Rifle and the Vail World Cup @ the Teva Mountain Games

The sound of the wind blasting through my window had been going through my brains for hours now driving down the 6. It's ironic that I didn't have the A/C on cos it really is the only thing working on my car right now. Considering all that's broken or held together with duct tape and zip-ties, it's dumb not to enjoy the cool of the A/C in 90F weather. Oh well, all this to save gas cos we're Rifle bound. We were also pretty psyched about checking out the Vail WC happening in conjunction with the Teva Mountain Games.

Our psyche have been pretty high in anticipation of this Rifle trip but personally, I was kinda worried about my route fitness having been holed up all winter bouldering. I'm expecting tons of flailing but seemed pretty assured of doing well having signed up for the Citizen's comp at the Vail WC. Besides, I've kinda set my sights on trying American Prayer. It's apparently a 6 bolt 5.14a with a opening crux section of V9-11 depending on how you climb. It's the post crux section of actual route climbing that I'm worried about. But heck...let's worry about things one at a time. Meanwhile, Tanleng was psyched on sending some 12s.

We finally got to some wild campground called the Corral on our first evening outside Rifle Mountain Park. According to random sources, it's a much warmer place to camp and it honestly didn't look too bad compared to Cedar Pocket at VRG. But I have to admit it looked kinda dodgey with shot out beer cans and tons of dried animal bones around the campground. I was certain the cougar's stalking us.






Rifle turned out to be a really gorgeous place with a little creek running by the crag...and zero hiking.




Day one of climbing was pretty much exploratory. Tanleng sussed out the moves on Cardinal Sin 5.12a and I went and jumped on Amercian Prayer. I had Chad's V7 beta written down but making sense of it was cryptic. I soon resorted to formulating any sensible way of getting up the crux section and by the time I was done, I was completely wasted. I guess I only have myself to blame cos I had only one rest day before Rifle after 3 days on in SLC. Nevertheless, I spent the rest of the session sussing out the moves post crux...just in case I pull the rabbit out the hat for this one. So it was basically a one day sesh on American Prayer on Thu, rest Fri & Sat for the comp on Sun. Tanleng had better luck on Cardinal Sin, falling off post crux from an insane pump on Fri morning. So with nothing much left in our arms, we left for Vail.


We arrived just in time to catch the Men's Qualifiers. Here's Magnus Midtobe on a qualifier problem. Vail Village turned out to be a beautiful ski town. Tons of touristy shops with Euro architecture.



Chill'n.

And there's the Mud Run of course...GO MUD WARRIORS!!!!

Super GRRRLLLS!!!

...Batman!

....and them Sumo wrestlers.



Kayak Freestyle World Championship.



The torrential swirls are insane, lesser men would've drowned!!! These dudes are suicidal...I'll stick to fighting gravity.

The finalists lining up for the BIG showdown!!!


Men's Finals.

Bouldering World Cup 2010 • Vail, Colorado • Mens Finals from Jon Glassberg on Vimeo.

Women's Finals.

Bouldering World Cup 2010 • Vail, Colorado • Womens Finals from Jon Glassberg on Vimeo.

D Woods put up an amazing climbing spectacle winning it for the home team!!! Hori, who came in 2nd, is a beast too. Props to Killian for coming in 3rd with a broken toe.


Citizen's comp on Sun. My turn to pull down.



I've got to admit that I did feel like I'm hustling, signing up for the Masters' Cat but can't blame me for feeling my age lately. At the end of the day, my score would have placed me 4th in the Open Cat, against kids half my age.

It's been a while since I last stood on podiums. Better a has-been, than a wannabee.


So it was back to Rifle after all the fanfare. This time, we decided to give the Corral campground a miss and headed up to the National Forest free camping area 4 miles past the climbing area. The view is stunning!


I was feeling the aches from Sun's comp, plus an anvil of doubt about being able to pull the moves on American Prayer now that I have to resort to a much harder sequence. So we decided that Tanleng will get back on Cardinal Sin on Mon morning and I'll attempt American Prayer in the afternoon to give me more rest. The weekend rest in Vail did the trick cos she cruised Cardinal Sin on her first try back on it.


I got back on American Prayer to re-work Chad's beta and still couldn't figure it out. Looks like this 14 isn't going down without a fight. I gave it 2 serious attempts before deciding that I only have juice for one last go and calling it a day. Fatigue from Sun's comp was setting in and I was getting a whole lot of regret for signing up for the comp. Plus if I was to get back on to try the climb the next day, it would be 3 days on for me and my body would usually break down by then. So one last try it was...and one was try was all it took to SEND!!! Now I'm thankful for all the time holed up in the Front all winter bouldering!

Day 3 was spent checking out other classics. I called it the TRY HARD day cos we had to dig so deep to climb. Still, I managed to flash Cardinal Sin and Fossil Family. Tanleng also managed to fight her way up Fossil Family on her 2nd try for the send. EPIC!!!

And to reward ourselves for sending....we stopped by Draper on the way back to SLC for a massive double-double....ANIMAL STYLE!!!! YYEEEEYYUUUUHHH!!!