AT LAST!! A nice weekend of sun!

Everyone in the midwest is very aware of our terrible weekend rain pattern. I think it's been at least 5-6 weekends, including Fridays, that have been completely rained or snowed out. Then, just one rained-out weekend away from killing myself, the sun showed up! My vitamin D level must have tripled over the last 2 days....



Saturday we stripped the boulder wall....a task made much easier with our new cordless impact wrench! Doesn't Kris look happy?



Didn't take long for all those holds to easily over fill our wheelbarrow...not a bad thing...



Neil stopped by to help us set.



The wrench did prove to be a bit powerful, and we all cross-threaded a few bolts in the proccess, but at least the back of the wall is completely accessible.



We eventually figured out to start threading them the old fashioned way by hand first...then torqued to our hearts desire with the little demon of a wrench. No more spinning holds now-for sure!



Yeah, that was posed...but I still like it.



So we've got 4 problems set, blue being a very nice jug warm up, Red is Kris' problem, Neil set green & I set orange w/ the brown variation. We did find that after setting the jug haul, we were pretty much out of jugs, and we have more than enough crimps...good thing we're enrolled in the So Ill sick-hold-of-the-month club...should be getting some more any day now.

After setting we went to see Ironman...great flick...funny, and well worth it. Robert Downy Jr is great!

Sunday, with beautiful weather, we finally got to climb outside again! We (Kris, Neil, Eric & I) showed up at Taylors and ran into Corey &
Phil(lippa) in the parking lot. They were just about to head over to WI, so we took them to the Cave boulder, which is a little hard to find on your own if you don't know where to look. We all thought it would be Neil's and Eric's day to send the cave traverse, but not yet. Eric did send Midget Sit Start though, very nice 7! The cave traverse, however, is so funny how after the hard part of the problem comes the mental crux, finishing it. It seems that with the last half of the problem being a jug haul it wouldn't be a place to drop off. But I think once you've worked through the first half, you're so physically as well as mentally exhausted that it's just that easy to drop off going to the jugs. I don't know yet, I still haven't linked the lower move, swinging my feet under the bulge to drop my right hand down to the sloping crimp. Don't feel bad about it though, Neil popped off a bunch of times, right after the hard part, and walked away with out the slightest bit of frustration. "Oh well, that wasn't it..." I've never seen someone so seemingly unshaken by repeated falls on something that is well within his reach. I'd love that lack of frustration!

Then we hiked just a bit down the road to Big Boy. I think I had looked at this once before, but never tried it. Holy shit! What a mental trip! This is probably the most truely natural line at Taylors, either side. It's a 15ft tall double sided arete, really just a tall squareish monolith. It's all smearing, toe & heel hooking, but it's texture is fantastic; the most gritty rock I've felt in the whole park! My first try I got up a ways, not far past half way, felt really tripped out and jumped off. My next try I got up high right away, and began feeling shakey as I entered the untouched parts of the problem. For a moment I was able to quiet my shaking and calm myself into what felt like a little cocoon of conciousness. I just told myself, "Do it like you were on the ground". My shaking stopped and I easily popped my hand up. I was one move from the top, just had to move my feet and reach for the top, but I lost my focus and started to feel the adrenaline rushing through my blood. I yelled out, "Nope!" and dropped off. It does have a nice landing though... Oh well, I'll crush it my first go next time...that's how I like to do things...It's funny, it's only a V3, but MAN what a head trip! Great line! Great moves, great texture! Best problem in Minnesota! -Nic

Then we headed down to Mike's boulder to finish out our day. The river was so high we had to hike around to get to the boulder! It's kinda weird to think we had walked across the river here just 2 months ago, and now it's a violent torrent of brown, brassy water. I got to the same spot on Mike's Right, trying to grab the higher pinch with my left hand...no new progress. Kris, Neil & Eric worked the Left. No sends, but what a beautiful day! Nothing very exciting happened, but it didn't need to, it was nice out! Something I was being to wonder would never happen again. Did we really, finally break out of winter?....In Minnesota, it remains to be seen...