Stained Glass, After 300 Tries? Andrew Stevens Sends ... Finally!

"I first tried it in Spring nearly four years ago," says Andrew Stevens of Stained Glass: "I roughly calculated that I fell off the last move about 300 times!"

Andrew is a 47-year-old Bishop climber, RN and emergency department manager at the Northern Inyo Hospital, who has been climbing for about 30 years. A long-time trad climber who has spent many seasons in Yosemite, he is also a keen sport climber and turned to intensive bouldering relatively recently. Stained Glass was his first v10 ascent, and what a beauty! "It's the coolest thing I've ever done in climbing," says Andrew.

"I always felt strong enough," he adds. "For me it was all about the footwork."

Keeping Andrew motivated over nearly four years of effort were all the friends he met at the base of the line. What he's taken away from the experience, he says, more than anything, is the sense of camaraderie gained from days out, with locals and visitors alike constantly encouraging his effort.

Nice one Andrew! Hopefully I'll be able to post a photo or a link to a short video clip soon.

Siemay Lee, Beefy Gecko (v11)

It's great to report that Siemay Lee completed her 10-day project at the Sad Boulders, Beefy Gecko (v11) at the end of last week. She's been trying the problem on and off for a while (on perhaps 10 separate days), and finally put it all together for her first v11 send. Congrats Siemay!

Siemay and leg-warmers on Beefy Gecko. Photo: Michael Pang.

Now, before anyone asks, she correctly avoided the large hold--which is off-limts for this problem--that sits above the constriction where the roof (capping boulder) meets the side boulder. Impressively, Siemay manages to balance work as an internal medicine doctor with her passion for climbing, often traveling with her equally motivated climbing partner and husband (and ER doc) Noah Kaufman.

There's a video on Noah's Blog.

New Line on Get Carter Boulder, by Ryan Held

Ryan Held wrote a bit ago about a right-to-left traverse into Seven Spanish Angels that he completed around mid-January. It starts on a low jug at the far right side of the east-facing wall. This was a project that had been tried a bit in the past by some locals. Ryan has named the line, Each One Teach One and reckons it checks in around v10/v11.

Ryan on Each One Teach One

Chris Webb-Parsons in Bishop

It was great to see Chris Webb-Parson's smiling face in Bishop again. Around this time last year, just before arriving in California, he had been climbing at Hueco (Texas) when he dislocated his shoulder and had to return to his home in Australia to get surgery and recover. A year has gone by and he is back again, not as strong (yet) as he was before, but it seems like he's not wasting time trying to regain his former level.

Chris has succeeded on several problems in the v11 and v12 range here. At the Happy Boulders he did Kill On Sight (v12, the new sit-start on the arete right of Slow Dance) and Bubba Butt Buster (v11). At the Buttermilks, he did The Mystery (v11?) utilizing a better sequence at the end, and later adding the traverse into this, The Oracle (v12/13). He also did a high-start to The Buttermilker (from the underclings) and The Mandala. Hopefully Chris will bounce back to full strength and we'll have more to report soon!

As an aside, it is worth pointing out again, that Chris Sharma's problem The Mandala, as Sharma has mentioned to me himself recently, starts with the left hand on the low crimp, just his other landmark ascent The Buttermilker begins from the sit.

Dan Beall Update

Well, I've been focusing on other things than writing this blog, but quite a lot of action has taken place here in Bishop that I need to catch up on. There have been yet more new lines reported to me and some impressive sends, plus a couple of ascents slipping under the radar that went unreported. In the latter category were Dan Beall's ascents of The Swarm (v14), Direction (v13), The Mandala (v12), and the rarely repeated Fight Club (v11), all of which he added to his impressive tick list here during a spell of visits from just after Thanksgiving to early January. He also climbed the world's hardest v9 (after breakages) in America's Fit Homeless (v9? Has anyone else climbed this lately?).

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.