Weekly Choss III

3: 3/18-3/24

Well, heres to the end of another week here in choss town. Currently Ryan and I reside in the Cricket Manor watching the Eiger Sanction and shwilling some cheap beverages. If you don't know the Eiger Sanction is a film featuring Clint Eastwood climbing, killing, and sweet talking "ethnics". Basically, it doesn't get much better. 

With the weather lately there wasn't a whole lot of sending going on, but there were a few prime problems that went down. 

Steve had a great week putting away Pressure Drop V10, the sloper test piece Twisted Stihl V7, and a incredible overlooked problem on one of the most climbed on boulders at the Res. Just to right of Spack Attack, this nameless gem is unlikely looking and easy to miss....until it has chalk on it. It revolves around hard moves on very bad slopers, but the movement is great. Steve dispatched it quickly saying it felt somewhere around a V9. I can attest, Scott and i both flailed on it with no luck. 

Ryan and I didn't get a whole lot of climbing in this week, but I did send the Shangri La project. This block is one of the most aesthetic climbs around, on some of the best rock around. After three hefty sessions it feels like one of the hardest problems i've done. Steep, crimpy, slopey and tensiony. No idea about a grade for it, there will be a consensus once it see's more sends.

Ryan was on his usual rampage of scouring, and cleaning this week. His finger is finally starting to feel better also, which is good news for the hidden gems of our new homestead. Its shaping up to be a great spring.

Clint is now on his third women, climbing towers in the desert, and a creep with a dog named "faggot" is trying to kill him. Its begging for my attention. 

I'll leave you with a nice video of the Shangri La project going down. Mostly just me flexing with my shirt off. 

Until next week! send hard! Drink beers! hope for good weather!

-Andy

Weekly Choss II

2: 3/11 - 3/17

I'm pretty tired so this one's going to be short.  In last week's choss I forgot to mention that my friend Steve from up at UVM has recently moved down to Ashley Falls, MA.  Lately he's been crushing The Res.  Last week alone he flashed Trainspotting V6 and sent Dog Brains SDS V8, The Echo V9, and Fotowa SDS V11 along with a bunch of other stuff.

Alex has been out at Joshua Tree for a while now.  He might still be there.  Dawson and Kyle just got back from Rocktown and I don't know what happened.  Probably some fucked up shit.

Andy and I have been settling in (covering our place with beer cans and peanut shells) while working on developing a "new" area in the Litchfield Hills.  When I say new I don't mean to imply that climbers haven't been here.  They definitely have, as the short cliff band nearby has been climbed.  Though, the boulders seemed to be overlooked.  Until now.

About 15 problems/variations/projects have been cleaned and/or sent this week.  All in all I speculate there being anywhere from 50-100 problems once the bones are picked.  Pretty good for the solid access, short hike, and close proximity to home.  Highlights for this week were Andy's The Iron Sheik V5 on the Roadside Boulder and Ryan's Shady Grove V3 and Drainpipe SDS V3.  Lund is also close to sending the Shangri La Project.  Looks like we'll be pretty busy with this area and another one close by.  As development continues I'll be creating a primitive topo that might become available later on.

In this week's photo section the first two are from the area mentioned above.  Photos 3-5 are from The Res (Steve didn't send Filter, but he's real close).  Enjoy.

-Ryan

Weekly Choss I

1: Before - Now (3/10/13)

After wrestling the computer with a buzz on for what has seemed to be hours I finally figured out how to set up a gallery of images as thumbnails so that you, the viewer, may click at your fancy and have them magically enlarge, scroll, etc.

Anyway..this is the first installment of a new department we're calling "Weekly Choss", kinda keeping up with the choss theme (Notes From The Choss Pile).  Except here, instead of spewing about various subjects, we'll just let you know what's happening in our neck of the woods.  Along the lines of our previous "Weekly Sends" piece, we'll talk about noteworthy sends, FA's, scours, discoveries and the like.  As this is the first one, we'll reflect back to a little more than a week..two weeks.

We've been busy.  Well Andy and I anyway.  Alex, Dawson, and Kyle are only on climbing trips (J-Tree, Bishop, Rocktown..who needs 'em).  Back home us injured bums have been "scouring the hills", not expecting to find anything new though, cause it's all been found.

In the last two weeks the two of us combined have been to a dozen areas within northwestern Connecticut and the southern Berkshires.  All of which have seen some level of development but are still producing new lines, some areas with more potential than others.  The above images are a sample of only two locations.  Both of which have been pretty thoroughly combed over as far as "roped climbing" goes (though I could see a line or two more).  The boulders however are virtually untapped..as far as we can tell.  Psyche is high.  Expect to see numerous updates about the status of work being put in at these spots.

As for the other areas, some of the visits were merely just hikes to reacquaint ourselves with the rock.  Some were first time encounters.  About half a dozen or so of these areas have been somewhat lost to obscurity despite their quality.  They need a good cleaning since they have hardly been touched in six or seven years.  Good thing we're motivated.

1. Get beer.

2. Get brushes.

3. Get to work.

The snow has been brutal on our scour missions.  Post holing up to your nipples is not the funnest thing in the world.  Especially when your leg is plunging into holes formed by mounded boulders, a little dicey to say the least. We're still waiting to wake up a bear with all the poking around we've been doing in caves.  The snow is good for one thing though - wiping your ass in times of drastic measures caused by some shrimp tacos the night before. It's warming up though - the peregrines know what time of year it is, we've already seen a pair at one crag.  Melt.

In other news Andy and I have moved into an apartment in Norfolk, CT - Rock Cricket Manor.  Lets see if we can squeeze out some more rock in the area.  I'm feeling good about it.

-Ryan