Muy Verdes

Since I arrived here, Muy Verdes has been a line which caught my eye. The features it follows are bizarre for flatanger, a combination of geometric angles and crimps. It certainly is no king line - Odin's Eye begins just to the right and is a more impressive line. But I was drawn by the route's bouldery appearance and quantity of holds I could actually close on (rather than lots of underclings and open hand grips). In other words, I was keen to spend less than an hour on redpoint and avoid sloper rails at all costs (see nordic plumber).

Me in the crux of Muy Verdes 

I didn't have the confidence to try a route at this level when I arrived, but after 3 weeks and a lot of inspiring exchanges with more experienced climbers, I realized these routes we deem too hard for ourselves are often within physical reach, but not mental. 

Think about your experiences on past projects. Once you were in redpoint mode, remember how the sequences, even the crux, felt easy in isolation? How you "swear it's jugs" and "it's like v2". 

Well, what if instead, you couldn't do certain moves. What if in isolation, you can't do the sequences or they feel impossibly hard to link. 

V6 before the rest. Rad crescent sloper rail that reminds me of the left hand on spyro gyro (but worse)

That's the difference I'm experiencing climbing here in Europe. A limit project probably isn't something where all of the moves are done on your first try. If the moves are all done first try, then you are likely capable of sending and just need the requisite route-specific muscle memory and fitness. 

A project that will challenge you to your absolute potential will demand that you discover it's subtleties. Think of the route as a limit boulder problem. To begin with, it has nothing to do with efficiency or resting. It's about solving the sequences. 

And this is where I stood with Muy Verdes last week. 

Muy Verdes is a route bolted by Dani Andrada, and first ascended by Erik Grandelius, who proposed 8c+. The day after its first ascent, Adam Ondra onsighted the route. After several more ascents, the consensus seems to have settled at 8c.

Arriving at the rest. Perhaps 8a+ to here?

On Sunday, after sending the last of the short bouldery 8a+ routes in the cave (my last one being Elden Inuti), I was deciding between hanging my draws on another 8a/b, or Muy Verdes. I had told my partners I'd try another 8a or 8a+ next, but I had a bit of confidence from my recent send of Nordic Plumber, and a LOT of stoke for something bouldery and hard. So, I decided to hang my draws on Muy Verdes. 

I didn't do more than maybe 5% max of the moves, because I was quickly french freeing by pulling on draws as I went. I knew the next day would be my first real inspection of the route.

First real attempt at Muy Verdes, I had a tough time. I did a lot of "ok climbing", followed by me holding a position for 1 second, followed by "TAKE, I'm gonna pull through for now". The productive thing about this first run wasn't doing as many moves as I could, but rather to envision the sequences.  I had examined most of the holds when I hung draws. They were, for the most part, small but good. This time, I needed to examine the sequences. 

After a few attempted sequences and some aiding, I lowered down from the end of the hard climbing (there's 4 or 5 bolts of 7cish terrain after this I'm told).

A while later, I tied back in for my 3rd attempt and first semi-serious attempt at doing moves. The progress was evident. I linked sequences as I'd envisioned, and refined what wasn't working. If something was really stopper, I envisioned what I could change but pulled through. I found proper clipping stances rather than grabbing dogbones. 

Ultimately, once I lowered, I had managed to do all but one (could be two) moves. Many of these moves I didn't do more than 2 at a time, but I was thrilled. 

After several more days invested in Muy Verdes, progress is encouraging! A slew of people sent in 2-4 tries, including Jim Pope and Stefano Carnati. I was able to glean some beta from them, and thus I was able to finish off every move! Kilian Fischhuber tried for a couple of days as well after sending Odin's Eye, but tore a muscle in his abdomen. All of these guys were great to share the route with.

Here is the breakdown in my opinion:

• 3 campus moves lead into a physical V5/6 with a kneescum and a hard clip.
• Poor kneebar rest
• V7 requiring a lot of body tension and a blind triple bump. 
• No rest, straight into a V6 with a worse-than-it-looks sloper rail 
• Jug rest with a left heel (much like Man Show back home)
• Blind and low percentage deadpoint to a pocket jug over a roof. V5?
• No rest, into the redpoint crux: a v7/8 crimp traverse, with a terribly glassy pinch and bad heel hooks! This traverse is SO COOL. Loads of static strength required, which is hard to have from the bottom, and finishes on a pocket jug. 
• Here you get an ok rest in a corner, alternating between a fingerlock and a good sidepull. Unfortunately this crack is often wet :/
• From here, a pumpy, techy 7b+(ish) awaits. 

More or less my highpoint (I got one foot move further). 

After a couple of weeks invested in this route, I feel close. Sometimes I need a break from the frustration of regression, but I consistently make it to the rest. I have a deep hatred for the deadpoint off of the rest. It's the easiest of the boulder problems, but it's where I've fallen the most.  Even when completely fresh, sometimes I just miss the hold. The move is truly blind! 

I have made it through this move maybe 1/3 attempts, and fallen on the following crimp traverse. In the meantime, I did take a day to try some other routes and regain some confidence (or was it for the 30 day ranking...). I gave a flash attempt on Gusanito, an 8a+ traverse above the Illusionist. I'd seen lots of people trying it, but didn't ask for beta. Unfortunately this cost me, and I took a bad fall at the crux on my flash go, because I'd skipped two draws (which made me hesitate) and came close to decking. However, Jim Pope (who flashed the route earlier) offered a bit of beta and I took it down next try. 

I also tried a route on the far left side that day, Steiny L1. This is a classic 8a which starts with a crux compression problem right off the ground, which leads into a big rest and then a 7a+ or so to the top?

I found the compression crux a bit reachy for me, but with some high smears and a heel, I ticked it third go. To be honest, this was one of my least favorite routes I've done here...

Back to Muy Verdes!