Eric Jerome
Here is the video I put together on our day yesterday! Enjoy!
Bouldering in Reisterstown, Maryland from Eric Jerome on Vimeo.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Nicodemus Cont.
Eric Jerome
Today we went out to climb the boulder previously stated. By "we" I am referring to John Isola, Chris Watts, Gabe Mckenzie and I. We came after practice so we already a tad burnt out but we were still psyched to climb. It took us a a number of phone calls and text messages before we got some decent beta for the boulders and started trying them. Right Hand of the Leper is now said to be V10. We all tried that for a while but only Gabe continued really. The rest of us chalked up some holds to the left and put up a V5 with a name yet to be determined. The FA was by Chris, seconded by John, and third by myself. It was a really cool climb with a pretty big first move with a high foot to a small crimp. Then you bump to another crimp, get your food on the start, cross to a tiny crimp and hop out to a juggy finish. After we did that we were all pretty burned and knew we wouldn't really make much progress on the 10 and definitely no progress on the 12. Gabe continued trying for a while and on probably around his 15th attempt he finished it as the second ascent. We filmed with a GoPro on a pole the whole day and I am planning on compiling a short video of the day. It was pretty sweet and I'm psyched to go try the 10 again when I'm fresh and my skin is decent.
Today we went out to climb the boulder previously stated. By "we" I am referring to John Isola, Chris Watts, Gabe Mckenzie and I. We came after practice so we already a tad burnt out but we were still psyched to climb. It took us a a number of phone calls and text messages before we got some decent beta for the boulders and started trying them. Right Hand of the Leper is now said to be V10. We all tried that for a while but only Gabe continued really. The rest of us chalked up some holds to the left and put up a V5 with a name yet to be determined. The FA was by Chris, seconded by John, and third by myself. It was a really cool climb with a pretty big first move with a high foot to a small crimp. Then you bump to another crimp, get your food on the start, cross to a tiny crimp and hop out to a juggy finish. After we did that we were all pretty burned and knew we wouldn't really make much progress on the 10 and definitely no progress on the 12. Gabe continued trying for a while and on probably around his 15th attempt he finished it as the second ascent. We filmed with a GoPro on a pole the whole day and I am planning on compiling a short video of the day. It was pretty sweet and I'm psyched to go try the 10 again when I'm fresh and my skin is decent.
Friday, November 22, 2013
Nicodemus
Eric Jerome
I went down to the boulder that I had seen on so many bus rides in Reisterstown after an exam today. Considering its placement on a lonely road with no other rocks nearby as hiked up to it I was astonished to see chalk on all the holds already. I was a bit disappointed because I thought that I had discovery this great rock myself but obviously that was not the case. However, since it was already cleaned it did mean that I did not have to spend time doing that myself. The boulder is about 60 degrees overhanging and has about 4 or 5 small crimps straight up it. I immediately knew that it would be a hard climb. I was thinking V8 to V14 originally. Short after I had to leave and head home. Later, I posted about the rock on Facebook. To my surprise, Tim Rose, an insanely strong climber from my neck of the woods, commented saying that I should check out another boulder with two established lines near Nicodemus Road. It was the same boulder and he notified me that his line up the middle is a V12 called Nicodemus and Fernando also has a V8 called Right Hand of the Leper to the right of that. I'm psyched to go out there tomorrow with my buddies Gabe McKenzie and John Isola to try to send the 8 and make some good effort on the 12. Psyched to have a boulder close to home to project that is already cleaned for me unlike all the others I'm working on! Happy sending!
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
A New Perspective
Eric Jerome
I just finished watching the live stream by LT11 with Dave Graham and Angie Payne. I would like to address my views on some of the topics said and discuss how it changed my outlook on climbing. Firstly, the thing that struck me incredibly is Dave's start to climbing. After only a week he was climbing 5.12 and a year 5.14. He said that him and his friend Luke both climbed at the same difficult which I find spectacular that both kids who happened to be friends were climbing V14 at 16. I found it interesting that he began climbing outdoors after only a week or so gym climbing and this made me ponder why kids today including myself were not intrigued and psyched to go outdoors right off the bat. I think that it is possibly because of the modern look and feel of indoor climbing. The highlight on competitions and the flashy colored holds. We looked up to the stronger climbers we saw in the gym. Whereas, for Dave as he started in the beginning of climbing his role models were said to be the men at his gym who were already going outside and developing hard climbs. They did not have the competition aspect and indoor climbing was still seen as more of a means of training than it is a variation on the sport completely. I sat wishing that I have or had a positive role model pointing me towards real rock rather than the staff at the gym telling me to go try that new V9 in the cave. I think that I will reach out to Tim Rose a strong climber at my gym who is constantly developing new hard climbs. Dave mentioned how he was traveling to Colorado after a year and climbing and I cannot fathom my parents allowing me to most likely skip school and go across the nation to partake in a pastime that I had only taken up just a year previous. Seeing Dave talking about his travels and life finding and cleaning hard boulders actively changed my climbing role models. Now, I no longer look up to competition climbers as greatly as I had previously and am inspired by Dave and wish to model his climbing decisions. I do wonder a bit wether he was exaggerating the grades that he was climbing so quickly, if grades were much different then, or if he had unknowingly had previous experience climbing. The technique aspect of climbing hard could be perceivable because he might be innately more inept to seeing things like sequence and how to maneuver your body to make moves the easiest. However, after only a few months, for instance, I cannot imagine being strong enough already to be able to do the type of moves and pull on the types of holds required to boulder and rope climb at such an insanely high level. Dave said that styles were a big part for his progression. He could not understand his flashing of a crimpy V9 but his having to project a powerful V3. This raises the question of wether or not any of the outdoor things that he was doing were not his style. Maybe his original style of climbing on crimps has not progressed significantly because he is still climbing relatively the same as he was 15 years ago although perhaps since then he has improved on his powerful moves at a rate that most people improve on climbing as a whole. Outdoor climbing typically is very crimp oriented and could bring a bit of an explanation to his super hard sends. In the end I think all my reasoning for him not to be that good is just brought from self-pity after hearing of his tremendous strength. Excuses and saying that I would have done the same if I had been born with the same circumstances may seem pleasing currently but unless I face that some people are just better than other people than I will continue making excuses for my own abilities and weaknesses to no end. Dave said that his first time climbing was on a dihedral 5.9 where he tweaked his knee trying to attempt a drop knee. That just shows that from the start he had a superior outlook on the physics and movement of climbing. Both Dave and his friend Luke were both sponsored within a year which allowed their travel and lifestyle which makes me wonder how different climbing today would be if it had not grown to the scale that it is today where there is a whole new level of competition to get sponsored and much less opportunity to get your name out. Also this was at a time when technology did not so much control and take over kids lives. They had the time and the spirit to go outside and explore and find rocks to dedicate their time to whereas now with the amount of school work, the pressure to perform from parents, and the constant need to be connected via social media we do not want to hike and find rocks but rather prefer to drive to the gym and train there hoping to someday be in the highlight video of some world cup with giant volumes and loud music. A boulder that him and Luke were projecting at the age of 17 or 18 after only climbing 3 or 4 years he said would be graded V16 or V17 which to think is just mind blowing that someone could be that strong after just a few years of climbing and from what it sounded like not training at all. What was said about kids not climbing outdoors anymore and being so commited to the competitive game really enforced my decision to strive for FAs and climb on real rock as much as possible. Previously I would have prefered going to the gym to spending a few hours brushing moss but I think that that just changed. Anyways, these are just my thoughts as they came to my head. I think for this is better and more pure to leave it unedited to see my progression of thought. This weekend I plan to check out a boulder a friend of mine spotted on the bus ride to school that looks sweet. If I can make it down I will write a post about it. Goodnight
I just finished watching the live stream by LT11 with Dave Graham and Angie Payne. I would like to address my views on some of the topics said and discuss how it changed my outlook on climbing. Firstly, the thing that struck me incredibly is Dave's start to climbing. After only a week he was climbing 5.12 and a year 5.14. He said that him and his friend Luke both climbed at the same difficult which I find spectacular that both kids who happened to be friends were climbing V14 at 16. I found it interesting that he began climbing outdoors after only a week or so gym climbing and this made me ponder why kids today including myself were not intrigued and psyched to go outdoors right off the bat. I think that it is possibly because of the modern look and feel of indoor climbing. The highlight on competitions and the flashy colored holds. We looked up to the stronger climbers we saw in the gym. Whereas, for Dave as he started in the beginning of climbing his role models were said to be the men at his gym who were already going outside and developing hard climbs. They did not have the competition aspect and indoor climbing was still seen as more of a means of training than it is a variation on the sport completely. I sat wishing that I have or had a positive role model pointing me towards real rock rather than the staff at the gym telling me to go try that new V9 in the cave. I think that I will reach out to Tim Rose a strong climber at my gym who is constantly developing new hard climbs. Dave mentioned how he was traveling to Colorado after a year and climbing and I cannot fathom my parents allowing me to most likely skip school and go across the nation to partake in a pastime that I had only taken up just a year previous. Seeing Dave talking about his travels and life finding and cleaning hard boulders actively changed my climbing role models. Now, I no longer look up to competition climbers as greatly as I had previously and am inspired by Dave and wish to model his climbing decisions. I do wonder a bit wether he was exaggerating the grades that he was climbing so quickly, if grades were much different then, or if he had unknowingly had previous experience climbing. The technique aspect of climbing hard could be perceivable because he might be innately more inept to seeing things like sequence and how to maneuver your body to make moves the easiest. However, after only a few months, for instance, I cannot imagine being strong enough already to be able to do the type of moves and pull on the types of holds required to boulder and rope climb at such an insanely high level. Dave said that styles were a big part for his progression. He could not understand his flashing of a crimpy V9 but his having to project a powerful V3. This raises the question of wether or not any of the outdoor things that he was doing were not his style. Maybe his original style of climbing on crimps has not progressed significantly because he is still climbing relatively the same as he was 15 years ago although perhaps since then he has improved on his powerful moves at a rate that most people improve on climbing as a whole. Outdoor climbing typically is very crimp oriented and could bring a bit of an explanation to his super hard sends. In the end I think all my reasoning for him not to be that good is just brought from self-pity after hearing of his tremendous strength. Excuses and saying that I would have done the same if I had been born with the same circumstances may seem pleasing currently but unless I face that some people are just better than other people than I will continue making excuses for my own abilities and weaknesses to no end. Dave said that his first time climbing was on a dihedral 5.9 where he tweaked his knee trying to attempt a drop knee. That just shows that from the start he had a superior outlook on the physics and movement of climbing. Both Dave and his friend Luke were both sponsored within a year which allowed their travel and lifestyle which makes me wonder how different climbing today would be if it had not grown to the scale that it is today where there is a whole new level of competition to get sponsored and much less opportunity to get your name out. Also this was at a time when technology did not so much control and take over kids lives. They had the time and the spirit to go outside and explore and find rocks to dedicate their time to whereas now with the amount of school work, the pressure to perform from parents, and the constant need to be connected via social media we do not want to hike and find rocks but rather prefer to drive to the gym and train there hoping to someday be in the highlight video of some world cup with giant volumes and loud music. A boulder that him and Luke were projecting at the age of 17 or 18 after only climbing 3 or 4 years he said would be graded V16 or V17 which to think is just mind blowing that someone could be that strong after just a few years of climbing and from what it sounded like not training at all. What was said about kids not climbing outdoors anymore and being so commited to the competitive game really enforced my decision to strive for FAs and climb on real rock as much as possible. Previously I would have prefered going to the gym to spending a few hours brushing moss but I think that that just changed. Anyways, these are just my thoughts as they came to my head. I think for this is better and more pure to leave it unedited to see my progression of thought. This weekend I plan to check out a boulder a friend of mine spotted on the bus ride to school that looks sweet. If I can make it down I will write a post about it. Goodnight
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
The First of The Overhanging
Eric Jerome
On Sunday, I went back to the boulders. I really need a name for the area. Anyways, I decided to explore the opposite side of the river in greater detail. I had a very hard time crossing the river and in the future will need to construct a bridge. Once I crossed I hiked up to the first boulders in sight. I first came upon a blank sideways set of rocks stacked which could have some interesting compression problems. I am pretty sure that some critters resided inside and have decided to stay away from those rocks until I have a few friends to bring along with me. Next to that, there are three boulders overhanging at about 45 degrees aligned running up a hill with very nice landings. I worked on the choss on the lowest boulder and got most of it off including a huge jug at the top which came off after putting my weight on it. A crimp was in its place and will probably make the boulder a lot harder than it was with the jug. I think that there can be some pretty hard climbs on these overhanging sections. I found all this in the very first part of the other side of the river and can't wait to see the rest.
On Sunday, I went back to the boulders. I really need a name for the area. Anyways, I decided to explore the opposite side of the river in greater detail. I had a very hard time crossing the river and in the future will need to construct a bridge. Once I crossed I hiked up to the first boulders in sight. I first came upon a blank sideways set of rocks stacked which could have some interesting compression problems. I am pretty sure that some critters resided inside and have decided to stay away from those rocks until I have a few friends to bring along with me. Next to that, there are three boulders overhanging at about 45 degrees aligned running up a hill with very nice landings. I worked on the choss on the lowest boulder and got most of it off including a huge jug at the top which came off after putting my weight on it. A crimp was in its place and will probably make the boulder a lot harder than it was with the jug. I think that there can be some pretty hard climbs on these overhanging sections. I found all this in the very first part of the other side of the river and can't wait to see the rest.
Monday, November 4, 2013
An Amazing Long Weekend
Eric Jerome
Today I went back to the Binary Boulder and continued cleaning. I have gotten most of the moss of but need a good rain to rid the boulder of the loads of dirt from the moss before I can climb. I did try to find some sequence in the maze of crimps and slopers. Hopefully, there will be some climbs V5-V10. Although, if there aren't I'm positive there will be plenty in the massive amount of stone in this new boulder field.
Today was a great day at practice despite being sore from the rigorous weekends activities. I started projecting a V10. I have not tried many V9's, and had tried no V10's but this was my style and I was psyched to do about 4 of the moves after an hour. I think I may politely ask the routesetters to set me a V9 my style (large powerful moves on pinches) for me to project. I've now realized that when I project V8s, for example, it is usually only one, maybe two moves that I cannot do and the rest are fairly easy for me. I am not getting much better doing to same climb over and over just to fall off on the same move. I have decided that for now on I will only project grades at my limit. I believe that this will make a significant difference in my climbing. On a somewhat related note, I am excited to learn that during practice now we will be focusing on our individual weaknesses. For me being finger strength and power endurance. Hopefully, this will make a good opportunity to get my fingers strong enough to really send hard outdoors. I am ready to push my climbing to the next level and with regionals a month away and my new boulder field ready to be purged I am more psyched than ever!
Today I went back to the Binary Boulder and continued cleaning. I have gotten most of the moss of but need a good rain to rid the boulder of the loads of dirt from the moss before I can climb. I did try to find some sequence in the maze of crimps and slopers. Hopefully, there will be some climbs V5-V10. Although, if there aren't I'm positive there will be plenty in the massive amount of stone in this new boulder field.
Today was a great day at practice despite being sore from the rigorous weekends activities. I started projecting a V10. I have not tried many V9's, and had tried no V10's but this was my style and I was psyched to do about 4 of the moves after an hour. I think I may politely ask the routesetters to set me a V9 my style (large powerful moves on pinches) for me to project. I've now realized that when I project V8s, for example, it is usually only one, maybe two moves that I cannot do and the rest are fairly easy for me. I am not getting much better doing to same climb over and over just to fall off on the same move. I have decided that for now on I will only project grades at my limit. I believe that this will make a significant difference in my climbing. On a somewhat related note, I am excited to learn that during practice now we will be focusing on our individual weaknesses. For me being finger strength and power endurance. Hopefully, this will make a good opportunity to get my fingers strong enough to really send hard outdoors. I am ready to push my climbing to the next level and with regionals a month away and my new boulder field ready to be purged I am more psyched than ever!
PCI Clinic
Eric Jerome
Yesterday I attended a PCI (Pro Climbers International) clinic featuring Sasha DiGiulian, Carlo Traversi, and Paul Robinson. Overall the clinic went well although they did not teach me very much that I did not already know and felt that even though this was the most advanced clinic they should have had an even more skilled clinic. They had a team competition at the end of the teaching similar to the style of the comp hosted at the grand opening of Chris Sharma's Sender One. Personally, I thought that this, although fun, was a large waste of time and would rather have been learning more from such amazing individuals.
We started the day by warming up and emphasizing stretching on the wall, doing large exaggerated movements, and "doing yoga on the wall". Then Sasha took a group of us over to a fairly large overhang and was attempting to teach us about warming up our larger muscle groups and getting more dynamic when warming up. She then taught us that when training to be most efficient for projecting we should not re-adjust our hands. We all tried doing so and found it quite difficult as it is natural movement to us. We continued on the Paul. We were stationed on a flat/slab section of wall and he was meant to be teaching us how to warm up for overhanging terrain if the iso wall is only a flat wall or inadequate. After all, we really just ended up projecting while he watched and gave advice.
Carlo's turn ending up being my favorite of the three. We were at a large roof with the main climbs on it being to V5s. First we climbed one or both of them. Then he challenged us to do it again but without bending our elbows at all. This was meant to show that we could climb on roofs and by using better foot beta not use any energy in our arms. I found this really interesting and am going to challenge myself in the future to work through things with my feet rather than using my power to pull through it.
Next, my group was back with Sasha up on the systems board. All she told us about was circuits and 50 moves which everyone there already did, however, it was insightful to know how she actually trains. We moved on to Carlo on the same wall as before. Now was core. Basically, we did sets of crunches and leg lifts on jugs (hanging on roof and touching the holds around you with your feet). We finished that up rather quickly and then just fooled around attempting levers. Then came Paul which was my favorite. Campusing and finger strength. We did some basic campusing techniques and finger training exercises that I already know and do, however, it was interesting seeing that someone like Paul with some of the strongest fingers in the world can get by with such basic exercises. Although, thats assuming he doesn't do plenty of others which I'm sure he does.
The competition was a bust and I don't really feel the need to talk about it. Overall, I think that this clinic would have been 1000x more beneficial for less advanced climbers attempting to learn basic training techniques. It was still a fantastic experience getting to meet my idols and seeing how chill each and every one of them are in real life. I walked away with some stickers and an autographed poster which I am psyched about. In other news, in a few hours I am heading back to the Binary Boulder in an attempt to finished cleaning it up and maybe figure out some sequences.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
The Start of Something Big
A few weeks ago on the lingering bumpy bus ride home from school I frustratedly remarked about how I ever so desperately wished there were rocks near my house. My buddy, Jackson, a bit confused, replied that he had some large boulders behind his house. I was obviously immediately intrigued but quite certain that they would be nothing but small slabby sections of stone. I tried unsuccessfully to make it out there a few times, however, it took me about a month (today) to finally make my way there. I finally trekked the whole minute long drive to his cozy looking domicile. I didn't actually know which house was his as the long road across farm land went straight back into twisty turny wooded one way street. I thought that it was only his house back there but boy was I wrong. A whole neighborhood resided back in the thick, serene woods. We traveled down the curvy road for about a mile before reaching a large river and a dead end. I figured that it was a good of a place as any and began my pleasant hike in the beautiful foliage alongside the peaceful pulchritudinous water.
The first boulder I saw was magnificent. A large primarily vertical chunk of rock with a near perfect landing. A rare and fantastic discovery. The rock was about eleven feet tall and twenty feet wide. On one side was a vertical section for about nine feet and then two feet of slab at the top. Lots and lots of choss. On the other side was a slabby bottom of about two feet, than three feet of overhanging slopey rock, and finally a large 6 foot slab at the top. This side will definitely have potential for some hard mantles from the sloper overhangs transition to blank slab. The other side also has potential for some harder crimp problems.
Before cleaning that boulder I decided that it would be a better plan to go search for more boulders first. I walked about a mile or two down the river before coming to the bridge that we drove over going to original drop-off point. Rather than crossing the bridge and continuing on in the same direction on other people property I chose to cross the river. I attempted to make it to the opposite side without getting wet, however, Murphy's law truly never fails and my feet and Sanuks got drenched. Covered in mud and with pebbles in my toes I made it across and began walking back in the other direction. I could immediately tell that this side of the water had much more rock. The only issue was that it was mainly on a steep hill with lots of downed trees, snakes, quicksand, sticker bushes, and other natural obstacles in my way of getting to them. One by one, I trekked (stumbled) up and down the hill to look at all the rocks, all while having no shortage and scratches and slips. I found probably six or seven more boulders. Most of them were anywhere from 8-20 feet tall and were overhanging. There was crazy potential for some amazing boulders. Unlike the first boulder, however, the landings were not PG on all of them and will be a lot harder to clean considering the height of the boulders on the hill and the amount of trees and foliage around it. I would definitely need to come back with a team of climbers to establish these boulders. Not all were like this however. I found two or three nine or ten foot roofs with clear landings and hardly any choss. Those will make for some excellent projects.
Despite getting a bit lost and a bit scared by the large number of shots fired from hunters and the my not-so-well planned attire (a tan shirt and shorts) I eventually made it back to my starting point. I called my mom who said that I had about an hour left before she came to pick me up. I knew that I had to start cleaning up the first large beautiful boulder that I had found. I hiked back and got right to work. I began by getting off the obvious choss which only took me about 10 minutes to complete. Then I went to work on the absurd moss covering the rock. I scrubbed at the holds and rock for the remaining time I had until I to leave. There seemed to be tons of potential for probably eight or nine problems on just that one rock. I can not wait to get back and continue cleaning and hopefully get some first ascents, hard projects, or just some really cool lines. I am also video taping the process of cleaning and climbing the area and hope to make a short film about it with the help of some of my more technology acquainted friends. Now I am psyched to be attending and PCI (Pro Climbers International) clinic tomorrow at the Earth Treks Rockville location. The athletes there will be Carlo Traversi, Paul Robinson, and Sasha DiGiulian. The focus of the clinic is to better the youths competition skills and they will be having a mock regionals as well. Beyond excited to learn from some of the best competitors in the world.
The first boulder I wrote about, and the only one I got a good shot of, think I will call it the Binary Boulder if it does not already have a name
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