felt a little run out, and I couldn't reach the bolt from what I thought was the obvious clipping position. I ended up lowering off my first burn without ever seeing the top of the route. That seems to be a trend for me at Cannabis wall...

 

I felt tired, and hot, and I had forgotten my water, but I didn't want to complain. I took a second burn, and once again I got shut down. I also got 2 flappers on my pointer finger from the finger lock moves adding insult to injury. I decided to try climbing past the bolt, and hoped that I would find a decent clipping position somewhere above the bolt. After a couple desperate/balancy moves I found one and clipped somewhere between my hip and my knee, and went to the top of the wall. After finding some tricky short man beta for clipping chains, I lowered off and gave Ryan a catch on his project.

 

After watching Ryan come agonizingly close to sending I gave it another burn, and fought freaking hard. I don't know what it is about Cannabis 12's but I seem to have to dig deeper there than other areas in the canyon. I was very happy to do this route, and I will recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good butt kicking!

 

The other route I wanted to highlight was Isotoner Moaner 5.12a/b: BRILLIANT FREAKING ROUTE! I hopped on this one for the first time this morning before work, and I loved it! After blowing a foot on my onsight attempt, I took my time just enjoying the rest of the route between hangs. It has some really cool long moves off of underclings that I liked a lot. It was a very straight forward route without too much trickery. The moves are all pretty obvious, just long, and some hard. The flow of this route was different than a lot of the twelves I have done so far. It flowed really really well. The only thing I didn't like about it, is that the hard section is pretty short, and everything else was pretty cruiser. I just wish the hard section was a little longer, because the moves were very fun. That being said, I still loved this route. It was nice to just relax a little bit this morning, and just enjoy rock climbing without stressing too much about the goal. On my first burn, I tried a couple of sequences twice, and lowered off. I climbed through smoothly and sent without too much drama 2nd go, and just felt happy at chains. I didn't feel bummed at all that I didn't onsight it, or anything like that, I just felt happy.

 

From Chains of Isotoner Moaner

7:30ish am

 

I'm not real big of "selfies" but I wanted to do something to capture the moment. I am always happy climbing, but something about this morning was just special to me.

 

Guillotine 5.12d/13a

http://www.dpmclimbing.com/climbing-videos/watch/every-512-episode-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jdz9XagCQxY#at=107

http://www.epictv.com/pages/podcast-serie-host/every-512

 

In other news, we finally got Episode 2 of Every 5.12 done and live. You can click on any one of the 3 links above to see the Episode. We have been really busy filming for another project that Three Peak Films is working on, called The Send Bros., (http://www.facebook.com/TheSendBros). Now that all the actual filming is done for that, we should be able to crank out more Episodes of Every 5.12 with much more frequency. For now though enjoy Episode 2, and let me know what you think of the goal. Also if you want to see any routes done in an episode, or if you would like to go climbing, let me know.

 

Checkout our instagram hashtag #everyfivetwelve as well as @threepeakfilms and @jamestaftsimmons.

 

Lastly, I just want to give a HUGE thanks to all of the support and encouragement that I have gotten from so many of you! It makes it a ton easier to get out of bed at 4:45 each morning to hit the crag.



Episode One

You Can't Climb the Impossible

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCWm4Da20FU

I guess some people are having a hard time finding Episode One, so here it is. Follow me on Facebook, and/or Instagram to let me know what you think. Episode 2 is in the final stages of post production, and should be dropping either this weekend, or Monday. @jamestaftsimmons @threepeakfilms #everyfivetwelve

The goal is feeling good this week, as I have been able to make quick work of a handful of 5.12s. I have just felt good as I have worked at things, even though I have been very tired. In this post I wanted to share two experiences that I have had recently.

First I wanted to write about the hardest 5.12b I have ever done. A week ago today, I met up with my friend Ryan Stott, who is a very cool guy, and a gifted climber to go climb at Cannabis wall after work. I had spent the morning before work that day working on a 512d/13a on the Hell wall called Guillotine. I had worn through most of my skin, and was feeling pretty weak by the end of that session. I had not gotten enough sleep, and an 8 hour workday sitting at a desk did not sound prime. While I was at work Ryan texted me and asked if I wanted to meet him at the Cannabis wall after work to work on a route called Tear Drop. My body was telling me no, but my psyche was high, not to mention it has been getting harder for me to find people to climb with consistently, so I told him yes.

After work I was very excited to get up the canyon and go climbing. We got to Cannabis, and I got confused on my warm up, trying to figure out where the line was intended to go. I tried warming up on a route called Mission Control, which was rated 12a in the old Ruckman and Ruckman guide. I found myself looking at a blank section of wall, and determined that I must have been off route. I down climbed about halfway down the route, to what I thought must have been the line, only to find that it blanked out as well. Frustrated I took and lowered off. Coincidently a climber I really admire named Colin, (who's last name I have no idea how to spell, and we are not friends on Facebook so I can't look it up there), was at the crag, and he told me where the line was intended to go, and explained that the blank section was just a matter of 2 or 3 awkward balancey traversing moves back into good holds. After that explanation, I sent the route my next go with little effort. I wish I could say that it was an easy 5.12, but I believe that it is 5.11c at best, and does not merit the 5.12 grade.

After catching Ryan on his warm up, and an attempt on Tear Drop, I decided to try a 5.12b called Merciless Onslaught, thinking I would be able to do it pretty quickly, and have another route ticked off the list. With that in mind, I was quite surprised, and humbled by my first couple of goes at it. My first burn I didn't even make it to chains before my feet hurt so bad I wanted to come down. I found the moves to be really awkward, and I felt really out of my element. It became clear fast that Merciless Onslaught was not my style so to speak. As I climbed I kept telling myself, "this is only 12b, this shouldn't be that hard for you!" and things of that nature. After miserably failing at a 2nd burn redpoint attempt, I considered just packing up and coming back fresh, rather than trying to do it exhausted and void of skin. My skin was hurting and even the easy moves felt hard. I caught Ryan again on Teardrop, and that was all I needed to get motivated to give it one more burn. Ryan was climbing really well through Teardrop and got about as close as you can get to sending without actually doing the route. I  was inspired by his effort and decided to give Merciless Onslaught another burn.

As I pulled off, I was dismayed to find that the first few moves felt harder than they had on the previous 2 attempts, and I started thinking like I had on my other 2 burns. "Why is this so hard for me right now? It's only 12b!" As I kept climbing, I started to feel more and more tired, and I was certain that each move would be my last, all the while thinking I shouldn't be struggling. After clipping the 3rd bolt I realized why the route was so hard for me. I realized that I had for some reason considered this route beneath me in that it was "Only 12b," I realized that thinking that way was a very prideful mistake, and that I wasn't focussed on just enjoying the route. I was very tired at this point, but I decided to switch gears, and just focus on enjoying the route, and it's awesome movements, rather than worry about how hard it was. I wish I could say that it was easy after that, and that I just cruised to chains, but it wasn't. I fought for every move, and I loved every moment of it. Before I knew it I was clipping the chains. I honestly felt more accomplished, and more proud of the send, on this 12b, than I have on any other route so far. Even though I know it is not the hardest route, it was easily one of the most enjoyable.  Because I was so tired, it felt harder than any I have done so far, and because I learned an important lesson, I think I enjoyed it more than any other so far. I was exhausted at the end, and one of the climbers at the crag mentioned that I made the route look really hard. I assured him it wasn't as hard as I made it look. For some reason that experience has been sticking in my mind and I wanted to share it.

The other experience I wanted to share, happened yesterday. I woke up at the usual time, (4:45am) and got ready to head up the canyon, only to find that it had been raining during the night. I decided to head up anyway and see what if anything I wanted to climb on was dry. As I warmed up it was still dark out, but I could feel puddles in every hold big enough to hold water. I lowered off and caught my friend on a couple routes before heading over to my morning objective, Shark Club. This route was rated 11d in the old guide book, but after speaking with my good friend Darren, who has done a lot of development up the canyon, I came to find out that Shark Club had subsequently been upgraded to 5.12a. I decided to try something I don't usually do. I tied in, and pulled off, without looking at the route at all. I felt very present, and moved through the route quickly and easily. When I got to the crux, which involves pulling a bulging roof, I felt like I was moving very smoothly and very controlled. I was able to pull the roof without incident and found myself clipping chains. Well, I know what you are thinking, 12a big freaking deal right? But for me, it kinda was a big deal, because I am a TERRIBLE onsight climber. I was so pleased that even the rain that started up as soon as I got to the ground couldn't dampen my spirits. It was a great experience.

Tomorrow I am heading back to Guillotine, whereas I think I have finally found a belayer that will go with me. The objectives: Guillotine 5.12d/13a and I'll Take Black 5.12c. We will see how this goes.

So I have just started a blog, and I already have too many updates for one entry. Climbing over the last few weeks has truly been an adventure to say the least. Shortly after redpointing The Abyss 5.12c/d, (felt more like 5.13a) I took a trip out to Lander Wyoming for the International Climber's Festival. I was invited by my good friend George Bruce Wilson, (the man who is making the Every 5.12 series), to come out with him to help film on another project he has going called "The Send Bros" which is a film documenting The Hörst Family, specifically Cameron and Jonathan Hörst. These two boys are 2 of the youngest kids in the world to climb the coveted grade of 5.14. Filming with this family was a real pleasure, and a special treat for me. I was very inspired by the family's approach to climbing and how efficient they were.

Our first day in Lander, we went out with the family to the Rodeo Wave wall, and I got my first taste of how awesome this family is, as I witnessed Cameron Hörst crush Rodeo Free Europe 5.14a on his 3rd try! The rest of the trip was just as awesome, and I invite everyone to checkout The Send Bros Film on facebook, and Three Peak Films for more details. 

On the trip, I didn't get a ton of time to climb, but I did have 2 pretty good days. The 3rd to last day and the last day of the trip. We went to Ten Sleep Wyoming, and I have to say, that I am in love with that Canyon. With a little encouragement from Eric Hörst I tried to onsight a 5.12d called Pussy Toes. Well... I didn't onsight it, but I did better than I thought I would, falling on the last move of the crux on my onsight attempt. I rested for about 15 minutes and then dispatched it, to my surprise, quite easily on my 2nd go. When I got to the bottom, I didn't even feel pumped, and part of me thought I must have done the wrong route. After consulting the guidebook however, I realized that I had climbed better than I realized. Later that day, with a little more encouragement from Eric, I decided to try a 13a as well called Burden of Immortality. Perhaps it was the miles of hiking, sleeping on the ground for 10 days straight, etc. but I felt awful on my first 2 attempts on the route. It was probably all in my mind that I was tired, but I just didn't feel good. I was grateful that those first 2 attempts were followed by a full rest day. 

After the rest day, I found myself back at the same crag filming Jonathan. Between burns I decided to hop on a 12a to warm up and give Burden of Immortality another burn. Well, I goofed a foot on literally the last move of the warm up and fell on my onsight attempt haha. It was not an encouraging omen, but I decided to give Burden of Immortality another go all the same. To my surprise, the moves that felt terribly hard the day before, (including a dyno off a good mono to a small positive edge), all felt surprisingly easy. I was elated to find that the only move that felt really hard, was the move that I could not even do off the hang the previous attempt, but even that took only momentary effort, and a good yell. After that it was smooth sailing until I found myself clipping the chains of Burden of Immortality. I was stoked to have redpointed a 13a in 3 goes, and my first 13a since returning home from my mission.

Sticking the Dyno on the Redpoint of Burden of Immortality 5.13a

So why did I share that here? Because after this trip I felt confidence come into me that I was lacking. I felt much more sure that I was going to be able to complete this goal, and climb Every 5.12 in American Fork Canyon. Since coming home I have ticked a number of 5.12's, including a few onsights. The grades in AF are definitely a lot stiffer than those of Ten Sleep, and they are still hard for me, but I am feeling momentum and excitement. I am really grateful I got to climb with Team Hörst and have this positive experience.

Left to Right: Bruce, James, Joe, Cam, Jon, and Eric. (Lisa took the picture).

Be sure to go to YouTube, EpicTV, and Dpmclimbing.com to watch Episode 1 of Every 5.12 featuring:

The Abyss 5.12c/d, (5.13a)

http://youtu.be/eCWm4Da20FU

Click the link above to see Episode 1 of Every 5.12

"You can't climb the Impossible"

I have recently partnered up with Three Peak Films to make this short film. My good friend George Bruce Wilson is the genius behind the camera, all I had to do was climb I think this turned out pretty good! Apparently EpicTV.com thought so too and they have sent us a contract for a 5-12 episode series  featuring my goal, which means, y'all will be getting to see some sick videos of the process of getting this done. Enjoy the teaser that got the ball rolling on this.

These 3 videos document my first day back climbing, and the fails that occurred.