Problem Of the Week #7: Gunslinger (V7)

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This Problem Of [the] Week (POW) is all about “Gunslinger” (V7) in the Right Boneyard area of GHSP.

Gunslinger belongs to the “love it or hate it” category of boulder problems. The polarized opinions for short three-move problems are either “dude that boulder is so stupid, don’t waste your time” or “I #%&$ing love that thing!”

Gunslinger is low-ball, burly, and three moves long. Five moves long if you count starting and topping it out (which I would, as neither are particularly easy).

The problem starts low on a small, steep, knife-blade arête fin. Shane Messer (the first ascensionist) and I found this line to be worthwhile by simply trying to start it, and considered naming it the “thigh master” due to the squeezing necessary to get off of the ground.

To begin Gunslinger you start matched on an impossible looking, barely present, horribly slopey, feint bulge on the left side of the boulder. Your thighs have to “steel trap” either side of the acute arête, squeezing like you’re trying for that shiny dinner-plate sized rodeo belt buckle of your dreams, and with feet anywhere you can manage them. From the start you bump to the right twice and follow through with your left to establish on two equally terrible sloper lumps. This is followed by the “gunslinger move” which is a large, fleeting, Hail Mary toss to the nice fin jug at the tip of the boulder (and avoiding the deal breaker dab on the adjacent boulder as you orbit out). From there, a toss over mantle press-out gives way to victory.

The landing is good and the problem is lowball, but you probably want two crashpads just to cover the bases.

Shane Messer put this one up on 11 March 2011 and aptly named it, as this one has sent many a climber out onto their crashpad. Be sure to give Gunslinger a go if you’re ever in the Right Boneyard. Regardless of what category you lump short three-move problems into, I think you’ll be psyched to top this one out.