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Installment #5 |
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Diamonds in the Rough We've just come from checking out the bouldering in Joshua Tree. I've heard lots of people say that they really liked it, and I can see why. There is endless rock and much of it appears to be just the right size for bouldering. I'm sure there are world class concentrations of quality problems out there, but we didn't see them. We also found the "best of" guidebook to have a lot of filler. That said, the classics we saw were just that. Stem Gem, Caveman, Chili Sauce, anything we'd heard of turned out to be worth doing. I also finally started climbing well so whether or not the bouldering in J-Tree is any good, I liked it because I could do it (funny how that always seems to factor in). Although locals might disagree, we found J-Tree to be of pretty average quality when compared to a lot of other local bouldering areas we've visited. I'm not trying to compare it to Bishop or Hueco, and I'm not trying to say that J-Tree bouldering is even that bad. But I do think that one of the great things about road tripping in the US is the abundance of underhyped super high quality bouldering areas. As we all know in New England, everybody's got their backyard boulders, and everybody thinks their backyard boulders are the best. I know that five of my top-ten all-time favorite boulder problems lie in my hometown area of Farley, MA. I bet Joe McLoughlin is the same about Lincoln Woods RI, and Brett Myers is the same about Pawtuckaway NH. As well we should be. We found the boulders, we scrubbed them clean, we figured them out, and then we climbed them. Our personal investment made them worth more for us in the long run than others we have climbed. I hear that Bradley, CT has just seen two V13's and a V14 go up this last month. I bet Dan Yagmin and Dave Theirault are well good and psyched. I know I would be if they were at Farley. Some of these local areas are obviously better than others, and some really aren't that good. We've all visited someplace and come away unimpressed. For the visiting climber it can be hard to want to visit unknown local areas 'cause you never know what you're gonna get. Because we've had plenty of time on our hands, one our favorite things to do on this trip has been to visit little known bouldering spots. We've bouldered at all sorts of local spots ranging in quality from world class to "Yea dude this is great! Thanks for the tour, but I think our dog's sick and we gotta go." I don't want to make anyone feel bad about their hard work so I won't tell you how much I think Indian Rock in Berkley CA Sucks. Or how sad it is that so many great climbers have wasted so much energy on Flagstaff mountain outside Boulder CO, when the gleaming gem of RMNP is an hour up the road. Silliness. Here are two of my favorite Diamonds in the rough: Black Mountain, CA |
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| If you've seen Rampage, then you know that Black Mountain has
an abundance of hard boulder problems. What you can't tell from the video
is that the rock quality is superb. If you like spare, singular, hard lines
on aesthetic granite boulders, then Black Mountain is the spot for you. According
to my Dr. Topo free online guide (good job Dave Struthers) V10 is the most
common grade there. Not an every-mans area, but if you want to do rad moves
on perfect granite crimps, you're in.
We only got to climb there for 1 day before a foot of snow dumped on the mountain, so on our second day we went on a 10 mile hike to look at all the bouldering. Normally that much walking isn't mandatory, but the road was closed due to the snow. However, if you did have to hike that much to climb there, I would do it in a heartbeat. Holy friggin crap it looked good. Ben Moon's problem Bang On (V11) is my personal "If I could have only one boulder in my back yard this would be it," boulder. It's sooo beautiful, I just love it.
Bottom line: Ponderosa, NM |
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If floundering on huge moves between tiny crimps at Black Mountain isn't your idea of fun, then the more accommodating welded tuff of Ponderosa, NM could be more your speed. That's not to say there's no hard climbing there. Timmy Fairfield is one of the driving forces in NM bouldering so there's plenty of climbing V10 and up. But some of the area's best problems are more moderate. The welded tuff at Ponderosa is the best volcanic rock I've climbed on outside of Hueco. It forms every type of hold you'd want to pull on. Razor crimps, cushy slopers, pockets, pinches sometimes all on the same problem. The problems also tend to be a bit more powerful than the granite areas we've visited. My two favorites were the Triple Mullet (V10), and the NASCAR boulder traverse (project). I think Triple Mullet is the coolest problem of the grade I've tried so far on our trip. It features huge moves into three consecutive left-facing overlaps on a 50° overhang. The NASCAR boulder traverse is so fine that I'm taking a few days out of our trip to Hueco to try to finish it. The Potential for further development at Ponderosa is excellent. And according to New England ex-pat and Geologist Micah Jessup, there's no reason to think the same rock isn't all over northern New Mexico. I take this to mean that Ponderosa could be just the tip of the iceberg. If so, it's going to be one hell of an iceberg.
Bottom line: Before we started our trip, I had no expectation of climbing at either one of these areas. But both of them have been some of the best climbing we've done so far. It's also been nice to see area's that are the product of a few people's hard work. Like eating at the local diner instead of Denny's, the small-time local area gives you a better flavor for the place you're at. And like my favorite first ascents I've done at home, they will stick with me longer than some of the "classics" at the better known areas. I look forward to visiting more "Diamonds in the Rough."
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