Highway Boulder Topo

The Highway Boulder

1. Highway 420, V0 - Climb the left arete.

2. Road Rage, V7 - Sit start on two sidepulls then climb straight up the face using small crimps. Powerful and fun.

3. Highway Robbery, V4 -  Climb the right arete using heel hooks and a small crimp to get out on the face then up.


Description: One of the first boulders developed on the highway this boulder doesn't have very many problems but it's short approach make it easy to stop at while coming to or from other boulders. Or for the adventurous you can keep heading in towards the power-lines to the area called "the unknown" for more boulders. The unknown has seen very little attention for quite a while but there are several good problems to be found in there.

Directions: From St. John's take the TCH west past the witless bay line, turn around at the Holyrood access road then park at the large green sign that says "St. John's 37 km". Walk up up the hill and you should be able to see the boulder once you are at the top.

Drive ~25 minutes Walk ~ 5 minutes

Inspiration

So I've had to come to the frustrating decision that I actually need to take some time off to let my finger heal. With a long list of projects I want to complete and the weather getting warmer every day this is pretty annoying.  There's been some new boulders discovered recently so I am going to try to focus on cleaning new stuff to keep myself occupied. I just need to make sure I leave my shoes at home to keep myself off the rock.

I've been going out and showing people areas / spotting recently instead of climbing. I am happy to say there seems to be increased interest in bouldering with several new people keen to get out and send.

Just recently one such person came into the gym. Head to toe in denim, with a feather sticking out of his fishing hat he and a friend walked into Wallnuts and went straight for the gear display case. After they looked at that for a while we asked them if we could help with anything.

"Do you have YOUTUBE?!" Denim man shouted back at us.

"Uh?"

"YOUTUBE! Can you play YOUTUBE!?"

Once we told him we could indeed "play youtube" he made us look up his name and then pointed out some videos for us to watch. Explaining that he had just been "Mountain Climbing" on signal hill while his buddy filmed.

Here he is with an impressive free solo first ascent:



In this one he  tackles some bouldering instead:



I was particularly impressed by the circuitous route of his problem. Not being constrained by traditional concepts of what constitutes a "line" or "rock worth climbing" or "sanity".

After watching a few more of these very impressive climbing videos he asked us if he had "That thing that goes into the rock and makes the 3 point hole?"

We told him that we didn't think such a thing existed but if he was interested in climbing then the outfitters would be a good place to buy gear.

As they were leaving we advised them not to die out there and they went on their way. Where are they now I wonder. What feats of mountaineering greatness will they accomplish next?  Only time, and possibly the news report of an air rescue will tell....

Tucson

Based on the bouldering tucson website, it was pretty clear that "The Matterhorn Boulder" was going to be my best option.

The line I had my eye on was "Jewel Thief" a V10 straight up the steep main face of the boulder. I'll let the Tucson bouldering site describe the problem:

"The most sought after send here is the Bob Murray testpiece Jewel Thief. Sent in the early 1980's (I think), this is still a difficult and committing climb, with most people opting to rehearse the moves on toprope first. The climb involves a strenuous sit start on horrendously sharp incuts, then moves to a rail, then up to a series of difficult sidepulls. Using the sidepulls, you set up up for a long deadpoint for a bad sloping edge at the lip, with your feet well above the ground, and facing a potentially dangerous swing off the lip. You bump your right hand up to a small hold higher up the lip, then match your hands, then topout. All the more impressive is that this problem was originally sent without crashpads, and with a potentially jewel thiefin' tree right in the fall zone. The fact that it may not have been repeated until 2008 is a testament to the vision and strength of Bob Murray, possibly the strongest boulderer of his era. Since 2008, Jewel Thief has been sent by Brent Silvester (probable 2nd ascent), Jared LaVacque and Sam Davis, and maybe a couple others."

Though I am not normally one for particularly tall problems the description just sounded too good too pass up. I found a video of the problem online and watched it enough to have the beta memorized. Though, once I got to Arizona, I was mostly just hoping my finger would be healed enough for me to climb at all.

The day we went to the Matterhorn boulder was atypically cold for Tucson at that time of the year, which worked out well for me because once we got to the 7000 ft altitude on Mount Lemmon of the Matterhorn boulder it was actually cold enough that there was still snow on the ground. Perfect conditions.

I taped up my finger and put on my shoes. On the very first warm up problem, a fun V0 arete with a cool horn feature, I felt my finger hurting already. I decided to ignore it. I was likely only going to be here once and I was not going to turn around and stop climbing at that point.

warming up

After a couple more V0's I moved on to a crimpy V3 called "Sidepulls" and then a really fun V5 called "The flake". After completing those climbs I was feeling strong and could hardly feel any pain in my finger.

Sidepulls V3

I started trying a V7 on the same face as Jewel Thief but with a crux near the top and no beta I did not have the nerve to commit to figuring out the moves over one pad with just Erica below me.

So then it was time to start trying Jewel Thief. The video I had watched made it seem like the first move pulling off the ground was going to be one of the cruxes and it did not disappoint. Starting super low and a good incut jug you need to do a big pull to a small but decent right hand crimp.

After a few goes I managed to slap the hold and knew I would be able to grab it. A few tries later I stuck the hold and kept going, I managed to make it to the point that I was trying to put my heel up on the rail feature before I fell. I decided to leave the start for now and start working on the upper moves.

Working the moves

The drop in move right before the final lunge took a couple tries to get the body position right on. Once I stuck it I surprised myself by hitting the lip my first try on the lunge. I went around to the top of the boulder to scope out exactly where I needed to grab then, not wanting to do the top out more than once, went back to trying from the start.

Scouting from above.

It took me a few tries to stick the start move again but once I did I just kept going. Setting up for the last big move I didn't feel like I had my left hand set quite right but went for it anyway and surprised myself even more by actually sticking the lip. Trying unsuccessfully to ignore how high I shakily rolled myself on top of the boulder.

It really was an incredibly nice climb and would be a gem in any area. As for the grade, I really have no idea and am less certain about all grades the more I climb. Whatever the grade it was certainly one of my most satisfying climbing experiences.

Erica's Mom was nice enough to come out and film so here's a video of the send

Austin

I just had a two week trip to the southwest U.S with Erica to see her family. Her sister is in Austin, Texas and her folks are in Tucson, Arizona. Even though it wasn't really a climbing trip, I brought my pad down intent on doing as much bouldering as possible.

I did my research on what would be accessible from each city and had a few problems in mind for each area.

In Austin the first spot we went to was "McKinney Falls", a state park with some cool water falls and a long overhanding limestone bouldering wall.

The online guide describes the problem "Evil Eye" V5 as one of the area's classics so that's what a set my sights on first. It climbs a steep section of the wall on deep pockets with the crux being a dyno to the lip off a split finger two finger pocket. Basically a double mono with one finger in each pocket.

My first time trying the crux move I hit the lip but immediately dropped off because my fingers were hurting in the pockets. Not wanting to get injured I decided to leave the problem alone and work on something else...

However a few minutes later my fingers felt totally fine and I convinced myself they were not actually hurt I was just not used to climbing on pockets.....

I decided to give it one more go.

This time I topped the problem out but paid the price. Both my middle and ring finger on my right hand were hurting and I was now worried I had actually hurt the tendons.

Here's a weird video someone else made that gives an idea of how scary the move off the pockets is...


I played around on a couple more problems and then called it quits to go home and ice my fingers. As the day went on they started to feel worse and worse.

Every morning I woke up with pain in my fingers and sadly had to give up on doing any more bouldering around austin. I had my sights set on a climb I really wanted to do in Tucson so I was hoping a full week off would let my finger heal enough to climb there.