I've been taking it relatively easy since Hueco, resting my skin and muscles and catching up with school work. I did get out to Eldo yesterday and got back on Iron Monkey a 5.14 trad route I've been working off and on for the past year and a half. I was hoping to just crush the crux dyno move feeling strong from my recent bouldering adventures. This was not my destiny though. The move still felt really hard. I came close to sticking the dyno but never latched it. I'll probably get back on it again this week. In two weeks I'm heading to Joe's Valley for a week of bouldering there. I'm hoping that I can do the Iron Monkey before I head there.
I'm sure that this route is very hard for me. I think it really just exploits my weaknesses. Other people have suggested 5.14a but I can't imagine it being easier than 14b. For me, it really feels like it has to be 14c. Of course I have little basis for assigning a route grade. I can only say for sure that the Fly in Rumney which gets 14d would be much easier for me than this climb. In V grades, the whole crux section feels like V13. I've tried this climb for more than 10 days and still haven't linked the first difficult moves into the dyno and I've only done the dyno 4 times. That's probably the longest I've spent on any one pitch or problem. Of course for others, the climb is easier - for example Daniel Woods did the crux move second try.
It's cool to have such a hard project for me though it's sometimes frustrating knowing that it's not as hard for others. I guess this is just the name of the game sometimes and it's good to work on my weaknesses. Hopefully I can overcome the difficulties and finally put an end to this longterm project.
