BURSTOwen Whaley has repeated Creature From the Black Lagoon V16 in Upper Chaos, Colorado. The send of Daniel Woods’s 2016 testpiece adds to Whaley’s list of hard sends, which already includes two V16s: Sosa and Grand Illusion.
Whaley first visited Colorado in July for some alpine bouldering, and discovered that Creature From the Black Lagoon “was great to climb on in the summer,” as Whaley said on 8a.nu, “because the holds aren’t that sharp.”
After dialing in the sequences, he returned in cooler weather, when conditions were better for serious attempts. Upper Chaos is renowned for its scenic setting, but access requires a lengthy hike, while conditions can be inconsistent. The physically demanding nature of the problem also limited Whaley to four or five quality attempts each session.
“My finger has still been bugging me, so this was a great way to stay motivated,” Whaley said. “Climbed through the bottom a few more times than necessary, but definitely made it that much more satisfying.”
On the day of the send, Whaley came close on his first attempt, raising concerns that he might have expended too much energy early in the session. However, after several further attempts, he returned to the problem in the evening, already fatigued but encouraged by a favourable breeze blowing into the cave.
Drawing a comparison with his earlier success on Trieste Sit, he recalled having celebrated prematurely before making an unexpectedly successful attempt. He adopted a similarly relaxed approach on Creature From the Black Lagoon, hoping that reduced expectations might once again work in his favour. “On the fourth go of the day yesterday, I felt tired but thought maybe the trick could work again – magic,” he said.
His send culminated in a complete top-out, something Whaley highlighted as an important part of the experience. “Don’t know why people don’t top this one all the way out,” he said, “victory romp!” Whaley described the satisfaction of finishing the problem in relative solitude: “Super good feeling being up in the park all alone and topping out the project.”
Shawn Raboutou’s Repeat
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