Escaping the Heat

Last week while at Spire I started a conversation with a new PhD student Tony about areas around town. When I told him about Cascade Creek he got pretty excited and wanted to check it out. The next day we went to check it out, with a hand drawn map from Jeff Ho to look for the Haunted Space Mansion boulder. We didn’t send too much that day but we checked out a project and two V9s as well as some boulders I didn’t know about even though they had received some cleaning.

Tony stabbing into the crux of Monkey Knife Fight V9

Tony attempting a sit start to Tyler’s Problem

On Saturday Eric Christensen (who has done a bulk of the development in the area) and I went up, so that I could get the proper tour of the main area. Eric was able to get the FAs of a lowball project he cleaned last fall and a link up in the Lava Lounge. While I was able to do the FA of a sit start project as well as a new line we cleaned. The other boulders Eric showed me make for a great circuit with a lot of V3 to V5 problems.

Then on Sunday Joey, his roommates: Kevin, Taylor, and Alex, and I all went for another hike up to the talus field. For the most part we stayed near the Lava Lounge and the Tick Tick Boom Areas. Joey was able to send Lava Lunge (V3) and Tick Tick Boom (V3) after a finding a unique way through the first two moves. Alex made a great 3rd of Ascent of Janie’s Got a Gun (V2) and did Hungry Eyes (V2) in a few goes.

Joey projecting the crux start of Tick Tick Boom V3

I had a great day on Sunday sending one of the V9s Tony and I had worked on, called Monkey Knife Fight put up by Kyle Vassilopoulos two years ago. I also cleaned and sent a project that Joey pointed out which starts on Tick Tick Boom. We’re calling it Quail Hunting with Dick Cheney, which should weigh in around V6. It’s a similar style to the sit start project I climbed the day before; it’s less powerful, but requires more attention to body position so should be about a grade below that one. Joey captured a video of the FA here:

This seemingly small area just below Lava Lake is still producing some new lines and has a lot more potential for new stuff. So far the majority of the boulder problems are in the V2 to V6 range mostly concentrated nearish to the river. Up the hill from the Haunted Space Mansion Boulder there could easily be double the amount of problems all ready there. Getting a proper tour and bringing new people up to the boulder field has renewed my interest and inspired a few more to make the hike and start looking for something new to add to this beautiful area.