The Mars Roof Quad Crown is the best workout in Flagstaff. It is a 4 boulder problem circuit consisting of Receptionist, Lolita, Suplexing Navajo, and The Girl From Impanema. Doing the quad crown with no falls is the pure method. It is great for training power, endurance, and core tension.

Serves You Right aka Full Service

Starry Eyed Man

White Horned Dancer

I spent five days in Austin in early January, and climbed every single day. I drove down from the hellscape of DFW with my brother Robbie. We climbed at a massive limestone cave northwest of Austin. The next evening I climbed at the Greenbelt with my friend Grear. I had never visited this area before. I climbed on the Whipping Post and Hank’s Cave. The climbs were cool, but everything was a bit overpolished due to the fact that this area is a local spot in the city. The third day I drove up to Roger’s Park with Robbie to climb some easier classics. Roger’s Park is one of the first areas I ever climbed at. It is characterized by tall limestone bulges with pockets. The rock quality is good, and the area is on a hill side above lake Belton. I returned to the roof the following day and finished my project Subterranean. SubT starts in a crack and climbs on pockets with the use of heel toe cams and toe hooks to gain an amazing tufa pinch feature and a throw to a massive jug. The next day I met up with Eric and climbed at Reimer’s Ranch. It had been approximately 8 years since I last visited Reimer’s. The last time I was there it was still owned by Milton Reimer. Today it is a Travis County park. I finished an old high school sport climbing project called Liposuction. Liposuction climbs amazing tufas out a roof to a no hands rest, then up an overhanging wall. The climbing is pumpy, but with the amount of power I have built up over the years it was relatively easy to put this old project to rest.

A few weeks ago the weather report was looking positive for Squamish, so I made my usual post on Facebook if anyone wanted to go.  I knew the answer before I asked it,  as many people are too concerned about the cold, except one.  Aaron Hamilton, who is just as keen on bouldering in cold weather as myself and was quick to agree to go on Friday the 13th.  We set out and hoped to catch the 8:30 ferry but that was quickly drowned out when the lady told us they had cancelled the sailing and postponed it to 10:30.  She wasn’t very nice either considering that 2 hours of our day was being stolen. But that didn’t stop us and we arrived at Squamish around 1:00.  I was ready to fire the Proposal but quickly learned, it was the only wet problem in the forest, so we moved on to Aaron’s project (Mantra) and we soon saw ourselves with only a few hours before dark.  We decided to set up at the Farm Area of the North Walls to spend the remainder of our time where there’s an abundance of mid grade to hard problems. I was stoked to get back on a problem called the Reckoning V14 that I had worked once before and felt I could do.  I quickly warmed up on a classic lay-back V0 crack problem and then flashed the very slabby (Ride the Waves) v7. Then moved on and it took only a few goes to send the Reckoning stand start which goes at v10, which is an amazing problem in its self.  I then worked the low and managed to get it into 2 sections with one move preventing me from linking it.  Its just a hard move that involves a big move to a bad pinch.  I can stick the pinch when starting from there but cannot hold it long enough to move on.  Oh, well, there’s always another day and I’m sure it will go within a few more trips.  With darkness already over us, we pulled out a few headlamps, determined to continue are session as late as possible.  I made a quick tick of Big Chicken v10 and Aaron got a quick ascent of a nearby v7 and we dashed for the ferry.  The upcoming weather isn’t looking as positive, I guess its back to the gym in preparation for the upcoming comp in Victoria and the tour de bloc at the hive.  Maybe even a few trips down to the huge gym (The Boulders) in Victoria.

1. Who has impressed me most in the last year?
I would have to say that Adam Ondra has been very impressive in the last year. He’s been sending many v14-v16 boulder problems and is also climbing 5.15 routes. I think he’s a really good climber all around, as there are few people who can boulder and sport climb at such a high level. Adam is also a good onsighter and it’s unreal that he’s onsighted 14+. His ability to onsight is also visible in comps where in the past he’s won many world cups.

2. Describe a time when someone has helped your climbing?
A few years ago I was climbing often but wasn’t making a ton of progress. Then Derek Galloway showed up at the Romper Room and introduced me to new ways of improving. He showed me how to make hard problems to work and many campusing exercises. This greatly improved all aspects of my climbing and gave me a better outlook on how to get strong.

3. Describe where you see your climbing going?
I plan on continuing to compete in both roped and bouldering comps over the coming years. It’s also my hope to travel around often and boulder outside as much as I can. Maybe even find a job that can be done on the road. In the mean time while I’m in high school I’m going to continue to climb and train hard In the gym and make regular trips to Squamish, Horne lake and beyond. My hope is to reach v15 someday!

4. Describe what climbing could do for the world if everyone climbed?
If everyone climbed, there would be nobody who couldn’t get along. I have never met a motivated climber with a bad attitude. Many people today are also unhealthy. Climbing is a sport where you need to be in your best shape to send hard. If everyone climbed there would be far less unhealthy people.

This past weekend, Climber’s Rock hosted the first Tour De Bloc of 2012 to which I was chief route setter. I put together a great team of setters, including Flashed athlete, Dustin Curtis and we got to work setting 50 qualifiers and 8 finals. After a long day on Friday, we were ready for the comp. 250 competitors (over 135 of them in Open) poured into the gym to throw themselves at the problems that had been set and try to and snag one of eight spots for the finals. After a brief turnaround, finals were up and ready to go. To build a better vibe for finals, we brought in a dj, put him on top of the bouldering wall and then highlighted the problems with spotlights. When the house lights went out and the music started pumping, the finalists knew they had a show to put on. One by one, the competitors attacked each problem, spurred on by the cheers from the crowd and Dustin on the mic.

Keith and Iyma about to send

When all was said and done, there was perfect division throughout both men’s and women’s fields (no ties) and a surprise winner for the men. Dave Voltan made a comeback after being away from competitions for a while and clinched 1st place with 3 flashes and a bonus on the fourth problem. For the women, Iyma Larmarche managed to beat out a veteran crusher, Thomasina Pidgeon, by a couple attempts.

Dave making short work of problem #3

Kacy working the heel

1) I have to say that I was impressed the most this past year by the Austrian climbing team, especially Killian Fischhuber and Anna Stohr. Their strength and determination at comps has been inspirational and awe inspiring.

2) Probably one of the most memorable times of someone helping my climbing was when I was first learning how to route set. The advice I got from Joe Layno on movement and balance made me change the way I climbed.

3) As a Flashed Athlete, how have you adapted to your new life with the
paparazzi? At first, I couldn’t get used to the blinding lights from the camera vans through my bedroom window, but then I installed black out blinds and now it’s all good.

4) How do you deal with fans chasing you at all times? Decoys. It’s all about the decoys. Send them out the front door while you slip out the back.

5) Where do you see your climbing going? I get asked this question all the time and the answer is always the same. I see my climbing going up.

Check out the new feature-video Park Life that is about bouldering in Yosemite Valley. The video is top-quality and it demonstrates why bouldering in the Valley is so d’ern good. I also make a brief cameo near the 17 minute mark flashing The Pride Dyno (V9)!
Park Life

First of all, Happy New Year! It’s been while since we’ve (Krissy and I) have had time to sit down and write about our 8 month climbing trip.

Before Xmas, I was busy finishing up my 2nd to last school terms, subletting, packing and cleaning our apartment. Krissy worked her butt off trying to pay bills and save a little money for the trip. We moved out of Halifax December 26th and then off to New Brunswick to spend mini Christmas’s with each of our families. Of course those days were also spent fixing up the car, re-packing and organized for our trip.

So how do you plan for 8 months of climbing and living out of a tent/car? You just do it. We are always looking for the opportunity to travel. The biggest part is committing to it. We were lucky because the timing was perfect for us, Krissy just graduated with her Masters in Occupational Therapy this past June and I just happened to have 8 months to spare between school terms before graduating with an Engineering degree. We will be starting our professional careers when we return from this trip…that’s the plan anyway.

Money: We saved a bit up and liquidated some stocks…tough one to swallow, but worth it.

Gear: over the last few years we’ve pretty much accumulated everything we could possible need to camp comfortably. Solar shower-check, 3 season tent and sleeping bags that zip together- check; coffee press, mocha pot and aeropress- check; multi-fuel stoves-check.
The only major expenses so far have been Gas for the car, travel insurance (!!!) and food.

It’s day 7 of our trip and after a quick stop to visit our friend in Connecticut, we have made it to Horseshoe Canyon Ranch in Arkansas. The bouldering here is great! So great that we’ve actually decided to buy the guidebook and stay a bit longer.

Ben’s goal is to send at least one classic double digit per day, something he’s successfully done so far. Krissy’s goal is to get in shape…all work and little to no climbing prior to the trip has put her a little behind where she wants to be. So right now, we are both trying to climb as much as possible and have a blast doing such. Can’t lie, we are loving the full-time climber lifestyle!

Next stop- Hueco Tanks.