The Roaring Fork

 Lately I've been spending after school exploratory evenings hiking upstream above Roaring Fork Lake.  The best boulders don't begin to appear until two miles past the trailhead, but it's an easy trail and you don't need a high clearance vehicle or a reservation permit to go there.  Ana and Devlin have spent some time hiking up there too, and they told me about the best sector found so far.  It's the most accessible high quality Wilderness bouldering I've been to in the Lander area.  This place has a lot of potential, but it will take some work to get the problem concentration up.  Today I took the family up there, and we established four problems.  The first was a slab warm up.  The other ones were worth photographing.  I haven't settled on any names yet.  I'll update this post when I do.

A nice tall V2 crack problem.  I'm wearing a harness because the only easy way off this boulder is to rappel from a tree on top.

 A new three star V4 is just to the left of the crack.  This was the best line we finished today.

Once Ashley got to the top she used a rope to pull up her harness for the rappel off.

I also cleaned a very thin crack line to the left of this, but it's still a project.

We did the line below from a stand start.  It went at V3 once I figured out that the opening move required a heel smear above my head.  The sit start is still a project and will be much more difficult.

 All the hiking seemed like a little too much for Roo.  He couldn't keep his eyes open.

I can hardly believe that Lander has yet another vast area of boulders to overwhelm me!  The ambiance and stone quality of this area are really superb.  Once the best stones are found, and the pine needles, lichen, and moss are cleared, it just might be amazing.  Until that happens, take a short rope and some brushes, and budget some cleaning time into your day.

Unfortunately, I just got word that there might be some access issues at Devil's Kitchen.  I'm working on getting more info and will give a full update as soon as possible.  Until things are clarified it's probably best to climb elsewhere.