- 1999

Updated 9/4/00

Bouldering News-January 2000
1/31/00 Climbing Magazine
Climbing Magazine, in their latest issue, included Maine local Dave Graham in an article titled "The A Team 10...11 Climbers who represent the best of the U.S." The list included, among others, Chris Sharma, Tommy Caldwell, and Dean Potter. It seems that the rest of the U.S. is finally figuring out what we have known for a long time, that Dave is a very strong climber. What the article fails to mention though, is how much fun Dave has when he goes climbing, and in the end that is probably what matters the most.
1/9/00 Lincoln Woods, RI; Rumney, NH; and Pawtuckaway, NH
I have always believed that bouldering with people who climb harder than you do, will make you climb harder as well. Kind of like drafting in cycling. Two recent examples include 19-year old Joe Kinder and 16-year old Adam Osterhoff, both of whom have spent considerable time lately bouldering with Dave Graham and Luke Parady. In the last month, Joe has sent Who Needs Hueco and Chemical, both V9, and the second ascent of Hueco Nightmare, V10, at Lincoln Woods; the third ascent of Satan in a Half Shell/Satan's Sister Sally, V9, at Rumney; and Cell Block, V8/9, Ashes to Ashes, and The Golden Problem, both V9. Adam, after much hard work and dedication, did the third ascent of Corner the Market, V10, at Lincoln Woods.  
1/7/00 Farley Ledge, MA
Yesterday, at Farley Ledge, Pete Ward sent the arete project after six months of working on it. Micah Jessup reports the feat as follows:
     "I saw my friend Pete do something amazing today. A 6 month project in the backwoods of Massachusetts on a striking ships prow of quartzite that breaches out into thin, wintery trees, a very New England boulder. Thin edges scar the face until 2/3 height where everything ends until the top's sloping rail almost twenty feet above a marginal landing. Six months ago, Pete hit the lip with his left hand, all six and a half feet of him reaching to the slopey top, but the summer humidity laughed at him while his hand slipped and he took the long fall. Friends stood amazed, he had actually touched what everyone else wanted.
     Since that one lucky, humid day no one else has touched the top again, they climb easily to the blank section and then, feeling the commitment and distance, just peel off with a fluttering heart. Sometimes Pete gets sad and can't stand under the weight of this beautiful piece of rock, knowing it will expose all his weaknesses.

Pete getting "Big" on an early attempt on this amazing arete. Photograph by Joe McLoughlin.

     Today it is crystal clear and 28 degrees, a blessing for my big-handed, sloper-loving friend. He smiles and gives a tour to some new people, telling stories about each boulder problem, who did what, how humid it was that day, how the mysterious non-local climber says its actually hard. After a few classics, we easily warm, shuffling through leaves, air curling smoke-like from our mouths, rock glittering with ice spots, smiles creating a good energy. We walk towards the ship like prow, I joke that only Pete makes this huge boulder seem to be the right scale and that everyone else becomes dwarfed. The base has been smoothed out a bit, but the biggest boulders jut up dangerously. A plethora of pads get laid down. I try, then our other friend, but we feel humbled as always and Pete's first try sends him down onto the pads too.
    I say I am feeling too warm and fuzzy to try such a hard route, it exposes the weaknesses of many, a massive dyno to ~20 ft and then a slopey top out that hasn't been done. Then more people come, another pad is added to the stack plus three more sets of hands, with ours, that made 10 arms shaking at Pete as he launched with such style to the top on his second try. He hits the smooth sloper with a sweatless hand on this 28 degree day, breathes deep, matches and then traverses to the front of the boulder to top out. Everyone yells up with encouraging words, I scamper around, moving pads, anticipating where he will land. Soon a heel goes up, his waist now at the 20 foot mark, right leg dangling straight down, we all become quiet, not believing that he is almost there. He yells, or cries, he is so scared, he can barely do anything, but ask if we are still spotting him. Only one of us snaps out of our awe and yells up to keep him going. Then he is done. So much time on one boulder, in a tiny corner of woods, by a tiny town, my tall, big-handed friend Pete Ward, and his commitment, sitting on top of a legendary classic new boulder problem in Farley, Massachusetts. Big, V9, highball."
1/4/00 Hammond Pond, MA
Following up on our story below, several locals have informed us that the glued on hold on the Temple Overhangs is not a recent event, that it has been there for at least two years. The offending hold apparently broke off from the wall, and the gluing was an attempt to reattach the hold.

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