Amateur Hour

Does anyone still read this thing? I doubt it. But if you do and you're wondering what I've been up to since November 7th, the answer is this working on this goddamned video. 

I made this entirely on my own with the exception of some filming. It wasn't until arriving back in Vegas that I realized I had to scrub through nearly 80 gigs of semi-unusable nonsense with no story outline, no ideas, and no help. Oh, and it was pretty much all shot on an iPhone.

This is my first attempt at making a feature-length film and the process could not have been more stressful. I had every technical issue imaginable during editing and exporting including my computer dying completely without notice. The film was nearly finished an was not backed up. I was sure that all those months would be for nothing, but somehow the bastard made it out alive.

The lack of vision, foresight, footage, and quality of this film cause me to see red. I can't even watch it anymore. That said I am happy with what I made out of the materials available and I think the heart of it shows through.

With great relief I'm happy to dump this onto the internet forever and be done with it.

I hope you enjoy watching this, wait what am I talking about? I don't care at all if you enjoy it or not.

Amateur Hour - Rocklands 2013 from Max Moore Photography on Vimeo.
 

And please for the love of God don't watch it on your phone or in the thumbnail.

Abaddon - Video

Pretty proud of this one. I hope you enjoy the video.

Max Moore - Abaddon V12 from Max Moore Photography on Vimeo.

Liberty Herring on Scare Tactics - Video

I wanted to post this video in a separate entry. Hope it gets you psyched. Please don't watch this little thumbnail though, full screen that shiz.
Liberty Herring - Scare Tactics V10 from Max Moore Photography on Vimeo.

Not Abaddon - Video

Tomorrow I turn 26 and my health insurance runs out. Clearly a celebration is in order so yesterday I hiked out to Black Velvet Canyon to rope rehearse and eventually solo the 5.9+ top out of Abaddon V12.

As I swung my oversized pad over my soon to be uninsured back and shoulders I couldn't help but feel the annual surge of an existential crisis. My pack felt doubly weighted and each step seemed to rattle my head like a trashcan full of 8 balls. Angst aside, there was a cool and steady breeze sighing between those big gate-like walls, and there is nothing like a cool and steady breeze to push aside an existential crisis.

If I do one boulder this year it has to be this one, I thought. I would be happy with just this one. But for today I'll be happy to overcome the fear of hurling into that pit.

After a lot of time and more than a few broken holds I summoned the courage to get off the rope and just climb the damn thing. I felt surprised when the fear didn't come knocking. So surprised that it almost threw me. I ended up doing the top again easily, as if it were Potato Chips.

I thought a lot about the complete change in attitude toward the boulder after rehearsing it. It could be that I am just rehearsing aspects of my life right now, and when the time is right I won't even need a cool and steady breeze.

Pardon the bullshit, here's a video.
Not Abaddon from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

As the weakest person to climb on this boulder I promise that this top out beta is the best around.

-BLOCHEAD

The Subway - Video

I know that everyone is waiting for a Rocklands video, but here are some nice (chossy) limestone drop-offs instead. Since returning to Vegas I've repeated a couple hard things at The Subway, Mt. Charleston's summer bouldering hang. Hold the Doors was put up this past June by my buddy Craig. I got lucky and opened a standing project involving a very difficult undercling move into another undercling...in a roof. Sounds fun, right?

THE SUBWAY from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

Alternate Wet Dream Footage

My good buddy PLT just sent me some footage from this past season he had of me sending the iconic Wet Dream V12. I thought this angle was great for beta since this problem can be tricky. Enjoy!

Max Moore climbs Wet Dream V12 from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

-BLOCHEAD

Anthem - Video

Lib getting it done on her adventure project. A fun boulder if you have the time to hike out there! More from her on the experience here.

Liberty Herring - Anthem V9 from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

-BLOCHEAD

Limited Edition - Video

New boulders are going up like crazy down here in the desert. The legendary Craig Berman cleaned this impossible looking series of sloping red rails and it turns out instead of being a mutant level campus proj there are some (bad and slowly eroding) footholds and it goes! 2nd ascent footage below.

Limited Edition V10 from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

-BLOCHEAD

IS THAT ON NORTH? A HUECO TANKS BOULDERING VID

Here it is! 19 Problems from V2-V13. I hope you enjoy the video. I had a lot of fun making it and capturing the good times with friends. It's a pretty goofy video so like the last one, please don't take it too seriously. We sure didn't.

IS THAT ON NORTH? from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.
If you click the vimeo link all the climbs are annotated so you can find them easily for beta or whatever. Otherwise here is the full list.

Problems in order of appearance:
Short Order Cook V6 (0:12)
Wonderhole Dyno V10 (0:30)
Theater of the Absurd V10 (0:52)
McBain V8 (1:48)
Smooth Move V8 (2:30)
Free Willy V10 Flash! (3:08)
Alma Blanca V13 (3:55)
Paleozoic V9 (4:39)
Pumped Full of Semen V9 (5:39)
Dark Age V11 (7:05)
Fern Roof V8 (8:38)
Nobody Here Gets Out Alive V2 (10:30)
Daily Dick Dose V7 (12:17)
Loaded With Power V10 (13:08)
Sign of the Cross V3 (14:00)
Choir Boys Light V7 (14:58)
Melon Patch (16:33)
Barefoot on Sacred Ground V12 (17:42) (18:14) Send
Loaded Direct V12 (18:57)

More vids to come!

-BLOCHEAD

The Monkey Bar Circuit - Video

Still working on the Hueco video. In the meantime I got out to the Monkey Bar boulder with the hope to doing Mark Heal's tough eliminate The Redirect V12. After sticking this TOUGH move and finishing the problem I decided to go ham and climb every hard line on the boulder including a couple of my own trainer eliminates. I only had a short amount if time before work, but I had a blast! Maybe I'll try again sometime and add a few more.

I made a little video of that day. Please don't take it seriously.

The Monkey Bar Circuit from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.
-BLOCHEAD

Alma Blanca - Video

Don't you hate it when someone does a boulder problem and just posts video of the send go? Well, maybe you don't care at all. I started recording my attempts of Alma Blanca in hopes of finding out what I was doing wrong and how I could adjust my body position to correct it.

Before long I had over 50 recorded attempts. I decided to leave most of them in the video to show a very real process of repeated failure. In total I estimate that I tried the move to the lip 100 times. I only stuck the move three times. Once in isolation, and twice on redpoint.

Some climbers claim that this boulder is "easy" or "soft" and it could be for their body types but it didn't feel that way to me. I was fully spanned between the two holds and by the end I was stretching so far to keep the toe hook that I was nearly limping away from an overextended right hip flexor.

I learned a lot from this boulder and I look forward to taking the experience and applying it to hard projects in the future.

Under Pressure - Alma Blanca - Hueco Tanks from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

-BLOCHEAD

Wet Dream - Video

I'm currently in El Paso, Texas where they haven't seemed to figure out high speed internet. It took an entire rest day just to upload this video of Wet Dream from a couple weeks ago. Projecting this line was one of the most enjoyable experiences in my climbing thusfar. I found  myself becoming very attached to the climb and reaching the top brought on a feeling I'll keep with me for years to come.

Wet Dream Unchained from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.


Hueco has been awesome so far as to be expected. I always feel at home coming back to the desert. So much so that I'm pretty sure I know my way around El Paso better than Vegas. Lib and I have been getting a lot of sweet iPhone footage so stay tuned!

-BLOCHEAD

Wet Dream Right - Video

One last post for 2012. Here is some sweet uncut iFootage of Wet Dream Right. Thanks to Kyle O'Meara for the spot! I have a lot of fail video on the original line so hopefully my first post in 2013 will be the send!

Wet Dream Right from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

Happy New Year everyone!

-BLOCHEAD

The Green Hornet - Video

I've been sitting on this for a while, and seeing as I probably won't be in Bishop for a while here is a little clip of a very memorable (read: uncomfortably tall) slab problem in Dale's Camp. My big fat fingers had a tough time with these small crystals!

The Green Hornet from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

-BLOCHEAD

Best Monday Ever - Video

I am a cold weather seeker. I love the way my fingertips feel, the way the rock sticks. I love resting in a puffy and breathing in the fresh air.

By that description yesterday was opening day for me. Cloud cover, a slight breeze, and cool temps motivated me to spend the entire day outside bouldering. Before I knew it I had skipped lunch and logged a full 9-5 outside.

 I brought along my phone and made sure to get some video since I have been bad about that lately. I was able to send three projects yesterday making for one of my best days to date.

Three in a Day from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.


The lines in the video (particularly Taurine and Red Wave) are maddening in their simplicity. I tried each an embarrassing amount of times before finally sending. It's funny to think about all the effort and emotion leading up to the send, but when you see the video it looks like easy. I assure you they are not. At least for me.

Stake Your Claim came down to an unorthodox foot beta that I have never done on a rock before. I will spare you the spray, but feel free to send me a message or leave a comment if you are looking for tips on this climb.

Hope you enjoy the video and I'll do my best to keep them coming.

-BLOCHEAD

Sideburn Video

Liberty Herring - Sideburn V9 - Mt. Charleston, NV from BLOCHEAD on Vimeo.

-BLOCHEAD

Margin of Error First Ascent Video

This morning I finished cutting together a week's worth of projecting (read: fail) footage into this six minute video. I don't have much to say about this line that isn't expressed in the footage. It took me a long time to finish and became a very personal and emotional endeavor. No boulderer is a stranger to these feelings, and like a lot of other people it is one of the primary reasons I climb.

I hope you enjoy the video and if you have any questions as to the whereabouts or otherwise I've posted the location of the boulder in the Vimeo description or feel free to comment below.

-BLOCHEAD

Red Rocks - A Few New Boulders Video

Hey everyone! The lack of posts this month has been pretty lame on my part, but I swear I've been busy. Shooting weddings here in Vegas is a crazy job and the work has been anything but slow.

Here's a longer video of a few new boulders, variations, and sit starts in the scenic loop that Lib and I have cleaned and finished over the past couple weeks. I've included a list of problems and their place in the video, but if you have the time watch the whole thing because there are some hilarious rock breakages in slow motion. Also if you'd like to know any further or more detailed beta on the whereabouts of these lines feel free to shoot me a message on vimeo or leave a comment below.

As usual the grades are just our best guess.

Problems in order of appearance:

(0:12) Blackbeard's Delight V8/9

(1:29) Unemployment V4/5

(3:07) Lost in Thought V7

(4:13) Buried Alive V8/9

(6:35) Little Tortoise V5

(8:06) Hydropower Low V8

(8:51) Project V?

-BLOCHEAD

Team Flashed Vs. Show of Hands Video

Here is a video of myself and fellow Flashed athlete Dave Heerema prevailing over gale force winds and sending the Moe's Valley classic Show of Hands V11. Make sure to watch the entire video!

More videos of new Red Rock sit starts coming soon!

-BLOCHEAD

Dead Rabbit Video

I've been shooting a lot of weddings downtown lately, but before I head back off to the land of drive thru ceremonies and green card weddings I was able to finish up this little video Lib shot during our day trip to Moe's Valley a couple days ago. Dead Rabbit is an awesome sustained crimp line on rock reminiscent of Joe's Valley. Toward the end of the day I decided on a whim to attempt this problem after some encouragement form fellow Flashed athlete Dave Hereema. I have to give Dave a big shout out for providing excellent beta that worked perfectly. Dead Rabbit is by far my hardest flash to date. It was even more satisfying because the style is one that I don't consider my strong suit. I guess all those crimpy Monkey Bar eliminates are paying off.

Stay tuned for videos of Show of Hands and a new FA in Willow Springs coming soon!

-BLOCHEAD