This Never Gets Old

Nick does the splits on Abo.

Sometimes I feel like I could climb at the same crag on the same routes for the rest of my life and it would never get old; it would never cease to become challenging; and best of all the illumination behind the intricacy and beauty of moving up and over rock would never dim.
Yesterday was a great example of this. My very good friend Nick had finally returned from completing his first year pursuing his BSN at Howard University in our nations capitol. Thrilled that he was finally back I called him up and the usual trip to Little si was underway. Another good friend of mine Greg decided to join us as well, seeing as how he had not climbed on ropes in quite some time(15 plus years?) he was a little anxious as to what laid ahead but excited as well and I knew we were in for a treat. We hit the Little si trail around noon:thirty and greeted by the usual gobs of hikers('look, people who walk for fun!') we finally made it to World Wall where a few groups were already making use of the heavily featured soaring gray/white/black walls. A few celebs. were there. Bryan Burdo was making the rounds, always good to chat it up with him, and a few young up and comers, Bret Johnston and Alex Fritz were destroying some quality routes.
As a side note it was finally good to meet Bret, he is an awesome dude who crushes and it was fun to talk to him about the 'draw incident' and root each other on, me on my repeats and him on his mini proj. Black Ice, which he subsequently sent that day. Also, Alex flashed Techno, sheesh!! Seeing these young guys crush routes that I can only dream about sending in the distant future kinda makes me feel like Boone Speed in King Lines, "Well, I had a good run, now it's time to go get a job".
Nick and I both did a warm up lap on Rainy Day, then set up some good 5.9 top ropes for Greg to get back into the groove of things on. He flashed both Reptiles on Tr and the 5.9 just right of Son of Jesus, I forget the name. Plus we went over some belaying techniques and anchoring in and threading the rope through the chains kinda stuff. Greg was really enthusiastic about learning how to belay and getting out more to the crag and up on the sharp end of things. NICE!



Greg just hangin' out.

Nick gave a quick burn on Techno letting it all hang out after a few whippers. I managed to get past the first crux but totally fucked up my feet at the barn door part and just gave up. It was still good to get back on that thing after so long, this is the kind of route I need to start doing regularly. Next we got on Psycho, I fell in the usual place but finished it up with a hang and checked out Flatliner which is amazing!! The rock quality past the first chains on this wall is spectacular and I'm really psyched on this particular line. I got the run down from Bret about the crux, turns out it's at the end and its supposedly a heinous V.7, yikes!!
Nick gave it a shot as well falling just before the third clip. We moved over one more and Nick decided to go for Bust the Rhythm. Now, it has been a long time since he has climbed here, let alone even climbed on a rope, so I had to give it to him for the effort, always something I get psyched on. But, he will definitely send this rig soon, a few more trips. Greg decided he wanted to step up his game and get on something harder than 5.9 so we walked up the pee corner to the left side of WW1. I took a quick peek in someones guide book so we could find out where the .10c up there was, I remember this line being quality. I placed the draws and while doing so fell in LOVE. This is hands down my new all time favorite route anywhere!!!! A short steep section at the beginning involving two crimps and a lock off to a flat jug rail leads you into a highly textured and featured black slab, and then to more jugs at the top for the finish, I had a blast doing this route again and now I think I'm going to do it every time I come to Little si. Greg almost managed the flash on TR but he didn't give up and got to the chains, YES!! His effort was very inspiring and we were all psyched.


Greg reaches through the crux on BLM-5(5.10c)


More Greg action.


Greg nears the chains.


Nick gave it a burn as well and then we headed back down to do another lap on Psycho. I got it again with one hang, but with much better form this time and I feel like I can link through the crux now with confidence. I gave the extension another go over and it looks good but I didn't manage to get much farther than the go before and took a fun whipper, it's a sick line and I love the fact that you are doing boulder problems 100 feet up. Nick gave a go as well and then we wrapped it up on Bust tha' Move. This time I managed the crux with a bit more style than last time. We were all grinning, groaning, and due to an unnatural amount of Fiber One bars, farting. It was about 9:30 when we headed back down the trail to the parking lot.



Me on Psychosomatic(5.12d)



Finally hitting that jug rail, feels soooo nice.



Nick at the chains of Psychowussy.


Nick in the middle of Psychosomatic.


It's these kinds of trips that make me really psyched for future out of my league projects, long days at Little si, and just hanging out with good people. The energy all day was positive and playful and I can't stop thinking about getting back to Little si. I'll be in Seattle this Wednesday through Sunday so if anyone reading this is in Seattle and wants to get out five days in a row to Little si drop me a line. I've got one more day of class(psyched), and then it will be a week until I hit the road for my Colorado trip. I have no idea what awaits me out there but I'm open and absolutely looking forward to getting back to my old stomping grounds, where it all started, and hopefully getting some bouldering done.


Please do not feed these to Nicholas Mathis, PLEASE!!!