Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Winter Session at Reservoir Rocks: Great Barrington, MA

I finally got around to editing some of the climbing videos from the past two weekends at Reservoir Rocks in Great Barrington, MA. 

The first video is from Sunday December 9th, 2012.  It had rained for a few consecutive days leading up to this outing which i think deterred other climbers from making the trip to GB because Keith Banta and I had the entire boulder field to ourselves for the entire day.  If you have ever climbed at Reservoir Rocks, you would easily understand that this is not common for the area as it is very popular.  Despite taking weeks off from climbing due to some lingering back issues, I was able to climb two new V9's as well as get through all of the cruxes on "Filter"-V9 but had to drop off after getting to the jug because the topout was still soaking wet from all of the rain.

The second video highlights our bouldering session this past Saturday December 15, 2012.  The climbing conditions were prime for December climbing and this time we weren't the only climbers taking advantage of the conditions.  We ran into Mike and Bill from CT who were psyched and ready to tackle their projects (Mike successfully sent his first V10 with "Pressure Drop", Scott (a local GB climber) met up with us to show us some of the less known boulder problems and numerous other groups were scattered throughout the reservoir boulder field.  The topout on "Filter" was dry this time and my eagerness to get back on it payed off as I was able to send the boulder problem on my first attempt of the day, way psyched on that!

Until the next outing...keep climbing everyone and have a great holiday!

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6 comments:

  1. Nice video, great job on the send! I think we will be heading back out there to GB next weekend to project up on the speed boulder.

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    1. Mike- thanks man! Filter is a really good boulder problem and I am really happy to have done it. The speed boulder is epic, one of the best single boulders in the northeast, hands down. Apparently there is some really good stuff up behind the Speed Boulder as well..."Pins and Needles" and the sit start to "The Binge" are two more V9's that i'd love to get on. Hope to see you out there soon.

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    2. nice sends! maybe we can all meet up finally!

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    3. Whats the weather doing out your way in CT? We got some some accumulation last night and I think Great Barrington got a few inches as well. Do you think Bradley will be climbable in the next week or two?

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  2. hey, thinking of going up soon, by any chance do you know what's on speed boulder besides big big love, something from nothing, and roses and blue jays, and how to find the lines? Thanks!

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    1. The speed boulder is visible from the mail hiking "trail" (road along the powerlines to access the boulders at the Reservoir). It will be up high on the hill to your left after about 5 minutes of hiking. "Big, Big Love" in the far right arete on the steep side of the boulder that faces downhill. Climbing the arete itself (more pure of a climb than Big, Big Love) is around V3/4. There is a V9 called Castelette just to the left of the right arete that starts standing with a RH crimp and LH blocky pinch...get a great LF cammed in the large horizontal down low to make the big move to a jug, then matched the jug and dyno to the lip. The sit start is called "Double Down" and was originally a V13 but has since been downgraded to V10/V11. Something From Nothing is to the left of that and Roses and Blue Jays starts the same as SFN but climbs left to finish.

      On the uphill side of the Speed Boulder is a V10 traverse, a V7 traverse (not sure where either of them start or finish) there is also the Speed Dyno- V10 (obvious starting holds with a huge move to a RH crimp). To the right of the Speed Dyno is a nice V4 called "Danger Bird".

      Good luck out there, looks like western Mass will be snowed in for awhile.

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