Do I have the guts?

Do I have the Guts? I think yes

Pulling off the side of the interstate outside of Glenwood Springs, CO there is a sense of dread that generally washes over a new-comer to the Puoux. Situated right next to a tunnel a climber gets to enjoy not just the sound of trucks and cars passing by at 75 miles per hour… but also the silly tradition of honking through the tunnel as well- this instills a sense of… “why the freaking hell did I come here?”

Pete crushing Youth!

Simple… the climbing there is awesome. Beautiful chossy lime-stone awaits the trepid explorers at the main wall… but the real gem… the diamond in the rough is what is situated slightly above the hill… the fault wall.  It is not everyday that I get lucky and find something that completely inspires and creates a drive to send… but before I get to that let me take you to the beginning.

Did she just rock the chains!? YES she DID!!

Stepping out of the car on a crisp fall morning… breathing in the cool Colorado air… watching traffic wizz by and hearing the sounds of the river rushing past I found the motivation to finally do something that I had always looked at and wanted to try… climbing on the Fault Wall.  It had been a long time since I had walked up there and looked at the aesthtic lines that etched the stone.  Classic climbs such as Fault Line (5.13d) and Thirty Below (5.14a) put up by Joe Kid were of some interest…  but what really caught my eye was something called Gutless Wonder (5.14b) – an Andy Raether route.  At the angle in which the route was put up I already knew it was going to be a long boulder problem with dynamic throws, foot cuts, and an overall requirement for core and power– ahh my favorite (no real need to know technique)!

How wrong I was about the technique…

Gutless Burn

Pulling on for the first intial burn I realized that to get to the cool throwing and foot cutting… a ton of technique is required to navigate into the first fault line slot.  After that it is fairly straight forward… but hard.  As of writing this post I have made massive gain and linkages… but we will see what happens in the end… on a positive note I get to work on this route for a little while   Psyched…

So far I have worked this route down to three sections… linking the middle to the end… which is not too terrible… the opening sequence and linking two throws.  It is incredibly difficult to put this thing together… but I am still under ten burns which is good.  Progress and practice make the hard routes go!

Just remember folks when things seem desperate… it is important to ask “how bad do I want it?”… with this one pretty bad… Time to climb outside!!

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