Today the skies were clear in Bishop and everything was great except for my skin.
After a warm up with Will I had a go on the Mandala sit start. I did all the moves quickly but I did not commit to grabbing the positive start hold of the Mandala Stand. I think if my fingers were not so bruised I could latch the hold without to much trouble. Even if I did latch the hold today I dont think I could hold the little crimps high up on the Mandala cause my skin is so thin.
As a lot of people know now you can do the Mandala with a few different methods. For the sit start you can now do a big slap out to the start holds on the Mandala Stand, I found the span (the new method) to big a reach for me, so im going to have to stick with the original FA method.
Once I was finished with the Mandala Sit Start. I walked down to the Butter Milker. Now I know I said I would not try this problem until my shoulder was stronger. My plan was not to do the problem today but just to hold some of the positions to help strentghen my shoulder. I pulled onto the first moves and although my skin was screaming like mad I managed to do the hard slap out the roof and my shoulder did not hurt. I thought I would not push it and stepped off. I then pulled onto the next move and did that and still my shoulder did not hurt. I then did the rest of the moves all the way to the top of the problem. Im going to have a few rest days to grow some much needed skin on my fingers. Im not holding my breath but I think there is a chance I can get some harder problems done on this trip.

On another note.
I have now spent a bit of time in bishop and am starting to get an idea of how strong I am.
When I landed in the USA I went to the climbing gym and I felt fairly strong,
but when I arrived in bishop I fast realized that I was not as strong as I first thought. I know im not weak but im nowhere near strong as I was when I hurt my shoulder.
After climbing again here in Bishop I am getting a feeling for how hard stuff should feel and how hard things should be graded.
Im not one to really get into the grading debate, but lately I have had to do allot of upgrading and down grading as I have just finished writing the Grampians Bouldering Guide in Australia.
At first I was not going to comment on this subject because there are allot of haters in this world, but I have decided to simply give my thoughts on some of the problems I have done recently here in Bishop.
First thing is the Mandala. The Mandala is graded V12 and there are a few different ways you can now climb it but I believe that the two methods are of the same difficulty and I believe that the Mandala is a little soggy for V12. Its not far off the mark but I believe its a hard V11 or an entry level V12. Now for The Mystery V12. I almost flashed this problem and today I did it for a warm up. Also today I tried The Buttermilker V12 and it felt really really hard compered to The Mystery, like I mean a completely different level. The Mystery is also a lot easier than the Mandala so im thinking The Mystery should be V11 or maybe even hard V10.
Im yet to do some other problems but so far things just dont add up. This also goes for Heuco Tanks. There were things there that are really soft for the grade. I did not originally want to down grade things unless super necessary but I feel I have now done enough hard problems to say what I think.
In Hueco for example, take Diaphonaus Sea V12. I think this problem could probally be graded V11. Another problem is Diaboliuqe V13, I think this should be graded V12. I did Diaboliuqe 2nd shot and I did Slashface 3rd shot, but I had to try allot harder on Slashface than on Diaboliuqe.
This then takes me to another Question.
www.8a.nu and the famous Score Cards.
The problem here is that a lot of famous climbers don't want to down grade problems for a number of reasons. A couple of examples are some people want to be ranked as high as possible and the only way to be ranked higher is to have harder problems on your scorecard. Another reason is sponsors. The bigger the grades people are climbing the more publicity they get and the happier their sponsors are.
There are many reasons why people dont want to down grade and for me in the past it has been because I did not want to get caught up in the grading debate and I did not feel I should really down grade things as I did not feel I had done enough hard problems around the world. I have made comments but when it came to 8a.nu I just put the problems down for what the majority thought but the problem with majority, is a lot of people want the high grades because of the reasons like the ones mentioned above regarding ranking and sponsors etc.
I now feel I have done enough hard problems around the world to comment on this subject. I do not wish to take anything away from any one who has worked hard on a particular problem, I am simply going to give my thoughts based on how hard things feel for me in comparison to other problems I have done/tried.
In the future I will be putting problems on my 8a.nu scorecard for the grade I believe they should be.

Last night I caught up with Bjorn Pohl from the Low Down for a chat.

Check out: http://bjornpohl.blogspot.com/

Yesterday we went to the Buttermilk's. The plan was to do some easy warm ups and then head over to the Buttermilker V13 to see how my shoulder would fair.
I warmed up on some juggy holds on the Direction boulder and thought I might have a crack at Center Direct V10 after a few attempts of trying to figure out how to climb the problem I managed to send it packing not a bad start to the day.
Will my mate was trying Center Direct and was looking good so I hope he can do it soon as well.
After a little while of sitting in the sun I decided to to try The Mystery V11/12. I pulled on from the first hold ready to give the flash burn a good go. As I climbed the problem to my surprise it felt easy, I found myself at the last move but punted big time and blew the flash with my hand on the final jug hold “Grrrrrrr”. I was not a happy chappy. I had a five minute rest and did The Mystery next go.
Next I walked over to the Buttermilker. I did not do so well as my shoulder hurt allot on this problem. I made the wise but hard decision to walk away. Ill be back to try the Buttermilker again but I think ill wait a couple of weeks to give my shoulder time to get stronger.

Today Me and Will had an epic of a time. We decided to walk up to Maze Of Death in the snow “bad idea” We got so wet and cold and when we finally reached the problem it to was wet. The snow on top of the boulder was melting and soaking the problem. We sat up there next to Maze Of Death for a while, enjoyed the view and then started the journey back down to the car. When we got back to the car I could not feel my toes and my legs were blue from the cold snow. We jumped in the car and being as we were wet cold and had no dry shoes we decided to drive back home and call it a rest day. Probally not the worst thing as my finger tips are on the verge of some nasty holes.

Tomorrow we are heading to the Buttermilks for some more bouldery goodness so I hope our day will be more productive.

photo; Me in the Back of Will's truck drying out my feet.

Fresh new shoes from Five Ten mmmmmmmmmm sexy

It was my second day back climbing today. The Happy Boulders was the place I was going to donate some skin to. I did not really warm up as I was not keen to have a big day because my skin is soft as a babys bum.
I did a few chin-ups and then got to it. I ended up having a fairly good day With a flash of Acid Wash V10 and a Flash of Acid Wash Right V9. I then went around the corner and almost Flashed Slow Dance V10 but I felt my skin ripping so I stepped off, I managed to do it 2nd shot so thats cool. I thought I should maybe call it a day but being as im resting tomorrow I thought I should do a little bit more in the name of training. I walked over to Redrum V10 and fell on the last move for the Flash but managed to send it soon after.
I think im starting to get stronger again. Im not going to try anything really hard untill my body feels ready but I think ill be ready soon :)
My skin is now really shaged so im going to rest a day or two and then ill be back on the rock. Happy times :)