With the opening of parks, wet Bow valley conditions, and a general search for remote crags, climbers have been flocking to Frank Slide in search of some isolation and the prospect of fun bouldering. As a result of this years unique social climate and the massive turnout from the previous years Tour de Frank, it would seem Frank Slide is finally becoming popularized. A typical weekend even just one year prior would have the usual locals (Trent, Kyle, Josh B., Dan, and Myself), and a maximum of ~4 cars present in the slide. The past few weekends have seen upwards of 12 vehicles. I'll try not to be to nostalgic, but as Bob Dylan once said, “Times, they are a changing”.
Armed with a stack of pads and our highly motivated quarantine training group (Chris, Kaylee, Loic, and myself), we yet again made the voyage down to Frank Slide to test our strengths on the sea of limestone cubes. Josh B had recently proposed V12 for his new line on the Nintendo Boulder, and Loic and I were eager to test the limits of our strength. Before heading to Nintendo, we decided to first stop at the classic old school boulder Lipsmacker to warm up and try an old project of mine, Smack Talk Low (~V10). After warming up on the The Seam (V0), the namesake line Lipsmacker (V3), and the always-fun Smack Talk (V6), we set to work on the low start project. I had tried the boulder previously when I completed the gargantuan task of excavating several tons of rock from the cave. At the time linking the improbably tension and slopers seemed unfeasible, and I quickly abandoned it to the eager hands of Josh B. After some stout effort over a few sessions, Josh completed the problem, but mentioned it gave him the worst wrist injury he had ever had, and thus deterring me from returning. With Frank Slide projects, I often find that sometimes I return to boulders with renewed vigor and motivation after I let them sit for a while.
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| Myself entering the crux section of Smack Talk Low |
Another key factor to the renewed motivation for a bunch of older Frank Slide lines has been the presence of Loic F., and his insane work ethic and strength. I really have enjoyed working hard boulders with Loic, and find myself more motivated than ever.
After quickly sussing out some beta, Loic and I had soon developed our plans-of-attack. Unfortunately, Loic had other objectives in mind (having not yet done the classic Nintendo 69), and after making some generous skin donations to the sandstone-esque sloping ledges, he decided to save his skin for the Nintendo Boulder. Having done Nintendo 69 a few times before, I had some extra skin to spare and gave some good burns on the project, managing to squeak away with a send. Chris played around on the low start as well, but seemed to experiencing restrictions based on the material of his pants (cough..denim..cough). People climbing in denim has (and always will be) one of the mysteries of the climbing universe to me.
While Chris denied the viability of denim for climbing, Kaylee was kind enough to hop back on some of the moves of Smack Talk (V6) so that I could take a few photos!
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| Kaylee sampling the fine sandstone texture slopers of Smack Talk (V6) |
After we finished at Lipsmacker and moved on to Nintendo 69 for our main objective. After sussing out some beta, Chris managed to make a surprisingly fast ascent of Nintendo 69 (despite his claims that he's not a boulderer). Some of the moves proved to give Loic a significant amount of difficulty and required further tweaks and beta refinement before he could send. Despite his difficulties, Loic's unrelenting attempts eventually forced Nintendo 69 into submission.
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| Eli enjoying the afternoon shade at Nintendo 69 |
Having enjoyed a pleasant lunch and rest, I decided to give Street Fighter some effort in order to decipher the seemingly tricky sequence. After a few tries, my effort soon caught the attention of Loic, who promptly joined me in finding a sequence.After some effort, we managed to find a very cool sequence using a kneebar and several miserable crimps.
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| Myself moving through the tensiony crux of Street Fighter. |
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| Chris (A self proclaimed sport-climber, desperately trying to avoid enjoying a day of bouldering) |
Loic was wisely more conservative in his attempts, and managed to eek a send on Street Fighter. With a slightly more carefree nature, I ended up trying the problem 10 or so times, and by the end was consistently falling on the top hard moves, with no send in sight. Feeling rather dejected, i decided to spectate as the others tried the infamously short-person-friendly problem Mortal Kombat, situated on the backside of the Nintendo boulder.
As the groups collective energy waned, we packed up and made a series of stops at Cereal Killer (V5), Killing Frost (V6) , and Healing Arete (V5) for a few "fitness ticks"to finish up the day. By the time we got to Healing Arete, Loic and I were sufficiently thrashed, and were content to spot, encourage, and give beta to Chris and Kaylee. After a few tries, Kaylee quickly sent, and we all head to the river to wash our hands and enjoy an end-of the-day victory beer, and made our ways home to get some rest for Monday...
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A refreshing beverage to end off a great day in the Slide.
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