I've been motivated to try my best to get out early the last three days and appreciate the cool mornings. Monday I got out to give Paige one last belay before she took off back to Boulder for class. I managed to repeat a couple of my favorites at the Red, 'Black Gold' 13c and 'Golden Boy' 13b before busting ass to the airport in Louisville. Tuesday I was psyched to try and polish off the Motherlode, so my Dad and I made our way there early for a solid day. I made a stupid mistake while attempting to onsight 'White Man's Overbite' 13c and had to settle for a second go summit. I was stoked however, to manage the neighboring 'White Man's Shuffle' 13d first try. I thought this route is certainly one of the better routes of the grade in the Red- very cool movement, committed and thin.. excellent! I wrapped up the day with an onsight of 'Hoofmaker' 13a and onsight of 'Harvest' 12d as well as a successful second go on 'Hard High One' 12d which recently broke leaving a freaking hard little move at the first bolt. Aside from a couple 2 star climbs lacking permanent draws (for good reason), I've officially climbed the Motherlode!
Yesterday I was excited to try a classic that I left behind last year.. 'Kaleidoscope' 13c. For whatever reason, I always really wanted to try and onsight this route. It was not until last year that I really began developing my onsight/flash abilities and it was clearly my trip to Kentucky that marked a breakthrough for me in this discipline. Kaleidoscope takes an arching, overhanging arete that has an array of not-as-good-as-they-look features on the left side, and not much of anything on the right. After a harder than expected beginning section, I tried my best to climb patiently and calmly until I felt that I had entered the crux - a very cool series of steep pinching to a dynamic reach to a hidden slot around the arete. From here I was met with some easier, albeit pumpy ground to the anchors.. Very stoked to onsight this amazing route!
Simon Carter and Monique Forestier (the first ascensionist of Kaleidoscope) showed up and I took another lap up the climb for some photographs. It was a pleasure to work with one of the worlds best climbing photographers and of course to climb with Australia's premier female climbing athlete.. plus they're simply nice people..
Later that day I got spit off the top of 'Supercharger' 13d, a cool little bouldery route, that felt a little too hard in the mid-day heat. We headed over to the Lode so I could get my pump fix for a couple where I repeated 'Skin Boat' 13a, the awesome 'Team Wilson' 12d and 'Resurrection' 12c. Last time I sweat that much whilst climbing was in Thailand. It was gross.
Now I'm on a rest day, still fighting a cold, but STOKED on the forecast. I wandered about to a couple new crags and snapped a few photos, along with putting in some SERIOUS couch time watching the rad-iculously cool skate competition series, the Street League on ESPN. Wicked!
