Jill Church Waters, Fight Club

Jill Church Waters, who moved to Bishop last year with her husband and baby daughter, recently climbed Fight Club  (highball v10?) on the Saigon Boulder at the Buttermilks. This problem, first done by Randy Puro around 11 years ago, soon gained a reputation for being near-impossible after a lack of repeats and the break of a small edge used on the first ascent. With the boost of v11 in the guidebook, the line saw more interest, but few if any repeats per season.

With a vague beginning--it was originally done as a jump-start to slopers--Fight Club's start is somewhat indistinct (impossible if you are too short to leap to those holds). But whether you begin with both hands on, or one hand, or none at all, you still have to pull the crux mantel to get onto this undercut boulder. How hard is this mantel? With conditions being critical on the problem and because the rock sits in the sun all day, it normally feels impossible! Under better conditions, it may not be too bad ... Jill suggested that it felt closer to a v9 for her, after checking it off on a super-cold day, but go try it... very few succeed! Make it through that techy mantel and you have the highball slab to negotiate. Getting to the top is quite an adventure. A proud ascent by Jill, for sure!

Jill has been getting after it recently with ascents of Beefy Gecko (v11), and Bubba Gump (v10), to name a couple, but also declared her ascent of Lydia's Mouth (a reachy v3 at Pollen Grains) one of her hardest to date!