Bouldering Needle Peak Guide Book!

It is time to release the guide book Bouldering Needle Peak!

It has actually been done for over a month now, but I wanted to wait for the bouldering season to begin so the guide can be used immediately. Enjoy!

A paper copy will be available in the next week as the final formatting issue are dealt with. The link will be provided to purchase a paper copy via Print on Demand (POD) format from blurb.com. It is full color and looks much like the PDF version. The sale price is only for printing costs and the actual time it took for me to construct the book, no profit. Those are not my boulders, it is not in my interest to make money on them, but to share them as public lands are meant to be shared. The motivation is the bouldering!

The PDF version is free for download for use on your digital devises as long as the link exists here. It is large (95.3MB), so be prepared. It is formatted for use on a phone or tablet with ease. Sale of the PDF version is strictly prohibited and information contained within is copyrighted, so cannot be used in other guide books without permission.

BOULDERING NEEDLE PEAK

New editions of the paper book will occur only after sufficient development at Needle Peak justifies the reader needing to spend more money. The PDF version will update more frequently, ideally after each bouldering season in the spring and fall.

Thank you all for your contributions to the guide and contributions to Needle Peak Bouldering!

Needle Peak: The Project Project

Well, it's Project Project time again, this time at Needle Peak. A place where the rock quality is too good to loose interest and spring season is prime. Since early March we've made a strong effort to complete all the last great projects at Needle Peak. The guide book I am working on (actually a free PDF and/or google map for all of you) is nearly complete, and the research has uncovered some forgotten places on the mountain. Beautiful rock and undone boulders found up to a decade ago, and for whatever reason we did not return to finish, are catching my interest. In some cases less than a hundred yards form the parking lot.

Two of the more eye catching lines were exactly that, less than a hundred yards from the parking lot! Here is a link to my Vimeo page for the FAs of The Deer Hunter and Krinklesac.

Spring comes in fits in Wyoming, so the progress has been slow enough. Sun on a single day might give enough time to finish something, but snow has rolled in more than not. Twice as many projects than days to climb them, but a few more will get done. A few more will not and there will be a project or two listed in the guide book. It is worth noting that I do not close a project, ever. So, get over to Needle Peak and put some chalk on the rock! If you do something new, let me know a name and grade and I will take a look and add it to the topos for the guide. Needle Peak is a treasure, go enjoy it this spring.

Wyoming Bouldering, Spring Update: Year of the Monkey!

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Snowy Range Update

It is cold outside! We already have more snow in the mountains than most of last winter. It has given me some time to rest and reflect on a great season, and some time to finally put together a few video clips which I have never done before in my climbing life!

Years of searching finally produced some good bouldering in the forests of the Snowy Range. Much of the summer I skipped work in the late afternoon or evening and hiked to find and develop the new stone. There was a usual silence I came to enjoy and ended up spending the vast majority of those summer evenings climbing alone. It became my mission to walk the entirety of the Snowy Range and see every last boulder I could find. Of course I didn't see all of them, but I did see what I needed to. Some good boulders in deep forest shade! I was also motivated to record the majority of FAs from the season. Even with the areas being kept in secret I have intended to reveal them in good time. Hopefully some of the video encourages to get out into the woods on the new rock.

Sure it may be selfish to go at it alone, to each new area, one after another and just keep climbing first ascents. But reality is, I have spent a huge amount of time looking, year after year, for anything worthwhile in the Snowy Range and so have many others in the past decades. A few areas I did share. Others I have enjoyed in solitude and probably will for a while longer. Not forever, some will go into the guide book in time for the spring season and next summer, but others may be silent for a longer period of time. It is continued proof that there are life times of rock in southeast Wyoming and other regions close by. Hopefully this motivates you to get out and boulder on both old and new rock!

Anyway, here are bunch of good problems, some easy,some hard.
Snowy Range Bouldering 2015

And one of the best FAs I've put up in a long while!
The Willwood

A Rested Mind

Time has a funny way of changing the view of the future. Back then, in my old view of the future, I had guessed my body would get more tired and climbing boulders would take the toll expected from a hard on the body type activity. Bouldering is one of the highest impact sports possible, and year after year it should add up. I had viewed a future of a tired body. That view was based on facts. As I turned 32 and started into the black hole of graduate school I felt tired. My strongest efforts felt years behind and though I climbed at a higher level than ever hoped for in the more distant past, I felt the downward arc of strength. Old projects felt harder and new projects were completed with more effort. The end of my graduate program and I was weaker than ever before, but hope flickered and my view started to change. The facts started to change.
Fast forward to a year after graduate school, the present, and something significant is different. Work is ever present, time is less available, and I'm older than when I felt the "decline" begin. Those things are changes of little significance. Something completely unexpected has changed. It has adjusted my view of the future because it has changed the view of the present. It is my mind. Somehow it has rested. Despite the battery of using my brain as a powerful problem solving tool, despite the relentless thinking and solving of problems, it found a way to refocus on bouldering. My mind has rested and as it turns out is the one thing I had not considered in bouldering. It did not happen quickly. It really took at least three months after my graduate work subsided to even feel or describe a change. The portions of the brain that solve complex problems, in my case geology related problems, also serve the boulderer. Bouldering as we all already know is complex problem solving! It taxes the mind.
The seeds of this change were likely planted a year ago when very difficult boulders were getting climbed at Neverland by Jimmy Webb. In the final month of my thesis work, Jimmy visited and I spent the two weeks bouldering when writing and deep thoughts of science should have been all consuming. Those two weeks provided a brief refocusing of my mind from one complex problem (geology) to another (bouldering). I finished old projects quickly and felt mentally focused beyond what the past years had provided. My body was not ready, but my mind was. Finishing graduate work was exhausting beyond words, but the seeds survived drought.
Midwinter started to warm and ancient projects moved into the forefront of my mind. Things cleaned and tried so many years ago at Needle Peak started to gain hold of my focus. Most of the time I was alone, it is something I have grown more fond of, bouldering alone on old projects, but they were now getting done. Many years after I had guessed the glory days were over, projects of old were getting finished, often quickly.
It has carried over from spring to summer to fall. New and old projects getting finished with sharp focus and a certainty that they will get climbed. My mind feels at rest and bouldering has never felt so good. It is unexpected to have a rested mind.

A progression in pictures is below. The progression and focus started at Needle Peak, the old proving ground, and progressed into the most recent of new boulders. The future looks like even more good projects getting finished!

One of the first old projects to get climbed at Needle Peak, Patience and Haste V8. Bryan Vansickle climbing the first repeat of this neoclassic. The FA was climbed in early February of this year.

FA of Love Strong V8, in February of this year. An old project completed in a few tries this time around.

The newer boulders are mostly in new areas. They tend to be larger single lines, the type that my old tired mind would struggle with. They are preferred now and help keep my mind at rest.

FA of Quick Pull Trigger V9/10, Snowy Range. This one was cleaned and climbed in a single day. 

FA of The Willwood V10. It was climbed exactly one year after I found it on a solo hike. It is the best line I've put up in a good while. 

And the final project to be completed as of this writing is back at Needle Peak. It is a project though not easy, was defined by the intimidation of the landing and the mental focus needed to complete it. Several of us have looked at a beautiful steep prow seemingly jutting into the space around Needle Peak. The Valley spills out below, and the climber will too if coming off on several moves. It was a good test of my new mind and is now Journey to Ixtlan V?

Photo from Jamie of the FA of Journey to Ixtlan. The left side is a small ledge and a terrible drop. 

Bouldering in Qingdao, China: A Second Look

A year of no updates to this blog! Apologies, but I was way too busy. Time is more abundant now and there are things to write about. Just a few days ago I returned from my second trip to Qingdao, China. It was a bouldering trip as usual.

Bouldering is something we can share in almost any part of our world. Travelling across oceans and continents for days on end to visit a few boulders is as good a reason as any I've heard. It certainly is a better motivation and far more honest than business, conflict, or any other of the superficial human endeavors. Travel and bouldering have taken me to several far off lands and into several different cultures, but it is China that holds a special place in my heart and mind. Qingdao in particular is one of the special bouldering areas of my life.

Five years ago, I first visited Qingdao, China specifically to experience something completely different than my usual life while bouldering at the same time. It proved to be one of the significant leaps of faith in my life thus far (you can read about that trip in the archive of this blog). Time has a funny way of reforming memories, and after five years of remembering the bouldering and culture in and around Qingdao, my wife Marla and I went back. We went back to have another look, to visit our amazing friends, and to see new things. Our memories were both true and false. Many things were the same, but many things had changed. The boulders were still there and many of them! 

This was quick trip of two and half weeks, but a better planned visit than the last. Conditions for bouldering were good, generally in the 50s every day and often a drying breeze was with us. The timing for spring in the East of the World could not have been better. Cherry blossoms and all other flowers imaginable were in full bloom. We played in boulder fields completely surrounded by the iconic flowers of the orient. Villages were built of the very rock we climbed on and boulders made foundations and walls of houses. There is are few if any other places in the world where a person can boulder in such a unique and magnificent setting.

Our friends living in Qingdao were excited to see us and show off five years of progress in the massive boulder fields around Qingdao and farther out in Shandong Province. We were out in the boulders and active every day except the first that we used for a rest and calibration day, and a random rain day when we finally rested our worn fingers and did some laundry. Boulders on beaches, boulders in valleys, and boulders on mountain tops were all included. The majority of the "new stuff" was never even looked at. Our five year absence was impossible to catch up on. 

I remembered some amazing boulders from my first trip and some incredible projects. I also remembered a variety of rock quality from bad to very good. Immediately those memories were confirmed but tested. Amazing boulders showed up on the first day out and projects proved to be as good and even better than before. The rock in and around Qingdao is a type of granite similar to Yosemite and some rock in the southern Wind River Mountains of Wyoming. It is tan to white, solid, and breaks into crisp clean features. Much of it has been weathered and rounded over a very long time. Glaciers did some work in China too, so some rounding is expected. Some boulders have unfortunately weathered to the point of having very sharp crystals. I would walk a series of boulders feeling bummed because they were not any good, too sharp and toothy, then turn a corner or drive to a new area and be completely blown away by something incredible! What is not expected at all until you get used to the place are the pockets, huecos, and random turtle shell textures that the majority of areas have. All with granite textures and crystals, but unexpected.

Pocketed granite and font style bulges add to the usual clean breaks and weathered eggs making Qingdao and Shandong bouldering completely unique! In a granite area it is always expected that the gems will hide. In the boulders we visited the gems are there and are like no other place I've seen. There is more variety in the forms of granite boulders than anywhere else I have been.

 

Angular clean cut granite on Fushan. I named this one Green Gardens.

Angular and Font-like granite on Fushan.

Beautiful boulder with river polished slopers, crisp edges, and the unique Qingdao pockets and huecos! This one sits among a large sector of good boulders on Laoshan. It holds great projects.

The features are reason enough to visit Qingdao should the thousands upon thousands of boulders not be enough. One memory standing above the rest was the vastness of boulders. Thousands upon thousands sitting on mountains and along the sea with few problems actually established. The Qingdao crew is busy establishing new problems all the time, but there is just too much rock to focus on any one area just yet. From one mountain of boulders we looked to another, and from the new mountain we looked on to another. The vastness was realized when we visited a new area found by Rocker only weeks prior to this resent trip. One morning we loaded our gear and drove north from Qingdao, headed for the new mountain. We drove past Laoshan which by itself has too many boulders to ever see in a lifetime, then past several other mountains of boulders with no names or had ever been looked at. Almost two hours of driving deposited us at the foot of a smaller mountain, Chanshan, but one covered in grey granite boulders. In the minutes leading up to our mountain I honestly did not know where we were going. Several good mountains of boulders were on every side of us. One of my fondest memories of this trip is standing on the top of Chanshan after already finding several good projects, and looking across Shandong Province at boulder covered mountains as far as I could see.

 

Boulder field to boulder field, the view across Shandong from Chanshan.

We visited many other mountains too. Each was somehow unique from the other but still clearly a part of the Qingdao boulder fields. We visited as many areas of boulders as we could and climbed as much as possible, but left far more unseen and untouched. 

Marla and Rocker looking at almost endless boulders unknown in the upper valleys of Laoshan

I repeated as many of the established problems as possible, focusing on the highest quality and hardest. Many of the harder lines were projects from my last visit. Strong motivation and good conditions gave me a good chance to climb well. Many new lines were established and some very good problems were repeated. One in particular was on my life list. The highball established by Rocker at Laoshan Lake! I climbed it twice and was terrified both times. The descent is also the single boulder problem on this tall boulder. Scary and very beyond classic!

Possibly the most iconic boulder problem in China! I got to climb this amazing highball established by Rocker several years ago along the shore of Laoshan Lake.

I flashed several of the harder established lines and completed all I tried with one exception, the hardest boulder problem in the Qingdao area. On the the first visit to the boulder I quickly worked out all the moves and was ready to send the line. There was no doubt it was about to go down and go down quickly, but life will usually find a way to make it interesting. The best hold snapped into pieces and what was once the midsection ease up, is now the obvious crux! I figured out all the new beta and did the crux several times, but the last evening of the trip I failed. My finger was cut and bloody as the final move of the redpoint fell short. I have rarely ever been so close and yet so far away from completing a project. Failure is an important aspect in bouldering, but this time it hurts and feels like a deeper lesson than any before. It would have been a V12 and several grades above the previous hardest. I did complete another project that is in the same league as the previous and now broken hardest in the Qingdao area. However it is really only a single hard move followed by much easier and nowhere near as majestic. Credit should still go to the FA of Dragon Fly on Shoulder V10, the problem I broke and did not repeat post-break (it is the boulder pictured above with Rocker standing under it). Once again, some projects were climbed and named, but many were left undone.

My friend Bamboo and Qingdao local trying a project that we left without an ascent on Chanshan.

Amazing project on small crimps, slopers in giant huecos, and pockets on the head wall! I only was able to try this one for about 15 minutes at nightfall. Will focus on this one immediately on my next trip.

My finger tips were more worn from the toothy stone than they have been in several years, yet I should have climbed more! Once again a mind full of memories is at work, thinking about those projects that did not get done and those mountains of boulders we did not visit. Qingdao will always be special place for me. It is a place that is slowly growing and will hold some significant bouldering areas in the future. It is a place people should go! It is not the best bouldering in the world, but no granite area is (It is definitely one of the best crack climbing areas in the world!). It is however one of the most unique bouldering areas in the world and holds it’s own among the granite areas. There are several projects and boulders I never even touched that are calling me back already.

 

One of my projects that got left behind. This line is perched on Jinlingshan within the city of Qingdao. Another example of the variety of features around Qingdao. This thing would fit in Hueco Tanks without being noticed as erratic.

It is well worth the trip for those who want some adventure with their bouldering. The Qingdao crew is amazing and have incredible motivation to get out and climb. They have a strong desire to share their one of a kind boulders and areas. So mush development can be done and needs to be done!

There are a few more photos of the trip on my Instagram: @davinbagdonas

Here are some details to get you started on planning a trip to this amazing place. Don't hesitate to ask questions and send me an email. Rocker is a primary contact for a trip to Qingdao and can be found on facebook, 8a.nu, or I can forward his email once you contact me.

The How, When, Where, and Why (you should know why already):

How: Get a visa. U.S. citizens can now get a 10 year visa for multiple entries into China! It is the same cost as a 30 day visa, so why not? The best bouldering months are also the cheapest flights! Fly into Qingdao or to Beijing then take the fast train

When: For bouldering the early spring is good (March-April), May gets warm and summer is way too hot. Fall is also great. November is possibly the best month of the year for bouldering in Qingdao. Winter is good and cold and is ideal for hard tips on the projects. Late November to February will have days of good conditions, but expect days of it being too cold.

Where: Qingdao in Shandong Province is the center of bouldering. Several mountains in the city have good bouldering (Jinlingshan and Fushan), while Laoshan to the north is many miles across and has thousands of boulders everywhere. There are other mountains of boulders all over Shandong Province. Really, boulders are everywhere!

Rocker owns the Sunflower Hostel in Laoshan district of Qingdao. Boulders are within walking distance of the hostel and all rips to other areas leave from the hostel. The locals meet there often.

Why: Boulders and the cultural experience of China! China has a history stretching back Millennia. You can climb many, many good boulders with completely unique features! There are many bolted routes too. And of course the crack climbing is incredible.

A Long Neverland Spring

Spring can be a trying time in Wyoming. Sun, snow, heat, and cold are all carried with the wind. In past spring seasons bouldering conditions have been good for several months or a couple weeks. Winter forewarns nothing of the coming transition, while summer does not remember. This time around spring has been a long stutter of the middle ground of weather that makes for great bouldering. Weekends are starting to stack up into the same long memory. Reference into the written journals where I record all related to new boulders show a deviation from the norm. Most of the time it is too warm by now for Neverland to produce much.

The length of time, so many weekends in a row now, have been highly motivating and revealing as well. In fits I've pushed the tubby grad-school boy fitness aside and tried to regain some real man steel again. A good crew has been a huge driving force in a season to remember. For the first time Neverland has more than a car or two per week. Good new problems are being contributed regularly in a renaissance of sort. Or another kick in a fitful start. Last autumn was a long season, but a loneliness set in and a long while past without much new being done. It is sometimes difficult to look through the great wide open and see through the solitude of Wyoming's far away places. The new areas and new problems this season have felt closer and less wild than normal. Still more remote than most bouldering areas. After all it is still Wyoming, but a little more comfort allows for more to get done.

The usual suspects have been regulars over weekends, including Josh Oxner and Dr. Thunder. Jamie Emerson, and Collin Horvat have made weekend trips as well. Collin in particular has made the most of his multiple trips to one of Neverland's newer sectors. His clear and definite motivation has been a treat to witness. We've jokingly suggested naming the new sector Horvat's Boulders, but the joke is getting more serious each week as he continues to finish projects. I had not climbed with Jamie since our Bear Valley expedition last summer, but a reunion was inevitable. As he has written, a fire burns in a few of us who seek to find the best boulders. It burns brighter when like minds share something familiar. The process of finding the best lines is an aspect of climbing that I now realize I enjoy almost as much as the actual bouldering. Fantastic stuff has been found and climbed and I really can't say enough about how motivating it is!  It has been a great group to boulder with for sure. New excitement has strongly driven me to get off my ass and boulder a lot more and a lot harder. To get the steel back in the tendons from seasons past is the goal now. Too much good rock needs to be climbed.

Collin Horvat on the first ascent of the beautiful Aging Moose V2

Collin Horvat sticking the crux on the first ascent of Bird of Prey V10. An incredible problem on incredible rock.

Several weeks ago now we started bouldering in the new sector. With each visit it grows which is always a sign of a good area. This one keeps giving good lines and so many boulders wait to be seen. The first weekend was spent in a small area of high concentration.

Dr. Thunder on an unnamed sloper problem on great rock with Jason Anderson spotting

My fellow geology graduate student Connor Marr getting very close on the brand new Hair of The Dog V5/6 

Jamie Emerson on what is now another Horvat line, Southern Envy V9

Each subsequent weekend has seen new lines there, but more has been found all over as the famous Wyoming Syndrome has afflicted us.Wyoming Syndrome is a condition I wouldn't wish on anyone. Life times of great rock spread all over the place to such a degree that daily life becomes a chore. You can only think of rock, you dream of rock, and you forever walk through piles, fields, mountains, valleys, and plains of rock. Your body changes shape, more rugged usually, and the hands gnarl. A persons eyes start to focus on what seams like nothing, a boulder in the distance maybe, often a few.

Dr. Thunder finishing a problem put up moments before. Wyoming Syndrome V2

Even in a frenzy of new problems going up there is a feeling that more projects are being put on the list than being checked off. Always another pile of boulders to walk too if needed. Put some chalk on the holds and see what happens. I find myself walking to boulders in Neverland with a ridiculous smile and knowing exactly what a personal heaven would be. Then there are walks when the place feels like doom and an up welling of worry moves in. Is there any way to climb on all this and damn how time has flown by. Will just have to keep putting chalk on new rock. Those are the best days.

The Cow Cave Project

A project without a name

Neverland Again

 It has been a long while since updating this blog. The busy busy schedule of graduate school has allowed the quick gratification of instagram to be my bouldering update method. That may work for some people all the time, but I have found a lack of detail with the quick post social network method lately. So many new and really high quality areas, boulders, and problems have been found that a grainy cell camera pic will not even come close. A high quality image won't do well through the instagram filter either. The rock is just too good. The demand for wasting so many of my days on such good rock is ever growing and maybe, just maybe sharing some of the good stuff will help justify my addiction. Spring has been a fine time to explore and temperatures have lagged far behind the warming of last year at this time. Good conditions!

A lot of time has been spent walking across as much rock as possible. During the opening days of Winter Break last December I managed to expertly blow up my MCL on yet another Neverland project. With rehab in mind and too much rock I haven't seen it has been a productive combination of motivations. I also feel the conclusion of my graduate studies on the very near horizon. How much more time will have to understand Neverland? How much time to understand some of the finest bouldering I have seen?

Over the past three weeks two major new sectors of many boulders have been found. Some of the highest concentrations of good rock in southeast Wyoming. Some of the best single lines have been uncovered along the way. It is a strange place to be in ones life where the past two years have been in a transition to continue bouldering but with an emphasis on real life being dominant, and yet the best boulders are now being found. Damn the curse.

It would be silly to list everything or try to explain the almost delusional wanderings through so many damn boulders. The details are too much, but the highlights are worth a bit of time here.

We drive past several miles of boulders every time we roll out to the developed areas in Neverland. During the bitch of winter we sometimes stop and look at them. Finding good rock is not a problem along the main roads, but returning to actually send the problems has been. Finally we developed a few and lot more have been cleaned.

Nathan and Bryan chatting it up under The Nest V6 and It's All You V3ish. The county road is about two hundred yards distant

The Cow Cave. Just another road side attraction.

In the lone wanderings I do with my dog Amiee, some serious stuff has been found. Bouldering can be fun and it can be serious too. On a random two-track along a random fence is a small (very small) pile of a few boulders. Anyone looking for boulders knows to find the biggest boulders first and in the largest piles. This knoll of a few gneiss blocks was a good vantage point for binoculars to be used looking across the valley. It was also the end of the road, so foot travel was next in line for accessing the huge pile of boulders across the way. Where I would never expect it is a monster of a roof made of absolutely steel hard stone. I spent around two hours freaking out chalking holds. I returned with pads and felt all the moves and possible hold positions. I can't climb the line, but someone can, and they better! It is one of the most superb lines I've ever seen. Estimated at 8B+ to 8C it should be pretty serious, but all the holds are there.

Not much besides crippled kids makes me cry, but this did. That whole thing is the beast and the finish jug didn't even get into the photo. Bryan standing at the start of roof for scale.

Several young climbers over the past seasons have asked me how to get sponsored or if I would help them attain sponsorship. I strongly believe one should be satisfied with their own climbing and that is all they should worry about, so never have been able to answer the sponsorship question for them. Now I have an answer for them that is 30 feet long and has a ripping hard sequence. So go west young man into the vast emptiness of Wyoming and put down the mega-roof.

An amazing amount of time has been spent finding and even cleaning giant hard lines that I'll never climb. There is something special about those rare gems that hold an aesthetic almost impossible to find in smaller and easier problems. Every once and a while I amaze myself with a lucky send of a giant, but far more wait for a stronger more focused climber. The list of giants is growing and becoming a heavy load to remember.
A major focus for me lately to alleviate the giants problem is to find a good concentration of great rock where I can put up a lot of new lines. The hunt for the best possible problems has me fondly remembering the days of Needle Peak or even young Vedauwoo where we would add problems by the page full every trip. Two such areas have shown themselves lately. One is completely new and just a few hundred yards beyond where we had last looked. The second is actually an old area, but for some reason we had not focused or looked at it with the right gaze. We certainly had not walked it all and that was a mistake. Either area would satisfy the need for new lines at a good pace, but two are even better.

Another damn roof. Luckily a small one, but this new area has some huge ones.

Until the heat of summer rolls in my weekends are obviously gone now. Then El Dakota season comes in and the Winds after that, then late season El Dakota, then Neverland again, then somewhere in there a job I suppose.

Fall Bouldering In Southeast Wyoming

It has been a busy fall to say the least, and a difficult one to find time for bouldering. Several snow storms have blanketed Laramie and my graduate work continues to challenge any sort of balance in my climbing life. Any available time has been spent bouldering rather than updating this blog (as you have likely noticed). I've tried to keep up with the easy way of updating by adding photos on Instagram (@davinbagdonas). After all a picture speaks a thousand words or something like that.

Early season bouldering was a bit warm and rain continued through September. A large amount of sandstone only 35 miles out of Laramie had been my primary focus. El Dakota as Josh Oxner and myself have titled the area has turned out to be an enormous addition to Laramie bouldering. It is a mountain of Dakota Sandstone that sits at nearly 9800 feet in a deep forest. Because of this, bouldering through the summer and especially early fall has been fantastic! How did this large new area hide for so long and how many more can we possibly find out there? Bouldering potential within a two hour radius of Laramie continues to grow at what seams like an ever increasing rate. I never could have imagined the potential, but will gladly take it as it comes. Should climbers continue to motivate and put up new problems, Laramie area bouldering will have many thousands of problems in a decades time!

One of a hundred boulders or more at El Dakota. Alca V5/6

We had planned a rebirth of the Vedauwoo Bouldering Festival, this time at Curt Gowdy State Park. Much of my late September was spent at the Hynds Lodge cleaning and climbing new problems for the planned competition. The best lines put up were never repeated as snow and below zero windchill forced a cancellation the day of the event. Obviously the problems are still up there and several are very worth while. 68 problems were selected for the festival out of around double for the entire area of the state park. I kept problems on the down low in an attempt to keep the competition fair. I got really excited about a few and ended up having Bryan Vansickle and Nathan Hough help develop. Cross Country Connection in down town Laramie has the Hynds Lodge Bouldering topos available. Please go grab a map and try the new lines. Some of the best new additions to Curt Gowdy and the Vedauwoo area include Waist Land Boogy V9, Up and Away V1, Old Aspen Prow V2, and The New Nathan V3. I also included 23 projects on the topo in a range of estimated difficulties from V2 to V13. That's right, there is a pile of cleaned and unclimbed lines just sitting there. If you finish one, please record the name and grade so we can add it to the guide book for the area.

Hynds Lodge Crag and a whole lot of boulders

What about October? Yeah, that has been a good one! After the time spent on the failed Curt Gowdy Festival, a few weeks of catch up work were needed on the academic side of things. Neverland was always calling, and without fail I followed the call. Now into my 30s, I have started to feel the constrain of time to finish the hardest and best lines found in the area. Triple X is one of those and for me the most difficult that feels like it is still possible. At great risk to all other aspects of my life I started going out every other day. During the week this includes a two hour drive in the afternoon, two hours on the project, and a drive home after dark. I vowed to continue in this schedule until the line is complete or winter blocks the road. All other previous sessions on the project had been random and spaced (not a good way to finish something hard). Four days on so far and the progress is much better than I had hoped for! The process of breaking down something nearly impossible, making small steps add up to larger steps, then seeing the possible from what was previously not is an experience beyond words. It is why many of us boulder and is an experience all it's own. I am completely taken by it! The motivation ours into other aspects of bouldering and life too.
Of course other boulders have to be climbed on some of those trips. The motivation is high and progress only adds to the addiction/madness. An example, Bryan Vansickle and I spent way too much on gas and time to drive three hours around the mountain to Bennett Peak. We spent a day there, crossed the ice cold Platte River, quickly finished an old project (now Down River Vibes V9), and drove all the way back to Laramie the same day. This allowed for a two hour session the following day on Triple X in a snow storm. It is border line crazy when you add up the two days and ten hours on the road for a V9 and an ass kicking in the freezing cold. I would do it again, probably this weekend.
At Neverland, Vansickle had cleaned a beautiful and huge roof, very reminiscent of Hueco Tanks. Luckily it is close to Triple X, so we managed to feed addiction for both of us. During the last trip Vansickle completed his line. Ultamak V8? and it is one of the best new big lines to go in at Neverland. It climbs like New Religion in Hueco Tanks, but has a harder start, longer moves, and a big round top. It is an area classic. The roof has several other possible problems and a long traversing problem Green Machine V6 I added as a warm up. An 8A+ feeling project climbs into Bryan's line, then follows a huge slash out the length of the beast, for what must be one of the finest power endurance lines I've seen. Anywhere but Wyoming this thing would be on glossy paper with a bunch of strong dudes talking about a stunner.
Going back tomorrow, and this weekend, just me and the dog.

Vansickle on his new problem Ultamak V8? in the huge Fern Roof of Neverland. Green Machine V6 starts on the far right near the blocks and climbs all the way left into the black flakes.

Vedauwoo Bouldering Festival Lives Again

I am pleased to announce the rebirth of the Vedauwoo Bouldering Festival! This has long been in the works and is now a reality. With the local Forest Service office declining to allow both the bouldering festival and Fat Crack Festival of years previous, we have been in search of a venue. This past summer Wyoming State Parks offered Hynds Lodge at Curt Gowdy State Park for a possible location. We gladly accepted the offer making it the 2013 Curt Gowdy State Park Bouldering Festival with Organic Bouldering Mats as our title sponsor! This is an exiting time for Wyoming climbers and all of you who can make the festival this year. We want to make the most of this opportunity and show the folks at Curt Gowdy why previous Vedauwoo Bouldering Festivals have been so fantastic.

The festival will be held the first weekend in October (5th and 6th of October). Many local businesses have sponsored the event as well as national sponsors. Food will provided as will drinks, especially for those who volunteer Saturday morning. 

Free camping for the event will be provided by Curt Gowdy State Park.

Saturday, October 5th:

9-Noon:

Volunteer trail work with prizes. The park has several bouldering areas being developed, we just need help setting up sustainable trails so we can climb in Curt Gowdy for years to come.

2pm-5pm: 

The Bouldering Competition!!! For all ages and abilities. We will have categories for every level of boulderer and a marathon catagory. This is an amazing chance to get out and sample the newest problems in the Vedauwoo area and climb like crazy with climbers of all abilities.

6pm-into the evening: 

Competition prizes, raffle, and entertainment into the evening.

Sunday, October 6th:

All Day:

Climbing and bouldering all over Curt Gowdy State Park. Many new areas will be introduced to climbers as well as areas that were previously closed years ago. The park is tremendously supportive of climbing in the park now, so lets make the most of it.

Curt Gowdy State Park has several Scarpelli lines put up many years that are some of the best in Vedauwoo. There are other routes in the park to do as well. Bring a rope and a pad. The Hynds Lodge area where the Festival is being held is likely the most concentrated of all Vedauwoo areas and has some of the best problems and projects around. Several other areas in the park have been developed recently and are among the best fall/winter areas for bouldering around. This is a great way to see the new stuff and maybe finish some new problems too!

Come join us for some great bouldering!

Curt Gowdy State Park Trail Days

 We Need Some Volunteers

July 19-20

Trail days at Curt Gowdy is only a week away! We need a few good volunteers for trail building and constructing landings for boulders!

When? 
We need help/volunteers on Friday July 19th and Saturday July 20th! About a dozen helpers each of those two days. (I will provide Coffee and Doughnuts). We will be meeting in the morning between 8 and 9, but will take your help any time during the day.

Who?
You, The State of Wyoming, and The Access Fund!

Why?
The Park has a long term goal of outdoor recreation as their main focus. Bouldering/climbing is a huge part of that vision. There is a ton of rock within the park and it is also by far the best winter climbing in all of Vedauwoo.

The Access Fund conservation team has teamed up with the State of Wyoming and our local climbing community to assure great bouldering/climbing and access to future boulders and routes within Curt Gowdy State Park. The park has actually contacted us, the climbing community, as they are incredibly excited to have us climbing their rocks! So, we will be building trails and landings for the hundred of boulders within the park. This is also a great opportunity to work closely with the Access Fund and State of Wyoming in a cooperative effort to assure climbing for generations of climbers.

Many of you have not yet seen the many new areas and boulders discovered over the past winter seasons within the park, but I assure you they are fantastic! With concern for maintaining the park, we did not advertise the new rock. Now, with trails going in, we can all enjoy the new areas and continue adding great new problems/routes to Curt Gowdy.

In addition to all that, Curt Gowdy Sate Park has encouraged us, the climbers, to have a Bouldering Festival that they in fact will be hosting this fall! This is the revival of the famous Vedauwoo Bouldering Competition/Festival. The Park has gone out of their way to host us. We need to pay them back and help out with some trails!

How?
Show up at Park Headquarters between 8 and 9 in the morning. Access Fund and Curt Gowdy State Park will provide tools. We will be working along side the Access Fund Conservation Team. 

Details
Please contact myself or Curt Gowdy State Park for additional details or if you would like to volunteer! We will need 12 people per day.

Curt Gowdy State Park:
(307) 632-7946
Park Web Site

Where is the Conservation Team now?
 

El Dakota

Legend of a lost pile of Dakota Sandstone has circulated among the bouldering community for some time now. Ever since the torch was passed from America's original boulderers on to the next generation, who have in turn passed the torch, Dakota Sandstone has held a special place in our psyche. It is what American bouldering was created on. We are products of our environment and our built dreams are produced from experiences in our environment. It is only natural that the bouldering forefathers of America would dream of a bouldering paradise built from Dakota Sandstone. Well, three years ago I felt that I may have discovered the place of lost Dakota. A beautiful but rugged hill held around a dozen blocks of various sizes. Some fine-grain and bullet hard, some the famous pebbled conglomerate. As is common for Dakota Sandstone overhangs are hard to come by. Thus for the modern boulderer, separated now by a few generations from those who love the stone, I wrote the place off as a major new area. A few dozen problems perhaps, some good ones for sure, but I never thought it would produce the massive lines of today. Scott Blunk visited the place with me and concluded the same, as well as confirming that I had indeed not found the legendary stash. It is still out there, a lost city of gold.
Access to the limited number of the blocks involves a very steep hill side and thick brush. This spring, I wanted to show some of the Laramie locals a place we might spend a week or two to buy some time and stay fit for the coming alpine bouldering season.With Josh Oxner, both of us fresh off a Wind River trip and feeling our mountain legs, we hiked a few hundred yards into very steep and thick forest, above the previous years finds of hill side Dakota blocks. Even without pads we barely pushed through the thick and largely dead fall forest. A knowledge that the hill side blocks had to of fallen from somewhere above is all that kept us pushing into the dark forest. Boulders grew in size and became more abundant. Snow remained in small drifts and ice clung under boulders. Then we stood on flat ground in a thick and cool forest among huge blocks of every shape. A talus of immense blocks was just ahead. I immediately recognized that I too had dreamed of this place. A place of huge boulders hidden in deep forest, covered in moss, hidden from the outside world. I had just never considered it was a place of Dakota Sandstone. Josh and I went frantic among the dream. We drove home in a daze of excitement, trying to figure now how we would spend our early summer in El Dakota. So much new rock, but would we have the time?
Immediately, along with Marla and Amiee Dog I returned and opened a trail the few hundred yards through the thick forest into the open talus. A trail to carry pads. A flurry of development ensued, Josh and Andrew from Montana cleaned and climbed a lot.

Josh and Andrew cleaning what would become Pocket Nest and Hot Damn, day one, El Dakota

I added a few lines on the best looking boulders and pushed ever deeper into the forest.

Alca a beautiful V6 prow and Bitter Root V5 hidden in the left shadow were my first contributions to El Dakota

Josh and Andrew returned to work and school, so I went alone for a week or two, cutting trail along a ridge of blocks. A new sector emerged, one of big lines and deep ice caves. It is a bit of a walk and one that passes a quarter mile of random boulders that will have their own lines one day. I passed all the rest to get to what is now the "mega-mega" project. Josh and Andrew reported it to me after a long bush whack. I had to find it, and a way to bring pads in after their excited claims of an amazing wall, despite what they called an absolutely horrendous hike. The rock in the area of the "mega-mega" is beautiful fine-grain sandstone, some of it showing a touch of font-like textures.

The "mega-mega" project

The way in is now an semi-easy stroll through what was a full contact forest of dead fall and talus. It took me two separate trips to break the trail and find the best route, but it also opened a large area of boulders for development. Shannon Joslin and Flannery Shay-Nemirow made their way to Wyoming to add lines at Neverland. In thick summer heat I convinced them to abandon Neverland and climb on the lesser quality Dakota. Honestly, I was getting a bit overwhelmed by the thick forest and trying to both find routes through it alone and clean new boulders. They were motivated to develop for three days and found several good lines in an area of amazing fine-grain stone. I was not sure what they would think of the place, being used to the finer stone of newer bouldering areas, but they vowed to return (and to Neverland of course). We could definitely use the help.

Flannery under the amazing fine-grain dihedral project her and Shannon found

With good reports coming from El Dakota, Dr. Thunder some how found a way to escape work and contribute some lines for a day. Knowing Bryan can work like crazy I took the opportunity to walk in with a small chain saw and remove the last of the major dead fall along the trail, as well as push to the far edge of the forest. I cut and shlepped logs while Bryan helped roll them and cut dead limbs with a machete. We even climbed a few new lines at the end of a hard day, men in the woods style. Hopefully Bryan returns.

Bryan working a beautiful pocketed wall of Dakota left of a good V5 Pinch 7500.

Bryan putting up Too Much Make Up V5ish, but font style V5ish, named after a woman he encounters while running heavy equipment near Douglas.

Even in the heat, evenings have been good. Not the blowing cold wind good of spring or fall, but good enough to continue climbing while most other areas are far too warm. Independence Day approaches and ice remains in some caves and deep holes among El Dakota. Eventually ice will melt and evening breeze will no longer carry the cool air among the boulders and forest. We'll have to move on to a new dream. Until then, I'm completely amazed by the place, by the technical and beautiful bouldering, and the deep forest of El Dakota.