1/31/11 - This weekend, two V-hard, long roof problems went up more than 1,000 miles apart. At what's called the Canoe Hole at the Obed in Tennessee, Jimmy Webb added a low start into James Litz's Manic Aggression (V11). The low start begins at the back of the cave, adding 10 to 12 moves of V11.
Webb flashed the stand start on Saturday and began working the low moves immediately. He was able to figure out the beta quickly, then returned on Sunday to finish the problem. On his second attempt, he made it to the original problem's crux—"a toss from a small, left-hand edge to a nice jug edge for the right," he describes on his blog—but an existing finger injury flared up again, causing him to drop.
After resting and icing his finger for a bit, Webb went back to Manic and climbed the stand start again, feeling no pain. Deciding to give the problem a "last-ditch effort," Webb cruised through the lower section, stuck the upper crux, and finished the problem, naming it Manic Euphoria and giving it V13. "Pumped as shit," he blogged. "I couldn't be happier."
Over on the Front Range at Matthews Winters Park, Colorado, Daniel Woods put up a 27-move horizontal roof problem he called Fantasia. "Starts with a direct power V12 into a feet-first V10, finishing with the desperate V10 of Bambi," he said on his scorecard. He suggested V14 for the problem, at least his sixth of the grade in 2010/2011.
Dates of ascents: January 29 (Woods) and 31, 2011
Sources: jimmywebb.blogspot.com, 8a.nu
Below: Jimmy Webb on both Manic Euphoria (top) and Fantasia.
