High ball bouldering...... for most of my climbing life this is something that I have steered clear of. To put it simply I have been scared of it and there for just not ever done it. This all changed when I was presented with some tall amazing lines to climb and clean that were on well past the normal height and well into the highball height.
 |
| Pulmonary Edema V1 FA 30ft |
The day I was shown this boulder I was told to bring a rope because of its size and so the first thing that I got on was a mostly clean arete that was mostly clean but had not sean a send yet. This arete turned out to be V5 our 12b and I did the send on a very loos rope because as I mentioned before I was not into highball bouldering. At the same time I was not going to bolt a boulder either so a loose top-rope seamed the best option. Inspired by this line I decided to clean off the next line to the right as seen in the photo above. After about an hour of cleaning hanging on a rope because it was to tall to reach even with my extension poll and because it had a complete blanket of moss on it top to bottom I found my self at the base staring up at the line and thinking about weather I needed that rope our not.
 |
| In mid crux. |
My thought process was as follows; I will just try and climb it up to the nice horizontal hold and then jump back down. Yes that will work. Lets do this! Off coarse the next thing I know I am at the rail and it occurs to me that the hold I had made a point to scope out in what looked like a thin section of climbing up high was right above my head.
 |
| The horizontal hold is in my left hand. |
 |
| Time to get standing up on it. |
This is one of those moments when you can make a choice that can change things in your life. Thinking to my self I have two options; continue on to the top our jump down and tie into a rope for the send. The hold is just up there I think to myself and after that its just a few moves to the top. This spurs me on and up I go.
 |
| Two moves from the flash FA send |
Dropping into a controlled mental state I cruse through the final moves and find my self on top with the flash send and the FA of a 30ft highball. I learned a lot from the climb and have since climbed the problem many times because the quality of the line is incredible.
On the backside of this stone is a different line that was great fun to climb. It is also in the highball range but at 20ft not near as high. The line consists of thin moves on sloper holds to a long reach. Then it continues on nice pockets to the top of the wall.
 |
| Making the opening moves into the sloper. |
 |
| Eyeing the long reach to the pocket. |
 |
| Stretch is the key hear. |
 |
| Pocket in hand and feet going up. |
After climbing some highballs in the deep forest it is amazing what regular problems feel like. Things that I thought were tall just don't feel that way now. I still love pulling hard on the short ones but I have found an appreciation for the tall lines that I never had before.
 |
| The bottom of the V2 with slopers. So good. |
 |
| This is the line to the right of the sloper problem. It goes at V1 and is in the 25ft range with crux moves most of the way. |
Spring is hear and the climbing season is full on so get out there and climb! I know that I have been.
