Sunday 5 February 2012

Joe Mangel

     A quick visit to NOS boulder near Park Nab today to try and repeat a problem I had done last year.  Behind the main boulder is a small undercut bit of rock, Joe Mangel crosses this from left to right, keeping feet 'down under'.  Its a tough little problem.  A decent knee-bar enables you to reach across to a variety of poor slopers.  Making the best of these, and some decent footwork (there is a lack of good footholds here) the crux move is getting across to an obvious good hold and once matched on this it's pretty much all over.  Sounds so simple but it took me two days to crack the first time.
                                     (Kev arriving at the blank section on Joe Mangel)

     Today the weather was pretty cold.  The rock on the main boulder is extremely rough and felt terrible on the fingers.  I was yet to actually do a problem on this block and two failed attempts at the traverse, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, proved that today would be no different.  I only had a couple of tries at Joe and came fairly close, not being able to remember the exact sequence of holds I'd used last time, but ultimately failed.  It makes me think I have perhaps undergraded the problem but we'll wait for a few more repeats and see what others think.

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