State Brook Mountain Development

  Recently there has been a development furry at the State Brook Mountain Boulders which are about 10 miles north of Nine Corner Lake in Arietta, New York.  Anyone who currently owns a copy of my bouldering guidebook; New York:  Adirondack Park Bouldering has probably glanced at some of the images of the boulders found there and maybe has read a bit about the area and the history behind the discovery of the massive blocks.

  A couple of weeks ago, close friend Keith Banta made the first known bouldering development trip into these boulders to see for himself what they had to offer.  On his initial visit, Banta was blown away by one boulder in particular because of its' steep wall aspect and the fact that the boulder had a plethora of handholds.  He unfortunately was limited on time on his first visit so his development efforts were cut short.  

  Two weeks after that first visit, Ken Murphy ventured back to the set of boulders with local strongmen Evan Race and Daniel Pinto.  All three of them were able to successfully climb the boulder problem that Keith Banta had envisioned and the birth of the State Brook Mountains Boulders had officially commenced with the establishment of a very powerful V7/8.  I made a solo trip in shortly thereafter and began "preparing" more boulders for future climbing efforts and (4) moderate problems (V0-V4) were added to the established problem list.  To be completely honest, it is daunting how much potential this small cluster of boulders holds for quality boulder problems.  

  Ken Murphy and I returned last Friday to continue development efforts and again an additional (2) boulder problems were established on the steep boulder, these falling at V5 and V3 but are extremely good, high quality boulder problems.  I am anxious to see what else will come from this area in the future.  A word of caution...the bugs are already becoming very distracting in the southern portion of the Adirondack Park!  

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