Powerband

Ω Ever made the first ascent of a V9?  Ever written a story about it afterwards, talking about yourself in the third person?  Me neither.  What about writing a comment about yourself on Powerband, using the third person to pretend that it’s not you, and then accidentally using ‘I’ halfway through?  Didn’t think so.

Anyway, today John Palmer climbed a new V9 at the Rak.  Located on the large roof at the Back Blocks (about 5-10 mins along the coast from the Bronx), this steep burly climb has been a project since 2005.  Although that statement is true, it is also totally misleading because nobody has tried it since 2005 (when John, David Kopp and Chris Sanderson first spied and cleaned the line).  The problem involves a crux opening throw from two low underclings to a reasonably friendly sloper.  After that, a good sequence and good body tension will net you quality tick.  Or if you want extra for experts, you can climb left from the third move - which adds 6 or 7 horizontal, gymnastic moves that are quite tricky but probably not quite tricky enought to add that magic ‘double digit’.  I actually climbed that line too today, but Zac Keegan (who just happened to be eating lunch nearby) called a ‘dab’ so the ascent could not be claimed.  Next time.

Early, John and Zac added half a dozen new problems to some other boulders in the Back Blocks area.  The hardest of these, Scratch V6, was total shit.  The others were better.  Except one, which wasn’t it.  Confused? I am.  Sparkles, help.

Zac also repeated Undertoe (or is it Undertow?), which he thought might be more like V6 than V5.  Kristen Foley also repeated Undertoe, but that was on Thursday.

The moral in all of this is: if you pad what is essentially a one sentence news report by taking the piss out of your mates and using lots of bad in-jokes, you can produce enough text to make it seem like things are really happening in Wellington bouldering Ω