It was one of those days when we almost turned around and drove back home. The weather was foreboding and the radar showed green globs all around Rocky Mountain National Park. I told DW that we should hike up and at least get some exercise, so we continued on. To our surprise the weather was perfect that day for bouldering. The temps dropped some 15 degrees after we arrived at Lower Chaos and there were patches of blue sky mixed with fast moving gray clouds, and very little humidity.
Daniel did a quick warm-up on some V6's and 7's. It was late in the afternoon. He is back in school now, so after sitting at a desk for six hours thinking of nothing but "Nuthin", he was ready to get on some rock shoes and climb. We walked over to the "Centaur" boulder where our friends from eXcalibur were climbing, and our friend Johnny Goicoechea was working on "Nuthin" as well. Daniel hopped on and almost sent it first try that day, falling at the last hard move to the slopers. Two more tries and it was all over but the sunshine.
"Nuthin But Sunshine" is considered a slash grade at V13/14 so Daniel decided to go with Dave Graham's revised grade of V13 (8B), which I thought was admirable - especially at his age. He was more concerned with being honest with himself than with taking the higher grade.
Daniel has had a good season in RMNP this summer, even though he only started bouldering there this month. He has already, since turning 16 on August 1st, sent 11 problems V10 (7C+) or harder, including "Freshly Squeezed" (V13) and "Nuthin But Sunshine" (V13). He is currently working on the second ascent of "Freaks of the Industry" (V14), an unrepeated James Litz problem, and hopes to get that very soon.
One climb that Daniel did not record on 8a.nu was "The Centaur" (V12/13). Daniel recently found out from talking with Dave Graham that the actual line went straight up instead of exiting out left. So what people are thinking is "The Centaur" is actually a problem called "The Marble (SDS)" (V11). On August 20th, Daniel did the actual line that Dave Graham did which is a lot taller and scarier on slightly worse holds.
More photos of
The Gang In RMNP Part 1 and The Gang In RMNP Part 2
