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Alex Kordick on Super Cool

Horsepens 40 is one of, if not THE, most unique bouldering areas in the world. Many people compare it to Font, the birthplace of bouldering. While I have never been to Font, HP40 does appear to have many of the same features, brain like slopers (think the Pusher Boss for all you gym rats) and blob like boulders.

Alex Kordick on The Flow

Some of the features are almost too unreal with giant “baby head” bulbs sticking out of the rock. In many ways it is very similar to The Channel here in Idaho but with amazing texture. If you have never climbed at HP40 it is impossible to describe the texture, it’s sticky and allows you to climb on things you wouldn’t normally be able to climb on (especially at The Channel)

Mike McClure on Landslide

The perfect texture

The climbing at HP40 is very, VERY hard to get used to and very hard to describe. It is small box climbing and often relies more on technique and one’s understanding of how to rock climb than physical strength. 8 years ago when I first came to HP40 I was a solid V5/7 climber breaking into V8/9s. I remember getting bouted on plenty of lower end grades, including a V1 that took me two solid days of work, not because it was hard but because I didn’t understand how to use my body to climb it. My best send of that trip was a burly little sloper slapping climb called Super Coola. In my opinion it is the epitome of the climbing at Horsepens: short, powerful, slopey and you must do it right or it feels way harder. Coincidentally this was Tammy’s hardest send there on this trip:

My goal for the area was to clean up a few of the classic lines that I couldn’t even touch last time like The Great White and Slider. After I managed to send both of these problems quickly I turned my attention to the prize of the pens as far as upper grades are concerned: God Module. On my first day it was so cold that the starting crimp would instantly grease from my warm hands, I could barely pull off the ground and my hands popped on more than one occasion. A few days later we returned and after about an hour of attempts I was able to pull off what was one of the craziest moments in my climbing experience:

While we only spent a few days at the Pens I think we got a true understanding of the spirit of climbing there. There are few climbing areas I have been to where I have been just as psyched to climb a V3 as I was a V11 but HP40 is one of those places. It is hard to devote time to an alright looking V10 when there is a world class, unique and near perfect V2 right next to it. Often I found myself not even looking at the guide but just finding the best looking problems and climbing them. Were they V2? V8? What were they named? Who knows, they were fun intriguing climbs. The climbing at HP40 is not about the sandbag grade or the Vblahblah sick gnarrness brah climbs and many who go there looking for that leave with their heads down. Although if you go there and climb problems that pull you in not for their grade but for their quality movement, rock and features you will leave head held high.

Tammy Stowe-McClure on Redneck

Here are a few photos from The Channel courtesty of Sun Valley locals Beau Stuart, Jimmy Bowman and Courtney Samway. If you have never been to The Channel it is one of the most unique, rewarding and often times frustrating places to climb, not just in Idaho, but in the entire US.

Itching to get outside climbing since we got to Salt Lake, Kaiya and I managed to get up to Castle Rock to meet Tammy and Mike McClure and their friend from Boise Nate Moody. I had met Nate at Swan Falls a couple of years ago so it was nice to see him again and climb with some good, fun people for the day in one of the coolest most beautiful places I have ever bouldered.

Post-holing through two feet of snow all the way up to the Taco Cave kinda dashed any ideas of making it up to the Green Wall, but turns out everyone was psyched on something in the cave. Start with the Martini Roof, remove the dabbage potential, add way more independent lines and many, much cooler holds (not to mention ALL of the problems top out and don’t end on an adjacent pebble) and you have the Taco Cave. Amazing.

Kaiya and I had been here in September at the beginning of the road trip, Kaiya had sent a couple of things, and I had struggled to send anything due to being out of shape from lack of climbing for three months.

Kaiya has had a slight style change in her climbing since the beginning of the trip, here she is on Jared’s Roof Stand.

Ever the steep climbing enthusiast, Tammy has Jared’s Roof broken into two parts and had four or five really good redpoint goes, sticking the first and hardest move like 8 times. Move three pulled casually here by Tammy McClure.

In his first stop in the Taco Cave, Nate Moody was really psyched, coming oh so close to sending Jared’s Roof Stand, and making some really good links on the Smell.

Mike has been working Warpath, the huge linkup, for a few seasons now, and he thinks this spring might be the time. Having been here a lot over the last year and a half, I think he looks stronger on all the moves than ever. Jared’s Roof Sit, the second section crux, and the big cross move before the lowest percentage move ever on Out of Africa.

Tammy Stowe- McClure on Fat Cat

Little Rock City (aka LRC, aka Stone Fort) has one of the most unique settings I have ever climbed at…It’s on a golf course. Ok, maybe not ON the course, but right next to the course. So close in fact that to get to the back area of the City you must cross a tee box. At first I was a little bummed that LRC charged a parking fee until I realized it was not as bad as what they could be charging: green fees!

One of the most famous problems at LRC is The Shield, an amazing line that sweeps out a giant bulge. I had my eyes set on this climb for many years until we were getting ready to leave for this trip and I watched a few more vids of the climb. While it looked cool, the last move looked VERY reachy and I tend to climb fairly weak on reach moves. I might have told myself I wouldn’t send this thing before I even saw the problem but I still wanted to try it. In person the line is even more amazing than in photos and video. As Ander Rockstad told me “the line just sings to you when you see it.” Unfortunately it was raining the day that I tried it and after 8 days on I wasn’t even able to make it to the reach move (excuses, excuses).

Mike McClure on The Shield

The rock at LRC is just as unique as many of the other areas in the South. LRC tends toward the crimpy side of things so it felt a little more like the climbing that I am used to but again with better texture than anything I have touched out west. The most astounding feature at LRC is the branching etched like cracks. On a sunny winter day it’s often hard to tell the crack systems from the shadows of tree branches. The Shield is a prime example of this. So is an amazing problem that Tammy did called Fat Cat:

Another interesting aspect of Little Rock City is the sweeping fractured faces that are very reminiscent of some of the granite climbs of Little Cottenwood Canyon or the McCall Scree Field. One such climb is the amazing Instinct:

While some of  the features on these faces look like granite, one touch of the rock and there is no mistake that you are climbing on sandstone. I remember my first go on a problem called Celestial Mechanics, another climb that reminds me of granite. The crux involves a a big throw with a bad right foot smear. On my flash attempt I held back a bit fearing my foot would blow off the seemingly miserable smear. After hitting the pad I reached up and felt the blackened foothold. In my experience a black foot hold, especially a smear at the crux, is usually very polished…not in south: perfect texture. On my second go I felt a bit more confident in the friction the rock provided and sent. Ander sent quickly afterward:

Tammy had a very good time at LRC as well sending many hard lines including a flash of the amazing Hueco like problem called Super Mario and a short, steep and VERY burly refrigerator block called Diesel Power:

Here is a vid that Jamey Sproull sent me today. It’s a vid of Kevin Jorgeson and Beau Stuart sending a highballish problem near the Cosmic Squirrel. Check it:

Mike McClure on Golden Harvest

Of all the areas in the South we had planned on going to on this trip, I was most familiar with Rocktown. I had spent about 3 weeks there back in 2002 and was just breaking into the V8/9 grade range. Rocktown was perfect for this as there are so many problems in the V5/6/7 range and some really great problems in the V8/9 range. In the 3 weeks that I had spent there I sent most everything under V7 save for a few random problems here and there. I remember it feeling so great to get that much mileage under my belt at a grade that felt very hard for me a year or two earlier.

Coming back to Rocktown this year I planned on doing the same, repeating all the fun problems I had already done and finish off a few that I had left unfinished. As I mentioned in an earlier post one of those climbs was The Orb. I had come agonizingly close to sending it multiple times on my first trip but could never muster the power endurance needed to send. Luckily I walked away with the send quickly this trip. Here is the vid again:

After I did this I was psyched to show Tammy around and watch her quickly send many problems that felt very hard for me just a few years ago. One especially being Pythagorean Theorem, which she flashed:

The rock at Rocktown is very unique and somewhat more varied than the other areas in the South. The texture is generally perfect but the style of climbing ranges from Gritstone like slabs and Font like bulgesMike McClure on Big Bad Left

to Ibex like walls and Hueco like roofs:

Tim Deroehn on Turkish Resin

Alex Kordick on Turkish Resin

Two problems that are uniquely Rocktown though are Golden Shower which follows a beautiful golden face on PERFECT rounded sloper/jugs, and Rescue 911, a somewhat highball roof to bulge climb. Here is a video of each:

Tammy Stowe-McClure on Golden Shower

While we were at Rocktown Tammy and I met up with “Metro” Mark Avery and his girlfriend Alex Kordick. I first met Mark at MSU in Bozeman when we were both living in the dorms. We went out ice climbing on a few occasions, took a trip to Indian Creek in Utah to climb cracks and would climb trad lines at the local areas together. Ah how times have changed. We were now clear across the country in the backwoods of Georgia. It always amazes me how small the climbing world actually is, how the 7 degrees of separation is seemingly knocked down to only 1 or 2. It was fun to hang out with Mark and Alex and I hope to climb with them again soon.

I’ll finish this post with a collection of the Rocktown vids I have already posted:

Kevin Jorgeson will be presenting a slide show at the Front Boise Climbing Club Wednesday January 27th. Come on down and meet the Asana team athletes, the Boise Climbers Alliance, climbidaho.com, and the great staff at the Front!

I first heard about Dayton Pocket (aka Laurel Falls, aka Laurel-Snow, aka The Roof) a couple years ago when Jaime Emerson of B3bouldering.com went on a trip there. It was January and I was spending a great deal of time surfing the web for any sort of climbing media that wouldn’t remind me of the gloomy, fog-laden Boise Valley. The main feature that always stuck out in my head was The Roof. The rock looked amazing and the holds looked very similar to those on the Taco Roof in Castle Rocks.

After a couple days climbing at HP40 and Rocktown we decided to take a rest day. After spending the morning in Chattanooga we became bored and decided to make the 45 minute drive to Dayton to check the place out. I secretly planned on climbing the moment we decided to drive up there. The first boulder we went to was a problem that was at the top of my list of must dos, Riverdance. I had watched many vids of the problem and thought that it may be possible for me to flash so I quickly warmed up and gave it my best. Fortunately the problem fit me fairly well and I was able to walk away with what I came for. Here is the vid:

And a photo:

Ander Rockstad on Riverdance

We then walked up to The Roof. Not only was I psyched to get on some steep roof climbing, I was amazed by the sculpted sandstone holds that made the problems.  I found the holds to be similar to the Taco Roof but bigger, Priest’s Draw but not tweaky and Hueco but not painful…and PERFECTLY textured.

Crux hold of Sandblaster

Crux hold of Vapor Lock

The cave is about the size of the Taco Cave and Martini Roof with a higher concentration of problems. Imagine the Martini Roof raised 5 feet higher to eliminate dab potential, minus juggy huecos, add the cool holds of the Taco Cave everywhere and you have the Dayton Roof. There are probably about 10 independent lines with eliminates and linkup potential galore and the problems in the cave ranged from V5 to V12.

Brent Perkins on Sandblaster

The center line of the cave is called Vaporlock and I directed most of my energy to that problem. It is a longish problem (12 or so moves) that begins on a giant undercling and climbs through the middle of the roof to finish on a crimpy little headwall that could be a heartbreaker. Unfortunately I did not get any vid of the send, guess I was too psyched to remember the video camera. Here is a photo of the crux move:

We also met up with Ander Rockstad and Brent Perkins at The Roof. Ander made great progress on The Honeycomb, a line that breaks off of Vaporlock and finishes just to the left.

Ander Rockstad on Honeycomb

Brent had a great day sending two of his hardest problems to date: Riverdance and Dune Blaster:

Stay tuned later today and the rest of the week for a trip recap with photos and more vid from each area. For now, here is Tammy crushing a thuggy little refrigerator called Diesel Power at Little Rock City: