The CragBaby

I absolutely love my birthday (August 18!) since it is the only “holiday” I celebrate.  Last year I started the tradition of working on a birthday challenge with 2008 being spent jamming out 28 routes in a day (epic!).

This year I turned 29 and now prefer bouldering, so wanted to search out 29 new (meaning never been sent by me) boulder problems in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

On the “magical day” the temps were fabulous, with a high of perhaps 80. We started at 7:30 am and finished around 6:30pm. I had a couple friends (Guillaume and Camilo) who climbed with me all day with others who popped in and out through out the work day, with a good crew showing up for the last couple problems at the Split Boulders.  (It was really nice of everyone to show up… thank you!)

Trying for the send of Shingles Stand.

The 29 boulder problems weren’t nearly as hard as the routes, mostly because we were focusing on easy problems in order to get in the needed quantity before our tips were too sore and because I still have a lot of boulders to explore in LCC, making “new” problems very accessible.  The 29 ended up being:

1. Easy Arete v1 (Secret Garden)
2. The Bulge v1 (Secret Garden)
3. Go Right v3 (Secret Garden)
4. The Scoop v1 (Secret Garden)
5. Cynthia’s Arete v2/3 (Secret Garden)
6. Space v0 (Secret Garden)
7. The Plane v0 (Secret Garden)
8. Left Arete v1 (Secret Garden)
9. Crystal Move v1 (Secret Garden)
10. Face v0 (Secret Garden)
11. Unnamed v0 (Secret Garden)
12. Jug Haul v3 (Secret Garden)
13. West Face of the Tower v1 (Secret Garden)
14. Tower Crack v1 (Secret Garden)
15. Walkathon v0 (Secret Garden)
16. Jugs v0 (White Pine South)
17. Warm Up Arete V0 (White Pine South)
18. Eastern Ways V1 (White Pine South)
19. Wacko Variation v4 (White Pine South)
20. Wacko v3 (White Pine South)
21. Fang v2 (White Pine South)
22. Ramp Move v1 (White Pine South)
23. Pinch Me v0 (White Pine South)
24. Rooted v3 (White Pine South)
25. Arse v2 (White Pine South)
26. Stacie’s Face V1 (White Pine South)
27. Arete v0 (Split Boulders)
28. Fook Yu v1 (Split Boulders)
29. Big Mouth (AKA Man Eater) v1 (Split Boulders)

I also attempted the following:

1. Rub My Butt v4 (Secret Garden)
2. Shingles Stand v4 (Secret Garden)
3. Drive By v2 (Secret Garden)
4. Over the Top v4 (White Pine South)
5. Hidden Fish v2 (White Pine South)
6. Karate v5 (White Pine South)
7. Full Mindy v5 (White Pine South)
8. Mr Smiley v6 (Split Boulders)

Overall, I hopped on a total of 37 problems and finished up the night drinking wine and beer at the house with friends.  Yet another perfect 8/18. Seriously, thank you to all of you who came out for climbing and drinks. I really appreciate it.

Camilo loving the Lone Star Taqueria.

Next year is the big 30 and I am already brainstorming a new adventure.  If you have any suggestions, please comment as I would love to hear all ideas.

Tags: birthday, challenge, holiday

This entry was posted on Monday, September 14th, 2009 at 9:36 pm and is filed under climbing, holidays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.