Tuesday April 17, 2012: Nine Corners Night Session

As promised, this post continues the updates from this past week of outdoor bouldering sessions.  Tuesday night we were back climbing at Nine Corners Lake to take advantage of the prime Spring conditions.  Banta, Des and I weren't the only climbers with the same idea...we were greated by Bill, Tyler, Ryan, Scott, Dylan and one other friend.  Lots of climbing took place that night along with some pretty epic sends.  With the growing crowds at Nine Corners Lake, I am really optimistic for this years bouldering festival and the potential for a nice group of participants.

Media Update:

Thatcher Park: Climber Coalition

The efforts continue for climbing access in Thatcher Park.  Here is a link to the webpage that has been developed to help spread word and awareness of the ongoing effort.  The Access Fund has also stepped in to help along the way...this is pretty exciting!  I am glad to see locals taking the necessary steps to open up potential new climbing areas for all of us.  Good on ya mate(s)!

Thatcher Climbing Coalition

Saturday April 14, 2012

Here is a short video from a bouldering session at Nine Corners Lake last Saturday.  This past week has been pretty hectic and full of outdoor climbing sessions.  We were able to sneak in after work - night sessions on Tuesday April 17th again at Nine Corners, Thursday April 19th at Green Lake and this past Saturday April 21st I spend a few hours at the prison boulder before the rain rolled in...man I forgot how epic that boulder is.  All of the problems are of really good quality!

So here's the first of a few media updates:

The Condition of Nine Corners Lake

Below you will see an email chain that I received last night from Buzz and Francis expressing their concerns for the current condition of the boulderfield at Nine Corners Lake.  Please spread the word to your fellow climbers to abide by the "leave no trace" climbing ethics.  Carry in, carry out...if you see some trash when you are in the woods enjoying a bouldering session, please do your part and pick it up.  Also, avoid excessive chalking of holds, if you use tick marks while trying a boulder problem please remove them once you are done.  Also, please avoid excessive chalk on footholds as they do in fact become overly greasy and slick making it much more difficult for other climbers.

Let's do our part to ensure that we as climbers have access to the boulders at Nine Corners Lake and other Adirondack gems for generations to come.

Thanks in advance!!!

The Email Chain:

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From:

To:

CC:

Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:12:01 -0400
Subject: Nine Corners Lake Bouldering

Yo Jut!  How are things?  you been getting out?

I’ve been meaning to email….Fran and I took the day off last Friday and headed up to 9.  We were surprised to see what poor shape it was in.   we just want to put a shout out there to the crew to get on people if they see people trashing the place.  We had to cover up a bunch of fire pits and coals that were right under landing zones and those white foam pads all over the place.  Also, tick marks all over and people chalking foot holds making them greasy as sh*t.  the one in particular was the left foot on Gate Keeper.  We were pretty disgusted.  Any way, we hiked out a bunch of crap like those silly white foam pads and was hoping you, Banta, Ryan, Sully and whoever you can contact can spread the word.  It was starting to look the area around the rope swing.

You getting out this weekend?  hopefully the weather is decent.  Let us know….would be cool to link up!

_____________________________________

Yea, I'll reiterate that. Thanks Buzz. Place looked bad. I'll try to carry some shit down every time I go up there, and tell others to do so. Gotta keep the access legit.

francis

Blog Post Number 100...

So this is officially blog post number 100 for the Southern Adirondack Climber.  What better media to feed the masses than some quality High Definition Video from Murph and Jobi on their epic road trip across the United States to sample some of the best bouldering our nation has to offer...and oh yeah, a nice little compliation of some of the boulder problems that I was able to topout down in Hueco Tanks while visiting them.  Murph, Jobi trust that all of us back home are living vicariously through your climbing travels...keep killing it and keep us posted as you move forward!!!

Media Update:  Compliments on MSdubs007 via Youtube

The Possibilities of Thatcher Park...

It is a place that I have not seen first-hand...but man the cliffs are tall and seem to be quite long. Can anyone speak directly of the rock quality here?? Thanks for the anonymous post about the climbing efforts for access in the park. I'll stay tuned to any progress.

Hueco Memories...

  It's funny how some of my most memorable sends have much lower "V" grades than other sends to date.  A boulder problem called "Jingus Bells"- V5 on East Mountain in Hueco Tanks TX will never leave my mind.  I still think about how smooth it climbed and how mentally and physically demanding that last left handed dyno was, especially after about 25' of climbing and 10 hand movements on slightly overhanging- bullet proof rock.  Note Murph's psych when I finally stuck the dyno...it was one of thos climbing moments that i'll hold close forever.

Media Update:

Core Pockets for Element Climbing

I just got word today from the owner of Element Climbing that the "font pockets" that I created for them are now available and are being called the "Core Pockets".  Pretty exciting news as I move forward carving for Element Climbing.  The climbing hold set can be purchased here:

Core Pockets

Here are some images taken from Element Climbing's website of the finished product:



You Guessed it...Snowy Mountain Again

  The weather lately has been unreal...almost like the end of spring/start of summer at times.  With the trend towards longer days, warmer weather, and prime sending conditions, I convinced the crew to make the journey north yet again to the infamous steep pocketed boulders at Snowy Mountain.

  This was going to be the 3rd trip to Snowy Mtn. in a month and I really wanted to take care of a few things up in the woods.  Last year, the forest was damanged pretty badly by high winds so I planned on cleaning up some of the blown down trees and broken limbs, etc.  We rallied at 6:30 am on Saturday morning so we could get up there early, do some maintenance in the woods and still have time to boulder late morning and all afternoon.

  As we left Johnstown, the psych level was a little thrown off as we watched fresh snow accumulating on the roads around us.  I had completely bought into the news reports that nothing had happened further north overnight and that Indian Lake would be dry and prime for the day.  An hour and a half later, we were building a fire in the woods near the main boulder set wondering if we'd even be able to climb one problem today.  There was fresh snow everywhere and it wasn't looking good.

  Pooler tended the fire as Banta and I did our best to clean some things up throughout the boulderfield.  A few hours later, Jon Strazza rolled in with three of his friends from VT and not long behind them was Kirby and one of his buddies.  Now with 9 psyched boulderers in the woods, we were determined to climb anything that we could.

  With little effort, the Boulder of Mass Distruction (Coitus) was in decent climbing condition.  Coitus and Pumpkins Arete saw a slew of ascents and Pooler finally wrote off one of his projects, Coitus Interuptus...good on ya mate!  After a few hours playing on those climbs and variations off of them, we ventured over to the Never boulder were more crushing too place.

  Additional footage to come, but for now a quik video of a new variation on the Never Boulder and some images from the day.

Media Update: