Tahoe Activity

I've been busy in Tahoe. Working full time construction during the week and getting all the climbing I can in after work and on weekends. The fall temps have started to creep in and the climbing is feeling pretty nice here. I've been visiting a lot of different Tahoe areas recently. Around the Sugar Pine area I got to see some really good lines on the west shore go down. Flight Risk v5, Black Torpedo v4, and Prime Directive v4 are all must do classics. I even manages to add a couple new ones to SP 5 with the Squeeze G v7, and another v7 near Flight Risk. Props to the West shore crew for opening up all these instant classics. This is definately one of the raddest areas at the lake.
Likewise there is still much bouldering developement going on in the south shore area as well. It seems like every weekend about 10 good first ascents go down no matter what. A notable send worth mentioning is that of Ground Control v11. Noah Kaufman bagged this gem the other day, check out Noah's site for the video and blog entry in his own words http://tryhardclimbers.blogspot.com/. This send is another big one for the south shore. Complete with bomber rock, rad moves and holds, and a high finish to cap it off. I'm pretty psyched to start giving this thing some serious tries real soon. Nice job to Noah.
Lastly, this past weekend I got to do a really cool first ascent that was showed to me by Frank Lucido. The boulder was rad and had this one line on it that Frank thought I would like. Sure enough, it instantly made its way to the top of my list. It was a long process hitting all the moves the first day and I feel like I got a bit lucky nabbing the full FA on day 2 some 2 weeks later. The name we gave the problem is Secret Weapon and I'm suggesting a grade of v11. There are some really cool moves in it. One in particular crux has a deadpoint to a pinch off a mono and then a crazy cut loose swing off these 2 holds. From there bunchy lock offs lead to this hard crossover at the finish. The problem is steep and seems to be about power endurance. I thought it was really cool. TO accompany this blog entry I have included a video that I threw together rather quickly of just a taste of the recent action going on around the tahoe area. I hope you enjoy it.

Tahoe Activity from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

Here it Comes

I've been going as many places as possible the past few weeks and honestly there is just too many places to talk about all of them. I recently visited the Burnside area for the weekend and did a few noteworthy ascents. I did a rare repeat of Frank Lucido's hard line Feldsparring v10. This problem was a true challenge. Bad holds and bad feet to a techy, insecure finish. A remarkable endeavor by Frank. Next he took me to the Lucid Dream wall which was amazing. Totally on par with the Whale Shark boulder. Two of the lines, Bela Cula v6 and Lucid Dream v9 were amazing. I managed to pull the first ascent of the sit start to Lucid Dream which weighs in at around v10/11. I recommend any one who hasn't seen this wall go check it out.
David O and I also did a day at Sugar Pine. Dave Hatchet took us to Sugar Pine 4 where I got a good spanking on the technical rock climbing. The moderates there are really hard for short fellas like me. At the end of the day I did manage to do the second ascent of Joel Zerr's line Free Loader which was awesome. Hard compression up perfect stone to an insane top out. Really cool. Props to Joel on the FA.
In Between I've done a few things that were pretty awesome as well. David O's line at the Fox and Hound, Foxy Lady v8 is an awesome afternoon mission. With beers and burgers just 40 yds from the problem you can't beat this one for a drunken night sesh. The line is really fun and truly challenging for the shorter people. The sit start proj into this line is very futuristic. Probably v13/14 I'm guessing. I was also shown a semi-secret area on the East side of the lake which hosts many great moderates in a tight consolidation. Jay Sell, along with Brock, Don, Larry, Joe Bob and others have been hard at work all summer preparing this area for the masses. It will be a moderate climbers' mecca. Along with the great moderates here I added a harder option when I did the sit start proj to the Bear Cave. This new line was v11 with my beta, that's the official grade I'm proposing but it is highly likely (though not for sure) that taller people may find a solution that is a bit easier than mind. But only time will tell. With Fall just around the cornor, Lake Tahoe bouldering is once again about to go ape shit. Don't miss out on the action when the cold windy temps start becoming the norm. Here are some pics to wet your appetites.