Power Animal (V13) – Photo by John-Carl Vallejo
Some days just aren’t your days, but some day are! Yesterday I was slipping off the upper crux of ‘Power Animal’ (V13) just like on my previous day of attempts, but on my third go of the day I decided to just try really really hard to hang on and stick the undercling (picture here) and it worked! I screamed my way through the last few moves and topped that bad boy out. A wave of joy and relief washed over me and I was mentally amped, yelling at the top of my lungs. It’s been a battle on this trip, wondering if I’d go home empty handed after being in full on project mode, doing only the same couple warm-ups and trying the same couple nails-hard boulders for the last two weeks, but I’m glad my focus paid off! I don’t know if the rare humid conditions that’ve been plaguing the desert recently made this problem feel harder than it should have felt, or maybe my skin was soft from the salve I put on it the day before (I’m never using salve again!), or if it’s just a hard problem, but it’s certainly a #kingline that was well worth the effort in the end. #Psyched it’s done. We got some iPhone footage of the send that I’ll be editing up and throwing online soon! I’m already fantasizing about the next projects…
Check out the rough send footage:
Thanks so much to everyone who hiked pads up, spotted, supported and documented over the fours days on this rig! Couldn’t have done it without you.
