20 year-old Flan (Flannery) Shay-Nemirow (Organic Campusing Training Video, 8a Scorecard), 23-year old Shannon Joslin and I are at the base of a 5.11 crack called Frank’s Wild Years, named after the 80’s Tom Waits album at the Quarry Wall in Golden, CO.
I first met Flan nearly a year ago through mutual friend Sarah Shaw. Sarah introduced Flan as a bouldering powerhouse and child phenom climber. I, too, started bouldering when young – though I’ve never reached Flan’s level of success. We quickly became friends, and shared a similar sense of humor. I wanted to know what made her tick.
Recently, I moved back to Golden, Colorado. With Flan in nearby Denver, I asked if she’d be keen for an interview at a crack climbing area I’d been frequenting. She agreed and asked if it would be all right if she brought her friend Shannon who is visiting for the month from California.
The day we met, Flan was dressed in a tight-fitting sky blue V-neck shirt, skinny gray Dockers and sticky gray approach shoes with bright, orange laces. When her thick-rimmed black glasses slid down her nose she pushed them back up with her index finger. Her triceps bulged through her shirt.
“I’ve turned down the offer to trad climb before,” said Flan. “Sarah is always trying to drag me out.”
That day donning a harness and climbing with ropes Flan was out of her comfort level but happy nonetheless. The vibe was loose and relaxed up on Table Mountain. Traffic from Highway 58 and the constant humming of the Coors brewery could be heard from below. “I think it’s great that we’re out here today at this roadside crag,” she said. “I feel like I’m picking up things already, by just being here. I’ve never even belayed anyone on gear before. ” She’s only ever tried one crack boulder problem before, Bachar Cracker (V4) in Yosemite, a roof crack located in Camp 4. She explained that despite the fact that it was wet, she would not have been able to do it even if it was dry.
Flan’s polite. She thanked me continuously during the day for cooking up a breakfast of veggies and meats, brewing espressos and taking her out.
Flan was born and raised in Denver. She started climbing when she was 10. Her first time climbing outside was when she was 12. That day she was on a nearby buttress up here on Table Mountain. “It was Deck Chairs on the Titanic, a super greasy 5.9,” she said. “I’m pretty good at remembering names.”
Recently she’s been on the road, spending time in Squamish, Leavenworth, Yosemite, Bishop, Red Rocks, and, Joe’s Valley. She can count on one hand the number of times she’s climbed on a rope in the last year.
We talked Shannon up her lead while Flan belayed. Like Flan, Shannon is mainly a boulderer but she has limited trad experience. She climbs in the V7 range.
Flan has bouldered as hard as V12 on the problem called Clear Blue Skies on Mount Evans on the Dolly Wall. Flan said she’s down rated some other V12’s she’s done. “Is that kosher to say?” she asked with a smile. She’s climbed up to 12d sport.
“If there was a jump on this you’d do super well,” she called up to Shannon as she attempted to lead the crack using my pre placed gear.
“Shameless climbing,” stated Shannon regarding her situation of spending more time hanging on the rope than climbing up the crack.
The rope slammed tight and Shannon let out a grunt.
“I’m sponsored but not lucratively,” Flan said. “I’m full-on unemployed.” She kept her eye on the rope, and reeled it in when Shannon said take.
“This seemed like a relaxing way to spend the day, but I’m not sure Shannon would agree with us,” said Flan. “Trust it, I got you,” she called up to Shannon.
“I was raised a gym rat, but much prefer climbing outside now,” said Flan. She climbed three or four days a week at Paradise Rock gym before it closed “five or six years ago.” Then she went to Rock’n and Jam’n also in Denver. The day before we met she trained at the “DBC,” referring to the Denver Bouldering Club.
Her only sibling is her younger brother Asher. “He’s also climbed V12. I think that makes us the only brother sister team that’s both climbed V12, though I don’t think there’s any [official] research to back that up,” she said.
“We both competed on plastic for a while, and roped comps on plastic. Once we started competing on the ABS we started taking that drive outside. We didn’t come out of the gym and immediately crush V10 outside, we had to pay our dues as boulderers pay their dues.”
Why bouldering? I ask. “I think I’m drawn to the pure and brutal displays of power, not to mention the aspects involving problem solving. Mostly I just like trying really hard,” she replied.
“You’re killing it,” she said to Shannon who slowly worked her way up the route.
I asked Flan what her favorite bouldering area was. After giving it a moment of thought she replied Rocklands in South Africa, but “it takes 24 hours to get there.”
A school acquaintance of Flan’s got her into climbing. Soon they joined a team. “My parents don’t climb at all, and I didn’t know anyone else that did. It’s kind of fortuitous the way it worked out,” she said.
“I kind of regret not dropping out of high school.” She was a terrible student, she said. “I hated it. I didn’t mesh with the way I was being taught. I think that at the time I thought what they were teaching was below me. I went to four different schools in high school and couldn’t find a good fit.”
Considering her ability to problem solve on the rock I find her approach to school surprising. “I read a lot,” she said. I compliment on her sophisticated vocabulary. “My parents are really educated,” she said, before adding in another thank you, and then complimenting my vocabulary skills as well.
“See, I’m learning a lot,” she said, when I tell her which cams we need to send up to Shannon so she can complete her lead.
I asked her what a day at the gym is like. “Bouldering in your approach shoes for 20 minutes, then jumping on some harder stuff. Falling a lot. Trying to get tired. Then after that some campusing, some systems wall, some weighting pull-ups and antagonist training. Antagonist training is doing push ups, shoulder exercises like flys, and lots of training to open up your chest. Since climbing is always pulling – the pushing evens you out.”
She jokes about how she once grimaced when a fellow competitor once told her he wanted to free El Cap. I asked her if she ever wanted to free El Cap. She tilted her head, let out a smile, and said probably not, “but maybe some stuff below it,” referring to the boulders.
Shannon reached the anchor and lowered back down to the ground.
“I’m mostly nervous,” said Flan in a mouse-like voice when I asked her if she was excited to do the crack. “I don’t think it’s going to be a very pretty top rope [ascent].”
She tied in, looked up the crack and got on it. She made long reaches as she jammed the beginning of the crack before it narrowed down from hand width to finger width. Instead of jamming the finger section she lays back the crack until it widened back out to hands.
“See I’m using the back of my hand,” she said.
She hung on the rope as she worked out the sequences. She appeared to be absorbing the entirety of the beta we called up to her.
“I fell again.” She exhaled with almost a growl. “I was using the back of my hand, that’s why I fell.”
“I’m kind of a beta scout,” said Shannon. “I find the weird beta on boulder problems and then Flan steps up and sends them.”
I could feel Flan’s frustration as she worked on different jamming styles. She let out the occasional “foosh” breath, like the power breathing used when bouldering.
“C’mon Flan,” said Shannon up to Flan as she picked up her pace up the crack.
“How the [expletive] do you turn around?” asked Flan as she pulled on a tips crack instead of changing directions and getting in position and using chimney technique.
“It’s hard. At least V8. Is 5.11 like V11? she said. “I [felt] like I [was] wresting an alligator.”
She took the crack straight on, mostly, like she wanted to over power it.
“I haven’t been on ropes since August,” she said to Shannon as she was lowered to the ground.
“The backs of my hands aren’t too psyched. And my brand new bouldering shoes hurt. That’s like way more bouldery than bouldering. Seriously,” said Flan.
Before heading back to the car we organized the gear. Putting everything away Flan took one last look at a cam inquisitively. “So strange,” she said.
Flan is sponsored by Blurr, Organic Climbing and Five Ten.
Shannon is a Northern California regional ambassador for La Sportiva and is sponsored by BruBar.
