Update

A lot has happened in the last few days and I hardly know where to start. I have been obsessed with the rail project and I was finally able to succeed on it this past Sunday. Very psyched. Sunseeker 8B. Props to Nalle. It is hands down the best boulder that I have ever climbed. It starts on a perfect obvious jug and climbs 21 moves straight to the top of a large boulder along a perfect and pure line. This is the first piece of rock that I've put any sort of long term work into this year, and my success once again confirms that significant accomplishments are the product of passion and motivation. The trick is constantly finding things that you are passionate and motivated about. So what's next?

I've also been working hard trying to get the Sunseeker video produced. I spent almost 3 post-send hours reclimbing portions of the climb to get the shots that I wanted. I even managed to climb the stand start 6 times in a row, including a few tries sans spotter. Scary! Should hit the DeadPoint site very soon. Check it out and tell me what you think.

In other news, I was hired yesterday as the new Head Routesetter for the The Spot Bouldering Gym. Very excited. I will be giving up a significant portion of my fall climbing season due to this promotion which was a hard thing to give up, but it should also allow me the ability to potentially travel overseas in 2010 which I have yet to do. World Cups, Switzerland, Mallorca, Ceuse, Realization? As for the routesetting, I'm psyched to hear any feedback, good or bad. We have a great routesetting crew right now that I'm always psyched to work with and hopefully we can find ways to make The Spot even better than it already is.

I won't be climbing much over the next two weeks or so as I try to heal this pulley strain that has been plaguing me for well over a month. Then it will be back to the plastic till the tradeshow where I will be competing in the Mammut Bouldering Championships yet again. The schedule is a bit wierd this year (competition is on Monday and Tuesday), none the less I encourage anyone who can make it to come on out and enjoy the most exciting climbing competition of the year.

More Projects...

The weather in Colorado has been quite strange recently. April snowstorms and now lots of rain and flurries in the Alpine during a normally drier/warmer time. Today it was Mt. Evans for me. Since I can't crimp, the park is out. And so I've been searching. In between 3 separate "snow storms" that left the crew burrowing under boulders, I spent quite a bit of time running around in the talus. I found this boulder without much effort:

I'm fairly sure it hasn't been climbed before, especially from the sit which could certainly be a very high quality 8B or harder. I was left trying the stand start today in my broken condition from an obvious good hold just within arms reach. The stand proved to be more than worthy as I was unable to get my ass up the thing after countless effort. One move, oddly difficult, and a bit scary. None-the-less, the climbing was phenomenal and left all of us scratching our heads as to why no one had either climbed or mentioned this boulder before. The rock is unlike most of the climbs at Mt. Evans as it features almost no crimps. Yes! And lots of cool pinches:

I ended the day with a quick send of the Hume Problem V9, which is a very nice climb at the far side of Area B that saw a nice send train today. Props to Hayden and Connor. I also had the pleasure of trying the Rail Project for the first time. We gave it a nice little session with the fading light and managed to scare the shit out of ourselves a bit. That boulder is BIG. Two more moves and I'll be ready to start giving legit efforts from the start after some heavy duty pad haulage. Psyched!

Projects...

Big Changes

My first blog post is up on Deadpointmag and I encourage everyone to check it out. It includes a write-up of the World Cup from a competitor's point of view, some photos from the event, and a nicely put together Women's Qualifier video that was filmed and edited by Garrett Gregor with some help from me. I will continue to randomly post on this blog, but the majority of my content will be posted on the Deadpoint site for hopefully a larger audience. In time I will be getting rid of climbingbum in favor of carlotraversi.com which is currently in the works. My goal is to create a site that allows people to get to know me better, communicate with me easier, and hopefully be inspired to pursue the things they are truly passionate about. This game is my life, and I'm in this game for life.

On another note, I'll be in Colorado for the summer and the fall is up in the air. Dolphin Tour 2009/2010 is looking promising, I'll keep you updated.