Friday, March 26, 2010

Upcoming vids and Prison Hill repeats

Here in Tahoe the weather has been great for hard bouldering. If you can get around the snow in the mountains or the constant hight winds in the desert, you're good to go. Since doing the Mofo in Erratica I've been out repeating some of the old lines at Prison Hill. I repeated 25 Minutes To Go v6, a Noah Kaufman line from last year that is a classic pumpy traverse with a gymnastic crux at the end. A really fun problem for anyone interested.
Next, I stopped over at the Marble Boulder and climbed an FA of mine from last year called Diamond Thief v11. It is hard to figure the grade of this climb. It is only three moves but feels very desperate. It is steep with bullet-proof rock, one good start hold for the right hand and a series of three left hand moves in a row to horrible glassy slopers with bad feet. This line is not very tall, but the quality is very high and the climb is steep and burly. This boulder also has a cool v3 and a really hard project.
When I went back alone today it was windy as usual. My goal was to repeat Death Sentence v10. When you look uphill above The Prisoner, Electric Chair, and Firing Squad Boulders, it is the shiny gray line with a green line diagonaling all the way up the middle of it. Death Sentence starts with the good flat right hand sidepull edge and the left hand on a low shallow pinch about 2 and half feet off the ground. Hard moves on glassy slopers lead to an odd top out around the right side of the bulge.This climb is very high quality. Prison Hill still has a few gems lurking around I think, but the developed ones seem to be where it's at.
I plan on spending the weekend at Erratica, the Meiss Boulder, and Twin Peaks. Many more problems await. I am getting excited as well to go on my second trip to the Rocklands in South Africa. Last summer Ian Cotter-Brown and I spent 5 and half weeks there and loved it. This year we are going for 2 and half months. Hopefully that'll be enough time to send everything, but I highly doubt it. haha. The place is kind of shit-stacked with the goods. After that I plan on doing some climbing/working in Tahoe before going to South Korea to visit Brenna and check out a new place. After that who knows. One of the great things about the bouldering lifestyle isthat I find myself always going in new directions to do my thing. I don't really know what the point of bouldering is or why I love it so much. I do know that I'm always excited about it and it has landed me in some of the most beautiful places and led to friendships with the coolest people ever. I'm psyched to keep going forever.
Last, there will be another video online in the next week or two. David Outcalt and I got footage of the Mofo on the day of the first ascent. I'm waiting until we all go climbing this weekend to get more footage. It will be all Tahoe winter bouldering. I'll post it on the next blog when it's done.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

New Videos and New Climbs

My three week stay in Bishop, CA was awesome. I got to see a lot of friends, and watch many rad climbs go down. I managed to send the Happy's classic Kill On Sight v12. This climb was hard for me. I found some tricky beta that was good but very stretchy for me. After three days on the stand and 3 more days on the sit I finally got the bastard on the seventh day of work. I projected this line with my good friends Ian Cotter-Brown and Ryan Held. It was fun to finally have a project to share with some friends. Other than that I finally got myself to do the Hulk v6, a problem I've meticulously avoided for years do to it looking super reachy. It was, but not too bad. All in all a great time.

I also took a ride with my friend Zack West on a quick weekend trip to Moe's Valley, UT. The quality was mixed but everything v6 and up is spectacular. I was really impressed with this area. It had a lot of great hard problems. I did not send anything hard but did some cool moderates and had some good times. I would have to strongly recommend this spot to anyone that hasn't been here yet. It is a really fun place with a good vibe.
This weekend back in Tahoe, I went to Erratica to revisit a project of mine from late Summer. The Mofo finally went down. This problem is on the Painter Boulder in Erratica near Kirkwood, CA. This project is to the left of Element of Surprise v9 ( the old v11 sit start broke and is now a much harder project waiting to go). Originally I thought this project would end up being a v12/13 but upon finding better beta I was able to unlock a sequence which made it go slightly easier. I gave it v11 and let it keep its alias as The Mofo. A great new classic at Erratica, one of the harder ones too.
Lastly, I recently uploaded some new videos of my friends climbing in Bishop. I took a lot of restdays while working my project. On those rest days I tried to make the most of it by filming. I caught a lot of great things on camera and edited some videos for all to enjoy.

Bishop part one from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.



Bishop Part two from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

Monday, March 1, 2010

I've been here in Bishop, CA for about a week now. It's been really fun hanging with the crew out here and having some good times. I've been working on my big goals for the rest of the season. Trying to do Scanner Darkly in the Buttermilks, and Kill On Sight in the Happy Boulders. Both lines are really good in their own ways. I've got both the lines in two parts but putting them together seems to be the hard part. I'm having a lot of fun working on them. Zack West and I took a break from Bishop this weekend and went on a quick 3 day trip of the Moe's Valley boulders in Utah.
The climbing in Moes was very fun. Not everything with chalk on it is solid so you have to be very selective when choosing your lines. Some lines caked in chalk were absolute death traps. Lots of loose, big hollow holds ready to kill. Mixed in however are some really awesome problems on great sandstone. We got a great sample of what the climbing was like out here. The problems that are good are really good. The layout of the area and conveinence were a plus. Everything is easy to get to and town is not very far away if you feel like getting frisky at night. St. George seemed to have everything you could want for food or entertainment all a short drive from the bouldering and camping. I'd recommend a trip to anyone who wanted some different climbing not too far away. It took us 5.5 hrs to drive there from Bishop. Not too bad.
On a side note, I put together another climbing video for anyone interested in a new one. I have a video of Ryan Held, Ian Cotter-Brown, and Kenyon Smith bouldering in the tablelands. Footage of 2 classic v11s and the establishing of a new worthy area in the tablelands called the Pink Cliffs. One rest day I went to film a highly motivated crew who got lots of classic new first ascents, mostly highball and proud , at this new small gem. It was a blast watching my friends put up these awesome problems that may one day go down as mega lines. The video will be posted on the blog and/ or vimeo shortly.