Post Finger Injury: Fall 2017 session at Snowy Mountain

  As some of you may be aware, I suffered a pretty nasty finger injury to my right middle finger as the summer was coming to an end.  I partially tore my A2 pulley in my middle finger while bouldering on a hot and humid day in August up at my local stomping grounds; Nine Corner Lake in Caroga Lake, New York.  Looking back at my video footage from that day trying to analyze exactly how the injury happened it quickly became apparent that repetitive "dry firing" off of a right hand closed crimp as I made the last hard move to the lip on Thorazine (V8) was definitely the culprit.  Because I have literally climbed this problem over 100 times in the past, I was becoming frustrated as I continued to fall on the last move so instead of resting properly...I proceeded to keep rapid firing attempts on the problem resulting in my injury.  10 weeks later and still experiencing lingering pain and the inability to crimp with my right hand I strongly believe that I have learned my lesson from this self induced experience.   

  Here is a short video clip from a recent bouldering session at Snowy Mountain in Indian Lake, New York.  I strategically chose this bouldering location because of the abundance of open handed holds and numerous slabs.  Throughout the day I found myself having to alter which holds I used on climbs that I have done repetitively in the past as well as the way that I was accustomed to grabbing the holds.  These slight alterations were to ensure that I did not re-aggravate my injured finger.  All in all the session was a complete success.  I actually surprised myself by repeating some problems that I didn't think I stood a chance on.  The biggest bonus of the day was seeing that a new slab problem had been fully cleaned on the Never Boulder.  It is tall, has technical footwork, and ends with a thrilling move high off of the ground.  I was not able to send the problem during this session (I actually took 6-7 big falls on the hard move high off of the ground).  But, upon returning home I was informed by a close friend Andrew Cieply that his friend Neil Schoppmann had cleaned and got the first ascent of this slab and named it Sexual Nightmares and gave it a tentative V6 rating (video below of the first ascent as caught on an iphone). 

  Fall is moving in quickly...I hope everyone is able to sneak into the woods to enjoy the crisp conditions and send hard!!!

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