St. John's Best Boulders

I must be missing home because I've decided to to a list of the best boulder problems around St. John's at each grade. I found it too hard to choose one for each grade so I have listed my top 3. The top 3 are not in any order. This is obviously just my opinion at the moment based on what I have climbed.

Hopefully people might find this list motivating to get out and tick some new problems. I'd like to get a photo of each one so if you are out climbing on them take some pictures.

V0
Nice Arete - Flatrock/Trailer boulders. Classic warm up.

Heavenly path - Freshwater Bay. High enough to be scary despite the easy moves.

Jamie's Mom - Wongs House. Fun climbing on cool incut holds.


V1 
Crabhouse Crack - Flatrock/Crabhouse. Another classic.

Rob Anderson on Crabhouse Crack, photo by Joel Harvie

Banjo Chase Music - Mandolin Boulder. Great movement on good holds.

Benguala Current - Marine Lab. Fun climbing on good holds.



V2
Catch me Quicker - Crabhouse. Fun crimping leads to a scary top out.

David Bruneau on Catch me Quick, photo by Joel Harvie

Kansas City Shuffle - Fort Amherst. Fun moves lead to a very committing move at the lip. Trust your feet.

Seal Tank - Marine Lab. Fun moves on cool holds.


V3
Old Man's Beard - The Chapel Boulder. Highball. Fun climbing just keeps going.

Party Bus - Big Beach Boulder/ CBS. Very committing highball. Bring lots of pads.

Liam Bennet on Party Bus, photo Brad Kennedy

Bali - Marine Lab. A unique set up leads to a fun big move.


V4
Making Love to a Kenmore - Flatrock. Classic squeezing.

Fly Casual, Mike and Neil Boulders. Fun moves up a steep prow, unless you are willing to be eaten alive this problem is best saved for when there are no flies.

Rock, Chalk and Two Smoking Holds - Mandolin Boulder. An awkward start leads to a very fun dyno.

Matt Scott on Rock Chalk and Two Smoking Holds, photo by Trevor Harris

V5

Nice Try - Topsail Head Boulders. Big fun moves up an amazing face. Quite tall.

Rapid Eye Movement - Dreamworld. Cool moves up an arete on an amazing boulder.

Wooly Wolf - Freshwater Bay. Really cool movement right by the water. Harder if you are short.


V6
Finger Fried - Barrens Boulder. The classic V6. Crimpy fun.

Extinction - Butterpot Park. Amazing climb, fun moves lead to a chuck for the top.

Poverty Line - Talc Mine. Very proud line with committing moves well above the ground.


V7
Ketamine - Fort Amherst. Very fun climb, now goes with a variety of beta.

Baboon King - Freshwater Bay. Great climb with one of the coolest slopers ever.

Its Always Sunny in CBS- Big Beach Boulder. Really fun slapping, great movement is sadly marred by graffiti.


V8
The Wire - Flatrock. Really fun climb up an awesome feature.

Beat it Like a Red Headed Step Child - Roadside Boulder. A much better climb than it looks.

Smack - Talc Mine. Tricky.



V9
Born to Clear Cut - Freshwater Bay. Amazing climb. Burly moves up an amazing face.

David Bruneau on Born to Clear Cut, photo by Trevor Harris

Warlord - Barrens Boulder. Finger Frieds big brother. As good or better than the original.

Thomasina Pidgeon on Warlord, photo Greg Foote

V10
Commitment to Quality, Flatrock. Name says it all. Still waiting for a committed repeater.

Me Ol Cock - Marine Lab. Cool movement on cool holds on cool rock.

Font Trip Part Deux

Back in Geneva now. At the laundromat washing my stinky climbing trip clothes. Will do a quick recap of the rest of our climbing days. Trip video is at the end of the post if you want to skip all the reading bits)

Day 5: 

After our very fun day at Bas Cuvier we decided to focus on a more challenging goal. Near the top of my list of climbs I wanted to try to get done while in Font was "Deux Faux Plis en Plats Reel" a really cool looking 7C on a boulder that looks like a crashed flying saucer. We headed to the Franchard Hautes Plaines area along with Thomo and Cedar to check it out a long with a couple other nice looking climbs.

We started by warming up on some blue circuit problems. (For anyone who doesn't know Font has a colour coded circuit system where they group problems of a certain difficulty by colour and then try to climb them all in a day) The blue circuit is generally under about V3 but with a lot of them requiring tricky font footwork they can still be quite challenging.  

Thomasina Warming up

Jamie Spotting Cedar on her warm up.

We had fun crawling through a tunnel that went straight through a boulder that I at first thought was too small to fit through, but after Cedar, Thomo and Jamie had all gone through I had to ignore any fears of getting stuck and wriggle my way through.

Cedar goes through the hole.

Tighter squeeze for Jamie.

After our warm up we went on to our first objective in the area a highly recommended 7A called "Lapin ou Canard"I had seen several videos of the beta so knew exactly what to do and managed to flash it,  missing the exact sequence Jamie managed it second go and Thomo flashed as well. I have to admit that compared to the other 7As we had tried this trip this one felt substantially easier.

 We moved on to our main goal on the flying saucer boulder. After realizing that the first move was harder than it looks we started to make some good progress. There are two possible sequences for this climb. You bull out to a bad rail with your right hand and either just jump to the lip from there or match the rail and then go to the lip. Jamie was trying the dyno beta and I was trying the match and we were both making good links but unfortunately putting the whole thing together from the start proved too hard for us in one day.

Next we went to check out "La Surplomb de la Coquille Assis" a classic 7A+ in the area. After first goes where we both got quite near the top we were both confident we would send this one quickly. 

Jamie on "La Surplomb de la Coquille"

Then we kept falling on the last move. We did the last move separately and it didn't feel too hard so with renewed confidence we started trying from the start again. Once again we kept falling on the last move. Confident we could do it we kept trying until we weren't even able to to the moves we had been finding easy. Completely exhausted we admitted defeat and went home.

Day 6: After all the effort we put in to not climb those two problems the day before I decided to take a rest day. Jamie considered resting but instead opted to do an Orange Circuit at the Apremont area. Orange circuits are easier than blue but with polished font footholds they can still be quite tricky. And once we found the circuit we quickly realized they can be quite tall as well. We didn't bring a bad because we didn't want to have to drag it around so I was following Jamie from climb to climb with just a square of carpet to wipe his feet on. 

About the level we expected from the Orange Circuit

Getting trickier 

Impressively he made his way through the whole circuit (skipping only a couple that were just too polished and scary with no pad). I felt quite glad I had opted to rest instead of trying them because they looked a lot more challenging than I would have expected from an orange circuit.

Tall and slabby

Trust those feet.

Day 7: After my rest day and Jamie's pseudo rest day we went back to Haute Plaines to try to finish off the 7A+ we had almost finished last time. We did a quick warm up and then showed up expecting to fire it off first go. 

Fun Warm up arete.

Again we kept falling on the last move. We kept trying until my left arm started to hurt from trying to lock off to reach the hold. We'd almost given up when Jamie managed to pull if off and finish the climb after what was much more of a struggle than either of us had anticipated. 

We then moved on to the nearby Isatis area to check out a few climbs. We failed to get off the ground on a 7B+ sit start we wanted to check out but the 6A stand version was still very fun. 

Classic font sloper fun.

Then Jamie found a dyno he liked the look of (Vin Rouge 7A+) and managed to fire to the top in a handful of goes.

Setting up.

So close.

 I then tried a 7B called Rataplat that was all about the top out which was just one giant round classic font turtle-shell sloper. I felt close and nearly had it on one go when my foot slipped out from under me. Again I could feel my arm starting to hurt so I had to walk away. Not a very productive day for me after my rest day but that's the way it goes so I went home and iced my arm.

Day 8: When we woke up in the morning to a light covering of snow we decided we would both take a proper rest day and hope for better conditions the next day.

Day 9: Better conditions were not to be had when we woke up the next morning to a rather heavy blanket of snow with more coming down. As it was our last day to climb we set out with brooms and towels in the hopes we could brush something off to climb. We went to Bas Cuvier again thinking it might have more traffic of like minded people brushing problems. When we got to the main area we saw several people attempting to clean off problems but it seemed futile as the snow kept coming down.

Slightly dejected we decided to have a look for a roof problem (Rencontre Plafonnique 7B) we had tried and failed to find out last day there, thinking even if it wasn't climbable we would at least know where it was and maybe a few of the roof moves would be dry. When we found it everything but the very top was dry and the top seemed like it had good holds we could brush off. We hadn't even brought our stuff because we really didn't expect it to be climbable so we excitedly went back to the car and got our gear. After a quick brush of the top we started working the bottom moves. They seemed quite do-able and pretty soon we were linking it nearly to the top. Actually topping out proved slightly more challenging as it was actually snowing kind of hard at that point but we both managed to get up it and were very happy to have climbed something on our last day. 

Mildly lost in the snow.

It was still early so we then went and played Memory, Clue and Barbies. with Cedar and Thomo at Gite Arbonne. Then it was time for home and early bed as Jamie needed to be dropped at the Fontainebleau train station at 7:00 am the next morning to make it to Paris for his flight.

Day 10: Woke up early to even more snow which made for a terrifying drive to the train station where we passed two cards off the road and our little rental car with no snow tires slid around every time we stopped, but we crawled along and made it there safely. I then had to turn around and do the same thing back to the highway were I inched along in snow for an hour until I made it out of the weather and had a smooth ride back to Geneva.

Here is the trip in badly shot video form:

Dave and Jamie climb rocks in Font. from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

Dave and Jamie go to Fontainebleau days 1-4

Day 1: Our first day of climbing didn't exactly go as planned. We ended up spending much more time lost in the woods than actually climbing. Gargantoit is a problem that was on the top of my to do list so  we decided to head to the Gorge de Houx area along with Thomo and Cedar area to check it out.  Unfortunately we started by parking in the wrong lot and walking in the complete opposite direction. As we kept going further and further feeling lost we would show the map in our guidebook to random french hikers we passed and ask them if we were on the right track. 3 separate groups of people all said they were quite certain that yes we were on the right road and it was just a bit further.

Eventually we gave up and turned around. On the way back out we found an old man with a map who very kindly showed us the way we should have been going in the first place. A 20 minute walk in the opposite direction brought us to the area. Gargantoit was even bigger and more impressive than I thought it would be but unfortunately there was not much around it to warm up on. At this point it was getting late and we were tired and fed up so Jamie and I decided to just get straight on it. We were joined a few minutes later but a few spanish guys whose pads were very welcome as it was a lot higher than I thought.

We made progress quickly and before very long we were both pleased to have ticked a very enjoyable problem off of our list. At this point we had spent so much time lost that it was nearly dark so we packed it in and called it a day.

Day 2: It was quite misty overnight and the consensus of the climbers staying at our gite was that  the best place to be sure to find dry rock is the area 95.2, so that's where we went.

After a quick warm up we got on the very impressive prow line Retour au Sources. After many tries figuring out the beta I managed to do it in two separate halves. The top half has the crux which revolves around just hauling your leg up for a very big high step. Unfortunately neither of us were quite able to get our foot up on the hold when trying from the ground despite coming just millimetres away we eventually had to walk away from this one as we were just getting too tired. We tried a couple other 7As but before long I found that my arms were completely useless so we called it a day.

Day 3: As I had completely exhausted my arms the day before I decided I would take it easy on this day. Jamie did some internet research and found a problem he wanted to do at Petit Bois. Most of the hard problems in font involve bad slopers but Jamie found a crimpy V9 that he thought would suit him. We warmed up then Jamie flailed on La Baleine, a problem I had done on my last trip with no crash pad in warm conditions. He said the rock was damp, but he's a known complainer. Also at Petit Bois is Big Jim, a highball V5 that I wanted to do so I thought I would take it easy and just try that and leave the hard stuff to Jamie. Big Jim climbs up a big impressive face on two finger pockets. Despite getting up and slapping towards the top jug I didn't manage to top out and on my last go I had to hop down because I felt like the shallow right hand two finger pocket was hurting my fingers. Sure enough my fingers are still hurting a bit, I think I managed to tweak an old injury which should make the rest of the trip interesting. After that we went up to Jamie's V9 Mur du Son. After sorting out the beta it looked like he was going to send it quite quickly but then started to have trouble sticking the first move again. After some effort he managed to get past the start and finish it off for a very impressive tick.

Jamie warming up at Petit Bois

Day 4: With both of us feeling tired and injured we decided to head to Bas Cuvier to do some easy classics. We warmed up and then went for La Marie Rose, the worlds first V3 first climbed in 1946. We tried hard on out flash burns but both came off of the upper slopers. With refined beta we both managed to get up it second go but it was still quite a struggle. Very impressive climb for 1946.

We had planned on only doing easy things but Cortomaltese proved too tempting. This is a problem I had tried many times on two previous trips without success. Its basically one hard move where you have to hold a classic font sloper in each hand and then fire up high to another sloper. I had slapped up at the high sloper many times without sticking it. Jamie got it quickly and gave me the confidence that I could do it. Pretty soon I was very glad to be standing on top of an old nemesis.  

Fun Slopers

Going big.

With boosted confidence we moved on to L'Helicoptere, another classic problem that gets its name from the crux move where you have a sloper high up with your left hand and you have to throw out right to a good hold making your whole body swing around at which point most people go flying towards the ground. Jamie managed to send it pretty quickly but after I took the classic Helicoptere fall and bounced horizontally off the pads knocking the wind out of myself I was a little hesitant to try the move again so we moved on.

Next we went on to cuvier rempart and made quick work of Droxmanie a super classic V5 that I had flashed years ago on my first trip to font. I was pleased to do it first go again today. Then we moved on to Angle Allain. This was the worlds first V2/3 and was first climbed in 1934. Hard to imagine what kind of climbing shoes would have been worn then and using tiny feet is super important on this climb. It climbs up a sharp and blank arete and requires a jump off of bad feet to the lip. We both managed to flash it even if I barely got my finger tips over the lip on my jump. 

Looking for holds on Angle Allain

Jamie (with pedo stash) very happy to be climbing in font.

Satisfied by a long day of classic bouldering we packed it in and headed back for wine and supper. There is some poorly shot footage of some of the climbs so far which should be posted shortly after the trip ends.

New Video

A plumbing issue has left me sitting at home waiting for the plumber instead of going climbing. So instead I put together a little video of some problems I did over the fall and the new problem we did in NL over christmas. You can see what I meant about a convoluted top out for Riddle Snake but it was the only dry option.

A Few Boulders from Dave Stack on Vimeo.

Christmas Bouldering

I made it out of St. John's today just before a much hyped snow storm really took force. With all the talk of snowmageddon, being the last flight to leave YYT kind of felt like flying out of the exploding death star.

Now I'm waiting in the Halifax airport for my flight across the pond and back to Geneva. After nearly a  month back home I thought updating my blog on what little climbing I got to do over christmas was as good a way to kill time as any.

In that month I managed to get in two days of bouldering outside, which given the time of year is actually pretty decent. Both days were spent at an exciting new area being pioneered by David Bruneau and Lewis Loader.

Past all the developed bouldering in Freshwater Bay, all the way to the point at Gunners Cove there is a HUGE boulder that I had seen briefly on a hike years ago. With a 30 foot tall face that at first glance looks kind of chossy I decided it was not worth the hour hike in. Bruneau and Lewis, however, went to check it out and found that crawling through a hole to the back of the boulder put you in a really cool cave setting with some very appealing lines. They also noticed the presence of several other boulders in the woods nearby.

Day 1

Our first day there over xmas was spent mainly climbing on the main big boulder. Lewis and Brunes had already put up two lines. A relatively low warm up and a terrifying line called "Yer gonna die" that only Bruneau climed and rated V3, the climb follows a diagonal crack up the face of a boulder that is placed directly over a deep hole. The crack flares out to tenuous fist jams at the top and is more than scary enough that as someone who tries to lay back any crack I get my fingers in I was way too scared to try it lest the name proved all too apt.

Instead we focused on putting up new lines. Starting with another warm up. "Get up, Stand up"V1 climbs up a tall arete with the crux being needing to trust all your weight on a high-step to stand up to the top with very little for your hands.

Bruneau on "Get up, stand up" V1

The second climb we did was in the cave at the back of the boulder. The cave is formed by several boulders leaning agaisnt each other to give the feeling of almost being indoors. There is a really nice crack line that goes all the way from the very bottom of the boulder to the opening at the top that will be very nice once it is climbed but was filled with ice when we were there.

The line we focused on was slightly further to the right and after starting on a big flat ledges follows some nice and well placed crimps up an overhanging face. There were a couple options for the top-out, climbing straight up leads to where another boulder is leaning against the main boulder, so the options are climb to where they meet and drop off, try to grovel through the small hole available or traverse way to the right  to top out on the other side.  As the straight up version was icy we went with the right exit, though I think the drop off will be a better line once it is done and Bruneau is confident he can crawl through the hole.... which at the very least will be entertaining to see him try. Whichever way you go it's a really fun climb in a great setting. 

Bruneau on "Riddle Snake" V6

After I climbed that line we moved on to an "offwidth project" that Bruneau and Lewis had already tried. It involves wedging yourself between two boulders leaning agaisnt each other and trying to worm your way out. My best attempt was when I managed to get all points off the ground, though any movement from that position was far from an option. Impressively Bruneau and Lewis were both managing to make progress towards the lip of the boulder and are confident with time they can complete the problem. What grade it would be once finished I couldn't begin to guess, felt like v17 to me.

Bruneau Making Progress

My best effort

Day 2

Our second day down there we were joined by Jamie Robbins and my brother's dog Kaya. Jamie and Bruneau made quick repeats of "Riddle Snake" then Lewis and Bruneau went back to wedge them selves into their project while myself and Jamie explored the woods for more boulders. I was more than a little impressed with what we found. Several worthwhile boulders were quite nearby and there could easily be others we have not seen yet. Many of them will need cleaning before they are climbable and thinning out the paths between them would really help make it a more appealing destination but I believe the potential is there to make it one of the better areas on the Avalon Peninsula.

Here are a few of the boulders we did not climb on, due to either ice or moss:

The boulder I am most excited to come back for.

A fun looking overhanging face.

This boulder has potentially the best V0 in the province.

After our scouting mission we decided to try to put up a few more lines on one of the boulders that didn't need much cleaning. We started with a face that had what I thought was going to be a very straightforward line up a series of cool holds. We expected to run up it quickly then move on to other lines. Once we started trying it though we realized it was going to be a lot harder than it looked. After considerable effort I managed to use a tenuous heel-hook to make my way to the snow-covered top of the boulder. I found this one very hard to grade but am guessing at V7. I named the problem "She-Wolf" after Kaya dog's first day out bouldering. After that Lewis did the FA of the easy but fun arete on the ride side of the face then we had to hustle to hike out before it got dark.

Jamie trying She-Wolf

Lewis topping out "Get Daun" V1 (She-Wolf climbs the chalked holds to the left)

Overall I am very excited about this new area and am looking forward to coming back in the summer to      

climb the lines that were ice or moss covered this trip.

Chamonix Bouldering

(I made this post a few weeks ago but was having trouble displaying the images for some reason and it took me this long to sort it out)


Last weekend I got to have a pleasant change from my normal routine of taking a train alone  2 hours each way to boulder alone. Our friend Rene graciously offered to drive myself and Erica to Chamonix for a little bouldering/ sight seeing day trip.

You might notice the pictures in this blog are considerably better than my normal phone photos.  Photos courtesy of Rene Robert.

I had purchased the guidebook for bouldering in the Chamonix region over a year ago but had not gone yet due to lack of a ride. I chose the area in the guidebook with the best recommendation and we headed there. The driving directions ended up being pretty straightforward and we soon found ourselves walking into an almost magical feeling forest with a carpet of fallen leaves.  Almost immediately upon entering the forest we found ourselves surrounded by boulders with surprisingly flat landings given the density of large rocks in the area.

I check to see what looks good in the guidebook while erica checks to see what looks good in the picnic basket.

The classic problem of the area is called "La Proue" french for the prow which is exactly what it is. Sit start then squeeze your way up an impressively angular arete. After a quick warm up this was my first objective.

"La Proue" with Rene trying out some climbing in the background.

Warming up

"La Proue" either tops out straight up at v5/6 or traverses left along a sloping rail before toping out quite high for v7. I managed to get to the lip on my flash attempt so I decided I should try the v7 exit. I made it through the traverse but by the time I got to where you need to mantel out I was so pumped I didn't want to commit to the top out over one pad with inexperienced spotters  so dropped off.

After a long rest waiting for my arms to de-pump I got back on and did the straight up version.

It was a super fun problem and i'll have to come back for the traverse top out with either more pads or more endurance.

I didn't know any of the other problems in the area so next I just wandered around until I found a boulder that caught my eye. I found a steep face with interesting incut holds that the guidebook seemed to indicate was v6 from a stand start or v8 from a sit. It turned out to be another very fun problem and I managed it from the sit in a couple of tries.

Overall I was quite impressed with the quality of the problems and the area in general. There are several other areas listed in the guidebook for the Chamonix region and if the others are even half as good as this one then I am quite looking forward to checking them out.





Our non-climbing plan for chamonix had been to go up the "Aiguille du Midi" which is the worlds highest vertical ascent cable car, but when we got there they told us it was closed due to high winds. As there was not a breath of wind we suspect this was just a cover for the fact that they weren't busy and so wanted to close early.

This was re-inforced by the fact that on the other side of the valley a separate gondola was still open.


(from here on the photos are back to my standard ipone quality)

Going up.

Having beers and hot wine at the top.

Erica doing some climbing of her own.

Pretty pleased with herself.

Giant meringue reward.