Carlo Traversi, The Buttermilker (v13)

Congrats to Carlo Traversi for making a rare ascent of The Buttermilker (v13)--the original line that begins at the sit, down and left. It is great to see that, rather than being satisfied with his prior ascent of the shortened version of the line from the underclings, which many people mistakenly list as "The Buttermilker," Carlo put in the extra days of work to check off this historic beauty. As many may know, The Buttermilker was first climbed back in 1999 by Chris Sharma.

For Carlo the spans on The Buttermilker are relatively big, so his ascent took a lot of determination and a very dynamic approach and he describes it as perhaps the hardest piece of rock he's climbed.

Mordecai (v11/12?)

Shawn Diamond has climbed a new line he has named Mordecai on the southeast side of the Drifter Boulder that was first cleaned by Matt Wilder last winter. It is in a kind of wide corridor between the Drifter Boulder and the Cosmonot Boulder lying downslope to its southeast.

Shawn working Mordecai by Damon Corso

This is how Shawn described it: "I named the problem Mordecai after the dwarf in the movie "High Plains Drifter" - keeping in the theme. It will most-likely be overlooked as compared with the most popular lines on the boulder, but it is actually quite a nice "near" highball kinda line - in the likes of the new Bish classic Heroun.

"I started with a very low right hand only a foot or so from the ground and a hueco-esque left hand pitch to make a hard first move to the right hand crimp. From there continue up and left and gain two small crimps to make a large crux deadpoint with the right hand to the very incut and positive rail -- Scary because it seems like you may hit the boulder behind, but I never came close. Exit right on the highly textured slopers/hueco."

Shawn suggests the line will likely clock in around v11 or v12, feeling "long and tiring," with a crux that stands out as a lot harder than the rest of the moves. I know it is definitely highball. As Shawn mentions, the rock behind does feel very close and will probably add to the fear factor on this.