The Grandpa Peabody
Several seasons ago, Matt Birch made the first ascent of Social Distortion, a wicked hard 4 move v13 on the right side of the wall that drops off at an obvious flake. Anthony Chertudi repeated the feat, perhaps unknowing of Matt's ascent, naming it Blood Meridian and confirming the grade. Above the "heart" flake lies three moves that are just as hard, if not harder, to gain the lip. From here, a crazy sequence involving a heel hook above your head at the 20 foot level gets you to the last crux: 2 full length lock-offs with your feet above the lip. The first is a long left arm pull off of a half pad knob to a credit card razor. The next is taking the razor and pulling it down to your arm pit to gain a good edge, which you mantle to safety.
Dan Beall on Social Distortion, v13
Yesterday afternoon, I had a great session on the project, climbing through Social Distortion for the first time and falling on the first move off of the "heart" flake, which is a huge left hand move to an incut gaston. After getting boosted through Social Distortion, I was able to stick the next left hand move and fall after making the scrunchy hand-foot match. I think a little stretching is in order....
After focusing on the Dawn Wall for the last few years, it feels great to have a good 'ol bouldering project to sink my teeth into. The temperatures are warming up here in Bishop, but the evenings remain nice, so we'll see how it goes! Tonight, I'm going to keep working the upper half of the project, getting from the "heart" flake to the lip. If these moves go, then it's time to round out at least 16 pads (we had 12 yesterday and it wasn't even close to enough) and go for it!
Psyched!
KJ
