Sunday, July 31, 2011

Why Round Pond Should be the next Frontier in ADK Bouldering!!

First I dont want to lead anyone on a wild goose chase out to round pond looking for Boulders. The Round pond boulders are named for the parking spot not the area. Although has anyone been out looking for boulders??
Anyway we dabbled with these boulders a few years back and put up a few good lines and worked a few more. There are two distinct areas. First the round pond area. Park as for the Round Pond trail head and cross the road, head towards I87 til you find the boulders. Problems there include a campus project, 2 v5 problems, a one move v11, a fantastic v3 out a prow, a handful of others and a bunch of potential.
The second area parks on the boulder side of the 73, first parking spot on the left after leaving round pond parking. Although this is really all one area it is easier to approach this set of boulders by parking and walking back towards round pond parking along the road. Here there are all manner of awesome boulders. From steep faces and roofs to aretes, slabs and 45's.
I spent my time today not looking at the boulders but looking at the lines and there are lines! So man up and go send some new things to help motivate my recovery. If you do go a pair of hedge trimmers could help establish a trail system for the entry point into the woods from the road. The landings tend not to be ideal so bring the big pad. A small crew could do a lot in a day.
The pics are just piss compared to what I was looking at.





These first three pics are of an amazing boulder. the first line I see here is a 45 degree over hanging prow. The climbing will be small edges around the right arete and sculpted side pulls and small krimps on the face to a probable pop to a jug at the lip.
Next on this boulder will be a mix of face holds, heel hooks and the arete to get you off the ground to a good top out.
A face climb up the middle rail to the top will also get you up there so bring the big pad and your best spotters.


This little guy has about 8 feet of climbing out a steep face with some great holds and good topout.


Enlarge this pic to see the holds and potential.



Sorry this is just the worst pic ever but this face ( the pic only shows the top half) has a really good looking line on small to smaller flat edges and krimps up to the lip and left to the top arete to pull over with.

This boulder will have long powerful moves between good holds to get you to the top. A low start can climb the overhanging right arrete into the steep face above for full value.

I should have taken more pictures. There is a really beautiful slightly overhanging face with enough holds for 3 or 4 good lines. There are some crazy shit Highballs and some desperate roof and steep faces.

Anyway with easy access and several problems waiting to be done this is the best undeveloped potential I have seen in the Dacks. With Hogwarts running out of new lines (there is still a good bunch to do but....), and my inability to will new boulders into existence everywhere I want them, I am sending out a call to action! Lets get this place developed.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Monday, July 25, 2011

Saturday, July 23, 2011

A few possible Jems



http://share.gps.motionxlive.com/shr/x/kmz/d113054babbbfbe0ef86cd31a44166b6
If you follow the link you can see the trek taken. There is a small handful of really decent looking boulders.
I also made the trek up to the king wall to scout for "boulders everywhere"....Not... although there is a bunch of boulders I spent the day free soloing up and down the king wall in the hopes of spotting some boulders with worthy lines. There is an amazing 60 foot boulder that is just a stunning piece of rock, a neat cave like feature created by a nice size chunk that fell from the wall. There is also a (yes one) really awesome boulder face at the base of the wall.






If you have not seen it the kingwall is really awesome looking. It is a huge shame that this wall is not seeing more routes put up. It should be filled with amazing bolted lines but instead is sits mostly vacant.




This set of boulders is ease to get to and looks well worth the time.






sorry about the formatting

http://share.gps.motionxlive.com/shr/x/kmz/d113054babbbfbe0ef86cd31a44166b6

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Blue mnt lake.
Castle Rock.
Plenty of boulders and some good looking cliff faces. With a 2 mile hike I'm not sure many boulders would be up for the adventure. It would be true adk adventure bouldering. Emphasis on adventure. A small posse of motivated people could bust out a half dozen or so problems in a day. Rock quality seems pretty gd. Most of the boulders are vertical with mostly blank faces. So if you are up for a hike and some adventure bouldering grab your pads n posse.