So the SAC crew made another trip back to Crane Mountain to enjoy some quality fall camping and some Adirondack Bouldering as I continued to work on mapping this area out and confirming the established boulder problem there along with putting some new problems up. It is becoming very obvious that this place has flown under the radar of local boulderers and for one reason or another has not taken ground as an excellent bouldering area within the park.
Let's put a few quick items into perspective before all of the naysayers and haters chime in with their anonymous blog comments. First, the entire established bouldering area is on state land with adequate parking, camping, hiking, swimming and not to mention dozens and dozens of boulders. Not all of the boulders that I have seen thus far are conducive to good boulder problems, but there are somewhere around 60 established boulder problems with from the limited amount that I have explored, the potential for another couple hundred problems, that's right...a couple hundred more boulder problems!
A quick glance on bing maps will reveal that the "Boulder Woods" section at Crane Mountain where 90% of the established boulder problems are is only a tiny portion of land at the base of Crane Mountain. Contour around the mountain in either direction from Boulder Woods and prepare to whomp your face off with the vast amount of large boulders that litter the forest. Ron, Sully and I ran up to a "small" satellite bouldering area mention in Adirondack Rock quickly after a full day session on Saturday only to find that this small satellite area is by no means small at all. There were 10-15 house sized boulders and only two of them are mentioned in Adirondack Rock.
I am trying not to get too wrapped up in one individual bouldering area in the Adirondacks because of the crazy amount of recon work and mapping that I have to do to complete the Adirondack Bouldering Guidebook, but in my opinion, this place has potential to be THE ONE! In the last two visits, I have successfully climbed a multiple year project and this past Saturday I put up what I think is the best boulder problem I have established yet in the park. A sick overhanging feature using compression and core to a final high ball finish. It is one of the coolest features I have climbed on yet and has skyrocketed my psych for Crane Mountain Bouldering.
Stay tuned as we continue to visit this area and unearth new boulder problems on each and every trip!
And now some pictures from this weekend, video of the new first ascent to follow in a couple of days once I get some time to edit the film.
Media Update:
I asked around a bit regarding this area and recieved mixed feedback, but from the pictures that you keep posting and the possibility of a bunch of new boulder problems is enough to peak my interest. Definately going to have to check Crane Mountain out. Thanks for sharing dude!
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