Upcoming vids and Prison Hill repeats

Here in Tahoe the weather has been great for hard bouldering. If you can get around the snow in the mountains or the constant hight winds in the desert, you're good to go. Since doing the Mofo in Erratica I've been out repeating some of the old lines at Prison Hill. I repeated 25 Minutes To Go v6, a Noah Kaufman line from last year that is a classic pumpy traverse with a gymnastic crux at the end. A really fun problem for anyone interested.
Next, I stopped over at the Marble Boulder and climbed an FA of mine from last year called Diamond Thief v11. It is hard to figure the grade of this climb. It is only three moves but feels very desperate. It is steep with bullet-proof rock, one good start hold for the right hand and a series of three left hand moves in a row to horrible glassy slopers with bad feet. This line is not very tall, but the quality is very high and the climb is steep and burly. This boulder also has a cool v3 and a really hard project.
When I went back alone today it was windy as usual. My goal was to repeat Death Sentence v10. When you look uphill above The Prisoner, Electric Chair, and Firing Squad Boulders, it is the shiny gray line with a green line diagonaling all the way up the middle of it. Death Sentence starts with the good flat right hand sidepull edge and the left hand on a low shallow pinch about 2 and half feet off the ground. Hard moves on glassy slopers lead to an odd top out around the right side of the bulge.This climb is very high quality. Prison Hill still has a few gems lurking around I think, but the developed ones seem to be where it's at.
I plan on spending the weekend at Erratica, the Meiss Boulder, and Twin Peaks. Many more problems await. I am getting excited as well to go on my second trip to the Rocklands in South Africa. Last summer Ian Cotter-Brown and I spent 5 and half weeks there and loved it. This year we are going for 2 and half months. Hopefully that'll be enough time to send everything, but I highly doubt it. haha. The place is kind of shit-stacked with the goods. After that I plan on doing some climbing/working in Tahoe before going to South Korea to visit Brenna and check out a new place. After that who knows. One of the great things about the bouldering lifestyle isthat I find myself always going in new directions to do my thing. I don't really know what the point of bouldering is or why I love it so much. I do know that I'm always excited about it and it has landed me in some of the most beautiful places and led to friendships with the coolest people ever. I'm psyched to keep going forever.
Last, there will be another video online in the next week or two. David Outcalt and I got footage of the Mofo on the day of the first ascent. I'm waiting until we all go climbing this weekend to get more footage. It will be all Tahoe winter bouldering. I'll post it on the next blog when it's done.

New Videos and New Climbs

My three week stay in Bishop, CA was awesome. I got to see a lot of friends, and watch many rad climbs go down. I managed to send the Happy's classic Kill On Sight v12. This climb was hard for me. I found some tricky beta that was good but very stretchy for me. After three days on the stand and 3 more days on the sit I finally got the bastard on the seventh day of work. I projected this line with my good friends Ian Cotter-Brown and Ryan Held. It was fun to finally have a project to share with some friends. Other than that I finally got myself to do the Hulk v6, a problem I've meticulously avoided for years do to it looking super reachy. It was, but not too bad. All in all a great time.

I also took a ride with my friend Zack West on a quick weekend trip to Moe's Valley, UT. The quality was mixed but everything v6 and up is spectacular. I was really impressed with this area. It had a lot of great hard problems. I did not send anything hard but did some cool moderates and had some good times. I would have to strongly recommend this spot to anyone that hasn't been here yet. It is a really fun place with a good vibe.
This weekend back in Tahoe, I went to Erratica to revisit a project of mine from late Summer. The Mofo finally went down. This problem is on the Painter Boulder in Erratica near Kirkwood, CA. This project is to the left of Element of Surprise v9 ( the old v11 sit start broke and is now a much harder project waiting to go). Originally I thought this project would end up being a v12/13 but upon finding better beta I was able to unlock a sequence which made it go slightly easier. I gave it v11 and let it keep its alias as The Mofo. A great new classic at Erratica, one of the harder ones too.
Lastly, I recently uploaded some new videos of my friends climbing in Bishop. I took a lot of restdays while working my project. On those rest days I tried to make the most of it by filming. I caught a lot of great things on camera and edited some videos for all to enjoy.

Bishop part one from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

Bishop Part two from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

I've been here in Bishop, CA for about a week now. It's been really fun hanging with the crew out here and having some good times. I've been working on my big goals for the rest of the season. Trying to do Scanner Darkly in the Buttermilks, and Kill On Sight in the Happy Boulders. Both lines are really good in their own ways. I've got both the lines in two parts but putting them together seems to be the hard part. I'm having a lot of fun working on them. Zack West and I took a break from Bishop this weekend and went on a quick 3 day trip of the Moe's Valley boulders in Utah.
The climbing in Moes was very fun. Not everything with chalk on it is solid so you have to be very selective when choosing your lines. Some lines caked in chalk were absolute death traps. Lots of loose, big hollow holds ready to kill. Mixed in however are some really awesome problems on great sandstone. We got a great sample of what the climbing was like out here. The problems that are good are really good. The layout of the area and conveinence were a plus. Everything is easy to get to and town is not very far away if you feel like getting frisky at night. St. George seemed to have everything you could want for food or entertainment all a short drive from the bouldering and camping. I'd recommend a trip to anyone who wanted some different climbing not too far away. It took us 5.5 hrs to drive there from Bishop. Not too bad.
On a side note, I put together another climbing video for anyone interested in a new one. I have a video of Ryan Held, Ian Cotter-Brown, and Kenyon Smith bouldering in the tablelands. Footage of 2 classic v11s and the establishing of a new worthy area in the tablelands called the Pink Cliffs. One rest day I went to film a highly motivated crew who got lots of classic new first ascents, mostly highball and proud , at this new small gem. It was a blast watching my friends put up these awesome problems that may one day go down as mega lines. The video will be posted on the blog and/ or vimeo shortly.

After a long period of crappy weather and lots of indoor training, I was happy to get back on real rock. I started the weekend off by visiting a project at Prison Hill that is just to the right of Prisoner on the Roof v9. This problem shares the start hold of that line with the left hand and the right hand is on the other side of the feature on a bad sidepull. From here a series of short slaps to bad slopers and pinches lead to a heinous move to a slick, slopey crimper. From there the top out is a fun headwall that is probably v5 or 6. I named this new line Juvenile Delinquent and gave it v12. This problem is slightly an eliminate as it does not use the juggy underclings on Prisoner on the Roof or the top out holds of Prisoner on the Roof. Using these holds to do this line would reduce the difficulty by a couple grades. However, in the interest of making this line feel unique I did not use these holds. All in all, the new problem is cool and climbs very well.
The next day was full of adventure as we tried to climb at an area at high elevation that is typically saved for the hot summer months. With massive amount of fresh snow everywhere, we began the uneasy hike into the backcountry. The walk itself was filled with excitement. At every turn there seemed to be a deep, snowy gully or rushing creek bed that had to be crossed. Navigating our way to the area also took a lot of time. Everything looks different when it's covered in 10 feet of snow. Sure enough though, we found the boulders and hiked up to the Basement. Here my goal was to repeat one of my problems from this summer, Downtown Brown, for the camera. With snow surrounding the cave there was the best dry, cold temps possible. I was able to link up this hard climb in 2 goes, having remembered all the beta from the summer season. All in all, it was another awesome weekend bouldering in the Tahoe area. It felt fun to realize that snow can't due much to stop the determined.

Snow or No from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

The following weekend at Prison Hill was much sunnier than the previous. Frank Lucido, Jarrad Wycoff, David Outcalt and I did many ascents on the areas classics. The send of the day was the Electric Chair v6. Jarrad was the first to cap off the 2nd ascent of this tall classic. Then David and myself followed.This problem is the super shiny arete uphill from The gully near Solitary Confinement. I has a tricy beginning, solid rock, and a heady topout. In addition to David's third ascent of this line, we also got footage of some of the other area classics from the north side of Prison Hill. The footage came out a bit washed out and the lens needed a good cleaning. Just for fun though I decided to add this to vimeo for anyone to enjoy. There will be more to follow but now the snow is heavy. Climbing in the Tahoe area for the next week or two may be kind of spotty. I have a lot of possible winter projects in the area as well as things I need to go do in the Buttermilks in Bishop. Looks like the next few days will have to be dedicated to either intense resting or intense training, hopefully a good mix of both.

Prison Hill, part 2 from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

Prisoners in the Fog

When I woke up Saturday morning in South Lake Tahoe, I didn't think bouldering was going to be a possibility. The entire town was engulfed in a thick, wet fog. But I thought, what the hell! So David Outcalt and I spent the weekend at Prisoner Hill. Both days that I drove down I passed through the inversion coming down Spooner. It was foggy at the top, foggy at the bottom, and sunny as hell in the middle. It was a neat moment passing through there each morning. When we arrived the whole area was in a very thick fog. There was a spooky vibe with the mist. The boulders just appeared out of it throughout the entire trecherous hike. The first day we climbed on the north side and did all the moderate classics with Jason Hogan joining us. We did Reno 911 v0 , Cocaine Blues v3, Congical Visit v3, and 15 Minutes to Go v5. Then we hiked all the way over to the south side of the big hill over to the Watchtower Boulder, home to Noah Kaufman's awesome power-fest Alcatraz v10. I worked on repeating the sit-start and David worked the gem. At first we were both flailing pretty hard, but then we got psyched and they both went down. David Outcalt caught the likely 6th ascent of Alcatraz v10, a proud moment for this was his first of the grade. I managed to unluck the beta that made the sit-start doable and sent just after David.


The second Day we spent the morning warming up on top of the south side. In this spot the rock is mostly crappy at the top and good at the bottom. So we spent a little time riding the choss wave. But the gripped factor did us well as we warmed up. Next , we went over to Alcatraz to do some filming then went straight over to a possible project wall that was killer. Sitting only about 50 yards from the Watchtower this awesome face had two plum lines on each side. It looked like they've never been done but you never know around here. David caught the likely FA of the right line which he dubbed What Are You In Here For? v6ish. I did this line just afterwards and it was killer. Next I got the left line and it was about v7. But then David broke a hold in the middle that may have made this climb slightly easier. He pretty much ran laps on the crux to the heady top out. But it was at the end of a long weekend and we both ran out of juice for any more lines. But it was a great time and we look forward to going back next weekend if the weather is good...or if it's fog. We made a short 5 min. video of some of the coolest lines. I hope you enjoy the video.

Prisoners in the Fog from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

Old Footage

I had some old video footage on my computer of a few climbs. Bordem set in last night and I decided to put together a random video just for fun. Making short climbing films seems to be the thing in the industry right now. This is awesome for me because I love surfing the internet and watching the new bouldering videos that come out on a daily basis. Perhaps this is the climber's version of watching Monday night football. I've really been enjoying all the good short videos that have been coming out this season. DeadPoint magazine appears to have it on lock down. My short video does not compare to most of the good ones but I figured I'd put it on for people to enjoy. The video mainly features the Geode. This unrepeated v11 has pure moves up a slopey prow on high quality rock. The FA took me a while but in the end it all came down to perfect conditions. At the time of the ascent it was about 20 degrees out in early winter. I hope you enjoy the short movie. Unfortunately this problem is definately out of commission until late spring, so you might not get to try it for a while.

The Geode from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.