Buildering in Olympia

[jibby]

Where are some good spots to play during these lame 9 months of hellish rain. I also have some broken plastic holds that could use a good permanent home.

[marcus]

TESC Communications Bldg East Corner (Grade II, A5, ca. 70')

 

Rack: Small cams, LAs, baby angles, cam hooks

 

Best route in town!!!

[Off_White]

It went free a couple years ago, about 5.4, by a couple of visiting Coloradans.

 

Jibby, you need a copy of The Frustrated Rock-Jock's Guide to The Evergreen State College. You might also start considering applying to colleges in other climates...

[lancegranite]

Evergreen used to a outside wall, I remember bouldering there.

[jmace]

Jibber

 

 

someone who's addicted to Crystal Meth.

 

 

 

[Dannible]

The outdoor climbing wall at Evergreen no longer has holds down low, but it has a bunch of holes and cracks, so I had a good time drytooling on it in the winter. You can also climb the big pipes running up the sides of A dorm. It's best to do it late at night because the cops don't know a good time when they see it.

[Off_White]

What, they took off my drilled out roadside ditch rocks? No fair, I want 'em back!

 

Oh, and Jibby is not a Jibber, even though he does have a Tenino zip code. When excited though he will jibber jabber...

[Mr._Natural]

Where is/was this tesc bouldering wall exactly?

[lancegranite]

Isn't there some real rocks somewhere around town?

[Off_White]

There is/was one on the east exterior wall of the swimming pool, down on the diving tank end of things. It began as a couple of bolt ladders, at least one involved a pendulum and maybe a little hooking. Lloyd Johnson and I started adding free climbing in 1979, drilling holds into the concrete with a school provided hammer drill and using the lapidary shop to drill holes through roadside cobbles which we attached with anchors. We didn't quite complete a traverse along the base. Others added more later.

 

There was also a glue-up traverse created by someone on the south wall of the Communication building sometime around 1987. We never quite made the whole traverse, as the primitive glue up technology meant key holds kept popping off, pushing up the difficulty. The school actually did install a gravel bed underneath this traverse, so it must have had some degree of official support, but I don't know the story.

 

Neither walls were anything to write home about, but they were free. Around about 1990 I found something better.

 

[Drederek]

I keep telling ya the underside of the seats at oly hi stadium. I'll loan ya some bolt cutters to get thru the fence. There's also a good spot where the rail line goes under the freeway between the tunnel under Capitol way and the Union street crossing. Was a lot of grafitti there the last time I went thru sometime in the 90's. Sposed to be a very nice tree to climb on Union as well, between Plum and Capitol way. And of course the sweet splitter hand cracks on the parking lot east of the GA Building. The south end is only 15' and north >25'

[jibby]

Yea, i will try to put the holds on the stadium, as for the name, one of my friends called me that because I was working a climb the at had foot jibs for hand holds my name is jimmy, so jibs+jimmy=jibby. Drederek, where can I get some really good epoxy?

[Drederek]

Being in construction 99% of the epoxy I've used has come from the lumber yard - mostly Simpson brand. Its not cheap but they do offer a variety of sizes (some that don't require caulking guns) so you could buy a small one and get a feel for how it works. I can also look around our shop and see if we got any laying around if you can wait till next wednesday. D

[Off_White]

You could PM Chirp, I think he has adhesive experience.

[jibby]

A better spot than Oly would be the bridge that conects tumwater highschool to the otherside. Has anyone tried this bridge before?

[Off_White]

Here you go Jibby, a copy of the 1979 Frustrated Rock Jock's Guide To The Evergreen State College: right click on the link and "save as" to your computer. It's in .pdf format, and you'll need Acrobat Reader 7.0 or higher to open it.

[Dannible]

Nice, I have a few freinds who have been looking for this. Did you write it? Its funny to see how many of these we figured out without the book when I was living there. Drytooling in the hallways in A (not in the book) was a good time, as there are all kinds of cracks and holes in the walls.

[Peter_Puget]

 

RRRRR

RRRRRP

RRRRRR P

RRRR P

C P

C P

C P

C P

C P

C P

 

 

Ow –

 

Stop posting and start building. A nice roof (‘R) protecting the cliff face (‘C). Add some nice glass walls and a fire pit. And I’d be knockin’ at your door every week. Add a cute coed pulling espresso and it would be twice a week.

 

[Peter_Puget]

Well my highly detailed drawing wont show properly.

[Off_White]

That's a relief, I was trying to make some sort of phonetic sense out of your "drawing"

 

Yeah, Lloyd and I got credit for writing that guide back in 1979.

[Weekend_Climberz]

 

Interesting finger hold for your left hand on that route. What did you name it, "Fuck Off you Wankers"?

[dom]

Nice Off. I'll be checking out some of these climbs.

[mattp]

One of my favorites used to be the Library Overhangs at TESC. The balconies on the front of the library are supported by vertical pillars that go at about 5.4, followed by a dangling horizontal hand traverse, 5.5, and a very exciting 5.6 or 5.7 overhang at the end (ratings from ancient memory). It is all very secure, but also very spectacular. The crux is getting someone to let you inside when you top out.

[Off_White]

you mean this problem matt?

 

[mattp]

I believe that would be the one.