Love Mattress

2 Realizations:

-My climbing ability/psych fluctuates in 4 month cycles.

-I climb better when I'm having fun with my friends and I don't care if I send or not.

Tyler on Bessie

We rolled up to Guanella Pass yesterday despite the terrible weather forecast...and had perfect weather the whole time! Plus we had the whole area to ourselves. It was a great day. Geoff sent his first V10-in-a-day with Crimping Matters, Tyler FLASHED Dark Horse (V10), Paul had his first alpine bouldering day after driving in from PA, and I sent Bessie (V10), Crimping Matters (V10), Earth Matters (V10), Life Matters (V7/8), Love Matters (V6/7), Beyond Matters (V8), and a new line that we are calling Love Mattress (V11/12).

Geoff sending Crimping Matters

Hooray!

Love Mattress starts on Love Matters, but instead of making the move to the left hand side pull to finish straight up the arete, it climbs into the start crimps of Earth Matters and finishes that. The moves on Love Matters aren't hard so they don't really affect the grade, but the transition into the crimps and gaining the position to make the first move on Earth Matters is probably V9+ by itself. Then you have to actually do the 3 move V10 that is Earth Matters. I think V11/12 is a fair grade since I think it is harder than all the other V10s at Guanella and similar in difficulty to Mind Matters which is considered V11/12.

Finishing the second crux on the FA of Love Mattress

The bad news is that the boulder was severely dug out by Brian, which I consider to be an ethical no-no. I almost didn't go to the boulder because of this, but I got sucked in by the quality of the rock. I understand the need to groom certain landings to make for a more enjoyable experience, but I also think there is a line that should not be crossed. In this case the ground is soft and has already begun eroding beyond the initial excavation/landscaping. Is the boulder going to fall over? No. After a couple of decades could it slide into the trail? Probably. In the grand scheme of things I guess it isn't a big deal and I did enjoy climbing on the boulder. All I know is it makes me feel bad when I see stuff like that and I hope people will make better decisions and think about the long term impact of what they do and how their actions could influence the actions of others. Rant over.

EDIT 9/8/14:

I received a great response this morning from Brian K. Though we still disagree a bit, I have a lot of respect for his willingness to discuss the situation in a really constructive way. It should be noted that he did not act unilaterally in this situation and had the support of much of the Guanella bouldering community.

Whether a person agrees or disagrees with the decision to move this much dirt, what's done is done, and we all may as well enjoy it without too much grumbling. It is just a boulder after all!