Unlocked

photo: Kyle Adams

Every area that I have been to over the past 14 years climbing has its gems.  Every once in awhile those gems turn out to be difficult and beautiful.  In central Pennsylvania at one of my local crags Governor Stables, we have been trying to unlock the beta to one of the proudest boulders in the field for almost half a decade.  People have come through looking at this horizontal roof devoid of holds near the lip and tried countless ways to figure out how to gain the head wall and finish the boulder to the top. 
I had put a session in on the roof project in the past but I wasn’t making any headway so I almost wrote it off as a lost cause, just another amazing “almost climb” at GS. Last week I got word that the beta was unlocked.  I was curious so I got in touch with my good friend Char who decrypted the sequence that could potentially turn the problem around.  I sent him a text and asked him what was up and what he had figured out.  His response was “its tricky and hard”  hahahaha, not surprising.  Armed with this new knowledge that it was tricky and hard I went out to see what I could come up with.
I spent the first several attempts contemplating the move that only Char had done and trying as hard as I could to think trickely and hardely.  After sometime had passed and I tried everything that we had tried before, I figured it out.  I was psyched and started giving it some red point burns but I was too tired and sick to fire it.  I packed up and headed home.  Char and I talked briefly and we were both so close falling near the end but neither of us sent that weekend.  Char was headed out Monday but because of my class schedule and how sick I was feeling I wouldn’t be able to make it until Tuesday.
Monday Char sent easily in a few try’s and the climb after nearly a decade of attempts and trying to figure out beta finally fell.  I was super happy for Char but I still needed to do the climb.  Tuesday after school I drove up to GS and waited until the sun started to drop and the conditions got crisp and sent in a short session.
I share the same affinity that all climbers do with solving a problem.  Whether its the hard project no one has done or the problem that your buddy walks up with wool socks and a beer in hand thats giving you fits.  Either way I love to climb.