The New World and a New Problem

The New World

Saturday, I took the afternoon to check out a new area Chris discovered and named The New World. It's the loneliest set of rocks I've ever visited, found at the point where the Wind River Mountain chain dies, and the Red Desert begins. The rock is gneiss, solid and clean. There are many formations of climbable size, but few individual boulders large enough for climbing. The rock is highly featured, and most of the lines I saw would be moderates.

One of many formations from a distance.

A formation from a closer vantage point.

This wall is nicely overhung, a good height and covered with clean solid holds.
The two track that gets you there and back.
It's a cool place to hang out, and an adventurous boulderer could have a lot of fun in the area. The rock is great and there is a lot of it, so I'm sure some spectacular lines will be found.

For now, I'll keep developing at Sweetwater, which is more accessible and has a higher potential for concentrated boulder gardens. But I'll be keeping an ear out for news of the latest discoveries in the New World.

Speaking of discoveries, on Sunday I discovered the Old Lady Driver project goes from a stand start. It's listed in the guide as a sit start project, but I couldn't find any holds where a sit start would start. It's a technical problem with one fierce move, and it's a little hard to rate. At least V5, but it could be as hard as V7. The crux move is harder than any move on "Frankenstein" but it's over a lot faster.

I'll make some inquiries before claiming a first ascent. It seems unlikely that a granite boulder problem, ten feet from asphalt, in Bruce's picnic area, in Sinks Canyon, in the V5-7 range, hadn't been done yet.

It's worth a visit. "Rowan's Stand" "Robots" and an unlisted line from a diagonal pinch at the low lip left of "Bread Control" make good warmups.

After getting started on the Old Lady Driver boulder Ashley and I did some toprope lines on the Big Vision Boulder. It would have been fun to see this huge block sitting on the glacier during the last ice age.

We toproped "Super Corner" and a line that heads up slopers by stepping off the big grey boulder. Both are fun lines, set up from a good bolted anchor.

In climbing, there is always something new you can try.