The Bearfields, Jedi, Dixon & Organic

This past week was a pretty busy week. I was sick for the early part of last week and it kind of slowed down my plans for climbing all week. Despite being sick, I still had a chance to hit the Bearfields, Jedi and this weekend, I went up to Charlotte and checked out the Dixon School Road boulders.

A few of the followers of this blog got together and climbed some of the classics and found some great new problems in both the Bearfields and Jedi boulders last week. It was good to see people that had never climbed at these spots looking at the place from a new approach. I showed them many of the classic problems in the area, and then they showed me many problems we had overlooked in the past. Andy put up some of the best and hardest lines in the Bearfields in one visit, and Caleb and Adam attacked some new, hard, routes in Jedi. I'm excited to see lines I've only dreamed of climbing, getting crushed by these guys! Hopefully I can get some pictures of these visits up soon.

This weekend I took my annual pilgrimage to Charlotte to see two of my all time favorite bands...The Allman Brothers Band and Widespread Panic. This marks the 15th anniversary of my first Allman Brothers concert and I've seen at least one show every year since 1994, for a total of almost 50 shows. This is also my 20th or so Widespread Panic show, since the first time I saw them in 1995. There are 2 things in life that really make me happy...good bouldering and good jammy music. Here is a link to the WSP show for that night, in case you're a fan too:)
http://panicstream.com/streams/wsp/2009_10_03/player.html

And...to top off the music, I got a chance to finally check out the Dixon Boulders at Crowder's Mountain State Park in North Carolina. I have tried to get up there since they officially opened back in like April, but every chance I've had, it just didn't work out. We got up to Charlotte a little early on Saturday and had about 2 hours to check the boulders out before we had to head to the concert. We took the road around to connect to the Ridgeline Trail, instead of using the connector trail behind the new facilities. This was quicker than taking the connector, but I always feel like a wus choosing asphalt over trail:) When you finally hit the ridge, the boulders are very obvious and seem to go on a bit down the trail. They are several sets of GIANT boulders, easily could be bolted for sport routes, and there were also sets of smaller boulders. We stuck to some of the first boulders we found and worked some of the easier, obvious lines. The rock felt very similar to Crowder's...it was rough with a lot of quartz inclusions that made gripping it uncomfortable at times. I'm not complaining, but Crowder's always has a way of shredding and wearing down your hands faster than most places I visit. We came back Sunday, on our way back home, and climbed for another 2-3 hours on some boulders down the hill from the first set you come to. There were some great tall problems and a super fun low problem with a sit start to a rounded dish and then either mantle up or move right to the big bulge and wrestle a different topout. They both felt like they were in the V2-3 range, and there were a lot of fun movements involved. My wife climbed a couple of good routes at the top of her grade range, one was a power climb and one was a technique climb, so I was happy about that also.

I also worked out a little deal to have Organic climbing pads "slightly" sponsor the website. I'm getting a nice small pad and chalk bucket at a great deal, and hopefully a few freebies that I can give away to some of the readers of the blog. If you havent checked out Organic's line of crashpads yet, take a look at the new link to the right. Each of their pads are made to order, can be customized with extra options and you choose the colors/design you want on your pad, chalkbag or bucket. And its always best to support the small, customer oriented, US owned and operated business. If you have any questions, shoot them an e-mail and Josh will be more than psyched to help you out!

This week I'm planning on getting out to Jedi again, but I have a friend's wedding to attend in Charleston this weekend, so climbing will be more on the back burner. Hopefully, this will give me time to finish up the new topo to Big Easy it get that out there for folks to check out. I also hope to put up another new (kind of) local bouldering spot, Mt Yonah, and the first UB local spot for Northeast Georgia.