Well well , the closure heard around the world , WOLVERINE LAND has come to an end (unless your very motivated, & some are !) I thought I would give some kind of explanation to this summer & tell a lil of the happenings up there in this new amazing area ...
It started as most things do , out of boredom ... I returned from a winter in Spain along with Dave Graham & Jon Cardwell ... I think we were all looking for the next best thing ... spirits were low due to the lack of good conditions in Spain ... Dave had developed a finger injury as well Jon had a hurt paw ... I felt OK & was looking forward to a long summer in the park (RMNP). Dave was not ... I couldn't blame him, he had done most of the problems years ago and that same old day to day was not motivating him ... Jamie suggested he look at Google earth and see what he could find ... Jamie pointed him in the direction of Mt. Evans ... Dave on a whim went up by his lonesome ... Upon his return the energy was overwhelming ... It seemed as if he had seen the lord himself !
Chul Lee on the land shark project ...
We were all very syked on this ! The whole krew went up ... There was an electricity to the whole experience ... we didn't even know how to handle this ... It was so vast and new and no one new about it, so we thought ...
We returned to our house , were we all live in harmony within our Boulder community ... We started to look at the all mighty INTERNET for any information about this new blessing !!! and we actually found out quite a bit ... WE , in fact were not the first people to climb on the boulders of Lincoln Lake ... In fact most of the old schoolers from around town (the Great city Boulder) had been there ! In fact my own boss , Chul Lee had been there and put great efforts in ! Will LeMarie , my good friend John Duun , Strong Man Bart, Tait Rees , Eric DeCairea even mother to 3 , Jen LeMaire had been there , and a lot ! WTF ? Boulders STRONGEST Carl Traverse had even been there ... just a few years prior ... wow , we were out of the loop ! Never the less we had seen the light and started going up to Lincoln Lake everyday .
We started to meet people up there , the rangers , the nice people in the tool box , a Nat Geo. photographer with a pet mountain lion named Ruby, the gas station dwellers of Idaho Springs... We discovered its better to wait to get back to Boulder to eat ... Clear Creek Canyon can save you 15 minutes on a good day ! there are usually 4 to 5 Cops to see on your way there or back (we know where they hide) ... all this was the day to day experience just getting up to the boulders ... then you reach the boulders &
a bad storm we were in @ WOLVERINE LAND..
Well shit you are in paradise littered with the thickest egos you have ever felt ... Everyone had an opinion about everything , everything sucked or was easy for them or Dave Graham & his lack of vision again or Chad Greedy chippin up another one ... we got our pads stolen again (becoming an annual thing for us) ... People made videos of their exploits ... people talked a lot of shit ... We rolled with the punches ... We stood our ground ... I couldn't ever figure out why this was the case ... It seemed so perfect, this new area ,,, and it seemed BIG too ! room for all ?
It was a classic case of diversity ... all I had to say was fuck that ! Obsession had set in for for me & i could tell for others as well ! with all these new & hard boulders being established it was time to,,, well ,,, CLIMB !!! And we did ... Day after day we would clean blocs, leveled landings, and climbed on amazing virgin boulders ! The first hard one was The Great War for Civilization , at hard V13 , the next was the roof ! now Evil Backwards , V14 ... then the frenzy started ! Mostly Dave and myself would clean shit up and then we would bring Daniel there and he would kill them off , then Dave & Jon would follow suit ... The Death Trout, V14 went up , the Exfoliator was established ... Dave was looking and getting syked on Let the Right One In , V14 . Daniel established it and then Dave made the second ascent ... then I went down to have a look at a nice belly style roof down from Unshackled ... I cleaned it up and showed it to Dave and the Boys and with in a few days Daniel & Dave made an ascent ! The first V15 boulder in the ditch ! A power 8c ! so sick ! all of 5 moves this one really stands out to me ... Both Daniel & Dave did this problem a lot quicker than I had expected & both were looking in the utmost shape !
Things were good. Everyone kind of stepped up to the plate and started to develop the place in a frenzy and people were getting in the shape of their lives ... Lincoln Lake is just under 12,000 feet and you hike down to it about 1000 feet , which makes it the MOST EXTREME road side bouldering in the world ??? doing this 4 days a week for many really upped the fitness , the Girls asses were looking great ! Jon Cardwell in the midst of it all went down south to Brazil , only to do everything in their country ... Daniel did a V14 a day in the beginning ... People were having amazing days ! Jon got back from Brazil and did 3 V13s in a day ? Dave put up a V14 , Vanilla Sky & a V13 , Tattooed Tear Drops his last day , in less than perfect conditions ... Nalle Hukkatatival came to town to try and clean up what he could before the road closure, and did 2 V14s and 4 v13s , on the quick as well ... People were doing what they could and doing things pretty fast , I think in the end people were sensing the road closure and it came up pretty quick , and we never really felt a consistency with the conditions (always a lil warm) . most of the problems were put up in less than perfect conditions ! and it left room for error ... also problems changed, holds got better as more people climbed on them , some holds broke for the worse and made things harder ... all in all it was like watching the evolution of a decade over a summer ... even on the last of days a trail was prevalent ... it was THE SUMMER OF FUN !
In the beginning the storms were fierce, we sat under a boulder for hours while it did everything that weather can do... the lightning was the scariest I've seen, striking the ridges above, scaring the girls ... the stories of the wild life started to trickle in too. First it was the sightings of the mountain lion & her cubs , then the stories of the WOLVERINE... It just so happens that scientist and the DNR got together and released these lil critters into the wild forests of Mt. Evans in the early 90's ... since then they have all dispersed, until 2009 when a hiker saw one ! AMAZING ! Real life wolverines in the in the very place we like to tear shit up ! I just could not believe this until I my self & Jon Cardwell saw one from a distance ... true story ! I actually can't believe no one was injured over the summer with the chaotic terrain and wild beasts among us, all the while trying to climb at your limit ...
I think this summer will mark the first renaissance after the lull of the bouldering explosion or at least for alpine bouldering. People have always been doing things but this year a lot of strong people did things together.. It was great to see all the different krews doing what they they do, and that's climb.. Especially a lot of the girls out there ! Flan & Stephanie Marvez (which Cookie LIKES! ) made it personal by down rating all of my problems, but did them all as well ! NICE ONE LADYS ! It was great to just have another summer in ColoRADo with the lads... Dave Graham, Gomez, Jon Cardwell, Jamie Emerson, Nalle, Sam, Cook Dawg, Stix & those fools, even Gabor & Andre ,also Caroline Treadway, JUSTIN JAEGER, Brian Capps, Paul Dusatko, Ian Dory, Flan & Steph, even Jimmy Webb in the beginning ,,, and lets not forget MVP Angie Pyane!, were all just a few faces I saw on the regular, as well consider our humble lil motley krew ! thanx to all of you for making it the best summer a lonely kid from gutter could ever ever have in the world !!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG !!!!
well now that's its all over there is still a lot of work to do right here in the backyard or rather the back porch, with the GAME looming over Boulder like a gargoyle, it's hard to think people are done working ... the Island has finally united some what right here in Boulder ColoRADo. Our creed is to reinvent the climbing media , unfortunately the krew now has i phones (except Nalle, he has the smaller more girly i pod touch) and applications have possessed us and left most of us immobile. If the Lord will allow, we will be back in no time to bring to you the best god damn rock climbing videos the world has to offer... Check out iclimb.com to download the Island Vol. ZERO, a collage of climbing footage from the best areas in the world except South Afrika & now WOLVERINE LAND !
and keep lookin for that damn ISLAND WEB SITE COMING VERY SOON !!!!
here is the same ol shit force fed to your ass one more time ! the sound is off by 3 seconds too, but who cares ? right ? enjoi right ?
We started to meet people up there , the rangers , the nice people in the tool box , a Nat Geo. photographer with a pet mountain lion named Ruby, the gas station dwellers of Idaho Springs... We discovered its better to wait to get back to Boulder to eat ... Clear Creek Canyon can save you 15 minutes on a good day ! there are usually 4 to 5 Cops to see on your way there or back (we know where they hide) ... all this was the day to day experience just getting up to the boulders ... then you reach the boulders &
In the beginning the storms were fierce, we sat under a boulder for hours while it did everything that weather can do... the lightning was the scariest I've seen, striking the ridges above, scaring the girls ... the stories of the wild life started to trickle in too. First it was the sightings of the mountain lion & her cubs , then the stories of the WOLVERINE... It just so happens that scientist and the DNR got together and released these lil critters into the wild forests of Mt. Evans in the early 90's ... since then they have all dispersed, until 2009 when a hiker saw one ! AMAZING ! Real life wolverines in the in the very place we like to tear shit up ! I just could not believe this until I my self & Jon Cardwell saw one from a distance ... true story ! I actually can't believe no one was injured over the summer with the chaotic terrain and wild beasts among us, all the while trying to climb at your limit ...
I think this summer will mark the first renaissance after the lull of the bouldering explosion or at least for alpine bouldering. People have always been doing things but this year a lot of strong people did things together.. It was great to see all the different krews doing what they they do, and that's climb.. Especially a lot of the girls out there ! Flan & Stephanie Marvez (which Cookie LIKES! ) made it personal by down rating all of my problems, but did them all as well ! NICE ONE LADYS ! It was great to just have another summer in ColoRADo with the lads... Dave Graham, Gomez, Jon Cardwell, Jamie Emerson, Nalle, Sam, Cook Dawg, Stix & those fools, even Gabor & Andre ,also Caroline Treadway, JUSTIN JAEGER, Brian Capps, Paul Dusatko, Ian Dory, Flan & Steph, even Jimmy Webb in the beginning ,,, and lets not forget MVP Angie Pyane!, were all just a few faces I saw on the regular, as well consider our humble lil motley krew ! thanx to all of you for making it the best summer a lonely kid from gutter could ever ever have in the world !!!!!!! OMG OMG OMG !!!!
