BETA PHOTO: The Sparkling Touch is the crack on the left side ...
Description
One of Vedauwoo's hardest crack problems. Start under the roof, using the inclusion on the left before the start of the crack as a foot. Pull up, establishing yourself in the flared roof with your foot still on the inclusion, and crank out to and over the lip, topping out the slab after the crack peters out. A true test of flared jamming abilities, no amount of face climbing will get you up this. Bring tape.
Location
This is on the north side of the large twenty foot tall freestanding boulder just below Emperor of Wyoming, which is the big dihedral roof crack.
Protection
Pad. Crux is low to the ground, so one pad should suffice. It's nice to have if you fall straight down on your back. To get down, crawl into the tree and tread very carefully on the tiny dead branches, or scootch off the edge of the boulder and jump down.
From the parking lot, just walk straight towards the formation with Emperor of Wyoming on it, across the drainage and through the aspens. This boulder is very obvious, it's HUGE, much bigger than the pictures suggest.
Did this again the other day and found new beta for the lip, taking a big bite out of the end of the problem. Personally, I would recommend against the inversion.
Strappo, that is hardly the case. I went through earlier this spring and changed some ratings around. I usually withhold my opinion on such matters because they are trivial and more than anything personal, and I don't like to make a big deal out of them. However, I got sick of all these phonies running around trying to be downrating old school hardasses, so I thought I would include my real opinions. I remember doing this thing and feeling like the tough part was significantly harder than any move on Deliverance in Yosemite (V8), and only slightly easier (at least for me) than the hard move on FUDG Crack up Poudre Canyon (judged to be V10 by the current crop of FR hardmen, but originally graded V9 by Pat Goodman). As a result I felt like V8 was an appropriate grade, and so I said so right here on this site by changing the grade.
Last week I put up what may be a new problem at Valley Massif and another possibly new one that I had worked for years by Spectreman. As a result, I wanted to revisit some of the hard cracks I had already done to get an idea of how hard these new ones are. I did this one and The Process of Belief, both very easily. On The Sparkling Touch, I consider the first move to be the crux, but my old beta at the lip was still hard. With that beta the problem was not over until you were actually standing on the slab at the end. My old beta was getting the tight hands just over the lip and doing a mean standup move to get onto my feet. Now I figured out that I can just downpalm with my right hand and press my way over the lip, taking a huge bite out of the stand up move, so much so that I would call the end of the problem easy for me now. Now I would say if you can get through the first move of the problem, you have pretty much overcome all major obstacles. As a result, I can not in good conscience consider that V8 anymore, so I changed it to V7. It has nothing at all to do with who got the FA, seriously. In any case, I think that Pat would like a stiffer grade on one of his problems because unlike so many of the posers proliferating the area right now Pat Goodman is the real deal as far as I am concerned. He puts up hard shit and doesn't even parade around about it. Badass. Thats why he gets no credit on his FA's up here, he didn't make a big deal out of them. Trust me Strappo, the last thing I would think to do is talk down or diminish one of my inspirations accomplishments.
Sorry for the book, but I knew there would be some internet stalkers out there that would hold Strappo's opinion, and it is important to me to address that simply because doing something so juvenile would be out of character for me. Now why don't some of you people looking at this problem actually go do it? Pat did the FA in 1998, I did the second around about 2002, and that's it for ascents as far as I know.
Jason, if it's not personal then just knock it off. If it is just a little joke it has gone too far. Please stop, lest you become a tool yourself. I think I know you well enough to know that is not what you want. Also, since when does defending yourself against personal attacks qualify you as a tool?
I also wanted to say that I went back out to this problem and did it again today, even showed the beta to your homies Pablo, Julian, and Justin, which made me very happy BTW. It was great to hang out and climb with good company and enjoy a fun climb. I would love to do the same thing with you or Brian any day, Jason.
My pimp name is Tricktickler Edl Clinton. Just thought you should know.
By goodman From: farmington, nm - boone, nc Aug 2, 2009
superhero - You're right! I just sit around on my big-fat-ass and troll the web looking for ways to get attention. I don't realy care that much if I get recognized for first ascents I may or may have not done at the Voo, just want folks to have some consideration for history. If you need the big numbers and FA credit for your sponsors, you can have it!! Now that I think about it, I have never even been to Vedauwoo.... At least I can make a post on the inter-web and use my real name, so people like you can send me hate mail - I luv it!!
Brian Vansickle (superhero), Pat is not full of shit here, sorry. He showed Weak Become Heroes to my friend, Jeremy Medley, years ago. I believe him on this one too, and I'm sure there are more. Plain and simple, the guy is just not the type to B.S. about this kind of stuff. Everyone I know who knows him too tells me how much of a standup guy he is and also what a badass he is. That standup guy is the same guy I met the one time I had the pleasure of climbing with him when I was in Yosemite, so I will vouch for him, too. As for why he waited till now, who knows. I know both him and Jeff Sleuter have told me that they showed much of their stuff to Trevor and Davin years ago, and yet they still got no credit for it, not names and not FA credit.
As per difficulty, go check out his problems around Ft. Collins from that same period of time and you will see that he was bouldering plenty hard enough to do the things up here that he is claiming. Pat was and is one strong mofo.
Also, Pat came up here and had total respect and love for the place. He did numerous proud lines, and for some reason people around here have a hard time swallowing that pill. He is a brother to us, not an enemy. I personally say let the past be the past and let's move on and get it right from here on out.
Crazy Eyes Bjorn Flex at your service. Or dis-service.
For whatever it's worth, I feel strongly that Vedauwoo climbers should be above this manner of online bickering and mudslinging. It's very out of character with the area, or so I would have liked to believe.
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