The Pinky Traverse

After several weeks working in secret I’m finally ready to talk publicly about my new bouldering project.

After several weeks working in secret—countless hours spent cleaning the route, figuring out the sequence, and rehearsing the moves—I’m finally ready to talk publicly about my new bouldering project: The Pinky Traverse.

It’s quite an inspiring line—a thin traverse across an overhanging face on crimpy edges. Two holds are nice and positive, but the rest are a bit slopey. Combine that with the 30 degree overhang, and you’re left with six powerful yet balancey moves. It’s not the biggest feature on the wall by any means, but that’s what I enjoy about it. It took some time staring at the wall and trying variations to finally strike inspiration and unlock the sequence that has been pushing me to my limits.

It must be a V4… dare I even say a V5. I recognize this isn’t pushing the edges of what is possible on a boulder, which is why I decided to keep the project quiet for a while. I didn’t want someone more skilled to swoop in and steal my FA. Especially after I poured so much time and effort in. Hours. I’m telling you, hours. And a couple hundred bucks.

For now, I’m going to keep the location undisclosed. In a bustling town like Los Angeles, the last thing I’d want is to have this spot inundated with a slough of out-of-towners and wanna-be’s pining after a second ascent credit (or even trying to steal my FA! I haven’t quite linked it all together yet…). All I can say is that it’s a short walk from my front door in Highland Park, and an even shorter walk from my back door. Without a long approach, I’ve been able to break up working the route into multiple small evening sessions, which has made the process much more enjoyable.

I know some people are going to come at me with access and ethics complaints—and I hear you. I’m not sure what the ethics are on this kind of climbing. It feels very privileged to be paying a decent sum for rent in exchange for exclusive access to a bouldering project. But, in my defense, I did build the boulder from the ground up. For this reason, I don’t know if I’ll ever disclose the precise location. Perhaps this gem of a boulder is just too special to share. However, I will extend this offer: if you reach out to me personally, perhaps I’ll invite you along to one of my sessions and you can try it out for yourself. Maybe you’ll even find a problem to FA while you’re back there.