Much has been written about the beauty of Magic Wood and
there is little I can add to those descriptions, other than to agree that it is
a truly spectacular place and completely lives up to its name. It’s a
must-visit destination for any boulderer, but particularly if your interest
lies in steep, powerful problems on mostly good edges.
Orienting yourself in the forest can be somewhat tricky but
thankfully for my directionally-challenged self, my friend was adept at
identifying where we were and seeking out the problems we’d spotted in the
guide book.
There were two “big” sends for me during the trip. First up
was Samurai Tango (video in previous post), a burly prow that looks just like
an old sail boat complete with a well-placed tree for a mast. It wasn’t on the
list of problems we wanted to check out, but we walked past it while a guy was
working it and it looked fun.
The published grade (7C) was way hard for me, so I initially
wasn’t interested in trying it, but Guy and Russ both jumped on and dispatched
it pretty quickly. Somewhere along the line I got sucked in and found myself
doing the individual moves quite quickly. It’s basically a two move problem
starting with a hard pull off the ground to a good side pull, re-position and
match the side pull, then jump for a jug. Anyway, progress was such that I
elected to go back the following and sent it within a couple of tries. Very,
very happy!
On the tick list was Valentine’s Day (7A+/B) and its harder
extension Fight Club. Again, Russ & Guy dialled in Valentine’s Day real
quick and set about working Fight Club, where they developed the world’s worst
beta for the initial moves and burnt lots of energy before someone showed them
the error of their ways.
Meanwhile, Valentine’s Day proved elusive for me. The
standard way of doing the crux move involves a heinous heel hook behind a big
flake which threatens to rip either your foot from your ankle, or your leg from
your knee, depending on which joint is the weakest link! Given the dubious
state of both my right knee and ankle, I was having none of that and resorted
to a low foot and huge throw to the edge which then required all the core and
shoulder power I could muster to keep the foot on long enough that the swing
was controllable. In total, I think I spent two and a bit sessions on the
problem before finally it all clicked together and I bagged the send.
There were various other inspiring lines which I really want
to get back on. Intermezzo (7C) is beautiful and I got achingly close to sending
the problem, but ultimately ran out of time, power and skin. In the
aspirational camp, Mutter Tag (8A) goes down as the world’s most deceptive
problem – from the ground it doesn’t look hard at all… but try to get onto it
and it is a beast! The guy working it when we were was into his 3rd
day of working it and reckoned it had taken him 50 tries just to get
established on the start holds. Great perseverance!
The problem I would love to project (one day when I am big
and strong!) is Jack’s Broken Heart (8A). To see how it should be climbed,
check out Alex Puccio’s video on YouTube. If I ever get to play on it, somehow I
doubt I will make it look as easy as she did!
Great place, great company, great climbing, great beer!
So many reasons to go back to Magic Wood!
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