Fun Size

It's been a good winter.  On top of whatever climbing I can manage on weekends, I've been consistently getting hour and a half long sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays before I pick up the girl from daycare.  Still not a ton, but way more than I was getting in last year at this time.  Mostly it's been Tension Board sessions, with quick trips to Northwest Branch when things are dry enough.

As the weather got cold, I had intended to make Ultimate Doom at Northwest Branch my winter project.  It wasn't something I wanted to spend long days working on, but figured if I spent some time working it on each of my short weekday sessions, eventually I'd piece it all together.  After my third session, I got a message about a variation on the Anklebiter boulder that looked interesting, and figured it would be a nice diversion for a couple days.  Seven sessions and almost two months later, I finally managed to finish it, in the end using a totally different sequence than when I first started working it.

Fun Size, a slightly less awkward name than Anklebiter Far Left High Start No Pedestal or something like that, is a variation of Anklebiter Far Left.  It starts on the good sloping rail a move into the regular problem, and follows the same path left around the corner, but without using the big pedestal below for feet.  While it's technically still an eliminate, it definitely doesn't feel like one.  In fact, the movement is intricate, sustained, and enough fun that I'll gladly keep getting on it for a long time to come.

While the sequence I used in the above video is almost the easiest way I found of getting through the climb, it's also possible when going around the corner to rock up on a heel and reach high for a right jug next to the tree rather than using the small crimp below.  This makes the move to the last left crimp a lot easier, though it does force an almost full-circle right hand movement to get around the tree and onto the horn on the arete.  For grading purposes, I'd probably base any number I gave on the easier moves using the jug, but personally I find the moves through the crimp to be much more satisfying.

I've started working on an update to my old NWB mini-guide, so if you get on this one and have any grading thoughts, let me know what you think.