Whip Tide (V9)

I established Whip Tide (V9) back on September 10, 2011 when I hosted the first ever outdoor bouldering competition at Nine Corner Lake in Caroga Lake, New York.  Prior to the competition, I had been projecting the boulder problem for a couple of weeks; battling the late summer conditions and the intricacies of the movements which kept shutting me down on the send.

After getting the first ascent on the competition day, I returned the following weekend and was able to repeat Whip Tide (V9) on my first try of the day.  After 2011, the boulder problem sat there unrepeated.  I showed a handful of visiting climbers the line two years ago and they were all in agreement that it was one of the best problems that they tried at Nine Corner Lake.  There opinion meant a lot to me because I too had always thought that it was a very special problem, with nice holds, awesome movements, and difficult climbing overall.  

A couple of weeks ago, I began to rework the movements on Whip Tide (V9).  On each bouldering session on the Wave Boulder, I was able to send Whip Tide, Stand (V7) pretty easily and on my first try each day.  The full link from the sit start was however proving to be a difficult task!  On Friday September 11, 2015 I returned to Nine Corner Lake with my mind set on finally repeating this problem.  The temperatures had finally fallen into the 70's and on this particular day, the humidity was only at 40%.  After a long warm up routine, I made the short hike back to the Wave Boulder and was able to send Whip Tide cleanly from the sit start in only a half hour or so.  All of the holds felt better than they had in previous weeks and the lower sit start moves felt easier than ever.  What a difference good climbing conditions make in this game of bouldering.

I hope you enjoy the video.  Also, if you have done this problem please let me know what you think the difficulty level is.  I have seen numerous people on it but have yet to witness a repeat...even from the stand start.

Happy Climbing!

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