The Friction Slab

The Table Top, a V3 right next to the Bulldog on the Friction Slab Boulder, is one really nice problem. It is fairly sustained difficulty throughout the problem, which is what makes it good I think. It also seems like there is only one way to do it, there were five of us climbing it and the beta stayed pretty much the same for all of us.

This is a photo of the second move, which is a fun one. Lock your right arm off on a gaston sidepull and hope your left foot doesn't blow.

The top out is a little scary, it's mossy on top and the sloping angle seems rough when your looking at it up close. But it's actually pretty safe, the only really scary part is finding your way down.

This is the second move on the Bulldog, V8. We were just messing around on it, we got a few of the moves but man, that is one tough problem. Someday.

Boulders at Red River Gorge

We just made a trip down to the red, which was a nice change of pace from the the rock up in the Adirondacks. We even got on some boulders down there, and found a bunch of new potential. The first night we got there we night bouldered at the Bulldog Boulder, which has the nice V8 (Bulldog), and a really sweet V3 right next to it. I can't remember the name of it now, but it was one of my favorite things we got on all weekend. I'll have more on that problem and some nice pictures of it soon. But first off, we found a whole bunch of really big but mossy boulders right across from the stream behind the Bulldog. In total there were about 6 really big, nice boulders back there. All of them were pretty mossy, and the rock looked a little suspect in places, but on every boulder we found at least one or two lines that look really nice.

This Boulder had a nice line starting up the right from two hand jams, then making big moves on big holds. There could also be another one on the left close to the tree.

This one has a pretty nasty landing because of a little slope right there, but with a couple good spotters it would be do-able. But it would be a real hard problem following the sloping seams going up and right to the arete.

And this one was just a big long wall with tons of potential and a sloping top out. These are just three of the nice boulders we scoped out, we are hoping to make a cleaning trip some time soon because these boulders all look really nice.

Video from Nine Corners

A quick little video of one of the more fun problems at Nine Corners, NY. The problem is "Chillin", its at the cave wall way in the back of the area, just a fun roof problem on decent holds. Yesterday I got out there again, and tried out the Yin Yang boulder which has "The Power of Belief" on it. It was a super fun problem too, with two different ways to do it. Out right to a big crack, or straight up the face with some big moves. Surprisingly enough they both felt just about equally hard.

That was my last climb in the Adirondacks for this season though, I'm heading down to ohio now to climb around Kentucky and West Virginia. So there's going to be more than just north stuff on here now, Red River Gorge and Coopers rock are sure to be on here soon.

"Chillin" V4, at Nine Corners Lake, NY

Music is by Bonobo, the song is Something for Windy

off the album Dial 'M' for Monkey

Fun at Nine Corners

A few days ago I finally took the trip down to nine corners lake, and when I first crossed the rock dam and saw all the boulders I was real pumped. I started out on the Lookout Boulder. Even though Andrugen was only a one move problem pretty much, it was still nice. I liked everything else on this side of the boulder too, definitely a good place to warm up.

Next I had to get on some of the stuff at the Wall Boulder. I really liked "Long Live Legos", and Thorazine is an awesome project I hope to get someday. The rock right here on these first few boulders is really nice and solid, I liked it a lot.

After getting owned on thorazine I thought I'd trek back to the cave wall way in the back, and I'm really glad I did. The nice overhang is a fun change of pace from the usual stuff I've been projecting up in mckenzie pond and the likes. I really liked "chillin'", which is right in the middle of the boulder. "Nippin' out" is another good one on the left arete if you don't have to kill yourself to right the third hold like I did. And even though I didn't get it, "psychosomatic" looks and felt like a super nice problem. So far this one is my favorite boulder there. Today I am headed back there for my last adirondack climb of the season before I head south. It's sad to leave this place, but there's always next summer.