2023-06-11 · SBP Poplar
This route means a lot to me. I worked on it for weeks, slowly making progress and refining strategies, and it tested my limits on lots of axes: strength, flexibility, technique, endurance, and project perseverance. I was leaving town soon and knew it would be gone when I got back, and I managed to complete it on video just before I left. It was really rewarding to surmount the route's technical challenges and see my progress as a climber.
Holy moly. Been working on this one for weeks. Definitely at least five sessions. Not an easy blue. Two potential starts: you can go left and use the arête or go straight up. For a while I was using the arête because it's locally easier, but I ended up going directly.
Establish using left foot on the bottom hold. Grab quickly to the big hold at middle left. Then establish right foot and flag left foot to get more height pushing up through right foot, grabbing RH to the tiny hold between the volumes. Pull up further and grab RH again to the first pinch. Pull into the wall and grab to the second pinch, still RH. Then two moves: move LH from the big hold to the left pinch, and move LF from dangling to that same hold that LH was on. The foot move will barn-door you, and getting my left toe there is really at the limit of my flexibility. Be ready to stabilize on those pinches. Big RH grab to the paraboloid. Then you can two-hand grab it and just scramble and muscle up. ("Just" as in simple, not easy.)