A few weeks ago on the lingering bumpy bus ride home from school I frustratedly remarked about how I ever so desperately wished there were rocks near my house. My buddy, Jackson, a bit confused, replied that he had some large boulders behind his house. I was obviously immediately intrigued but quite certain that they would be nothing but small slabby sections of stone. I tried unsuccessfully to make it out there a few times, however, it took me about a month (today) to finally make my way there. I finally trekked the whole minute long drive to his cozy looking domicile. I didn't actually know which house was his as the long road across farm land went straight back into twisty turny wooded one way street. I thought that it was only his house back there but boy was I wrong. A whole neighborhood resided back in the thick, serene woods. We traveled down the curvy road for about a mile before reaching a large river and a dead end. I figured that it was a good of a place as any and began my pleasant hike in the beautiful foliage alongside the peaceful pulchritudinous water.
The first boulder I saw was magnificent. A large primarily vertical chunk of rock with a near perfect landing. A rare and fantastic discovery. The rock was about eleven feet tall and twenty feet wide. On one side was a vertical section for about nine feet and then two feet of slab at the top. Lots and lots of choss. On the other side was a slabby bottom of about two feet, than three feet of overhanging slopey rock, and finally a large 6 foot slab at the top. This side will definitely have potential for some hard mantles from the sloper overhangs transition to blank slab. The other side also has potential for some harder crimp problems.
Before cleaning that boulder I decided that it would be a better plan to go search for more boulders first. I walked about a mile or two down the river before coming to the bridge that we drove over going to original drop-off point. Rather than crossing the bridge and continuing on in the same direction on other people property I chose to cross the river. I attempted to make it to the opposite side without getting wet, however, Murphy's law truly never fails and my feet and Sanuks got drenched. Covered in mud and with pebbles in my toes I made it across and began walking back in the other direction. I could immediately tell that this side of the water had much more rock. The only issue was that it was mainly on a steep hill with lots of downed trees, snakes, quicksand, sticker bushes, and other natural obstacles in my way of getting to them. One by one, I trekked (stumbled) up and down the hill to look at all the rocks, all while having no shortage and scratches and slips. I found probably six or seven more boulders. Most of them were anywhere from 8-20 feet tall and were overhanging. There was crazy potential for some amazing boulders. Unlike the first boulder, however, the landings were not PG on all of them and will be a lot harder to clean considering the height of the boulders on the hill and the amount of trees and foliage around it. I would definitely need to come back with a team of climbers to establish these boulders. Not all were like this however. I found two or three nine or ten foot roofs with clear landings and hardly any choss. Those will make for some excellent projects.
Despite getting a bit lost and a bit scared by the large number of shots fired from hunters and the my not-so-well planned attire (a tan shirt and shorts) I eventually made it back to my starting point. I called my mom who said that I had about an hour left before she came to pick me up. I knew that I had to start cleaning up the first large beautiful boulder that I had found. I hiked back and got right to work. I began by getting off the obvious choss which only took me about 10 minutes to complete. Then I went to work on the absurd moss covering the rock. I scrubbed at the holds and rock for the remaining time I had until I to leave. There seemed to be tons of potential for probably eight or nine problems on just that one rock. I can not wait to get back and continue cleaning and hopefully get some first ascents, hard projects, or just some really cool lines. I am also video taping the process of cleaning and climbing the area and hope to make a short film about it with the help of some of my more technology acquainted friends. Now I am psyched to be attending and PCI (Pro Climbers International) clinic tomorrow at the Earth Treks Rockville location. The athletes there will be Carlo Traversi, Paul Robinson, and Sasha DiGiulian. The focus of the clinic is to better the youths competition skills and they will be having a mock regionals as well. Beyond excited to learn from some of the best competitors in the world.
The first boulder I wrote about, and the only one I got a good shot of, think I will call it the Binary Boulder if it does not already have a name
No comments:
Post a Comment