Dave: You recently climbed Jaws II, how did it go?


Mike: Well, I left my house early, around 6:30 in the morning, and got up to the cliff pretty early. I actually ran into Vasya Vorotnikov that morn- ing too, which was kind of random because he’s never really at Rumney, he belayed me a little in the morn- ing. The conditions continued to get worse as the day progressed, so I tried it about three times in the morning and then sort of messed around with some new foot beta that I was kind of thinking about. That seemed to work really well so I took a break in the afternoon and waited until conditions were a little better. I rested for about five hours, and returned around 5:30 and sent it first go. I’m not usually very good at resting so I was pretty psyched to take a four hour break and go right back to it.


Dave: Had you worked on the route before?


Mike: After I did China Glide last summer I tried it a couple times and didn’t think too much of it because all the moves were pretty hard and I didn’t think it was possible. But I came home for the summer and decided I had nothing else to do so I tried it a little more and then I had a breakthrough with a move I’d never done before. I got really psyched on that and spent four more days at Rumney. I worked for about two weeks total.


Dave: Not to get stuck on grades but from the way it sounds, you aren’t so sure about the 5.15 grade.


SEPTEMBER| OCTOBER 2011


Mike: I’ve been thinking about that a lot actually, I have no idea really. It certainly feels like the hardest thing I have ever done but Rumney is my local spot so I kind of feel like it’s my place and I have it figured out pretty well. The route is pretty much exactly my style. The crux is a hard boulder problem and I can’t think of anything that fits my style more, but it still feels like the hardest boulder problem I have ever done. I can totally see it getting downgraded, but I am pretty confident the way Vasya did it was really serious and I couldn’t touch it his way. When I was climbing with Daniel Woods in 2008, I could kind of see what he was do- ing but I tried it his way and it didn’t seem like I could do it. He has the best lock-off strength of anyone in the world, I can’t image doing it the way he did it. So I messed around with the footing and ended up using slightly higher feet and not relying on pure lock-off strength.


Dave: How was the evening heat up there? Sunday was pretty brutal.


Mike: Yeah it was, but it was better in the evening and I think part of me felt like it was cooler only because it had been in the 90’s all week. Work- ing in Massachusetts, some days it felt like it was over 100 degrees, so even being 80 degrees outside felt cool. There was a breeze that eve- ning too so I was pretty psyched on conditions.


Dave: What are you up to now? Are you still living in the Northeast?


Mike: Right now I am going to school in British Columbia and studying at Quest University ‚ which


is in Squamish. I am home for the summer but I am from Lincoln, Mas- sachusetts.


Dave: How’s it going out there, are you getting any good climbing in?


Mike: Yeah, I try to get in as much climbing as I can but it is pretty much wet the whole time I am there. I leave right as the season starts and return when it’s ending. There wasn’t really a gym in Squamish either so staying in shape was tough. There is a garage/coop gym but it’s sort of hard to get motivated in a garage. Just recently we raised a bunch of money to build a gym on our cam- pus. It’s really cool, it’s brand new so there is still a lot of room to improve the facility. My roommates and I raised almost $20,000 to build the climbing gym. We now have a place to climb year-round — I am pretty psyched about that.


Dave: Do you have any more proj- ects left at Rumney?


Mike: Rumney is pretty much tapped out for me, or at least for the season that I am there. The Fly (5.14d) is definitely on the list but I’m just not here in the winter or the fall. The Fly is definitely a winter climb. On the West Coast I definitely have some projects. I was trying Dreamcatcher (5.14d) quite a bit before I left to come home. It’s going good, but you just have to deal with wet climbing. It would be dry for a day and whenever I would be getting close, it would rain for two days and the holds would start getting wet again. It’s another battle with conditions, not really any different from the Northeast, so I’m staying psyched.


climber MAGAZINEism | 7


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