A Bouldering Session at Alcova Reservoir

We just got back from a road trip, and we've been climbing so much that it's going to take multiple posts just to get caught up.  The plan was to start summer break with a trip to Tensleep.  We had packed up the car, and were ready to go.  But luckily I checked the weather and noticed that Tensleep was in the middle of a Winter Weather Advisory!  So we took advantage of the cool conditions to visit a bouldering area at Alcova Reservoir near Casper.  Danny Baker posted photos on his blog, and made the area look like a very warm place.  He's one of the main developers of the area, and the one to contact for more information.  On the day we climbed there it was cold, but we were lucky that we could get out of the wind in the small canyon.

Ashley warming up on the roof left of "Fly Boy."  

 Just downhill was a low roof traverse called "Rain Roof."  Ashley got psyched!

 It's all fun and games until it's time to topout.

 The dry canyon has some nice attributes.  Many roofs to climb out of.

 A plethora of incut crimps.

 And many tall walls cut by horizontal cracks and features.

 My main goal was to find and climb "Black Magic."

I found it, the climb fit me well, and I sent it on my third try.  It's a beautiful problem, and it got the trip off to a good start.

The canyon has interesting erosion patterns. This block looks ready to topple off of the pedestal of loose sandstone flakes below it at any moment.

Alcova Reservoir was just recently discovered/rediscovered.  It has many good problems already, but the stone will clean up, and many more problems will be done in the next year.  It's already good, but it will be even better.  We'll be making a trip back this Fall.

That's day one.  Day two will be written up soon.

Wind & Rattlesnakes

Kyle Duba's Lander climbing history film will premiere at the International Climbers' Festival this year.  I'm really looking forward to this!  Here's a new trailer that's just been released.
Wind & Rattlesnakes Trailer from Kyle Duba on Vimeo.

Savoring Summer Bouldering

The end of the school year is a busy time for teachers.  So busy for me that I had to put the climbing blog on hold for a few weeks.  But our summer season has been getting off to a strong start.  I've been getting outside to calm my mind after hectic days at school, and spent yesterday in Devil's Kitchen, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The Upper Kitchen

 Long May days allowed me to spend evenings scouting and brushing boulders at the Rock Shop.  Occasionally on my own, and a couple times with Alex.  He's a boulderer from Missoula on an extended bouldering road trip who's excited to develop new problems.  One evening I brushed a tall problem on rappel.  Alex told me that he planned to camp nearby and climb a bit the next morning.  So I did what I had to do.  Despite the fact that I'd only planned to clean boulders that evening, I put on my climbing shoes, and fired the freshly brushed line.  It's named "Preemptive Strike."

Ashley climbing the second ascent of "Preemptive Strike" V3.

 The next day, Ashley and I got back to the Rock Shop and I climbed a new line that starts in underclings a few feet right and traverses the two diagonal cracks left to join the same top out.  It's a V5 called "Caroline Test."

Ashley committing to the common top out.

 I also brushed up a line I'd found last year.  I'd hoped to stay under the roof, but that line ended up being harder than I could do, and it also felt contrived.  The uncontrived line using the right arete goes at V4.

 The best way to top it out is using a pommel horse mantel.  I called it "Giddyup" and thought it might deserve three stars, but eventually decided to settle on two.

 Ashley and I planned to end one session with an easy problem.  This wall above "Giddyup" looked like it would be V2, but it's actually really tricky to climb.  We couldn't send it at the end of the day.

A week later, I came out on the afternoon of the last day of school to work on it with Alex.  The feet and handholds are all at strange angles.  To climb it requires foot jamming in pods, and awkward core tension.  Then once at the lip you need to commit to a scrunchy traverse to the right with feet on a sloping ledge.  The hand holds are good though.  The committing exit, and it being the last day of school, lead me to the name.

"The Great Escape" V5

 Conditions have been surprisingly cool at the Rock Shop.  Windy on top of the formations, but with just a pleasant breeze in the forest below.

Ashley took advantage of cool temps to make a quick repeat of one of her Rock Shop favorites "Burly."

 Roo enjoys cool conditions too.

 The wet spring has lead to an exceptionally pretty early summer this year.  The wildflowers are doing great.

 And Red Canyon is more green than red.

 In addition to the Rock Shop sessions, we've been doing things in Sinks Canyon that aren't new, but are still new to us.  In the guide I included the Slug boulder above the Cabins, but I hadn't gotten a chance to climb there yet.  The lines needed re-brushing, but they're ready to go again and offer interesting climbing on sloping holds.
Ashley climbing "Half Slug" V5.

 Today Ashley spent most of her session on the "Power of Now" boulder a.k.a. Broken Face.  In the guide I only documented one problem, but Ashley climbed five.  I think all of these lines were first done by Jeremy Rowan.  I'll do an update about them on the Bouldering in the Wind Rivers site soon.

The "Power of Now" boulder's left arete V2.

I was too worked to climb today, because I spent all day yesterday bouldering with Kyle, Jesse, and Jesi in Devil's Kitchen.

Kyle is filming some Devil's Kitchen bouldering to include in his upcoming film "Wind and Rattlesnakes" about the history and development of climbing in the Lander area.

Jesi came along to help out with the project.  Here Jesi films Jesse on a warm-up.

 With Kyle and Jesi already documenting the day's bouldering better than I could.  I spent the day documenting other things:
  The wildflowers.

The waterfalls.

 And the walls.

If the features of a natural landscape can combine to form something greater than the sum of their parts, like the individual instruments can in a piece of music, then Devil's Kitchen is a symphony.

Jesse showed us an alternate road out of the Kitchen that leads higher up the hill.  The higher vantage points, and snow covered peaks were so beautiful that we stopped the truck a couple times just to take photos.

 Beautiful weather, vast wild landscapes with fields of amazing boulders, and eighty consecutive days off.

 It's going to be a good summer...

Good Times

I've been feeling lucky lately.  A couple weeks ago I got to spend three days leading my students on field trips in Torrey Valley.  The students learned what I wanted to teach them, but even more importantly they were able to experience the grandeur of the place.  Part of the lesson included ten silent minutes of free observation.  The sound of the river, and the bird songs would emerge as soon as everyone stopped talking.  Winds were blowing plumes of snow off the ridges above us, while the air was warm and still on the small hill on which we sat.  One group got to watch a herd of bighorn sheep graze just a couple hundred feet away for the entire activity.  The field trip was initiated due to my experience with the place through days spent bouldering there.  And the teachers on my team supported the trip by leading other activities in the valley, like hiking and a tour of the nearby fish hatchery.  About one hundred and twenty students spent the majority of three school days outside in the mountains.  That's a significant amount of outdoor time when you add it all up.    

 Some students saw more wildlife than others, but they all saw at least a few bighorn sheep.

And while showing groups of students glacial erratic boulders, I noticed new chalk here and there.  Someone has been spending time on difficult sit starts recently.

Last weekend, Ashley and I had such a busy day working on projects at Sweetwater that I barely took out the camera.  Most of the things we worked on are still projects, but Ashley enjoyed sending "Metropolitan Glide" at the end of the day.

Here is one new project I'm working on.  I'm pretty sure I can do it if I get back out there with a strong spotter.  I just couldn't get myself to commit without one.

 

 The rocks out there are blooming with phlox.

 And on the drive home I pulled over for a landscape shot in the afternoon light.

Yesterday was another nice day at Sweetwater.  Ashley decided to give herself a week off of climbing so she'd feel recovered and ready for more climbing into the summer.  I decided I wanted to try a roof crack called "South of Heaven."  It's a problem first done by Vance that I'd never attempted before.  It's at the Hampi Boulders and requires full tape gloves.  Devlin and Ana decided to take a break from their sport climbing projects in Sinks to check out the area with me.  I enjoyed giving them a tour of my favorite lines in the main sector.   

Ana climbing a problem I dubbed "Sloper Line" in the guidebook.

 I'd looked at the glassy boulder behind "Sloper Line" on many occasions, but never padded up the landing and tried the climbs until yesterday.  It offers a couple technical, insecure, but really fun V3 lines.

And I just can't get over the surrounding landscape.

Here's Devlin climbing one of the problems.

 Ana and Devlin spent time working on the Hampi Boulder Traverse.

 And then we walked along the slabs to the south side of the formation for "South of Heaven."  It starts 30 feet deep above a somewhat steep slab landing.  Sometimes the pads would slide a little, but we had enough to cover everything well.  The length and angle remind me of the problem "Analog" at Vedauwoo, but the climbing here is all hand jams.  Some that are perfect, and a some that are a little bigger than I would like.

 On my best attempt I made it out to the spot seen below.  The line is so stout!  But based on the hardest move it probably is accurate to call it V4.  No individual move is that hard, but it's such a full body workout.  There isn't a good way to rest, and by the end it's really difficult to finish it off.   5.12 crack climbing, is a number that better expresses the difficulty.

 I'm excited for a rematch.

We ended the session by hiking around and looking at a few more projects.

 Sweetwater offers everything.  Plenty of established lines, and lots of exploration to do as well.

Only two more weekends, and then my summer break is here!  It's hard to contain the excitement.

If you're excited to check out the bouldering at Sweetwater, or at eleven other areas within easy striking distance of Lander, you can buy the guidebook Bouldering in the Wind River Range from Wild Iris, Fixed Pin Publishing, or ClimbingWyoming.Com.  Climbing Wyoming recently posted a variety of action shots from the guide, and is also helping  promote the guidebook with a 10% discount right now.

A New Site for Lander Area Bouldering Info

We spent today at the Ice Age Area.  It's usually not the best bouldering sector near Lander.  But it might have been today.  Almost everything else was snowed in.  We got out early and managed to get most of our climbing done before the wind picked up.  Ashley climbed the complete Warm Up boulder traverse from a pocket at the far right to the top out on the left slab.  It goes high at the end, but stays below the top of the boulder the whole way.  It might be Jeremy's old traverse? It's pumpy and goes at V4 or 5.

So I've been making a habit of posting bouldering info like that within my posts since moving to Lander, but I think it's a good time to make a split between the journal that I keep of our sessions on this blog, and new information that might be helpful to anyone bouldering in the Lander area.  To get the new beta, you shouldn't need to also keep up with reports of every bouldering session that I get out for.  So I'm starting a new site called Bouldering in the Wind River Range.  It will be a site for posting new problems, guidebook updates, and corrections.  I did it in Blogger because it's a familiar, convenient, and free service for me to use, but that also means that its login is connected to this blog and a couple others that I do.  So I'm not planning to make it directly accessible to other contributors.  But I'd like it to contain posts from anybody who has developed an area, or even put up a single problem that they want to let people know about.  Please send posts and photos to my e-mail, and I'll add them to the site.  It's got a couple posts that I've put together already.  Hopefully this will grow into the go-to spot for information beyond the new guidebook, and also be a helpful resource when it's time for the next edition.  

The Guidebook is Out!

If you've been reading this blog, you probably already know that I've been quite impressed by the bouldering in the Lander area, since moving here from Ft. Collins four years ago.  Especially by some of the new areas developed during the last couple years like the God Eye Gully/ Norwegian Wood sectors at Sweetwater, the Falcon's Lair, Devil's Kitchen and the Rock Shop.  Each of these areas already have enough problems and enough potential within sight of the developed problems to be regionally significant bouldering areas.  Zoom out a bit and the Sweetwater Rocks region, and many parts of the Wind River Range could become nationally significant bouldering areas one day.

These boulder gardens haven't hit most boulderer's radar yet, and they aren't places to visit if you want to be part of a scene.  But if you're looking for some amazing bouldering in uncrowded places, the Lander area offers it.

About a year and a half ago I committed myself to writing a guidebook documenting the bouldering in this area.  I wanted to update the problems and areas already documented in Steve Bechtel's guide, and add all the new areas that Chris, Jesse, Davin, and I have been bouldering and developing at.  Last summer Ben Sears joined the project, and used his graphic design expertise to make the maps, format the pages, and make the whole guide look great in general.

Before starting the guide, I looked at every guidebook that I owned in order to figure out exactly what I wanted to create.  Guidebooks are collectibles to me, and I often buy guides to areas that I'm not even sure I want to visit.  I like the landscape orientation binding of the Stone Country Press guides.  Their guides look good and the weight of the wide pages keeps the books from closing themselves as soon as you let go of them.  But with pages bound on the short side I decided I'd need a sewn binding to be absolutely sure that pages wouldn't start falling out after use in the field.  I wanted the new guide to be full color, with photos of almost every problem, and have color coded lines based on difficulty.  It was also important for the new guide to be small enough and light enough that it would easily fit into a bouldering pack.  I like the history, natural history, and geology sections in Tom Moulin's Southern Nevada Bouldering guide.  I wrote my own, but decided to keep them brief.  I also liked the matte finish and photo quality of Wesley Gooch's Jackson Hole and Pinedale Climbing Guide.

I noticed some things in the guides on my shelf that I wanted to avoid.  One trend that has annoyed me in recent guidebooks has been the proliferation of advertisements.  They're a distraction.  And who wants to be carrying a bunch of unnecessary pages around?  I decided that my guide would be ad free.

After over a year of writing, and fixing issues as they arose, the project is finished! It wasn't easy, but I was able to meet the goals that I started with.  The guide is bound the way I wanted it and the pages are sewn in.  It's full color, the routes are color coded for difficulty, it's the size that I wanted, and it doesn't have any ads.  But custom sized pages, and sewn bindings raise the price of book printing.  Also, small print runs are very expensive per copy.  Stores and distribution require a mark up as well.  And there is a reason most full color guides have ads. They help offset the costs.  In order to make the guide as good as it could be, I paid the printing costs myself, and I priced the guide as low as possible based on those printing costs.

I worked really hard on this guide, and it is honestly the best guide that I could create right now.  Actually it's better than that.  Ben Sear's graphic design work, Davin and Jeremy's photos and topos, and the essay Davin wrote about his experience of bouldering in Wyoming have made this guide much better than any guide I could have ever put together myself.

I hope you buy the guide.  I hope you enjoy it, and use it to visit the great new bouldering that you have to explore in the Lander area.  And if you'd like it to be updated in a few years, I hope you get copies as gifts for your friends.  Ashley won't let me write and print a second edition until we're running out of boxes of this one.

The new guide is 200 pages and has over 500 problems.  It is currently available at Wild Iris Mountain Sports in Lander, and it will be available from Fixed Pin Publishing, and ClimbingWyoming.com very soon.  Order it now, or check it out in your local climbing shop when it arrives.  And thanks for your support!  

Spring Break Wrap-up

Jesse climbing his new highball "Silver Bullet."

One of the reasons we didn't travel far over Spring Break is that the Bouldering in the Wind River Range guidebooks were supposed to arrive yesterday.  Unfortunately shipping to Lander appears to be more complicated than shipping to the rest of the country, and the books haven't gotten here yet.  I've been told that they should arrive on Monday or Tuesday.  

In hindsight, we could have gone on a trip.  But really, I can't imagine a Spring Break climbing trip that would have been better than the days we've had at Sweetwater over the break.  I did three great V7s, seven first ascents, discovered four new projects, and the weather was wonderful up until today.

Lindsey on "The Banquet." 

 Sophia on "Silver Bullet"

 Lindsey deciding that she's high enough on "Silver Bullet."

 Today started overcast, cold, and windy.  The weather didn't look good enough to risk two hours of driving for Sweetwater.  But we drove up Sinks Canyon and were able to get a breezy session on the Lizard Lab.  The girls were happy to be able to do a few problems that they couldn't do last time.

And that wraps up the Spring Break climbing this year.

My feelings are completely split right now.  I'm so happy about the climbing we did over break, and excited by the upcoming bouldering season at Sweetwater, Oz, and the Rock Shop.  But waiting for the guide is driving me crazy.  It's difficult to work on something somewhat obsessively for over a year, invest a lot of money into it, and then feel like it's out of your hands for over a month.

The next post better be about the arrival of guidebook...