Heart of Gold, a New Line Right of Reigning Grains

Up left (west) past the area that Kurt Smith called Teenage Wasteland*, lies a few stones below an obvious cliff band on the north face of Ryan Mountain. On a single boulder embedded in the hillside sits Reigning Grains, a semi-tall line that’s probably rarely repeated if at all. Enter two folks from Washington state.

While staying in SoCal, they decided to try RG but ended up cleaning and climbing the line right of it. It begins at the corner (RG goes left) and moves right into a series of overhanging ledges. I eyed this line back then but felt it would require more cleaning than our normal lazy** approach to climbing: just start climbing and clean it as we go up. This worked well for RG, but going right fit well for two northwestern boulderers. And it looked harder for sure. I’m psyched this line got done and look forward to trying it in the near future. They labeled it as First Known Ascent, but I feel it’s an FA.

Sam Sheesley, Drew McCarthy and Stamati Anagnostou made the effort, and part of Sheesley’s account is published below:

Igneous Ambiance And The Inevitable

I say inevitable because a key hold has always appeared like it could break off, but hey, it’s lasted quite a few years. And of course the inevitability of holds breaking is part of climbing, sigh.

About 5 weeks ago the top horizontal crimp (before the upper juggy ledge) broke off on Igneous Ambiance. Below is the video of someone pulling it off. Since this isn’t the crux, and the existing edge is still pretty good, I’m inclined to think it won’t up the grade; regardless, I think this is happening more so recently because of the extensive rains the park has received and the greater number of boulderers visiting the park. The video is by Wade Cecil of someone he didn’t know. A big thank you to Wade.

Tramway’s Depression, Byron’s Roof er Mosquito Cove.

Jill climbed the Tramway’s very popular problem Depression/Byron’s Roof on August 4. Below is a send for Depression, the very low start to what most people call Byron’s Roof. FTR, Byron’s Roof starts at the upper end of the low sloping right trending ramp in the overhang. Depression starts at the very bottom of the sloping ramp matched in a “slot” rail to the left of the long sloping rail. Both Byron Shumpert and myself climbed the problem about the same time (possibly within a week or two of each other in the 90’s), resulting in the double FA naming. Recently Byron posted a video repeating his line thus clarifying most likely,what he did for his original FA. The grade range for Byron’s Roof is 8-9, and for Depression 9-10. Jill felt Byron’s Roof was an 8 and Depression a 9. She climbed BR first then sent Depression 3 tries later that evening.

On another note, the name Mosquito Cove, fron memory was either an early name for the whole cove/roof or the left start, which was the original line established in the cove. A good left sidepull broke some time after Wills fired the FA. I vaguely remember him calling it an 8 pre-break.  The line went directly out to the lip using the crux D/BR thin rail as a right side pull.

Hound Rocks Overview

I’ve logged the Hound Rocks problems we’ve done via google earth, and this should show everything we’ve done to date. I’ve listed the problems at the bottom of this page with links to videos.

Access Fund Trail leads to hound rocks.

the bottom of the photo is a steep hillside

New Boulders, New Lines Near Slashface.

Many thanks to our friend Matt McCormick, who showed us this sweet slashface-style crimp line. It lies in a small formation that contains the 3 Star Lieback (which sits just northeast of the Equinox formation (Jerry’s Quarry), and the boulders sit less than 50 meters west of the Star boulder. Facing that problem, these two boulders are behind and slightly left of you. With a few variations remaining to be done, 3 of us did 7 problems.

Setting up to do the crux before the crux on Moonshadow yabo (sit).

Tramway V3 Variant

Tuesday, 9-26, we visited the Undiscovered Country where Ebonics Woman resides. At v3, its pretty much one move. The problem starts from the right side of a sloping shelf which in itself invites a lower start. The moves made our warmup very reasonable, considering the stand one mover was a bit abrupt. Also it’s just a better problem. At v4, starting from a jug left of the left end of the shelf at the lip of an upper sloping headwall. Moves remind me of sport climbing, patient and steady before the actual crux.

Mulligan Corridor Problem Repeat

The incorrectly labeled problem called Mulligan 2 (in the gB) starts to the far right of the Mulligan Corridor (MC). At v8, I think it’s a seldom if ever repeated problem; regardless, Jill wanted to repeat it. And that makes me feel good cause having a problem repeated shows to me someone thinks it’s worth the effort and skin. We only have so much skin to go around and throwing it at a josh problem can be, well, costly. As I’ve previously posted about here (which I partially rewrote due to confusing text), descriptions and number of problems are hopefully cleared up in the image below.

This hopefully clears things up a bit.

The above image doesn’t show the hard line, which is further right of the picture. Called Hate By Any Means, it starts matched on a thin long left-facing sidepull. The difficulty is in the first 3 moves, and that includes the third technically difficult move because of the dab potential on the boulder behind/above. After that, it’s crimping not unlike the other two problems. Here’s video:

She repeatedly did the crux then tapped her head on the back boulder. After finally figuring out how to stay in and low, she sent in 2 goes. Psyched for her send.

Thin Start to Collieherb Face

Right of the blunt arete, on the same face as Collieherb, lies a sweet two move micro thin face climb that exits into the middle of Collieherb. Below is a video of Jill doing it. Awkward if you’re tall, me thinks. 😉 We called it Collies On Herb. If it’s been done then now you know it exists. 🙂

Under The Buggy, of Course And Buggy

Jill and I found a problem that we called Under The Buggy while walking around Course and Buggy, a trad route on the west side north of Intersection/JBMFP. The problem itself resides just south of the famous dihedral, maybe 30-40 feet. Getting to it is best via CnB then head left and find it amongst rocks.

Save Your Old Tooth Brush

Yes, if you don’t have one in your bouldering quiver, you should add one to help prevent this specific condition.

The buildup of chalk, hand oils and grime prevents the skin from actually contacting the rock.