Sunny slopers at Bushwhack

After a two week hiatus I took advantage of our warm January temps to head out to Bushwhack yesterday, meeting up with Brian Spiering for an awesome afternoon on the rocks.  Originally planning to hit the area north of the fire road, which we're jokingly calling the Sacrifice Boulders after the first sketchy visit there, we saw another car that obviously belonged to a climber and decided to head to Bushwhack proper instead.  Reaching the rocks, we found the other climber rope-soloing on the White Face, which officially marked the first time I've seen someone climbing there who I didn't know.  Leaving him to his business, we took a brief walk around before warming up on the slab next to the Stank, Stunk! boulder.

After warming up, I made several unsuccessful attempts to climb Tauntaun Sleeping Bag (check out Brian's video here).  Starting on a left crimp, right sidepull, and imaginary feet, the crux of the problem is the first move to the slopers on the rail, followed by a balancy move into crimps and a fun mantle into the slab topout.  For those unable to stick the first move, I'd definitely recommend at least doing Tauntaun, which starts standing established on the slopers.

                                                            Photo: Brian Spiering

                                                           Photo: Brian Spiering 

                                                           Photo: Brian Spiering

After running up a few more new problems on the right end of the same fin, we went just uphill to a beautiful overhanging boulder in a talus pit, which both of us had looked at on prior visits but hadn't yet gotten a chance to play on.

Working from a crouching start on a left undercling and right sidepull, we gradually unlocked a workable sequence.

                                                           Photo: Brian Spiering 

As we worked, we were treated to the comedic stylings of Todd Hill, who had arrived to continue his ongoing mapping mission.  Just as amusing was the very opposite set of issues that Brian and I were having... his difficulty holding the double heel hooks down low contrasted to my inability to control the huge jugs up high.  Finally after several near sends by both of us, Brian announced that he was going to "thug it up" and completely changed his beta, resulting in a display so hilarious that I forgot to keep the camera moving upward as I filmed him.  Still thinking that feet should be involved, I persisted with the double heels and made a painfully slow topout out after two more attempts.  Always funny to see how differently people can approach the same problem, but this is one of my new Bushwhack favorites for sure.

Thanks to Brian and Todd for such a fun day!