Little Bear 

Okay, here's what I know.

Brian Spiering first listed this problem. He was one of the most stoked and explorative boulderers I've ever climbed with. I mean, this guy was hiking up San Ysidro creek to climb hyper-obscure V0's, and then he would blog about it. Awesome. Anyhoo, when he talked about Little Bear, he hadn't actually done the problem, he was just attempting to get folks psyched. He also hadn't done the SDS to Heaven on Top—to my knowledge. I did the latter problem from the sit, and thought it was V6/7. That was back in 2006. Did I get the FA? No idea.

But back to Little Bear.

I was out at LM one cold day not long after Brian blogged about the Top of the World area, and Bob was tooling around shooting photos. He and I noticed Little Bear, so we set up a shot, scrubbed the holds, and I sent after a handful of tries. I thought it was pretty hard, but not desperate. I remember Brian telling me it was harder than V8, so it had this kind of mystique about it, but when I topped out the boulder after 20 minute of effort, I graded it V7. I've never gone back since, but it continues to be one of my favorite sloper problems anywhere. I think it's every bit as good as Gangster Hippy. Again, I think I might have the FA. But again, who knows? I don't need the ego-boost.

Oh, and one more thing:

Try starting on the junky starting hold, and climb STRAIGHT up over the lip. Mega-burl shoulder wrenching problem. Haven't done it, pretty sure it goes.

Thanks for the info Andy!

It took me a while to figure out the correct beta, but once I did it went down in a few tries. I thought it was a tad harder than King Dino, but maybe it was just the day. Besides, in the end, who cares? It's a rad climb, and definitely one of the finest sloper problems around.

With regards to the straight up problem; I tried to get over the lip from a stand start (figured I'd work the sit another time). I felt like I was gonna barf, but I almost did it. It goes. Probably.

I remember trying this problem after Bernd told me about it and thought it was RAD. Didn't do it though.

Excerpt from an email from Bernd, 2/1/2007 regarding new problems at The Mouth and The Yard:

"...Nathan Welton had found a cool sloper problem on the Top of the World, Ma boulder, and I got to do it. It starts on the undercling, goes to the jug and then out left of the marginal sloping arete. I called it Little Bear. I don't know how hard."

This one is great! Randomly saw it as I walked passed today, and starting sussing the beta. Did all the moves but walked away without a send (was dark by the time I dialed the moves) , but I'll for sure stop by again tomorrow and try to finish it off. Felt tough, but maybe not an 8... Was able to do all the moves fairly quick, but I'll wait 'til I've actually sent to comment any further grade-wise.

Regardless, one of my new favorites at the Mouth.

Edit: Got the send, just before the rain. Great, unique moves. Try it sans spotter to get the motivation up. Get's a 7 in my book.