Very Limited Fundraiser Opportunity!!! Get a copy of 3 guidebooks and 1600+ problems with Southern Appalachian Bouldering, Upstate Bouldering Guide and my personal guide to Bearfields, Jedi and other boulders nearby!!!!

Upstate Bouldering Guide, Southern Appalachian Bouldering & Bearfield and Jedi Guidebook...

3 Guidebooks for $100 with all profits going to the Carolina Climbers Coalition to support access in the areas covered by the guides!!!  

ONLY 3 SETS AVAILABLE...Get Them Before They're Gone!!! 

E-mail me for ordering info!! 

So, to kick off the excitement surrounding the upcoming Jocassee Gorges Bouldering Trail Day on December 7th (make sure that you are planning on being there this year, we're opening up some new Jocassee Gorges boulderfields!!!) I'm offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to get a copy of my personal guidebook to areas most folks have never been able to experience except on trail days...the Bearfields and Jedi Boulders!!!  Pick up this awesome set of books and be ready to hit the best routes in these areas during the trail day!  These are the most infamous boulderfields in the Jocassee Gorges and they contain possibly the best boulder problems in the entire state of South Carolina!  Along with the 350+ problems in the Bearfields and 300+ problems in the Jedi boulders, I've included 250+ more problems in other boulderfields nearby, like Lighthouse, Pow Wow, Ghost Town and Waterfall...that's right 900 boulder problems you've probably never heard about or seen before!!!  Along with this guidebook, I'm including the new Southern Appalachian Bouldering guidebook and the original Upstate Bouldering Guidebook in this package deal!!!  All of the guidebooks will be signed and numbered by myself, and in total will provide over 1600 boulder problems in the Jocassee Gorges and overall Southern Appalachian area!  This is the complete set of books to fill in the gaps between all of the other guidebooks to major southeastern areas and provides information about other activities near each boudlering area too...check out the quick description and cover for each guide below.

1) Upstate Bouldering Guide

In the Upstate Bouldering Guide, over 350 routes in 7 different bouldering areas in the Jocassee Gorges, Nantahala National Forest, and Pisgah National Forest are presented.  Boulderfields in the Jocassee Gorges of South Carolina include Little Eastatoee, Beasley Gap, Sasquatch, and Big Eastatoee, along with Granite City in Nantahala National Forest and selected routes from the North Side and Nowhere Boulders in Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina make this guide well worth owning!  

Tucked in the northwest corner of South Carolina, and into western North Carolina, is a 250 square mile Shangri-La called the Jocassee Gorges. The area gets its name from the dramatic mountains and secluded 2500’ gorges that drain steep, fast moving rivers, as they carve their way into tropical-like Lake Jocassee. Hidden among the Gorges and other nearby areas, are a plethora of boulders and small clifflines that provide a very tranquil and serene bouldering experience. Also included to compliment these areas, are 2 incredible areas in nearby Western North Carolina, Granite City and Pisgah National Forest, that provide plenty of great routes too!

Included in this guidebook are nearly 350 boulder problems, in 4 different bouldering areas in South Carolina and 3 areas in North Carolina. With a bouldering spot for practically every season, and local info on other outdoor activities to enjoy nearby, this tome will prove to be invaluable to the real Upstate Boulderer and other outdoor enthusiasts alike!!!

For direct ordering information, click the link below...

http://www.lulu.com/shop/brad-caldwell/upstate-bouldering-guide-and-outdoor-companion-2nd-edition-bw/paperback/product-21268111.html

2) Southern Appalachian Bouldering

In Southern Appalachian Bouldering, over 400 routes in 11 different locations in the Jocassee Gorges, Chattahoochee National Forest and Pisgah National Forest are explored.  The newest Jocassee Gorges boulderfield, Sassafras, is presented, along with beta on 15 nearby deep water bouldering locations on Lake Keowee and Lake Jocassee…all of which are in South Carolina.  The spectacular boulders at Mt Yonah in the Chattahoochee National Forest of northeast Georgia are perfect in the wintertime.  And finally Western North Carolina has plenty of coverage, including the 107 Boulders only 10 minutes from Cashiers, Corner Rock in the Big Ivy Wilderness not too far from Asheville, and 5 areas in Pisgah National Forest that includes boulders near The Nose and the East Face of Looking Glass, Pilot Rock, Stony Bald and the Graveyard Fields.  Along with the Upstate Bouldering Guide, Southern Appalachian bouldering helps to fill the void between other boulderfields in the area and both are great for finding alternatives to Rumbling Bald, when it’s packed and the park is turning climbers away for the day!

The southern reaches of the Appalachian Mountains, sprawl out across several southeastern states, depositing boulders and outcrops on hillsides and deep in the valleys below, before it flattens out into the piedmonts. Rumbling Bald is the center of the region’s bouldering scene and with much increased attention, there is a need for beta on nearby areas to spread out impact and provide plenty of routes when The Bald is packed! This guidebook, along with the Upstate Bouldering Guide, provides several quality alternatives within the Southern Appalachians, and will please anyone looking for an alternative to The Bald, a new spot to check out or simply experience all the area has to offer! Included are several warmer weather spots along the Chattooga River, on Lakes Jocassee and Keowee in SC, to match the impressive blocks at Yonah in GA, and the incredible variety of problems at the 107 Boulders and Corner Rock...plus 5 new spots in Pisgah National Forest in NC, to get you psyched... on the Southern Appalachians!

 For direct ordering information, click the link below...

http://www.lulu.com/shop/brad-caldwell/southern-appalachian-bouldering-upstate-bouldering-guide-volume-2/paperback/product-21268055.html

3) Bearfields, Jedi, Lighthouse, Pow Wow, Devil of a Friend, Ghost Town and Waterfall Guidebook

This is a copy of my own personal guidebook to the more secret and remote areas in the Jocassee Gorges of South Carolina.  I don’t usually let any copies of this guidebook get out, but for this one occasion, I thought it would provide more motivation to pick up this wonderful guidebook package!  This is the updated version (updated early November 2013) of this guidebook, which includes over 900 routes in these incredible locations.  The Bearfields and the Jedi Boulders are the largest of the 2 boulderfields in the Jocassee Gorges with around 350 routes in the Bearfields and 300 or so routes in Jedi.  The routes in these 2 boulderfields vary from slabby to overhung but most everyone agrees that these are the 2 best (legal) boulderfields in the entire state, much less the Jocassee Gorges.  In the surrounding areas, there are smaller boulderfields with quality problems also.  Lighthouse has around 125 routes and would be considered the best boulderfield around if it weren’t for the 3 mile approach!  Pow Wow, Devil of a Friend, Ghost Town and Waterfall all have a great circuit of quality routes but are the smallest of the local boulderfields with 10-50 routes in each area.  Get this book on this rare occasion and join us for a tour of some of these boulderfields on the upcoming trail day to complete your knowledge of these amazing bouldering areas in some of the most impressive settings in the southeast!!!

 

Grayson Highlands Bouldering Guidebook: A Review

Absolutely amazing…Brayack has done it again, but better!!! 

 

Around 10 years or so ago, the climbing guidebook industry started to see a revolution. Wolverine Publishing started producing some of the first real “climbing porn” style guidebooks…by that I mean an obvious change away from the basic black and white, crudely-drawn-on-a-napkin-at-the-Mexican-joint-after-being-at-the-crag-all-day line topo style guidebooks, to the detailed, computer generated, cant-get-lost-photo-topo-and-heres-some-of-the-best-action-shots-you’ve-ever-seen guidebook. Most remember the first Red River Guidebook and the effect it has on them after first seeing it, and for me, it made me never want to look at a basic stick drawing again. Sure there’s less adventure in route finding and it keeps things closer to what the FA’er experienced many moons ago, but many climbers and boulderers want to make the most of their time at the crag, while on a once every couple of years road trip. More recently, Greener Grass up’ed the ante with the HP40, Little Rock City and Obed guidebooks, adopting the more detailed and eye popping full color, maximize your road trip style books. With the release of the Rocktown Bouldering Guidebook, Brayack Media became the here and now of the bouldering guidebook publishers! So far focusing on some Southeast gems, Dan Brayack and his authors have up’ed the ante again, providing details and clean navigating that even a thug climber could follow to the local maximum star classic!

 

The newest tome to be published by Brayack Media is the Grayson Highlands Bouldering Guidebook. Grayson Highlands State Park, in southwest Virgina, and in my personal opinion, the BEST “Southeast” summer bouldering destination! When even the boulders littered around Grandmothers and Grandfathers Mountains near Boone are getting a little too hot and steamy to make it worthwhile, Grayson has a cool shaded spot with a breeze to send and grin at. Not only does it have some of the best southeastern summertime bouldering, but it has some of the most amazing scenery…and to top it all off, it has wild ponies! Bouldering in the Highlands when a wild pony walked up to watch me top out, is by far one of the most incredible and memorable moments of my 20+ years of bouldering!!!

I’ve been following the development of Grayson Highlands State Park since it first appeared on Mountain Project in 2009.  Aaron Parlier was cornering the market on some incredible bouldering routes in southwestern Virginia and posting them up in rapid speed…and as a southeastern boulderer that had been looking for the perfect summer spot for a long time, this was pretty exciting for me!  Here in the Jocassee Gorges, it takes me 4-4 ½ hours or less to hit all of the GOOD southeastern boulderfields (like HP40, Rocktown, and Little Rock City/Stonefort) and these are all late fall-winter-early spring areas.  Boone is only 2½-3 hours to Lost Cove, Grandmothers, 221 and Blowing Rock and has traditionally been the summer spot to hit…but even Boone has its point of diminishing returns for a boulderer when the heat and humidity rise too far and frequent thunderstorm that keeps the pebbles soaked, making a road trip less and less appealing.  And then there was Grayson…4-4½ hours away, with all of the Boone boulders on the way, and one of the most beautiful bouldering areas you could imagine!  A not so secret bouldering area among Boone and southeastern locals for decades, but no one had systematically went through and developed practically every possible route they can on each boulder, as they came to them, until Aaron.  Badasses like James Litz and Steven Pope are attributed for plucking many of the plums, but Aaron began to fill in the gaps and make Grayson a really good all-around bouldering area. The route entries became encyclopedic quickly and the appeal was there in spades the following summer of 2010 when we took our first trip of many.   

This guidebook is another photographic knockout, just like the previous Brayack Media release, the Rocktown Guidebook! The vivid colors, perfect lighting and sharp details pop off of the page like you were wearing 3D glasses! The information in the guide is spot on and invaluable to a perfect visit to Grayson, but the photos alone are worth amazing enough to warrant buying this as a coffee table book.

There is minimal wasted space in the guidebook, very little filler and the ads are strategically placed so you barely notice them as you thumb through looking for your favorite problems. The meat of the 160 page book are the various problems and ins and outs of the specific bouldering areas with dominating and stunning photos, but in less than 10 info pages the Introduction is an incredibly valuable resource to understanding how to get to Grayson, where to stay, a little history and the nuances of the boulderfields and problems.

The book begins with the Table Of Contents, which in this guidebook is truly a valuable tool because of the spread out nature of Grayson. There are 6 different parking areas that lead to 9 different bouldering areas and hundreds of boulder problems…a quick reference like the Table Of Contents, along with the color coded headings for each area, make it easy to narrow down your search quickly.

Next the Grades, Stars and Symbols used in the guide are covered…which is pretty helpful also. The guide uses 5 different colors to signify difficulty of routes on the photo topos; V0-V2 in black, V3-V5 in Green, V6-V8 in Red, V9+ in Blue and Projects in Yellow. This helps narrow down the routes in each boulderers range when looking at any random photo topo, and easier to find a route in any area you’re at, heading past or finding warm ups near your project. Grayson is also based on 4 stars, common on Mountain Project, so this is helpful for those used to a traditional 3 (or even 5) star system.

The basics of where Grayson is located and the best way to get there from Boone and I-81 are covered, followed by driving times from various southeastern and east coast cities (as well as Hueco Tanks, Bishop and Squamish). A map of the surrounding area of Kentucky and The Red River Gorge, West Virginia and the New River Gorge, Virginia and McAfee Knob, Tennessee, and North Carolina and Boone, Rumbling Bald and Looking Glass helps keep things to a regional perspective for a possible extended road trip.



Grayson Highlands State Park itself is covered next, with a Park Map of the different bouldering areas and a Bouldering Overview that includes a brief description of each area and some history of major developers over the history Grayson. Trip Beta is covered with details of camping (which is pretty sweet for a pull up/car camping area), cabins, park hours, fees, average precipitation, and high and low temperatures. To round out the trip info and details of the state park a list of Grayson’s Greatest boulder problems is presented next to make sure you hit some of the high notes as you peruse your way through the magical forests and windswept highlands of Grayson State Parks.

Each of the 9 areas are introduced with a description, driving directions and approach beta. From there, each of the boulders or clusters of boulders are detailed with a brief description followed by each individual problem. The classics and overall best problems in each area are brilliantly spotlighted with an eye popping full or double page action shot with the description of the route tucked away in the corner. This is another great way to easily guide you to the best problems, no matter where you are in the park.

Wrapping up the book are 2 helpful Indexes, one based on grade and the other, an alphabetical one so you can locate each individual problem rapidly.



On our most recent visit, with the guidebook, I was able to find and send problems I had tried to locate almost every previous visit I had made to Grayson…like the amazing Foot Kaput and Ballad Of Love And Hate.  I had never been able to understand the lay out of the Listening Rock Trail that well from Mountain Project descriptions, but it was super easy to find my way to all of the boulders and tons of great problems I hadn’t seen before!  Another great thing about the book is that it articulates with Mountain Project and creates the basis for finding new classics that have been posted online after the guidebooks publication, truly enhancing the value of both the guidebook and the hundreds of pages and pictures on Mountain Project.

A nice write up about Aaron Parlier, the author, is included at the end with some basic biographical info and thanks (including one to me…thanks back ‘atcha Aaron!).  In all honesty, this guidebook would only be a shell of a nonexistent area if it weren’t for the author and primary developer of Grayson Highlands, Aaron Parlier.  Since I first met Aaron, he’s been as nice as I could have imagined for a developer in the Southeast…encouraging me to visit and put some routes up, unlike most developers that like to keep the pot of gold for themselves.  Arriving at the park for that first July 4^th vacation, I ran into Aaron up in the Highlands Area, walking up as he was on one of the most iconic lines in the park, Horizon Line.  Let me tell you, this was the best way to meet Aaron and get familiar with Grayson, all in one of the most beautiful bouldering locations you could ask for!  I was hooked on Grayson from that moment on!!!  Since then, Aaron has been hard at work developing the area into the now 800 problem destination that Grayson is.  Aaron has a background in the military, where afterwards he attended Virginia Tech for undergrad and is currently in grad school at Appalachian State University.  Aaron’s humor and wit shine throughout the book and let you in on his true personality.

At the very end of the book are a couple of paragraphs about Dan Brayack, the incredible photographer, layout guru, topo magician and publisher of the Grayson Guidebook.  This is Dan’s 3^rd guidebook after Coopers Rock and Rocktown and with the new Rumbling Bald Guidebook on the horizon, he’s truly laying the cornerstones of his publishing company on experience and some of the absolute best bouldering areas in the Southeast and United States.  Dan’s vision of the future of guidebooks is exciting to see and see the results of!  I would like to share an experience I’ve had with Dan that shows his dedication to making the best guidebooks around.  Upon posting my review of the incredible Rocktown Guidebook, a critical comment was posted about the perspective of the topos, the individual boulders and the photo topos.  A poster was unhappy with the change of perspective from each of these spatial views and felt it too confusing to find their way around easily.  Dan responded to this legitimate comment with a very professional rationalization of why he did this and went one step further in this guidebook by placing small cameras aimed in the same direction the photo topos were taken, on each of the boulder or cluster topos to clear up any confusion.  This showed a lot to me…Dan is willing to listen to what the customer and average boulderer thinks and wants and is willing to modify his approach to make sure it’s the absolute best guidebook he can release.  Dan, my hat is off to the incredible job you do to represent our areas to the best possibilities! 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS...

Back To Life...Back To Reality

It's been a while since I've posted an update on the blog...but I've got a few good posts in the hopper about to come out in the next month or so, including a review of the INCREDIBLE new Grayson Highlands Bouldering Guidebook recently released by Brayck Media,

a review of the AMAZING Hydro Flask water bottles I mentioned on Facebook a few months ago, some beta on a new bouldering spot in Pisgah National Forest, and some updates on the plethora of development (over 200 new routes) that has taken place in the Jocassee Gorges over the last 6 months or so.  I'll also have a post about the possibility of the first ever South Carolina Climbers Festival and Trail Weekend...something that could have big implications for the future of SC bouldering and climbing.

SO...stay tuned in the next few days for the first article of many, the review of the new Grayson Guidebook!!!

Trail Day Rescheduled For APRIL 6TH!!!

Due to inclement weather, the previous trail day has been rescheduled for April 6th!  We are pretty much sticking to the same agenda that I posted in the previous post.  For the most up to date info or to get answers to any questions you might have, please check out the Facebook event page...see you there!!! 

Winter Bouldering BLOWOUT!!!

The Winter Blowout is coming soon!!! If you've ever wanted to check out the prime boulders in the Jocassee Gorges, then you don't want to miss this!!!

We are having the late winter/early spring clean up and bouldering event next Saturday...plan to come help out with some spring cleaning of the parking areas for the various boulderfields in the Jocassee Gorges and then stay for some of the best pebble wrastlin in the state!  Here is a link to the event on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/380442348720956/), and below is the lowdown from Stephen Scoff...

Please join us in the Jocassee Gorges on March 2nd and 3rd for some quick and easy community service (a couple hours of trash pickup at parking pullouts) and a healthy dose of SC block action.

WHERE: Intersection of SC 178 and SC 11. (Holly Springs Grocery: In the gravel lot right of the store)

WHEN: Saturday March 2 @ 8:30 AM (If you are unable make this time let me know and we’ll make some arrangements)

FREE CAMPING!: Courtesy of One With The Ride

2640 Crowe Creek Rd Sunset, SC 29685

info@onewiththeride.com

864-868-2040

If interested please let me know or feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Stephen Scoff
SC Rep
Carolina Climbers’ Coalition

If you missed the BIG Jocassee Gorges Trail Day back in December, then stop kicking yourself for being such a loser and make it out to this one.  With the daffodils blooming and buds on the trees popping, the prime SC bouldering season is quickly coming to a close...take advantage of this great opportunity to climb some new stuff with a great crew of psyched boulderers!!!   Come on out, pitch in with some community service, reward yourself with some fantastic bouldering, and enjoy relaxing with like minded folks around the bonfire!  If you have any questions, feel free to contact Stephen or myself through e-mail or post your concerns on the Facebook event page for quickest response.  Hope to see a lot of familiar faces and new ones just the same!

The Upstate Bouldering Guide...Where Your Donations Have Gone!!!

Now that the Upstate Bouldering Guide has sold out, I wanted to give everyone an idea of what the guidebook has done for local bouldering so far...

I originally had planned on releasing this guidebook as a fundraiser to help pay off the Rumbling Bald Boulders purchase that the CCC made a few years ago.  As soon as I got the book close to printing, this loan was paid off and the need to raise fund for these boulders wasn't necessary anymore...so I decided to reinvest the profits from the guidebook directly into the resources and management of the resource directly.  Because the book was mainly about areas in the Jocassee Gorges of South Carolina, I felt that most of the efforts from the book should be focused on SC, but because it also gave beta to 2 other great boulderfields in Western North Carolina, I wanted to make sure to support these areas too.  I've always had the belief that if you can donate money to a cause, that's great, but if you can donate something more or directly affect your cause with that same money, then that's even better!  So, instead of simply donating the profits from the guidebook to the CCC and that money not necessarily going directly to the areas the guidebook focuses on, I decided to take action with the money that would directly effect these bouldering areas.  I supported several trail days in SC and NC with the profits by helping to organize and fund the trail day (trash bags, bottled water, snacks, food for workers the night before, libations to enjoy after the hard work, etc), donating guidebooks or other climbing related goods for silent auctions and raffles, and finally by providing monetary donations directly to the trail day event, that was then funneled to the CCC.  I can truly say that by doing and not just giving, I gained so much more of a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with this project than I originally thought I'd achieve!!! 

And that brings me to the major point of this post...and explanation of how the sales of this guidebook have helped support bouldering access in the Jocassee Gorges and in Pisgah. I don't want to go into all of the sticky details of costs, profits, donations etc involved with this guidebook, but I did want to give the readers and followers of this website an idea of where and how the profits for the guidebook were used to help access...I like to know where my money goes when I make a donation to a cause, and I'm sure y'all probably do too.

Costs:
Printing a guidebook is not an easy task, nor is it very profitable!!!  The total cost of the 75 copy (15 color and 60 black and white) print run and shipping to get the books to me was around $1000. 

Profit Margin:
Because I self published I knew that my profit margins would be low, so I only marked the books up the minimal amount I could so they would sell for the cheapest price to those that bought one. The profit margin on the color books were very low because they cost SO much to print, so I only made $5 a book on these.  The black and white copies had a better profit margin at around $10 per book to consumers, and $5 per book for those sold to outfitters.

Total Profits:
Because I set the profit margin pretty low to guarantee the books would sell and actually make some sort of effect on local bouldering, I didn't make as much as many authors might make.  I made around $500 from the sell of the books and $300 by providing advertising to those interested in donating also...so in total, I made around $800 in profit from the sell of the guidebook.  This wasn't an overwhelmingly big amount, but this was more than would have been made if the book had never been published in the first place!  So I was pretty satisfied to realize this profit and be able to slowly donate most of it to the many events that have been held in our local region over the last year and a half!!!

Where the donations have gone so far:
Before the guidebook was available, I went ahead and donated $175 to the 2011 WNC Climbers Weekend/Looking Glass Adopt A Crag, late September 2011, which supported the approaches to many of the boulders around the base of Looking Glass. A couple of months after the Looking Glass Adopt A Crag, in December 2012, I helped support the first ever Table Rock Adopt A Crag Trail Day with donations and other support in the amount of $100. Soon after the book came out in March 2012, I donated to the first ever Jocassee Gorges Bouldering Trail Day by providing around $100 in support to make it happen! The next event I donated to was the Pisgah Climbing Festival in November 2012, in which I donated items for the silent auction and an extra 5 copies of the guidebook were sold there that in total raised around $200 for the CCC at the Festival. Hot on the heels of the Pisgah Climbing Festival was the showing of Reel Rock 7 in Brevard NC. I wasn't able to attend the event, but still wanted to help out, so I donated $50 worth of books for the silent auction. The most recent event I donated to was the very successful second Jocassee Gorges Bouldering Trail Day last month, December 2012. For this event, I donated and supplied around $100 to make sure it was the most effective trail day we could of had. So the tally so far looks something like this...

Donations from the profits of the Upstate Bouldering Guide to local bouldering and the CCC so far:

-WNC Climbers Weekend                                                              $175
-Table Rock AOC                                                                           $100
-Jocassee Gorges Bouldering Trail Day March 2012                      $100
-Pisgah Climbing Festival                                                              $200
-Reel Rock 7                                                                                     $50
-Jocassee Gorges Bouldering Trail Day December 2012                 $100
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Donations                                                                               $725!!!!!!!

I was really hoping the sale of the guidebook would generate at least $1000 for local access and the CCC, so I plan on donating $250 to the CCC here soon to fulfill this dream and make it a reality:) A giant THANKS to everyone involved with this project, from those that helped develop routes to those that donated for advertising to those outfitters that are carrying the remaining copies of the guidebook and of course those that purchased the guidebook and directly supported local bouldering access...without each and every one of y'all, this incredible project would have never happened!!!

Upstate Bouldering Guide is SOLD OUT!!!

I'm excited to announce that all of the copies of the first edition of the Upstate Bouldering Guide that I received from the printer have SOLD OUT!!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I wanted to keep the print run limited to minimize possible access issues and to make the book more valuable to the local community.  My original intent was to only produce 25 copies and distribute them directly by mail order only, but some of the local outfitters wanted to carry the book also, so I tripled the print run and had 15 color copies and 60 black and white copies available.  I sold the color copies directly by mail order only, and the black and white copies were sold by mail order or by one of the 3 outfitters that supported local bouldering efforts.  After a few more orders over the holidays, I am now personally sold out of guidebooks...but that doesn't mean that the book isn't still available!!!  If you are in Greenville SC, you can pick up a copy at Sunrift Adventures, if you are near the Jocassee Gorges and the incredible boulderfields (or would like to mail order a copy from them), you can pick up a copy at One With The Ride, and if you're down in Columbia SC, you can pick up a copy at Get Your Gear On.  I want to sincerely thank these outfitters for carrying the guidebook and making it available to more folks than those that just follow this website...you guys have been instrumental in helping raise money that has and will continue to help out bouldering access in the Jocassee Gorges and Pisgah National Forest!!!  Later this week, I'll be posting a summary of the details of the profits made from the guidebook and where exactly the money was spent to improve local bouldering access!!! I also want to give a big shout out once more to the other sponsors and supporters of the guidebook...you guys helped make this a reality and your support has directly improved access and relations with land managers, which is the heart and soul of local bouldering!!!  Thanks again goes out to...

Because of a change in pricing in the print process, there will most likely not be a second print run of this first edition guidebook.  I havent begun working on a second edition to the guidebook yet, but imagine in a few years there will be plenty of new areas and routes to add to the guide and talks of a second edition will begin to pop up.  If you have anything you would like to add to the second edition of the guidebook, or suggestions to make it better, please get in touch.

Jocassee Gorges Trail Day Write Up!

Work has taken all of my efforts lately...and when I get a chance to escape, I have been focusing a lot my attention on developing some new bouldering areas in the Jocassee Gorges instead of typing .  I'm psyched to report that the local crew has discovered a couple of new areas and about 25-30 problems have been established at each...and there are more new areas that are just now getting attention!  Since the beginning of the Fall bouldering season, there have been around 100 new routes established in new areas, as well as in some of the more traditional boulder fields...thanks to everyone involved with development (George Evans and Chris Neal especially) and their vision for these new routes, its been a ton of fun bouldering with both of you this season!!!

Now as for the Jocassee Gorges Bouldering Trail Day , here is a quick write up from Stephen Scoff...


The Little Trail Day That Could



Despite some unexpected and steep competition, the Jocassee Gorges’ trail day was well attended and hugely successful! With around 120 hours of man power volunteered, over three miles of trails improved, steps installed, and over $200 raised for the Carolina Climbers’ Coalition!

A BIG hand for all the volunteers! Thank you so much giving up your weekend day to give back. Salud!

...

I also would greatly like to thank:

1. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

2. One With the Ride

3. Get Your Gear On

4. Vision Climbing

5. Bee Hive Climbing

6. Christopher Neal

7. Matt Riley of Riles Images

8. Dark Corner Distillery

9. Joseph Scarlett DJ Extraordinaire

10. Moms, Wives, and Girl Friends (Yummy Dinner!)

And of Course: Brad, Katy, and Lilly Caldwell


Here are some of Matt’s pictures and a short video clip.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/rileyup/sets/72157632166503496/show/




Here is another video clip from Joseph Scarlett



We’ll do it again next year: and we’ll be taking it to the next level!