Mt. Evans

I decided to open up (for myself) the alpine bouldering season by heading up to Mt. Evans today. I have heard that the snow levels in the mountains were high this year and I was a bit concerned about whether or not I would get to climb on anything. But I headed out anyways this morning with die-hards Greg Mionske and Connor Griffith. We got a hold of some snow shoes and made the drive into the mountains. Due to the gate being permanently shut, we were forced to hike in from Echo Lake. Surprisingly the upper part of the switchbacks are almost completely free of snow and the rest of the hike to Area A is on hard-packed ice and snow. We finally put our snow shoes on just as we entered the trees just short of the Bierstadt boulder. We made it to the Dali boulder a few minutes later to find it completely free of snow both on the ground and on the boulder. Perfectly dry.

I intended to try No More Greener Grasses V12 and Super Gui V11. I have tried both on previous occasions with no success despite getting extremely close. Especially Super Gui. I have fallen on the last hard move at least 30 times. I began the day by nabbing a 3rd try ascent of No More Greener Grasses V12. It is definitely one of the most inspiring and pure boulder problems I have ever seen and I was very psyched to complete it without epic. It felt extremely easy for me today, but after factoring in my previous experiences on it, I have decided that it is probably the hardest V12 I have ever done. With my skin still fresh I decided to give some attempts on Super Gui V11. It is basically a linkup of The Dali Sit V9 and the top section of Ode To The Modern Man V14 via an amazing slopey rail. It consists of a very hard-for-me crux move that relies on a right-foot heel hook and a left hand stab to an incut crimp. I managed to finish the problem on my 3rd effort from the bottom. Definitely a quality boulder problem.

The hike out was epic due to lack of prior conditioning. Altitude 1, Boulderers O. Now I will sleep for the next 2 days just trying to recover.

Here are some pics from the day courtesy of Greg Mionske:

Peace.