Just as the summer season is wrapping up and I was getting psyched on a new project at Lincoln Lake, catastrophe (or opportunity) struck. I went to Lincoln Lake last Saturday to try Small Arms and after a few tries on the hard second move found that I was very close to sticking it,meaning that the problem might go, maybe even that day. Unfortunately as I was trying the third move, I felt the sharp gaston give just a little. A few more pulls on it showed that the hold was detaching. I called over a few other locals to see what they thought and the consensus was that the loose part of the hold should be broken off. This was very quickly done leaving a much worse edge and a far harder move. While we were there, the last pair of holds was looked at again and the loose part of the left edge was removed as well. This will make the ending move a bit harder but still doable the old way.I was reluctant to modify such a classic problem but for the fact that if the either hold had broken on a climber, a serious fall could have resulted. I am sure the second move goes but the overall grade of the problem has risen from a soft V11 to a likely hard 12 or 13. I know I am not strong enough to do it at this time and will probably stick to other areas for now. Even though I would like to discover the other hard problems there, I have so many undone attempted problems in RMNP, and of course Clear Blue Skies on the other side of Evans, that I will focus my efforts elsewhere for the rest of the season.So if you were planning on trying Small Arms, here is what the holds look like now:The two broken holds on Small ArmsBuena Suerte!
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