March Sun and Cleaning

Friday we got an early start off to the Cascade Boulders. The plan was to clean as much as we could and then do some sending when the cleaning was done. We were off to a new sector of the boulders to do the cleaning and then back to the Surge Protector boulder at the end of the day. The first stop was the Hidden Valley sector. There was a group of 3 blocks with 9 problems waiting under the moss.

14' High 9 problems VB to VHard

The arete on the far right look rely good as well as the face full of mono pockets. After about 2 hours work we moved on to the next boulder to clean witch has one nice 12' high arete. It is on incredible rock and only took 15 minutes to clean. When it is dry it will be a nice line. Just to the east of this boulder was one more boulder with 5 problems on it so we gave it a quick cleaning. At this point we took a break for lunch and headed out to the East side scree boulders to see what we could clean. I cleaned a roof and my friend cleaned a tall arete. 

Fox Hole V4 FA

Fox hole starts upside down for 2 moves before finishing on a vertical face.

Fox Hole V4 FA

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Fox Hole V4 FA

 The arete was nice with 3 problems on it. On the right face I did Solar Flare V2.

Solar Flare V2 FA

Solar Flare V2 FA

Solar Flare V2 FA

I also did the arete witch had some nice balance moves thrown in there.

Solar Arete V1

Next we cleaned a rather large block about 18' high and I sent 1 of 3 potential lines. The name of the game is a balance start with jugs on steep rock to finish.

K9 V1

After some lunch I scrambled down to a 10' slab that I had found to see if the sun had dried it off. To my surprise it was ready to go. It all starts with a short overhang and the trick is to get your foot onto the slab so you can finish.

Slope on a Rope V3

Tired of cleaning new boulders for a while I though I would hit the boulder I cleaned last week and see if it was dry and ready for some sending. The rain had finished the cleaning job for me and it was ready to go. It turned out to have 3 nice problems with one that I will have to come back for.

Well next time out will be a climbing only trip. There are lots of clean boulders now to send. I hope it dries out by next weekend.