So while all the rock in Hampi is the same type of granite, for the purposes of climbing there are two types. The burnt orange rock that's been exposed to the elements and I assume oxidized, and the grey rock that has been split off more recently and is usually smoother and featureless (it hasn't been eroded). This climb, Cosmic Arete, climbs a corner (arete is climber-speak for corner) where the two types meet. So for your left hand you have a series of slopy side-pulls of the grey granite and for your right little ledges on the orange face.
I tried the climb on one of my first days and barely did the high start after many tries, but I went back the other day and did it from the low start second try. Pretty nice to surprise myself like that :). I'm used to the rock here now I guess. These pictures are of the crux of the low start:
And here is Ben from St. Louis (who has know left for Delhi then China with his wife) just coming short on the same move.
I did another awesome problem yesterday, a V8 on the grey rock. You start on a ledge with a high heel and a big left hand side-pull and with a low left foot you rock up to this right hand sloper in a flaring horizontal crack. There's a little little crimp in the middle of it you have to hit just right. You match with a gaston and after getting your feet up onto the start holds switch the hands to two under-clings in the top of the crack, reaching up with your left hand to the top ofthe boulder. That was were I slipped off on my flash attempt; my right foot popped off after I had grabbed the top.... Got it third try, however I'm not sure if it's really V8. Non-climbers will catch only half of this paragraph, sorry!
After ten days of this rock I now barely have any skin on my fingers, so I think tomorrow or the day after it's off to Gokarna and Goa for four or five days, then back to Hampi for more bouldering.
I tried the climb on one of my first days and barely did the high start after many tries, but I went back the other day and did it from the low start second try. Pretty nice to surprise myself like that :). I'm used to the rock here now I guess. These pictures are of the crux of the low start:
And here is Ben from St. Louis (who has know left for Delhi then China with his wife) just coming short on the same move.
I did another awesome problem yesterday, a V8 on the grey rock. You start on a ledge with a high heel and a big left hand side-pull and with a low left foot you rock up to this right hand sloper in a flaring horizontal crack. There's a little little crimp in the middle of it you have to hit just right. You match with a gaston and after getting your feet up onto the start holds switch the hands to two under-clings in the top of the crack, reaching up with your left hand to the top ofthe boulder. That was were I slipped off on my flash attempt; my right foot popped off after I had grabbed the top.... Got it third try, however I'm not sure if it's really V8. Non-climbers will catch only half of this paragraph, sorry!
After ten days of this rock I now barely have any skin on my fingers, so I think tomorrow or the day after it's off to Gokarna and Goa for four or five days, then back to Hampi for more bouldering.
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