Wednesday, October 19, 2011

McKenzie Pond and some WET sending...

Yesterday, Tuesday October 18, 2011 I had to do some field work in Tupper Lake, NY for one of the resort projects that my company has been working on.  I was really psyched because I knew that this put me only 25 minutes away from the McKenzie Pond Boulders...an area I typically only see once a year on Memorial Day Weekend.

For the past week I had my sights set on one boulder problem in particular, "Stanfields"; a crimpy V9 that had eluded me for the past few years.  As the day approached, I was becoming more and more anxious to try the climb again.  Yesterday morning I left my house at 5:00 am to get an early start to the day so I could finish all of the my field work and still salvage some daylight to do some McKenzie Pond bouldering.  The weather forecast looked prime and I was hoping to capitalize...

And then it rained, or should I say poured!  For a solid hour on my 2 1/2 hr commute north towards Tupper Lake it rained non stop.  My psych was slowly diminishing...I mean more rain, really?  Come on man!  I finished all of my field work in a timely manner and decided that being as close as I was to the boulders, I may as well swing thru to have a look and maybe look around to scout some new lines.

I did in fact find an additional 15-20 house sized boulders in the forest past Flux Capacitor on state land...which is really exciting.  And somehow I did do some boulder problems...one in particular being the one I had my sights set on!  I'm not really sure how I pulled it off, the tops of all of the boulders were dangerously wet, covered in moss, and coated in pine needles.  I even had to use the tree on the top of Slobodon to avoid a fall.  Even with the use of the tree, the climb was not over, you can see my hesitiation in the video below...

Media Update:  WET SENDING>

8 comments:

  1. Is Stanfields pretty close to the road? At 2:37 I saw a white blur at the bottom right corner.

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  2. Stanfields in on the first boulder...right off of the road.

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  3. I am really psyched on the additional boulder sets that I saw in the forest around McKenzie Pond! Also, noticed some large glacial erratics near the Second Pond canoe launch, right off the side of Route 86...20-30 feet tall with holds and features>>destiny? I will know more after this weekend.

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  4. Hey Jut, that massive boulder you found beyond set 3... did it have a ladder leaning up against one side of it? Zac did a little bushwacking back there recently and reported the same stuff (massive boulders and a lot of potential).

    GREAT send on Stanfields -- you made it look easy, even in the wet conditions. Well done!

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  5. Andrew...I actually borrowed that ladder for a bit to help me dry some things as best as I could! That one boulder had 4-5 really good looking lines on it. There are also a handful of other boudlers right next to it that had good potential. I am led to believe that there are MANY more in the immediate area.

    Thanks for the Stanfields shout out...I can't wait to try it again when it is dry, I was fighting so hard to not slip off of that topout. Thankfully the arete was dry for my hands, but man I think my heel hook and toe hooks on the arete slipped off 6-7 times before it finally stuck...epic!

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  6. My two cents:

    1. The tree is definately off on the first climb

    2. You know that Buzz did the topout to the second climb differently, so I'd have to call it a not legit send

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  7. DESTINY KID IS LEGIT!!!

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  8. "2. You know that Buzz did the topout to the second climb differently, so I'd have to call it a not legit send."

    ...straight from the official rulebook of upstate bouldering!

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