Pacific Northwest 2010-Carver Bouldering

Our yearly voyage out to the Northwest is always a nice time to sit back, relax and enjoy family and different amenities that you just cant find back home. There are so many breweries in Portland to enjoy and the cuisine is absolutely incredible! Last night we had some of the best tacos in the world at Porque No and chased it with a great local Amnesia brew...perfect after a day of struggling to climb at the Carver boulders.

If you know anything about the Northwest, then you know that winter is NOT the season to try to boulder outside...and yesterday was no exception. I've visited the Carver boulders at the Carver cliffs on the side of the Clackamus River before, but the conditions yesterday were so wet and the rocks were seeping from under the thick patches of ferns and mosses that almost nothing was dry enough to climb. That's one of the biggest differences between bouldering back home and here near Portland...at home we have drier hardwood forests and here they have more of a rainforest environment, rich in nonvascular plants (mosses and liverworts) and ferns. Similar to Little Rock City, Carver has gone through some changes over the years and being on private property creates a unique situation that requires a unique management. Over the past year, the crag was closed due to unruly climbers and then reopened with the continuing help of the Carver Climbing Club. In order to climb here, you must be a member of the club, which requires an $8 fee, and have your membership card on hand while you climb (I dont have a card though because I signed up a few years ago...and I need to get that fixed while I'm here). There is also a small website that post up info about the bouldering, click on over and check out the saga that has unfolded.



I was lucky enough to find a copy of the old out-of-print bouldering guide to Portland and the Columbia River Gorge at Powells Bookstore a couple of years ago...so I feel lucky to actually have a topo and route list when I visit. After walking around the boulders trying to find anything dry enough to climb, I found myself at the base of the cliff on a boulder called the Standard Overhang, seen in the photo above. I climbed the stand start to the Standard Overhang route which went at a V1 and was a pretty fun route. Then I added the SDS to it and linked through for the V3 version of this Carver classic. I was shocked I found anything to climb and was stoked to pull hard enough to send a wet and slippery V3!



From here I roamed around looking for anything else that was dry and finally came upon a boulder seen above and is labelled as the Warm Up boulder on the new map. I sent an easy V0 flake/lieback arete on the left side of the boulder and then focused on a fun SDS route that followed up the broken spine on the middle and right side of the boulder. After a few tries, I finally sent the route and felt it was right around a V2. Super fun problems, even though you had to deal with some slippery moss at the top!

After this, I roamed around checking out routes in the guide for future sessions, since I couldnt find anything else that was dry. Overall it was a bad day to climb, but I felt like I had made the most out of it by "climbing for the cycle" of a V0, V1, V2 & V3. After visiting the NW a few times, I'm so grateful for what we have back in the Southeast...great boulderfields with great weather almost all winter long! Carver is Portlands local boulder crag, but couldnt hold a candle to even our worse boulderfields back home. I cant tell you how thankful I am to live in such a kick ass place in the US for bouldering!!!

Today is another typical Portland day with rain in the forecast...hopefully I'll get a chance to go back to another little area in town called Rocky Butte. It looks like the Columbia River Gorge is getting some snow over the next week, so Beacon Rock and any of the other boulder areas within an hour and a half are out of the question for this trip. It would be nice to make it to Smith Rock, but we'd have to drive over the snowed in Cascades in order to do that...something I'm just not willing to do. No matter, I'm planning on hitting Portland Rock Gym and The Circuit too in the next couple of days to try to get my send on! I hope everyone is out getting on some rock somewhere and appreciates how nice it is to have what we have in the Southeast!

Local Sessions and Future Local Sessions

I've been slammed lately trying to finish up the semester, focus a little on helping out with SC access and then I've tried to slip a few sessions in between. As mentioned in previous posts, I've been helping the CCC work with the State Parks to try to expand climbing opportunities in South Carolina. We have had very pleasant meetings with both DNR and the Mountain region State Parks (Keowee-Toxaway, Table Rock and Jones Gap) and hope that we have set some positive wheels in motion. Over the last 2 days, I have been out early in the morning, with temps in the single digits to low double digits, working with some of the best rangers to identify areas that are of interest to SC climbers. Its been great to meet these guys, walk in their woods and inform them exactly what we're all about. All of the rangers have been receptive to our ideas and willing to find out if there are any hurdles that might stop access from happening in the near future. I'm a big fan of cooperation and forces working together so both succeed in their missions of conservation and recreation. Things are in the works and I hope to be able to tell you in the next couple of months that we will have expanded access and more places to enjoy climbing. If you are in SC and have been "scalping" some of these areas, please realize that this could really jeopardize the legitimate access work we are doing and could bring things to a complete halt. Please try to relocate your sessions to other legal areas until we can get this figured out and you'll be greatly rewarded in due time! The picture from above is taken from the Table Rock webcam...click over there and take a look every now and then to see how the park changes with the seasons. There should be some snow in the picture sometime soon!

I am also getting ready to take our yearly pilgrimage to Oregon to visit my wife's family. It looks like there might actually be a break in the usually wet weather to get a few days of bouldering in while I'm out there...I'm really looking forward to that! Otherwise, the best bouldering gym I've ever been too, The Circuit, just opened a new gym in Portland that's even closer to our family...so even more chances for me to get some crush on while I'm out in the Pacific Northwest! I'll hopefully post up some pictures while I'm out there of some bouldering at Carver Boulders and possibly Beacon Rock. Here's a sweet shot of Beacon Rock from across the Columbia River...

And here is a video of some bouldering at Carver...

Urgent!!! Help the CCC with the Chimney Rock Master Plan!

A few months ago, there were 3 different proposals (1 very conservative, 1 mid ground and 1 very liberal with our climbing resources) for what will eventually become the new Chimney Rock State Park. These were made available to the public to vote and comment on and the state was supposed to take these comments into consideration when forming the Master Plan. This park will cover a lot of land and includes the existing Chimney Rock Park and Rumbling Bald, as well as tons of other cliffs that have been climbed for decades. In the recently released proposal, of which the state plans to use unless there are major complaints (hint-hint), only the south side of Rumbling Bald, what most folks just call Rumbling Bald, is the only cliff that will be allowed to remain open...and the only roped routes that are recognized are the ones in the guidebook. Now, unless you are under a rock somewhere, you know that there are more routes at the Bald than whats in this 20 year old guide (and the updated Selected Climbs book doesn't include very many new routes for the Bald, so its pretty much still the routes listed in the old Kelly guide). Besides these unlisted routes being off limits, the plethora of other smaller crags, that have seen action for over 20 years, are to be closed and climbing is to be disallowed. This doesn't make sense, nor does it sit well with those that have been using this land for way longer than the state has owned it. PLEASE do what you can by checking out the CCC Alert and clicking at the bottom and filling out the Access Fund letter to those that need to hear our voice. This IS a pivotal time in the planning and future of our climbing resources. We know that our resources are limited and not allowing climbing in all areas of the park that have traditionally allowed climbing is a deep cut into these resources. It only takes a few minutes (no lie, just a couple of minutes) to fill out the info needed to send a great form letter to the folks in charge to let them know that we wont stand for this! Together we CAN affect a change in the plan and get our resources back...please do what YOU can to help!!!!

A Lot Going On Lately

I have been so busy with the holidays, climbing and access meetings that I haven't had a chance to post up in a while...

Since my last post I've been able to climb at Dixon, a couple of local spots and the Bald a couple of times.

DIXON:
At Dixon, I climbed a bunch of fun easy stuff on this boulder...


After warming up, I sent 2 super fun routes, the route up the right side felt like a V1 and the left side felt like a V2/3, on this boulder...


And then sent a sweet slab problem from a big sidepulling sit start on the downhill side of the Classic Overhang boulder, felt around a V3...here's a shot of that route.


After sending a few more routes, I packed it up and met with Stephen Scoff, the SC CCC rep, and Larry Hyde, the superintendent of Crowder's State Park, for an informative overview of how Crowder's manages climbing. If you are a long time follower of this blog, you might remember earlier this year there was a push for better access in SC. Since then, I've been working with Stephen to try to open up more bouldering and roped climbing in the state. This was one of the many meetings we have had, or going to have, to push for more access. Larry was an incredibly nice guy and a great asset for climbers in NC and at Crowder's. He helped us out by giving us a lot of information we can use to demonstrate the advantages of climbing for our meetings with a couple of SC parks. Nothing makes a day of bouldering better than doing something to give back to the climbing community!

THE BALD:
I'm stoked that I've had a chance to hit the Bald so much this fall, and each trip I seem to finally bag a route or 2 that has hassled me for a while. On one of my recent trips, I finally headed back to the Middle East and Far East...an area I don't visit too often. I sent a few fun easy routes, and Fire V3, on the Fire boulder seen here...


After flailing like a little sissy on Silver Platter V2 (is this thing really a V2?), I headed over to my real targets...The Forbidden City V2 and Rift V4. After working the upper moves of Rift and finding the best foot beta for me, I loaded up and worked the SDS until I had linked it all together for the send. This has to be one of my absolutely favorite routes at the Bald...especially due to the fact that it was named after a Phish song! Check out the beautiful music on this boulder...


From here I went out to the Forbidden City V2 and took a couple of tries to send this wonderful route. What a great boulder problem! Listed as being similar to Dime Crack, but easier, the movement felt like it was set in a gym and put a big smile on my face after the send. A sds traverses out left to a series of edges that goes up the short face to a pretty easy top out...check out the picture.


After sending a few more easy routes, I called it quits for this session...ticking off Rift was big for me, its always been a project of mine...but climbing The Forbidden City was just as fun and rewarding!

ACCESS FOR SC:
Besides our meeting with Larry Hyde at Crowder's, Stephen and I have had, and will be having, more meetings with some of the SC state parks and DNR about climbing access. We have had some successes in some of our recent meetings, and hope for the same with the next meetings. I'll fill everyone in when everything gets ironed out and this will hopefully give SC climbers a new climbing landscape in the coming year.

Besides all that, I want to wish George Evans good luck at the last leg of the Triple Crown at Little Rock City/Stonefort. George has finally (kinda) gotten back up to speed from his broken ankle and I hope he pulls hard and has a good time finally being able to boulder like he used to! I also want to wish Adam Johnson (take loads of pictures for your website) and Doug Ianuario a great comp and trip to Hueco afterwards...I'm so damn jealous:) If you haven't checked out Adam's awesome photos and blog...click your hiney on over there and check it out. Bro man got some skills!!!

G-Vegas Represent!

If you havent seen the newest DeadPoint Magazine video of Eric Singleton climbing Waste Not, Want Not 5.12b/c at Looking Glass...check it out! Nice work on the send and way to represent the old school Rocks and Ropes gym crew (that was the gym I climbed at 2-3 times a week, back in the day) and Looking Glass Outfitters.

Click here to go to DeadPoint and watch the video

Slave Driver...Finally

This past Friday, I had a chance to run up to the Bald and work on one of the last real "haunting routes" I have at the Bald...Slave Driver V3. The leaves were incredible and with the sun shining bright, it felt like I was wrapped up in the color yellow.



Slave Driver has been another off and on project for me over the last few years, very similar to Shady Grove/Basketball Mantle, and so I decided I had to finally take it serious and project the route until I sent it and got that monkey of my back. I've sent a lot of V3's, at a lot of different boulderfields, but this is by far one of the hardest, if not the hardest V3 I've ever sent...and quite a few strong folks have mentioned that Slave Driver might be a little sandbagged at a V3 too.



I worked the stand start until I finally had it a little dialed (am I the only one that has to bump through the little crystal at the top to reach the small "thank god" knob with my right hand?), then I gave one good solid effort on the sit start and ended up linking through it. To say the send pushed me to my limit was an understatement...I literally felt blown up afterwards and decided to call the day a success, despite originally planning on climbing for a lot longer. It felt good to send another route that has been taunting me every time I walked by it, and that satisfaction was enough to keep me smiling all weekend!

Here's a sweet video of the East Side, from a couple of years ago, that Matt Christie put together. Slave Driver is climbed at the 40 second mark and Matt makes it look easy! You can also see Crystalline Entity in this video, a sweet V5 slab that I was also working on Friday...I think this should go next time, with a spot.



Saturday I woke up early and shuttled some friends to Whitewater Falls so they could do an overnighter on the Foothills Trail...here's a shot of the beautiful morning view out over Lake Jocassee.

While I was there, I had a quick session on the small set of boulders next to the bathrooms. There are really only a handful of routes worth climbing, but I've always found them to be fun. Here are a few photos of the boulders. The first is a shot of the Slab boulder as you approach it from the parking lot. The other 2 shots are of the Snapping Turtle boulder behind it. Most of the routes on both boulders have some solid slopey crimps that make for some fun climbing.

Triple Crown: Horse Pens 40

So, this past weekend was the second leg of the Triple Crown, down in Steele, Alabama. The weather was cold in the campground, but the sends were awful hot in the boulderfield! I was able to head down early on Friday and climb a little with the Clemson Crew before the comp on Saturday. Here's Autumn Parham sending Dope...

Bumboy is one of the legendary boulder problems in the world, one of my all time favorites, and I was able to send it easier than ever on Friday, with some crucial beta from Adam and George making all of the difference. On Saturday, the place was packed and hyped! Competitors were everywhere in the park, giving their all on some of the best sandstone routes in the Southeast. No matter if you climbed V0 or V10, everybody was cheering for everybody else and the smell of comradory was in the air more than the smell of competition. I was able to send a few 3's (Bumboy, Orca & Double Groove) and the rest of my scorecard was filled out with some of the most fun V2's around (Dope of course being one of my favorites)...needless to say, I was nuzzled deep in the Intermediate category with no chance of placing, but I definitely had a blast climbing!

The real competition was for the Mens Open division, which Jimmy Webb dominated. Here's a couple of shots of Jimmy climbing Skeletor V10 and God Module V11...2 routes that helped him claim first.



Brion Voges wasn't too far behind Jimmy for 2nd in Mens Open. Here's a couple of shots of Brion on Cadillac Thrills V9 and Slider Sit V10...



And rounding out the top 3 was Brad Weaver...here's a shot of him on Illusions V11.


The top 3 getting Crowned...


Angie Payne won the Womens Open division...here's a shot of her on The Flow V7.


Here is Deadpoint Mags Coverage of the event...and also some great photos and coverage by Clemson climber Adam Johnson over at Climbing.com Adam Johnson also has a great set of photos over at his website AdamJohnsonPhoto.com that I stole for this post...thanks a million Adam for letting me use your incredible images! You can get the full lowdown on the winners of each category at the Triple Crown Bouldering website, and the complete results with everybody's score should be released soon too.


Also...Here is a great video of Adam and some other climbers at the comp, check it out courtesy of George Evans.

HP40 Triple Crown 2010 from George Evans on Vimeo.

Help the SCC Win A Grant To Invest In Southeast Climbing!

For some reason, the vote button wont show up on the above widget sometimes...click here to go to the SCC's page to vote if the button isnt available!!!

If you havent heard yet, the SCC is competing for one of the Pepsi Refresh Grants to help maintain and aquire more climbing areas in the Southeast.

The SCC's Goals for this project are...
•Purchase and preserve 40 acres in AL currently closed to access
•Purchase and preserve 38 acres in TN currently closed to access
•Build new and maintain existing hiking trails throughout southeast
•Responsible land stewardship and inspirational team building
•Community outreach: Promoting the joys of climbing AND preservation!

In order to help the SCC win this grant, they need everyone's help with voting. You can vote everyday and the SCC encourages you to do so...the most votes wins, so help makes this a reality for all southeastern climbers!

Here is the great video the SCC put together to promote their bid for the grant...