Western Gold, a feature-length North American bouldering film, will be released on HD Download and DVD in early 2012. Experience the beauty of bouldering in an action packed film set in the stunning locations of Red Rocks Nevada, Castle Rocks Idaho, Leavenworth Washington, and Squamish British Columbia. From the hardest to the tallest the West Coast has to offer, get ready to see something new.

Alex Savage on the OG boulder V10

Snytonga V9

Snytonga

Mike Snyder on his problem Snytonga

Resolution V5

Resolution

My video from Cody is in the works. Hoping to publish it within the next two weeks.

I spent last week hiking with my mom in North Carolina. It’s beautiful country, especially this time of year with vibrant colors littering the hillsides.

Linville Gorge

My Mom enjoying a waterfall

I just arrived back in Atlanta today. Planning to stick around the south for the winter.

When I left Cody, my plan was to spend a week in Colorado before heading home to Atlanta. I spent one night in Denver but some of my plans fell through I didn’t want to go climbing in Colorado by myself so I decided to head home early.

At some point while driving through Kansas I started trying to think of other areas I could hit up on the way. It just so happened that the Red River Gorge was more or less en route. Then I remembered that my friend Carmen was planning on going to the Red. A couple texts later and I learned he was driving there the following day. After three LONG days of driving from Cody Wyoming I found myself rolling into Miguel’s on a Saturday night. I haven’t been to the Red in five years and I was not expecting the insanity I encountered at Miguel’s. The parking lot was well past capacity, and lines for pizza stretched outside the building. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen that many climbers in one place. Climbing on Sunday was a madhouse with lineups on every line at the crag we went to.

Carmen Ing

Natalie Hunter

Luckily the crowds died down during the week which made for a much more natural climbing experience. I mostly climbed with Carmen who I met in Squamish and another Torontonian, Natalie. Considering I hadn’t done any sport climbing in 2.5 years, I wasn’t expecting much! I managed to repeat Fuzzy Undercling which is a pumpy 11b and on the second day I fell at the anchors on a 90-foot 12a which I was pretty stoked about! It was fun to mix things up and clip some bolts. On day three I couldn’t shake the pump from my forearms but I did get on an amazing 12c called Malice. I went bolt to bolt on it and one section took me awhile to get through but I was super psyched when I got to the top. Amazing full value route with a blank vertical section at the top.

Natalie

We had two forced rest days due to freezing rain that was coming down sideways. I had a fun last day climbing some 10s and 11s and getting back on Malice. Malice felt really easy compared to the other day but somewhere around the 5th or 6th bolt I got pumped and fell. After resting for a few minutes I cruised up to the top. Classic boulderer.

Carmen working Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope 13c

The Red is a phenomenal place. It’s gorgeous in the fall with splashes of red, orange, and yellow throughout the forest. There are so many crags, it’s hard to keep track of them all. It’s like Fontainebleau but for sport climbing. It was great to climb on some long routes and work on my endurance. I’m not about to project a 5.14 but am psyched to at least get back to the sport climbing shape I was in a few years ago and maybe even progress to a solid 13a climber at some point in the future.

Natalie

Natalie & Selene getting their yoga on

From the Red I headed south to North Carolina to do some hiking with my mom for her birthday and then I’ll finally be making my return to Atlanta, just over a year since I started my North American tour.

I heard about a sandstone bouldering area just an hour from Yellowstone and I thought I had better check it out while I was in the area. I would rather see a new place than go back to an area where I’ve spent a lot of time. I like to travel in case you hadn’t guessed that already! You never know what to expect when hitting a new place and that’s what keeps things interesting.

Marc

I found a few Wyoming bouldering blogs and sent some messages out to get in touch with the locals.  The next day I had a few phone numbers and the local Cody guys sounded psyched to show me around their boulderfield.

Wyoming has a very unique feel to it. There aren’t many people and the land is primarily wide open landscapes. Wyoming has the lowest population of any state in the US, with a whopping 500,000 people calling it their home. Maybe it’s cliche to say but it feels very ‘western’. Lots of open space, lots of horses, and lots of big ole trucks. It’s truly a beautiful part of the country and definitely worth traveling to.

The bouldering is a short five minute drive from the town of Cody.  The rock is very similar to Joe’s Valley and Red Rocks. Some of it is very high quality desert sandstone but a lot of it isn’t quite up to par with Joe’s Valley.

Cody rock

I got the full tour from my new friends including the classics and even some highball choss. I climbed several rad lines in the V9/10 range that were well worth the trip. It was a good time all around and I felt very fortunate to hang out with a great group of guys during my stay. Expect to see a short film from Cody featuring Marc Nardacci in the coming weeks.

Clint

Flying Marc

Marc

Yellowstone exists constantly.  It exists without people.  Yet for a moment you can jump into the beauty that lies within.

I left Squamish last week on my long journey back east to Atlanta to catch up on family time and to edit my film. My plan for the trip was to stop in Yellowstone for a few days before heading to Denver to spend a couple weeks climbing in Colorado.

the road

At some point while driving through Montana I started wondering if there was any bouldering to be done there. A quick google search yielded a Montana bouldering blog which indicated there was a bouldering spot a mere three miles off the interstate near Butte. I’d never heard of any bouldering in Montana but I had to at least check it out, right?

What I found were interesting pancake shaped boulders sticking out of the ground. Most were vertical but a few were sticking out like flying saucers.

Unfortunately the rock was subpar granite. Not bad but not solid either. I climbed a few boulders, got scared when smears crumbled high off the ground, worked on a taller crimp line, and finished the day on the overhaning wall below.

It looks like a rad overhang but on closer inspection you find some of the sharpest holds known to man.

I managed to hang on to the sharpness to get to the top of the boulder but only because I didn’t want to try it again! I’m guessing it’s in the V8/9 range but who knows.

I only sampled a small area so I can’t comment on all of Montana bouldering, I can just say that the small group of boulders I climbed near Butte weren’t of the highest quality. After my half-day of climbing in Montana I headed south to Yellowstone which is in the northwest corner of Wyoming.

I ventured into Yellowstone without a plan of any sort. I don’t recommend this. The park is vast and takes hours to drive through. There is so much to see, it’s overwhelming. I spent three days in the park and just scratched the surface of what’s out there. I spent all of my time filming the amazing scenery and wildlife. From the geysers, canyons, waterfalls, bison, elk, mountains and landscapes. I’ve almost finished this short film and I’m VERY excited about it.  If you ever get the chance to visit Yellowstone, don’t hesitate.

A lone bison

Bison

Elk

Unfortunately the weather window I was hoping for never came. After waiting out the rain for a week and looking at a bleak forecast, I knew my time in Squamish had come to an end.  Squamish is one of the wettest climbing destinations in the world and after the summer ends dry days become scarce and the forest needs several days to dry out. I know all the moves on World of Hurt now and I’m pretty confident I could climb the boulder which makes leaving all the more frustrating. But that’s how life goes sometimes. Opportunities can slip through the cracks and leave you wishing circumstances had been kinder to you or wishing you had made things happen sooner.

I do have something to come back for which isn’t such a bad thing and I also have some motivation to find some big lines in other areas to push myself on.

I spent just under four months in Squamish which is the longest time I’ve spent anywhere in the last year and a half, and with good reason, in my opinion Squamish is the best bouldering destination in North America.

The rock is some of the best granite I’ve ever touched, the climbing involves very interesting and intricate movement, there is something for everyone here from classic moderates, challenging slabs, and hard highballs. The sheer amount of bouldering here is immense and constantly growing with new areas and blocks being found each year. If you factor in the amenities the town of Squamish has to offer within walking distance to the boulders, as well as world class trad climbing, it’s hard to compare Squamish with anywhere else in North America.  The only major problem Squamish has is the weather, which is to say it rains A LOT. Generally the driest months are July and August. This year was pretty wet in June/July, and dry for August and the first week of September.

Squamish is one of four spectacular areas in my film Western Gold and I can’t wait to share that.  Until then, check out Mike Chapman’s flickr page to see some amazing photos of Squamish.

I filmed two sessions on World of Hurt in recent weeks including Jeremy Smith’s ascent which will be featured in Western Gold. I hadn’t had a chance to try it yet myself but was psyched to see what it was all about. After hauling more than a dozen crash pads to the boulder and engineering a landing, I was ready for my first try…or was I? After a few short moves you quickly get into highball territory. I stuck the huge move out left to the half-moon sidepull and proceeded to set the heelhook in front of the tree.

World of Hurt

I pulled up to what I was hoping was a decent crimper. It wasn’t. It was a tiny quarter-pad micro edge. After grabbing the crimp and thinking about doing the next five moves WAY off the deck, I decided my best option was to jump off. I climbed to the same spot two or three more times before realizing this line was way too committing and hard to do ground up.

World of Hurt

We dismantled our mega-landing and I fetched a rope to try the upper moves. My first thought after checking out all the holds and trying a few of the moves was, “shit, this is HARD!” Not only did the moves feel hard but they were insecure and gigantic, using every bit of my 6’2” wingspan. A very proud effort by Jordan and Jeremy to have climbed this boulder.

After some time searching the rock for every dimple and edge, I was able to figure out a sequence that seemed feasible to do with confidence. I managed to do all the moves but not quite the way Jeremy did. There is one move that I’m still not 100% on, it’s the one I dropped off from because you have a heel hook next to a tree and you’re doing an insecure slap with the left hand while your right hand is on a micro crimper. I think you could fall there onto pads and not get hurt so I feel ready to try the boulder again.

I’m currently sitting indoors feeling positively wrecked from hiking 20 pads, giving burns ground up, followed by the long roped session and more pad hiking. It rained again last night and has been raining hard all day. As is common here, the forecast does not look good but I’m trying to stick through it, wait for a good patch of weather and haul a couple truck-loads of crashpads back under World of Hurt. I don’t know if I will get that weather window and I also don’t know if I will commit until it happens. This would be a new level for me and I’m excited for it.

Jeremy Smith, World of Hurt

Jeremy Smith, World of Hurt

It’s been raining hard for three days straight and this is the current forecast…

Squamish Forecast

The weather for the past 6 weeks has been blue bird sunshine and 75 degrees. Last week the weather flipped out of summer mode back to nonstop clouds and drizzle. This was about the time I decided I had enough footage for my film and started focusing on my own climbing again.

We’ve been rallying pads for highballs lately and one of those sessions was under Animal Magnetism which was originally a three-bolt 5.13a. It was bolted and first climbed by Jim Sandford in 1992, before crash pad technology existed. The landing for this one is bad so you can’t throw two big pads down and call it good. Jason Kehl was the first to climb it without a rope back in 2006. It’s probably seen a handful of ascents since then.

For the first three months of the summer I didn’t even consider this a boulder problem. I saw the bolts, the terrible jumbled landing, didn’t see the holds, and couldn’t imagine bouldering it. It’s such an exposed line up an overhanging wall.

A few weeks ago I filmed Jeremy Smith climbing the line so I knew how it went but hadn’t tried it.

Jeremy Smith on Animal Magnetism

I went out in the morning with my roommate Jeremy Rush and rounded up some pads to try it. After setting off on my first attempt I quickly found myself at the crux which is the last move. I hesistated for a second and then went for it, moving my right hand with ninja speed to slap the jug of safety! Super committing and quite hard for V7. An amazing line and surely one of the best highballs in Squamish. You can see a few more photos of the boulder in Sonnie’s post from last year.

Jeremy Smith, Animal Mag

After that we hiked uphill and I climbed Ride the Lightning V8 which gets more traffic but involves a committing mantel 15 feet above a weird landing.

There was one more highball that seemed moderate enough to dispatch quickly, Teenage Lobotomy V6. On Friday it stopped raining in the morning and I waited in anticipation for the boulders to dry out. Often times I’m not the most motivated climber but sometimes I get an idea in my head and I have to make it happen. This time it was climbing Teenage Lobotomy. For some reason part of the mission I envisioned that day was to climb it by myself. The highball starts on a slab and kicks back to overhanging climbing to the peak of the 25 foot boulder (no exaggeration, we measured it!) It has the typical Squamish weird landing. I’d looked at it all summer but hadn’t tried it and hadn’t seen anyone on it.

When I got to the apron it started drizzling. I got angry, shouted a few profanities at Squamish and went up to check out the boulder anyway. I decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to go for the 25 foot highball in less than ideal conditions and stashed one of my pads in Gibbs Cave.

Then it mostly stopped raining and I really wanted to climb something.

After running back to my truck to grab my cameras and tripods, I setup some pads under the boulder as the drizzle resumed, and started climbing.

Teenage Lobotomy

I climbed through the crux pretty easily.

Teenage Lobotomy

I had heard the last move was long and terrifying. I chose a foot and committed to the move.

Teenage Lobotomy

The reachy move was a little scary but felt secure the whole time.

Teenage Lobotomy

What an amazing climb, easily one of the best I’ve done in Squamish and not just because it’s the tallest I’ve climbed here. The rock is fantastic and the moves are really interesting.

A boulder that had been intimidating all summer turned out to be mellow but that’s just a testament to the mental aspect of climbing. I don’t consider myself a risk taker. I’m very calculated in everything I do and I think I know my abilities and can read a climb pretty quickly. I wasn’t scared climbing Teenage Lobotomy and I think that’s because I was 100% committed when I walked out the door that day and had no intention of falling or jumping off at any point. I’ve been more scared in Squamish on boulders less than 20 feet tall and I think it might be because you could potentially jump off them or reverse moves rather than committing from the start.

What’s next after flashing many of the classic highballs like Be On Four, Animal Magnetism, Funeral Arrangements, and Teenage Lobotomy? The next step up gets a lot harder and a lot taller. It’s name is A World of Hurt. It’s V10 and it is a big fella. This is the problem that everyone sees after walking past the black dyke area. It’s a massive overhanging face that sits prominently uphill from the trail. The landing is absolutely terrible. Without a lot of crash pads this problem blurs the line of bouldering and free soloing. Fortunately with 15-20 pads you can mostly level out the landing and make it look closer to a boulder problem.

World of Hurt

It was established by Jordan Wright in 2007 and as far as I know has only been climbed by one other person, Jeremy Smith. Everyone’s first reaction to it (including mine) is ‘DAMN that’s crazy, who would climb that?!’ I’ve been showing this boulder to everyone this summer almost as a joke. ‘You gotta see this thing, it’s HUGE!’ At the start of the summer I had no intentions of trying it but I’m finding most of my inspiration comes from aesthetics these days, and it doesn’t get much more aesthetic than a really tall pure line. More to come from this one…

On a related note, our curiosity inspired us to measure the highballs of Squamish on a restday and this is what we found:

World of Hurt – 28.5 feet
Be on Four – starts at 9 ft (jumpstart), 20 ft to top (landing rises a few ft from the start of the climb). For comparison the top of a popular nearby boulder, The Egg, is 8.5 feet!
Animal Magnetism – Jug is 18 ft, top is 21 ft
The Ladies Man – 19 ft
Teenage Lobotomy – 25 ft
Funeral Arrangements – 18 ft to top tier of the weird landing.
No Excuse For Porn Hair – 16.5 ft to the lip.
Ride the Lightning – Lip is 15 ft from upper tier, 18 when done manteling.
Enchanted – We were told was measured at 24 ft.
Straight Outta Squampton – 21 ft to the lip.
No Honor Among Thieves – 14 ft to jug, 25 ft to top.

Teenage Lobotomy – 25 feet