Jimmy Webb: Hard Colorado Bouldering

When the summer heat rolls in, America's top boulders head to either the southern hemisphere, Squamish, or the high elevation areas of Colorado. Jimmy Webb made the trek to Colorado to escape the stifling southern heat shrouding his home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee where temperatures have pushed close to 110 degrees (no, it's not a dry heat).

Since he's been in CO, he's put down some seriously difficult problems including the third ascent of Warrior Up at Mt. Evans. Warrior Up was established by Daniel Woods and quickly repeated by Dave Graham during the feeding frenzy of development that happened at the end of the summer 2010. Daniel suggested V15 which was confirmed by Graham but Webb has suggested V14. This was Jimmy's 7th V14 this year.

Jimmy Webb on the Shining (V13). Photo: Jimmy's blog

Just yesterday, Jimmy made the huge hike  to claim the first ascent of the Ice Cave project at Upper Upper Chaos Canyon. No, that's not a typo. Upper Upper Chaos, AKA Super Chaos, is located up the hill (read: giant mountain) above Upper Chaos Canyon in Rocky Mountain National Park. It makes sense that development has been slower at this location since you have to walk past the boulders of Lower Chaos and Upper Chaos to reach this sector. Jimmy's new problem is called the Shining and he's suggested a grade of V13 for it. On his blog Jimmy described the problem as, "an almost horizontal roof ... all about tension on slopey holds." He goes on to praise the area, "Upper Upper Chaos seems to be becoming a destination in itself. Sure the hike is long but that in no way steals from its quality. The rock is as good or better than the rest of Chaos and there are more boulders than I can even handle."

The massive roof of the Shining (V13) at Upper Upper Chaos Canyon. Photo: Jimmy's blog