Poked by a Mermaid

While I usually don’t write up lines I haven’t tried, I’ve looked at this a number of times and have sufficient knowledge of the beta. Also, it’s a worthwhile entry as I can help to sort out the several classic lines on this boulder.

Poked by a Mermaid (the same as

Carnage

, I believe) was quickly put up by Daniel at V13, because the crew was, at the time, eluded by Ice Knife and figured they’d fill in the gaps while they were up there. While

Carnage

quickly got many repeats and solidified as a popular alpine V13, Mermaid remained rarely repeated for almost a decade. Word-class crimper Sam Weir finally got the job done and remarked that the line could be one of his hardest, comparing it with the likes of

Jade

. Because of this, the problem has mostly just been a sandbagged mystery.

Anyways, Mermaid starts sitting, the same as Ice Knife Sit, on opposing sidepulls. Pull on, and get a right kneebar to reach into the heinous undercling as for

Ice Knife

. Where that problem follows the beautiful prow, Mermaid busts straight up and a little right through the tallest, blankest part of the face. Tiny crimps and huge lockoffs are the name of the game on this rig, and it’s not over until you reach the lip.

On Ice Knife Boulder, between

Ice Knife

and

Carnage

, start sitting, the same is IKS.

A comfortable amount of pads. It’s sorta tall and talus-y but not unreasonable.