Off to Asia

I'm on my way to visit Brenna and hang out in Busan, South Korea. I've heard about a lot of great bouldering here and I'm looking forward to seeing it for myself. I also plan on checking out some climbing gyms and doing a bit of training before the winter season. On my last weekend in Tahoe I took my friend Alex Savage out climbing while he was in route to Yosemite. We did a warm up day at the Ronin Boulder where we repeated some of the awesome lines there. I did the first ascent of the sit start to Hidden Dragon v7. It basically climbs Secret Weapon but finishes sooner with a equally desperate exit. I called it Double Dragon and is maybe v11. Another great addition to this area. The next day Alex won the prize when I took him to Noah's rad Tahoe classic Ground Control v11. Alex did the second ascent in about 6 tries. It was really awesome to watch it get done in person. Check out the video to watch Alex do this rad climb.

Ground Control V11 from Savage Climbing on Vimeo.

More Activity

Fall is my favorite time of year. Colors everywhere and crisp air. All these things set a perfect arena for great bouldering.The Ground Control area has been getting a lot of local attention these past few weeks. Other problems are being found up the hill that are turning out to be pretty damn cool. The lower problems are settling in with consensus grades and getting a lot cleaner from all the traffic. Still no repeats on Ground Control yet. A few of us are close but it's kind of a mofo. Everyone gets only so many tries on the crux deadpoint before the crimp slices your finger. Up the hill from Ground Control we put up three new lines with a bunch more in the area. This awesome orange patina face overhangs a downhill gully of kitty litter and provides good shade and killer holds. This problem is super good! The three new lines are Gullible v2 *** Fa Dan Draeger, Choose Your Adventure v2 ** FA Adam Young, and Short Stack v4* FA Dan Draeger. Pretty bad ass. I managed to do the low sit start to Gullible which has two really hard moves. Getting off the ground and deadpointing a small crimp from a finicky heel hook seems to be the crux. Next is either a throw or a hand/foot match lock off to a good hold that puts you into the v2. For grade probably somewhere around v10/v11. We have come up with a name for this new spot with Ground Control. We are calling the area Outer Space, due to the fact that it is just outside the Space Invaders crag. So far this place has about 13 established lines with lots more to come.
Another new area being developed is the Beavers. A few years ago I put up a problem called the Beatdown v12 and developed some problems near it with Jason Hogan and Brenna Fischer. The other lines were a good v4/5, a v0 arete and a crimpy dumb v3. We attempted to search the area for more boulders ,but as it was spring , we were shut down by a raging creek filled with downed trees and debris. Our walking ended there. After the Beatdown I wrote the area off as probably done. One year later Frank Lucido wondered on the other side of the creek and found everything I missed which was only 40 more yards. You never know what could be waiting around the next set of trees. This area is very pleasant. Lots of shade in a dense forest with a creek near by giving this place a kind of swiss feel. Very nice bouldering being developed here with a few classics already established to make the first trip worth it. A few of the problems are One eye Willie v7,Spice of Life v6, Race Against Time v6, Avoid the Wart v9, and Wild Pack of Family Dogs v6. All of these are really cool. When this area is fully established it will have one of the raddest circuits in town. Get psyched. Props to Frank Lucido and Jarrad Wycoff for finding and doing all these awesome lines.
Lastly, at the Ronin boulder new problems have taken place. I did the sit project to Jarrad Wycoff's classic v6 My Shit's Custom. I called the low start My Sit's Custom and think it's about v9 but really fun steep climbing.I also added a new problem next to Secret Weapon. It starts on a flat undercling left and decent pinch edge for right and does a hard move to a sloper with a pocket in it and heads leftward towards jugs. I called this one Year of the Rat v7ish. Noah Kaufman also added a couple of problems with cool big moves. Hidden Dragon v7 and Last Samurai v7 are great new additions to this awesome boulder.
It's more fun to put these climbs into perspective with visual aids so I've made a new video to go with some of these new problems. The video features Gullible(from a v8ish start skipping one move on the harder sit start), Dude Where's My Pipe v5 which is a classic at the Freaks; Beaver classics, One Eye Willie and Race Against Time and ends at the Ronin.
I have been doing a lot of bouldering and training. I'm getting ready for my next trip to South Korea where I'm going to visit Brenna and check out the climbing in her new town. I'm very excited as I leave on November 16 and it will be my first trip to Asia. New experiences are rad.

More Activity from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

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.

Derailed and Black Shadow

Ian Cotter Brown's video is on the prowl and wheels are in motion. In the meantime here's a few sections from the video.

the Rocklands File

I'm back bouldering in tahoe and it's great to be home. New stuff everywhere. Met a climber named Vitaly the other day at Erratica who found a new amazing line. In Erratica, down and behind the Hoedown, Vitaly did the first ascent yesterday of WereBird v10. I did not get pictures but this line is an instant erratica classic. I look forward to trying to repeat this great addition.

I know you guys want to see some Rocklands action from this trip so I've included a short video I made during the first two weeks of our trip. Ian Cotter-Brown's video is in limbo as he searches for sponsors but I'll keep you updated but for now check this out.

The Rocklands File from Jesse Bonin on Vimeo.

Return from Rocklands

The Rocklands trip was a great experience. Like all big trips it had its ups and downs. It was complete with strange characters, hard sends, hilarious antics, and even a bit of cabin fever. When you live in the middle of nowhere for a long time you start to go a little bananas, but in a good way. This is an amazing place. The rock is really good and there are so many good problems that it's hard to tell where you want to begin. There are many FA's to develop if you look around enough. The established problems are incredible as well. The hard things here are some of the best and most fun lines I've ever seen. I feel like even just the famous hard problems are enough to keep me busy for quite a while. I can't wait to come back again. I'm already thinking about the next trip out here. To be honest I did not feel like I sent that many problems out here considering how much time I spent. The climbing here is really powerful, and as a result, you rest a lot more than you'd like to. This, however, seems very neccessary for me. Especially if you want to avoid injuries. Despite this the climbing that I did do I was really happy about. I did several problems here that I was really stoked about. One was Leopard Cave, which I've always wanted to do. This is an amazing roof climb that has a very unique crux move. After the second session, I pulled out a hail mary send on my last go and just barely pulled it off at the end of the day. Next was Black Shadow. This is one of the raddest power endurance boulder problems in the Rocklands. It has big, friendly holds and seems to get progressively harder as it goes which makes for an epic link up. The second day I fell at the last move about 2 times. I ended up falling there every single try for a few more days. It got kind of mental but in the end I snagged on day 4. This climb is one of the best I've ever done. Totally worth the epic.
The big one for me of the trip was Derailed. Daniel Woods put up this climb a few years ago when the Americans were first developing the 8 Day Rain Sector. It is a compression problem with slick edges, a crazy swing and a heart-breaking last move. All in all, it climbs this slick, overhanging belly in about 6 moves. It is rated 8B+ (v14) and it was a lifetime goal of mine to reach this level of difficulty in bouldering so I was really pleased. It fit my style really well. No crimping, just squeezing, swinging, and lerping. I'll never forget the feeling I had when I topped that thing out in the dark. I usually don't get too vocal, but I kind of lost it. It was probably pretty funny to watch.
Near the end of the trip I got really commited to sending Steakhouse v12. I love this roof. It has some crazy horizontal moves on good holds and ends with a crux throw off of two rad pinches. The last move alone felt about v10. I dedicated the last 3 weeks of my trip to sending this thing. However, the weather was really hot. After trying it for about 8 days in total over a few weeks and falling at the last move 26 times, I never completed the climb. I guess we all have to leave something behind. This climb will haunt me until I return. I really wanted to do it before I left but sometimes you have to accept defeat. So bravo Steakhouse, you totally kicked my ass.
All in all there is just too many stories and characters to tell about. But I love this place and cant wait to go back. At the same time I am really happy to be home in Tahoe. I missed this place a lot. I am stoked to explore for some new boulders and maybe try some things that I never did last season. There is really just too much to do. Unfortunately I did not get many pictures of this trip. However, Ian Cotter-Brown has made a bad ass video of our climbing there. I'll keep you updated on what he's going to do with it. It is complete with a lot of hard sends, nature shots that are laugh out loud funny, and all the goofy things that come with a good bouldering trip. For now, we'll have to wait but I'll keep everyone posted on the video. I could keep writing forever but I am severly jetlagged and have to sleep. In case anyone's curious. Here is my ticklist for the trip.

White Mazda Clan v10
Lisa's Arete v10
Rasta Roof v11
Cry Baby v10
Tromboli v10
Umbuli v11
Leopard Cave v12
Stretched and Pressed v10
Green Mamba stand start v11
An Amal v9
Question of Balance v7
The Rhino v8
Spider in the Roof v11
Black Shadow v13
In the Middle of the Ass v12 ( 2nd try)
Derailed v14
Day of the Jackal v10 (2nd ascent)