The Countdown

And so it begins.  The inevitable warming is upon us.  It happens every year when we least expect it, as if we had lost track of time.  The day gets warmer and the night not colder. Yep, it's March 1st and spring is just around the corner.  Although, you wouldn't know it from the past week of primo climbing conditions.

It really has been good friction conditions down here in the south recently.  The days have been a mix of sunny and 45 degrees and overcast with wind at 45 degrees.  pRiMo!  As always, I've been torn between projects and trying to make something happen everyday out. I found that this season I was always working toward something. The goal this season was more of an all around goal.  I wanted to do 10 V9's (Done!) and finish off strong in the route game, which is sort of just beginning. ??? I guess I still have some time on that one. Basically what I'm saying is that if I don't do Psychopath this season is lost.  HAhaha just kidding.  But that is my new focus.  Definitely a fickle route.  I've chosen not to do the extra climbing out left to the rest and just tackle the rig straight on.  Full on hard 8a! On top of that, I found that it needs to be the right temp outside as well for this thing.  If it's too cold I numb out on the finicky pockets.  Too hot, no friction.  So, 50 degrees is ideal.  Yep, I've still got some time on this one.

Anyway, here are some pics I took the day after Rock N Rave (yep, we went climbing).  I took my buddy Zach up to Lookout Mtn for a tour of the mountain.  He managed to send Nine Lives and couldn't quite make the link on Astro Zombies.  Zach Campbell is the head setter at Climb Nashville and has been very motivated recently to progress his climbing.  He and his brother, Brandon, just got back from a trip to Sswizzy where they both sent their hardest boulders to date.  Nice!

Also, Hefner and I went out to Rocktown yesterday and did some boulders.  Nate was on a mission to do the hardest V10's at Rocktown.  No dice...Pics below.  I on the other hand was out to complete my 10 V9 goal.  And I did it!  The tenth of the season was B Cubed on the big bad boulder.  I did all the moves pretty quickly.  Then it came time to execute.  On my second attempt I punted off the last move, after I had stuck it.  Sucks.  So, after that I had some serious beta issues and things just weren't clicking.    Out of sheer desperation and throwing myself at this thing one last time, I was on top.  Wow.  Then we went on to the dugout boulder.  I was done for the day but Nate was psyched to climb some moderates.  And wouldn't you know it, we were trying the hardest two boulder problems on the wall.  Somehow, I managed to send Roughin the Rottweiller.  I never thought I'd do this boulder, but it turned out not to be so bad.