Lyn looking at King Air, v10
The first thing most people say when they realize that someone has bouldered the line is: Holy Crap! The word has it that on April 21st, Dean Potter got the FA of a tall & scary line on the LeConte boulder. We were climbing near by and saw the crash pads set up and later found out from Tommy that he had done it that day.
Guessing from the chalk and tick marks, the line starts to the right of Lyn on a shelf and climbs up and left, finishing up pretty much right above Lyn's head (just a little to the left.) He called it King Air and I believe graded it v10, but you can correct me on that.
-Raza
P.S. There are two aid climbs (bolt ladders) that people learn to aid on. This boulder problem is TALLER than both of them!
Raza on Sidewinder [v7]
Junior (aka Scott Chandler) has been actively searching out new boulders and he found a gem over in Curry Village. I though it was more like v8/9 but maybe I'm just old. It's one of those problems where all the holds are facing left and you are doing everything you can do to go right. The footholds are basically the spots of granite that were cleaned off, so trying to use your feet is tricky as well. To top it of there is a hard mantel at the top. Normally you might throw a heel over, but the landing makes that way too scary. I ended up using Junior's beta: a no foot mantle and dyno right hand back to a jug! A crazy finish to a crazy cool problem.
The problem lies in Curry Village 'West'. Park as west a possible and follow these GPS coordinates:
37º 44.183 N, 119º 34.445 W
-Raza
Randy on Heart of Darkness [v9]
This isn't the greatest photo, but it was from the night that the problem went up. At the end of an already fun climbing day we headed down to try a problem that Matt Wilder and Noah Kaufman had cleaned. They were really excited about the climb and it was easy to see why: just enough holds on a gently overhanging wall.
The most amazing part is that it was right off the road down past the 140/120 junction. How was it possible that every boulderer that ever drove down 140 could have missed this obvious gem? After a while of while of figuring out the beta by lantern and headlamps I managed to get the FA with a key slopey backstep.
To find the problem, head down just past the 120/140 junction. Park at the first pull out on the left. Walk back up the road about 100 feet and the problem will be on your left.
-Raza
Lyn Verinsky on Liceberg [v7]
In the warm up area of the Ahwahnee's there are a number of fun problems. You can start on heinous slopers to start the easy dihedral that you can see to the right (that's called Iceberg). Or you can tackle the bulge which is called Liceberg (for Left Iceberg and a pun on the classic traverse in Font called l'iceberg). It's silly but fun.
Finding the problem is easy. It's just to the right of Funky Chicken in the Ahwahnee's.
-Raza
Tommy Caldwell on Downpressor [v10] (wtf?)
Behind the 2x4 boulder in the Ahwahnee's is a steep face with crazy slopers. A number of us have been looking at this line but it was Randy who took the initiative to clean the problem and work the moves. While most of us thought there wasn't much hope, he kept pressing on until we had a late night session in the rain where we (mostly Randy) started to unlock the puzzle. He sent on his first trip back to the problem, after most of the snow had melted away.
Downpressor tackles the right side of the boulder and starts on two flat edges below the lip. It heads up and left to a good edge and through an easy but puckery top-out. Randy swears it's only v10 but until there is a second ascent, I will remain skeptical.
-Raza
On December 3rd, I did the dumbest thing I've done in a long time. I left my climbing bag, with all my shoes, in the parking lot across from Yabo's Roof (also known as Tommy's Roof). After realized this, we raced back the next morning to try to retrieve the bag but it was gone.
I filed a lost & found report with NPS & DNC, but haven't had any luck yet. I'm hoping that somebody knows what happened to my bag and send me an email. Most of my gear and shoes is labeled "RAZA" with a sharpie.
Bag contents:
2 pair Scarpa Vortex, size 41.5 (purple slippers)
1 pair Scarpa Dominators, size 42.5 (orange velcros)
1 pair Scarpa Vision, size 43.5 (red & white lace-ups)
Garmin GPS 12, (all my boulder GPS data is gone!)
Grey Mountain Hardwear rain shell
-Raza
Randy Puro on Motorcade [v9]
On the same boulder as Feet Don't Fail Me Now, is an arete right next to the horse trail. This cool angular problem starts on an obvious edge just below the lip and heads up and right through 3 angled sloper rails, with a sidepull thrown in just for fun. Getting to the middle rail is probably the crux, but don't give up the ship, because the upper rail ain't very good. A couple of serious sloper moves gets you over the lip and an easy & fun slab finishes the problem.
To find this boulder problem, hike from the Happy Isles Nature Center on the Horse trail up the Merced River. Motorcade is facing the trail on the first big boulder on you left.
