live. love. climb.

What a week!

First- Matt established another great boulder problem at Pine Mountain- calling it the “Fuzzy Emerald” V8 or maybe a bit harder….who knows till it gets a repeat! Super small holds big moves, and unusually steep for Pine Mountain bouldering. Not my style and I couldn’t shake a stick at it- nice work to Matt! It was made possible by lots of cleaning…a makeshift floor made of pine tree branches and lots of mustard!

Here are some pictures of the Fuzzy Emerald and the last image is Matt sending! Thanks Steve for the great spot while I took these photos! His hands are barely in the shot on the left!

Second- We had rain! WOW! View from our deck!

Third- Matt and I also sent another 5.13 route at Echo Cliffs- first time we went the same 5.13 on the same day! Oh yeah! This is the route I mentioned in the previous post….all this climbing is paying off! Good thing all those flexing holds held for both sends…good luck to the next climber! Now to get back to the granite! We leave for Suicide on Sunday night for two days to throw ourselves at the Pirate- this would be a great tick. I’m really looking forward to the challenge, small gear, tips locks, and all the smears that go with it. Since we are weekend warrior-ing it, it has been a challenge to get to our new alpine route…weather/snow, and work has been slowing us down a bit…but we are crossing our fingers that this next three days off will get us to where we want to be, cliff side climbing on sweet alpine granite heading up the headwall!! We are so stoked to climb this next feature! Super exciting! Bennett is joining us mid July.

We also started our new #1 Summer Climbing Camps at the gym- the first week went without a hitch! Great group of kids that were motivated to climb and climb at their best! Matt and I are looking forward to the next camp that is gong to start up in about two weeks! We are also tinkering around with the idea of starting  Team Vertical Heaven for the interested kids next fall….we’ll see! The Ventura Summer Fest 2009 was a blast- mingling with the community and representing Vertical Heaven was a blast. Also I am soooo proud of Matt- he raised over $250 to send kids to a summer camp from the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) this past week…check out his mug shot!

Also my picture was picked and considered by the Alpinist for a photo essay about First Female Ascents to appear in Issue 27….and they were interested on how I feel about this subject. Not knowing if they will use my interview or my photo but I am glad to get my view out there.

Let’s just keep it simple. First Female Ascents is bogus terminology, just a contrived way to state that a female or females repeated a test piece route. We can create a list a mile long of “firsts”, which I have noticed has also caught on. There is only one First Free Ascent (FFA), every ascent after that is a “repeat”. If the repeated route is a test piece climbed by an amazing rock climber- well known or not- who pushed their boundaries and creating insights to the possibilities on what can be done- these repeated ascents no matter the gender of the climber will be remembered. These historical, remarkable and memorable ascents that we all have read about and learned from is what creates our own desire to find our personal limit in the climbing world, to create our own climbing history.

The First Female Ascent terminology is creating not only a substandard but the terminology makes me feel that we not equal competitors/partners to male climbers, almost saying that we don’t have the same capabilities as male climbers. We should look past the whole male vs. female attitude. It is great to give recognition and document the women who are repeating hard test pieces all over the world, but lets not let down the women who are breaking their backs and working real hard establishing amazing FA’s of all sorts all over. My hat’s off to the women with the vision , motivation, desire and the ability to create a new routes and send them. Let’s give the credit where the credit is due. Why doesn’t the mags add a section towards the back dedicated to the individuals who are making it happen, putting up the classic new routes, or climbing in a bold new style, there are so many amazing individuals with incredible vision out there. It may even bring our climbing community a bit closer together. Who knows?

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