I return from my Rocklands trip with a very
good feeling. I had three boulders on my wish list that I very badly wanted to
do this year which I managed to send.
Other boulders on my wish list disappeared
because I tried them and they didn’t feel good.
Boulders that are still on the list that I
was not able to do will have to wait. Among these are:
Macho King, a really nice line but I lacked
the body tension to do some of the hard moves;
Golden Virginia, cool but I sure need to
have more body tension and finger power for this one.
Black Velvet, a cool dyno which I tried on
my last day. I got close but was too tired to give all the jumping power I
have.
Stretched and Pressed, really wicked and I
came close but the last move is awkward. I can do it starting from the lip but
doing the Rack and finish it off with the move turned out to be too hard.
All these boulders have to wait till next
year.
Back to this years’ trip.
I had two big wishes, sending Hole in One
and doing my first 8A.
Hole in one is a big dyno followed by an
easy top out. I did a lot of jumps in Hole in One last year and came close but
not close enough. The first climbing day I tried a couple of jumps and it felt
good but I was not able to stick the big hole. I tried it at the end of the day
and was maybe too tired. On my second climbing day I warmed up and headed
straight for the jump. I only needed a couple more tries for it to all turn out
well. It is such a great feeling to stick a dyno after so many crashes on the
pad. First project down!
Also high on my wish list was Sunset Arête.
This is a beautiful prow on the first prominent block when you enter the Roadside
sector on the Pass. I stared at it last year. It is a boulder on small holds,
really my anti-style and I didn’t dare to try it. This year I decided to give
it a go. In the first part of the holiday I tried it once in a session of half
an hour. The first move felt really hard and I was not able to reach the good
hold on the prow from the little crimp. I thought I was really weak and that my
body tension sucked. However, talking to Michiel he explained to me that the
first move is indeed a hard one and that I should not feel discouraged by that
move. During the second half of my holiday we returned to Roadside to try
Sunset Arête again. It was a hot day and really quiet with hardly any other
boulderers around. I was siked to try Sunset Arete again but the first move
felt too hard. I could hardly do it. After a couple of tries I became
frustrated and decided to do some 6C’s with my dad to kill the time. At the end
of the afternoon a nice breeze started to blow. While spotting my dad in a
boulder we heard a big jell and it turned out that Dave Graham just send Monkey
Wedding. With nobody else around I assembled all the courage I could manage and
moved over to congratulate him on his send. It was really cool to sit down with
him and hear him explain all the moves and the struggles he went through in
this longstanding project of his. This got me really siked and after saying
goodbye to him I wanted to give Sunset Arête another go. My body felt stronger
and the moves went more easy than in the morning session. After some more fails
I figured out the beta that was right for me and while the sun was setting I
was able to send the boulder, giving credit to its name.
With one and a half week left it was time
to go for the really big project. I tried Witness the Sickness in the first
half of the holiday once and the moves did not feel impossible. From that
moment on this beautiful problem was in the back of my mind all the time and I
decided that this problem would be the one to go for. Witness is not the
easiest 8A in Rocklands but by many considered to be the most beautiful in the
grade. Michiel advised me to try it in the evening when it is a bit cooler.
Indeed, in the first two evening sessions I made a lot of progress and was able
to do all the moves except for the one hard move from the second sloper to the
edge. After another two sessions I was also able to do that move but not all
the way from the start. Being able to do all the moves gave me a lot of
confidence that the boulder was within my reach.
In the meantime it was time for a change
and we visited some other areas. I worked quite hard in Des Claques pour Nini
in Riverside. It is only 7B but really hard for me and I am glad I finally did
it. I also managed to send Sean’s Roof a really cool 7C compression roof. I am
starting to believe that compression boulders are something I am good at.
I had another two morning sessions in
Witness that went quite well. The first part to the last sloper went smoother
every session and I could dream all the steps. I could also finish the boulder
starting from the edge but was still not able to link all the moves. Time
started to run out and I decided to do another evening session on the same day
of the last morning session. That was a bad idea, I couldn’t do the lower part
anymore, all the moves felt really hard and I started to lose confidence. I
clearly needed a full rest day and leave the problem for the last two days of
our stay. The weather forecast for the next days was deteriorating humidity
wise which made the prospect of sending even slimmer. Contrary to the weather
forecast the conditions on the next day felt quite good and at the end of my
rest day I decided to walk over just to give it a small test burn. Immediately
the first go felt amazing and I was able to link all the moves including almost
sticking the move to the edge. After a few minutes a couple of Americans
arrived who started to work the problem using a kneepad and I asked if I could
try the pad. The move to the edge felt a lot more solid using the kneepad,
thanks guys! I was so surprised that being able to stick the hardest move felt
so easy that I fell on the next move. I repeated this mistake once more. I took
a good rest and finally linked all the moves. It felt really great to stand on
top of this beautiful problem. It was a though struggle which meant that I was not
able to do other nice problems in Rocklands but for me it was worth the
sacrifice. The risk of coming home empty handed was surely there and this might
happen to me on future occasions but I learned a lot and got stronger working
in this problem both physically and mentally.
I am grateful to my parents for making the
trip to Rocklands possible again. Dad for all the hours he was spotting me in
Witness and cleaning my holds and Mom for the footage. Michiel for the tips and
entertaining evenings and Marianne and Ricardo for the card games at night and
their lovely company. Finally, thanks to my sponsors Nihil and Tenaya for the
gear.
Below are two movies from my trip. Happy watching.