Old School Bouldering Topos Explained

It's been a while.  I've got a lot to catch up on, and some explaining to do.  Here's the first of a few posts that will catch this blog up to 2020.

Last summer, I decided to start mapping some undocumented areas in Wyoming.  I started with City Walls, and quickly realized that I wasn't quite sure exactly where a few of the problems were on the map.  Luckily, I was planning to visit Wyoming soon.  I took my map with me, found the problems again, and made sure that my topos were right.

Revisiting City Walls reminded me of just how much I enjoyed climbing in these areas, and how worthy they were of documentation.

I started by mapping all the places where I spent my time bouldering in Wyoming.  

Areas such as Deer Park.

I used a combo of traditional topos, and some drawings that resemble guidebook photos when I felt they were necessary.  I mapped problems at the Tombstone Area, Roaring Fork, The White Stripes, City Walls, North Country, the Ocean Boulder, and Weapons of Mass Destruction sectors at Sweetwater Rocks, Oz North, and The Beach.

Once the Wyoming areas were finished, I mapped a few undocumented places that I've been climbing at since moving to the west slope of Colorado, like Sphinx Canyon, two seldom visited areas across the Colorado River near Moab, and a couple good blocks near Green River, UT.

Autumn climbing "Entrance Exam" V1 at Sphinx Canyon.

I wanted other people to be able to see these places, and enjoy these problems.  But I also wanted to preserve the areas and the experience of solitude I was able to find at them.  Simply publishing topos with just one photo of a classic problem from each area on the back of each map seemed like a good way to accomplish both.  It would create a usable guide that would still require enough effort to keep the unadventurous away.  The single photo would act as a guidepost to find every other problem on the map.  I chose a photo for each map and made a key to identify them.

Then I wrote an instruction sheet/justification/disclaimer.

The last thing I did for the project was create a cover.

I didn't include written out directions, but I did include enough geographic information to find each area with a google search.  If you're interested in visiting these places and problems you can get the topos collected into a book right here Old School Bouldering Topos for just seven dollars.

I've been drawing more topos since I put the book together.  It's one of the reasons that I've fallen behind on my blogging.  Here's one that I made of Big Bend.  It amazes me how much information can be conveyed through a single topo, especially at a concentrated sector such as Big Bend.

Now that you know what the Old School Topos document, and how, you can make a better decision of whether you'd like to buy a copy or not.  If you do, I hope that you will use them!  These areas are some of my favorites! Feel free to get in touch if you can't figure something out.

A New Year is just around the corner!  Let's do all that we can to make it a good one.