Rhode Island Ripper V7

Locate the striking, left-angling finger crack on the left side of a tall face above Green Egg. The face that houses this thing has a line called "z crack" on the right hand side - i've TR'd it along with a few others - but as far as i know z crack has never been soloed.

i've seen a lot of strong climbers try this and have seen a lot fail. If you do it the way the FA went i'd be hard pressed to call it anything less than V7. 

This was supposed to be a gift to a RI native i'd been climbing with for a year or so. he was heading back and wanted an FA before he went. I'd seen this a year before and hadn't even touched it - thinking it was V0- not worth pulling on. We figured he'd bag this quick and we'd try to find something more stout later. 

An afternoon later and he had to leave without either of us sending it (he ended up going knife fighter - a rarely done high ball to the left of bejeezus). I spend several days and finally ticked it. Just wish it was a little bit longe

The Green Egg V7

Start low on the large rail system and work your way out into a pocket that allows you to pull onto some crimps and left into another rail system before topping out. 

I saw sherman do his own second ascent of this problem (the same day i sent impossible). his beta was as described - he followed rail up to the high point in the center of the overhang, then dyno'd for a blind ledge up and behind his head. The day he was there he wanted a pic of him sending it - so carefully setup a camera uphill from the problem then set up out pads. There were three of us spotting him with one running the cam. Sherman gets to the high point and without warning hucks huge up and out for the blind toss. His spotter was too busy watching him climb and totally missed sherman coming off and he falls straight down flat on his back - from where i was standing (by camera) it looked as though he had split his skull like a melon. I fully expected to see him dead. Instead he was totally out of breath and lying stunned on the ground. missed each rock by inches and was fine. The rested for about 5 minutes and without saying a word, got back on the sent it second try.

Howler V7

Scary high ball if done "correctly" (ie the only way I could think of when trying it with Colin years ago). On the asteriod boulder - start on the blank face just right of pulled pork/boomerang. Step up on thin crimps and do a high left step onto a sloper and start groveling for a high left hand sloped finger hold. After doing the high rockover (crux) move your right hand up to the highest decent crimp and slowly move your right foot up. After getting balanced, turn the high crimp into a press down (turn your right hand and press down with your thumb on the highest crimp. Move your right foot up a bit more and then go up with your right hand to the blind ledge just below the top lip. Hitting this ledge is pretty joyous from that high and led to the name "Howler".

The Impossible Problem

Was first done in 1990? by bp after it was shown to me as "it goes this high and then it is impossible from there".