Mexico Part 3: El Chonta!

By: Urs Moosmuller

I have been staying in Mexico City for the past few weeks experiencing the city and culture of Mexico. The climbing community here is pretty small and very friendly. Everyone is very psyched and there is a lot of climbing in and around the city. During one of the weeks I met up with some friends from the city who work for some big tv programs. They were interested in coming out to a cave called El Chonta and filming me on a route there. Arturo, Arturo, and Vachas have been living in Mexico City for several years and they are very talented videographers. 

From Mexico City you drive three an a half hours south west to a town called Taxco. Taxco is a beautiful city located on a steep hillside with a view of several massive valleys surrounding the city. The architecture is very similar to the Mediterranean and there are thousands of BW buses that are found on the small winding cobble stone roads. From here you travel east through rolling hills until you reach the Procopio’s ranch. The Procopios are a large family who own hundreds of goat and hundreds of acres of land. They have been very generous in letting climbers access El Chonta through their land without any cost. They do however provide donkeys to carry your gear up to the cave. The cave is hidden high up on the hillside in a small canyon and is completely invisible until you are a few yards away. The first thing you see when you enter the cave are hundreds of 20ft stalagtites that hang down from the ceiling of the cave. It is a breathtaking sight and you have to take a few minutes just to marvel at the crazy formations that the stalagtites create. One can see Goblins, Dragons, and serpents that seem to be trying to escape from the rock around them. 

During the week days the cave is completely empty and very peaceful. When the weekend comes around several parties of climbers fill the cave with laughter and voices echoing throughout the whole cave. Deeper in the cave and at night, bugs and small critters come out. You can find Scorpions and thousands of different kinds of bugs all over the cave floor. At the deepest part of the cave there is a small tunnel where you can crawl even deeper into the mountain. We heard rumors of it going back several kilometers and there are several large caverns inside. Chonta is a once in a life time place to visit. The climbing is unique to each side of the cave. Massive stalagtites start on the overhanging left side and continue to the horizontal ceilings of the center. The right side holds long 45 meter endurance routes on pinches, crimps, slopers, and smaller stalagtites. Overall the cave is one of the best sport climbing crags I have been to! 

Attached below is the result of the work of my friend’s filming and editing my send of Chonta’s hardest established line. Forty five minutes after sending the route I was able to send a 45m endurance 13d on the right side of the cave. One of my strongest days climbing! Anyway enjoy the video!

http://vimeo.com/67599770

Horse Pens 40

By: Urs Moosmuller

After my two months in the Red River Gorge I could feel my power waining and knew it was time to hit the boulders. After packing up all my gear we headed up to Horse Pens 40 to check out the infamous sloper problems. The climbing is extremely technical and it takes some time getting used to the open hand slopers and tricky top outs. We spent about two weeks bouldering there and put together a video of some of the classic problems in the area. In HP 40 the climbing isn't about the grades. It is one of the few areas where you have to start with the easiest problems and work your way up learning the subtleties of the rock. During this process you learn how to move your body up holds that seem to be impossible to hold onto. But the perfect combination of strength, technique, and power will lead to success.

Sacred Geometry 5.13c - Second Ascent

Here is a short video of my ascent of Sacred Geometry in the Red River Gorge. The video was shot on an iphone without a tripod so its a little shaky.

http://vimeo.com/53984663

Bishop Trip 2-1 By Lucas Larson

Over the weekend I was able to take my first trip to Bishop this season. New season means new climbs and new struggles along the way. I got to take my girlfriend, Cat Carpenter down there for her first time climbing down there. She grew up in Mammoth and has been to Bishop before but not for climbing. I have a lot of goals this year on what I want to send and try my hardest at. Since it was only the first trip of the season and many more to come soon, I knew this  trip wasn't going to be a big send trip. The first trip never usually is anyways. Driving down 395, looking out the window into the cold, crisp clean air and realizing that I am home yet again. I look at Bishop more of my home than I do any where else. We drove down after I got off work Friday night and met Dustin down there.

Waking up after listening it lightly rain outside the tent, we woke up in a circle of clouds hugging the mountains around the little town. We headed toward the Happy Boulders to do some nice climbs and show the girl why is it  we climbers come here. After warming up and having to head to the rim due to Panda Bear (Dustin's dog) being a b*tch, we decided to head over to Cholos. (v9) I have never done it before and I have never really looked at the climb at all, just pictures of Dustin climbing it. After laying down the pads and trying to figure out where I needed to go, I started the climb and made it pretty far for never being on it. Realizing that I was pretty damn close just made me more determinded to climb the sucker. After figureing out some moves and linking the moves together on the try before my send made me realize that I am going to send it this next try. Watching Dustin almost send it again made me feel inspired and gave it my all on the next try.

Lucas Larson zoning in on the pocket

Lucas Larson starting Cholos v9

Lucas Larson sending Cholos v9 in Bishop California 

 After sending Cholos, we decided to go and check out He Got Game. I was so stoked from sending Cholos that I was down for anything. Cholos is a stout climb and many who have done it will agree. I was just excited that I did it in a day and on my first day in Bishop of the first trip of the season. We were looking at He Got Game and realized that our skin hurt just a little too much, we headed back to the cars and went to do our own thing. Dustin went into town and Cat and I went to go see my family that was down there as well. We hung out and chatted for a bit and left to go back to camp. Waking up the next morning and having a rough morning, we headed for the Buttermilks to try The Transporter Room. Getting up there on a rope and freaking out a bit trying to figure out the sequence, we left to head home after a long weekend. We shall be back soon and I will be crushing it out there and sending hard this season. I hope to see you all down there as well. Keep crushing!

Lucas Larson checking out The Transport Room

Ultra Perm 5.13d - Video

By: Urs Moosmuller

Here is a video of my ascent of Ultra Perm 5.13d in the Red River Gorge. While trying it I met a few climbers who were visiting from Germany and I was lucky enough to get a short video of the send. The quality isn't all that great, but it was shot off a hand held phone and at the spur of the moment. Also to the lighting was horrible due to the overcast rainy weather that we have been experiencing here. Thank you Peter Hirschkorn for shooting the video and editing it together!

The video has been banned in the United States so you have to go through a proxy through the UK. Here is the link with the aproxy.

http://www.finchroute.co.uk/browse.php?u=xKUNZ%2FqahpBgaDcGtKzjH613ch9bPUMYoeCxl15Z41xJvLSZ0ieED1Fmbxlt9rKpwyAA2aKmEqLGJ%2Ff54CEQ&b=5&f=norefer

If that doesn't work go to http://www.finchroute.co.uk/index.php   and copy https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0o0BRDjWdRk into the search box and click enter. It should direct you to the viewable video.

The Red River Gorge

By: Urs Moosmuller

For the past month I have been hanging out in the Red River Gorge in central Kentucky.  The climbing here is unbelievable and the concentration of steep high quality 5.13’s and 5.14’s is mind blowing. I arrived in the Red with my whole focus on building up a strong base in 13+’s and to work on getting stronger on steep climbing. My first two days I felt extremely strong and was able to do: The Legend 5.13b, White Man’s Overbite 5.13c, and Bohica 5.13b. This was the first time I did a 13c and a 13b in the same day! My psyche was really high and the next few days I started to check out Last of the Bohicans 13d, Kaleidoscope 5.13c, Ultra Perm 5.13d, The Nothing 5.14a, and Gods Own Stone 5.14a. After getting on all of those routes I was really psyched on Ultra Perm and I focused on getting in shape to do the route. After several set backs from over fatigued muscles, injuring my knee, and catching a nasty cold I finally sent on my 9th try with out being tired or pumped. I lowered off feeling as if nothing happened and my psyche for sending was minute. I was happy for doing the route, but it just wasn’t motivating me at all to jump into another project. So I turned my focuses on trad climbing. I started out focusing on some of the classic trad routes like Jungle Beat 5.9, Rock Wars 5.10a, The Quest 5.10c, Inhibitor 5.11a, Next Day Air 5.11b, B3 5.11b, and Mental health 5.11b. After onsighting all of them (offwidths, hand cracks, finger cracks, and thin dihedrals) I started looking for something hard. My friend John briefly mentioned to me an unrepeated 5.13c trad line on Long Wall during my 5 day sick period and I didn’t think much of it. After finishing off Ultra Perm, I questioned John more about the line and the next day he took me up to try the beast. After doing a cool approach pitch at 5.8, you reach a very comfy ledge to hang out on and gaze up at the intimidating seam that starts on a sharp arete then punches out a headwall where the crack opens up to provide just enough holds to make it through. I warmed up on the 5.11 dihedral next to it and lowered off stopping to chalk up the holds and get an idea of what I was getting into. I lowered off and started up it on top rope. I pulled through the lower 5.12 climbing and started into the crux sequence and surprised myself by flashing it. Lowering off I was super psyched to give it a burn, but I didn’t have small enough TCU’s. I bought them that night and took a rest day. I came back two days later to attempt it ground up on lead. My first burn was really nerve wracking and I over gripped every hold and fell off the last move of the crux onto a bomber nut and took a clean fall. Relieved that none of my pieces blew out of the wall I waited for about an hour then came back to go for the send burn. Starting up I already knew I was going to send. I hit the crux and cruised it to the top. My friend Alex shot a video of the send and I will be posting it soon! I now have a month left here and I am planning on putting the rest of my time into trying to do Southern Smoke. Based off of my progress on Ultra Perm, I am confidant I can do it before I leave and I'm psyched to really put all my effort into a grade that I thought would never be possible for me.

Photos by Ben Kunz and Lindsey Kunz.

No Redemption 5.13b 

My friend Ryan crushing Toker 11a. 

Proper Soul 5.14a

By: Urs Moosmuller

The first time I heard about Proper Soul was about a year ago while living in Reno, Nevada. I was bored surfing mountainproject and found a video of Chris Sharma onsighting this amazing overhanging endurance test piece. At the time I was no where near sending 5.14 so I dismissed it as a route that I would love to do, but had no expectations of doing. It wasn’t until I was in Maryland and getting together goals for the trip that I found that same video again. This time in the hopes that I could pull off a send of the route. I started studying the beta that Sharma used and in the process I found another video of Brent Perkins climbing the route on gear. This gave me an even more extensive look at the route and I immediately marked it as my main goal for the trip. Heading to the New I was anxious to immediately get on it, but from past experiences I knew to try some of the easier classics first and get used to the rock before throwing myself at one of the hardest routes in the New. For the first few days I focused on two 13c’s: The Travisty and Leap of Faith. The Travisty is marked in the guidebook as one of the must dos for technicians. With my previous attempt on the route I was getting shut down at the first crux. This time I came back with a siege attitude. I quickly got through the crux within a few tries only to get stopped at the next crux. I had worked out the moves previously, but didn’t think I would have any problems with it. I was wrong. My second day on the route I kept falling on the second crux over and over again but doing the move in the next try. Frustration built and finally on the first try of the third day I stuck everything perfectly and sent the route with ease. Its funny how some routes will spit you off over and over again, but then suddenly it all clicks and you send the route as if it was one of your warm-ups. The next 13c I had never heard of, but after the Travisty it was the next closest 13c. Leap of Faith as it is named is quite literally a leap from a boulder 6ft up to a flat hold for the start. This was quite exciting! After the leap the route follows perfect pockets and crimps up a beautiful slightly overhanging white wall. The crux hits you low with a super tesiony v8/9 move on tiny crimps to some sick buckets before the final roof. A crazy sequence gets you established into the underside of the roof and forces you to palm up against the roof to stay on. A final hard pull over leads to the anchors. All the moves went extremely fast and on my second go I fired the crux and fell on the last move before the anchors. This was the fastest I had ever come to completing a 13c and I ended up sending two tries later. With this previous send I felt pretty confident that I was ready for the big goal. The next day we headed over to check out the Cirque for the first time. After hiking for ten minutes through a dense forest you emerge at the top of The Cirque and are immediately stunned by the view of the whole New River Gorge. One of the most beautiful sights I have seen, was on a rainy day where we watched the clouds build underneath us. You then descend several ladders to the base of the cliff and hike around the corner and see the whole cirque in all its glory. The whole crag stretches for several hundred yards and is a hundred feet tall with a consistent overhang the whole way. Proper Soul tackles the steepest and longest natural line on the whole wall and is in my opinion the most visually stunning. The route can be summed up in the next few lines. The route starts out with slopey jugs with giant spiders to the base of a dihedral crack. Make a long lock off to a flat crimp to begin the first crux. A hard sequence entering the dihedral leads to a quick shake and the second crux exiting the dihedral. Hard moves lead to an all out dyno over a bulge. Mantle up on top the bulge and rest in a really awkward place on slopey holds. Then get ready for the third crux. A really hard traverse on tiny crimps using a mandatory head height heel hook with the last bolt 6ft below you. If you blow the crux traverse, you end up taking a 30ft fall into space. Finally you reach a jug where you can clip. Then 20 ft of juggy climbing leads to the final crux on the headwall. A powerful v5 move on micro crimps leads to the chains. My first few tries on the route I knew this was the exact route I was looking for. My progress on the route started out slowly and then I started making bigger and bigger leaps. My first few attempts I was falling halfway through the dihedral. Then I pushed myself through the dihedral and for four more tries I was falling at the end of the second crux traverse. One of the bolts was missing midway through the traverse so every time I would fall, I would dangle by my arms until I couldn't hang on and take the 30ft fall into space. Finally I pulled through the traverse and ended up falling on the soaking wet crux bulge. This was a huge break through, but for the next few days the weather forecast consisted of all rain. After waiting through the bad weather and hoping it will clear up just for one day, it finally did. On my 14th burn I sent on the first try of the day just barely pulling off the final crux bulge. Lowering off I felt extremely happy and glad that I put the time and effort to send the route. We have a few more days in the New before heading to the Red and I think I will try another 14a called Lord Voldemort or focus on some of the 5.13 classics.