Renegade and Choss

It’s the time of year that I start to plan trip out of state. Trips to Texas and California, desert places intolerably hot most of the year. For the next couple months though, I think I’m staying home.

I just bought a house, and though the first round of painting, flooring and other domestic-type activities have come near an end, I want to enjoy the fruits of our labor. And of course spend time with Christina.

I’ve never lived someplace like Flagstaff before. There is so much I haven’t climbed here, so many areas I’ve yet to visit, that I want to get out on the forest roads, see the roofs find the bulges, and of course climb them. Gates and locks—so often the enemies of climbers, will close off Cherry Canyon and Woody Mountain in about two months.

For these next two months I will be climbing at only these areas and on Elden. Projects are everywhere, there are numerous new things to be climbed and my old reasoning to leave doesn’t work anymore. The desert can wait.

Matt on a project on Renegade Roof

Yesterday I went out to Renegade Roof and Choss Roof with Matt Gentile. In the last year or so, a resurgence of development has swept across Northern Arizona, much of it spearheaded by Matt. He’s visited the areas already found and written off and climbed many new problems. Choss Roof alone will probably host around 40 problems from V5 to V14 in link-ups and variations, many of which will be among the best in the state.

Renegade Roof

Renegade Roof, which was abandoned after one line was climbed because of a hugely bad landing, is much like the famous Mars Roof, only bigger and with a far more impressive backdrop. There are only three or four finished problems on the roof, but it’s covered with two-finger pockets, pinches and jugs. There will be another half-dozen problems by the time the roof is climbed out.

At Renegade I worked on the original line, which shares its name with the roof. The problem climbs through a series of pinches and pockets with good toe-cams for feet. Matt worked on a project that climbs out the center of the roof to a tricky and treacherous lip encounter.

Getting closer to the lip

Choss Roof

We walked over to Choss Roof and I tried the center line, Choss Origins, The Spider Pocket project and one of the newer problems in the area called Garden Heist.  It was my third time to the roof, and I’ve sill never topped anything out besides the warm-ups. Soon though, with work and endurance I will start ticking them off the list.

Cherry Canyon

Obviously fall has arrived and for a while at least, I have joined the ranks of the unemployed.  This is good though, at least for now. I have time to work on this house, to write, to climb. Working at CREC was a great experience, but the schedule of eight days on-six days off, didn’t work for me. I couldn’t even come close to balancing all those top-heavy aspects of life. Who ever does?

            Fall--apples, carved pumpkins, changing leaves. It’s time to get out last years leftover candy corn and put it in a bowl in the kitchen, time to start drinking tea instead of ice water, and time to boulder as much as possible while the conditions are good and the forest roads are open.

            Two Sundays in a row I’ve gone to Cherry canyon with Matt, Brian, and Spence. No one outside of Flagstaff seems to know the brilliance of this place. Even though Cherry Canyon houses what is arguably some of the best limestone bouldering in the country, I’ve never seen another group of people there. Right now it seems most are drawn to the various super-sized roofs to the west and Cherry has fallen to the wayside. Even though I have lived in Flagstaff for a year now, I still haven’t figured out how to climb those roofs. I’m getting better, but I feel at home at places like The Glorias, Middle Elden, West Elden, and of course on the towering bulges of Cherry.

            Since the first time I went to Cherry last spring and set eyes on The Bulge Wall, I have wanted to try Uptown Vandal. This is a boulder problem that could only happen here. A couple easy roof moves lead to a sloping pocket, heelhook, and a strenuous move to a flat, half-pad undercling. A bump off a bad crimp leads to a better one and the beginning of a highball V7.

            I’ve tried Uptown Vandal maybe a dozen times now. Yesterday was the first time I’d tried it early in the day and on my first solid effort from the bottom I got into the crux of the stand start. I surprised myself. I gave one more try, but the first try had drained most of my strength and I got to the same place. Still, I will climb Uptown Vandal the next time I try it. Until then it’s clouding my thoughts, as boulders often do.