Tahoe – Day 1of many

On Sunday I went up to Tahoe with Wade for my very first visit… crazy that I have been living in the Bay Area for 3 years now and never been up to Tahoe (I’ve been kinda busy AND I don’t have a car AND I was just getting to know the climbing community BUT still… crazy).

Wade and I had high expectations as we drove up; conditions were supposed to be sunny and cold and we had several V8’s, V9’s and V10’s to look at and attempt.  In the end we didn’t get on any of the ones we had thought we were going to.  As we neared Tahoe we started to notice a little bit of snow on top of the trees and as we arrived at our parking area there was a solid foot of snow EVERYWHERE.  The boulders would have their tops covered in snow and would be wet even if we cleared them.  In desperation we searched the guidebook for lower elevation bouldering areas and found one small area with some V4’s, a V5 and a V10; we quickly drove there and had the area to ourselves until Kyle O’Meara and his partner (didn’t get your name) showed up.  Wade and I worked Rogue Wave, a technical kinda high V5 which I finally managed to top out after many frustrating attempts trying to find the holds.  Then Kyle made short work of the V10 – It’s A Boy, and we decided that the day was warming up so much that it was time to head back up to higher elevations and hope that some things had dried.

Wade had tried a crimpy V8 called Fresh Tips at the Soda Springs area and though our tips were not fresh he went there anyway and ran into a group of Bay Area climbers including motivated climbers Vitaly Volberg and his partner Vanessa.

Fresh Tips is a great little aesthetic climb on small holds and requiring some good body tension (particularly to not dab on the rock behind).  Wade refreshed his memory from his last visit and sent after dry-firing of the holds once or twice.  I messed up on the start moves twice and then took it to the top on the third try; felt great to climb this classic though sad the challenge was over so quickly.  Afterwards we were coerced by Vitaly to go to “THE BEST CLIMB IN TAHOE”: Soul Glo.

After a gorgeous hike we arrived at Soul Glo, I switched into cameraman mode and captured Vitaly comfortably sending this gem.

So much to climb up in Tahoe!!  Though Wade is psyched for projects in Yosemite… I have got to come back!