matt segal

I’ve had a lot of down time over the last few weeks and have been reflecting on 2008. Over all it was a good year but one thing I realized is I took and witnessed some of the biggest whippers of my life. So here’s the quick list:

1. Hitting the ground on Kalusa Kline, Peak District UK

2. Whipping on “the flake” on Parthian Shot, Peak District UK

3.Flying off Musta Been High, Elodorado Canyon CO

4. Flipping upside down on Climb of the Century (the warm up) Eldorado Canyon CO

5. Falling on a fixed knot (yes, a piece of rope wedged in the crack) Elbsenstien Germany

6. Bruising both heels on Steady as She Goes, Vedawoo WY
Falls I witnessed…
1. Kevin J taking the whip on Gaia (yes the one from Hard Grit) Peak District UK

2. Ethan P taking the 35+ fall on the Cobra Crack 7 times Squamish BC
3. Will S following my trend and taking the same fall on Musta Been High, Eldorado CO

After days of bad weather and lurking in Boulder we finally made it back to the Rincon Wall… I opted out of climbing and went into full on support mode. I was psyched for Will to send. After his first TR burn I was hoping he was going to walk away and accept defeat because he looked far from solid. But some how he managed to pull it together and TR it clean on his third try. At this point I knew he was going to sack up and lead it, but there was still a nervousness in the air since he was feeling pretty fatigued. He contemplated delaying his ticket to Patagonia so he could have another day on it and even asked for my phone to call…

Before he had the chance to call I noticed “the eye of the lyger” in him and he said “Fuck it, I’m going for it.” The next thing I knew I was holding my breath while he was sketching through the crux… luckily he stuck the crux and placed the bomber nut! I was so psyched for him, he got through the hard part and I didn’t think he would fall at the end like I did since its not that hard. BUT, I was wrong, he took the massive whip, falling the length of the route…

He was super bummed… The route meant a lot to him, like it did for me. For us Musta Been High is a “Bro Route.”  It was established by one of my climbing mentors Eric DeCaria and one of Will’s, Sonnie Trotter, got the second ascent. The routes since been repeated by many climbers most of whom chose to strap on a sticky rubber knee pad to make the route feel more solid a tactic Eric, Sonnie and I chose to disregard, feeling it was a traditional climb and wanted to climb it in the purest style. Style means a lot to Will and he felt so close to the send!

After 45 minutes of debating on changing his ticket or trying it again he decided to go for it. He crushed it! So sick! I think it was the 9th ascent but more importantly it was the 4th knee-pad free ascent.

Will holding the customized nut that Eric used on the FA.

So after a sick day at the Rincon Will and I parted ways, he’s off to Patagonia and I’m trying to get to Hueco Tanks. Key word there is trying since I’m now stuck in Albuquerque New Mexico. So bummed! The van broke down outside of Las Vegas NM on Saturday night and we got towed to Albuquerque and have been a shit show ever since.

Luckily there is a little climbing community in Albuquerque and I called an old friend, Lance, who fully hooked us up with maybe the coolest bivy ever: a climbing gym! Was a super cool wall and we all decided to have a session since we weren’t making it to Hueco. Thanks a bunch to Lance and the people at Stone Age…

Its been two days and the mechanics keep saying its going to take longer and longer… But there is light at the end of the tunnel since we STILL are on our way to one of the best bouldering areas in the world!

Bummin in the van waiting

The sad moment…

Ander breaking it down trying to keep spirits high

Robert waiting it out…

Feeling like the world is caving in on me.

Dealing with the set back of over $1,000

So bored!

The endless walking begins

Tower keeping is head up…

PHOTOS from Andrew Tower, check him out at pimpin and crimpin for more tales from this epic road trip.

I had a rough day on this last “Whisky Wednesday.” I managed to loose my wallet which is always pain in the ass… So last night I went out with a handful of quarters and my passport. Super funny, almost as funny as running into Angie Payne and Emily Herrington at the Sun Downer… the last place I would have imagined to see those two (innocent?) ladies. But over all we had a good mellow night; a little bit of “whisky wednesday” specials and some pool with the P&C guys… You cant go wrong.

Will and I have been trying to keep it as mellow as possible with the hope that conditions will get good enough so he can give Musta Been High a proper go… It’s been a rough stay in Boulder, we’ve been in town for 8 days and have only climbed on rock 1… Not good odds, almost as bad as England! But I’m in full support mode for a brother, since he fully hooked me up with many belays last summer in Squamish…but Friday is his last day since he’s flying to Patagonia Saturday morning, and I’ll be running back to the sunny boulders of Hueco Tanks.

So if you think about it, say a prayer for this bold monkey who’s about to attempt Musta Been High for the 4th ascent sans stealth knee pad!!

The Sun Downer

Angie

Will

So the photos keep coming in… These photos came from Sara and Will…

Sara, Will and I chilling in the back of the Van…

Diego climbing on the Wild Chihuahua

The only photo I have of the Hungry Ghost - a problem I opened after 5 days of effort at the end of the trip. So psyched! Think its in the V12 range…Check out Hungry Ghost if curious about the name…

The crazy one! Roberto behind the wheel…

There will be more coming soon…

I recently mentioned that one of my goals for 2009 was to write more and its been well over a week since my last post… Sorry! I’m lazy… well not really, the reality is I’d much rather be outside climbing then at my computer.

Don’t know where to begin… the last 10 days have been full of action. Mexico was amazing! The crew crushed the boulders… Now we’re all back in Boulder and it’s snowing! Whoopie! Don’t know how long I’m going to last in the bubble… already thinking about heading back south to climb in Hueco…

So here are a few photos from the last week, will be more coming so stay tuned.

Will Stanhope and his Mexican sports drink...

John Dickey being an artist.

Leaving the Boulders... So sad!

Eric and Diego

Will's new best friend in Jimenez

We’re packed in the van like sardines crossing the border. The adventure begins.

I just recently competed for the first time in almost 4 years… and it was pretty crazy! So odd, felt really out of place, I was the oldest competitor in finals… funny actually… everyone including myself was curious why I was competing again. To be honest, there’s no real answer, just thought it would be fun… Oh yeah… Robert and I left Mexico a week ago so I could fly to LA and climb in an ABS Regional Championships. Not sure how I ended up placing, think I got 7th, so many strong little monkeys these days… Maybe I should stick to the trad, ha ha…

Since we’ve left Mexico we’ve put in 3 days bouldering in Hueco Tanks outside of El Paso Texas which has been amazing. The place is just loaded with classic problems. I’ve been really psyched to get my power back up and bouldering is just so much fun. Its so simple and pure, you gotta love it…

But this Hueco mission is coming to an end since Robert and I have managed to rally a posy to head back down to Mexico… We’re picking up Will Stanhope and Sara Watson tonight and John Dickey is already with us…so psyched… We’re all just squeezing in the van and heading south for a week… Should be a fun adventure!

You know you’ve been in the desert a while when your hat comes off and your hair is sticking straight up… So dirty… Oh well… its not like there’s any reason to be clean in the middle of know where.

Rolling with the Wolverian look again

The last few days have been really good, I established this problem Chihuahua Salvage (The Wild Chihuahua) which may be one of the coolest problems I’ve ever done… Its really tall but there is a boulder behind it that makes it a little safer to spot, but its definitely still a little scary. In the end it wasn’t as hard as it thought it was going to be, somewhere in the 5.13 range, its easier to give it a route grade since its over 30 moves…Still no photo… will be coming soon…

Robert warming up

The basecamp project!

So I haven’t been able to post as much as I like due to lack of cell service in BFE Mexico….

But this place keeps getting better and better… Every day we discover more boulders that are sick!!! We’ve met up with this guy Diego, who has been establishing hard problems here for the last 3 or 4 years… He’s definitely got some pretty hard problems up to V14. I’m amazed that no one has ever heard of this place… Diego mentioned he hasn’t really kept it a secret, its just no one wants to make the trek down south…

When we first got here I was super skeptical since it seemed most of the rock was chossy but all we needed was someone to point us in the right direction, because there’s a bunch of super sick stone… I mean as good as it gets for boulders!

I opened a problem the other day called Dedos de Figueo (Fingers of Fire) that was amazing, classic Hueco style steep crimper problem… somewhere in the V10 grade range…

Also opened an easy highball called Chicatito which was super nice, the crux is at the start then you just get these hero jug plates for 20 feet or so… so cool!

Also found the mega problem, don’t think it will be that hard but super cool and scary…

Diego

Robert

Me at base camp

Robert on un-known Highball (cool project to the right)

Diego on Deddos de Fuego

Me sending Deddos de Fuego

Eric on Chicatito

Sorry no photos of the sick project yet… Will try and post again soon… Hope everyone had a great New Year’s eve…