Bouldering in the High Country

[pope]

My buddy Charlie reported recently seeing a bunch of mattress-totin', rasta-cap sportin' boulder hoppers up at Ingal's Lake, and that this peculiar crew of enthusiasts seemed most excited about the prospect of "virgin" bouldering in the high country above Leavenworth.

What do you think? Do the boulders around popular alpine camp sites like Ingal's Lake await deflowering? Does the lack of documentation imply a lack of previous climbing activity? Or, is it more likely that bouldering ("playing at climbing") has always been going on up there, by climbers looking for a little camp-side entertainment (in the absence of slow goats)?

[This message has been edited by pope (edited 09-25-2001).]

[Charlie]

I dont know about this charlie guy(although he sounds like a very cool guy- whom im sure is fast asleep because class starts tommorow) but i do know about a guy named james(jameserous) who, aside from being an extraordinary rockclimber is an avid wind surfer) has been threatening to bring his board up to ingalls, will definitely bypass bouldering gumbies in bringing the alpne environment close to home. see what happens...

[Dru]

There is some super kick ass bouldering in the moraine below the north face of north Twin sister. Super grippy peridotite. Overhanging cranking in plastic boots. did it without the pad just like the cavewomen did.

[Beck]

A bit away from that part of the state, but there's a field of house size boulders needing flash time in the high meadow on the approach to Fortress/Chiwawa up valley from Lk Wenatchee-

As to earlier bouldering being done, suppose it could have happened as practice, but the "sport" of "bouldering" caught on only in last twenty years, so I figure it certainly wasn't documented by the Beckey clan- I don't believe he mentions it at all in the CAGs, let me know if I'm mistaken.

[Dwayner]

Beck, me bucko...Bouldering Beta in Beckey's Guides? Come on! Fred has more class than that. What we're seeing with this bouldering stuff is what has been happening in academia and elsewhere for years. With a feeling that the big and obvious stuff has been accomplished, there is a tendency toward super-specialization. Bouldering, once (for the most part) a form of off-crag exercise and entertainment, is becoming an end in itself. So pretty soon, expect to find special bouldering shoes for dime edges which will be different from those of quarter-size, padded pants for sit starts, and "thrilling" magazines with all the latest HOT! bouldering news, first-hand epic accounts and gossip about the new "stars" and the secrets to their "success". And, of course, lots of great action photos - closeups of crimping fingers attached to bodies with pained, intense faces. (And an alternative 'zine will emerge with the name of "Mosh Pebble" or something similar for those who don't wanna sell out to the ma(i)n(stream).) The mattress-toters probably think they're really on to something by bringing their bouldering pads into the mountains; they might even consider themselves great pioneers. Although they make many of us yawn, what the heck, people have the right to be silly in this country. I just hope these guys look where they're setting those big stupid things they carry on their backs and don't kill too many plants.

yawn, Dwayner

 

[Dru]

Beckey does have some bouldering beta in his guidebooks - what boulders to bivi under. Anyone else visited "The Great Trog"?

[Cpt.Caveman]

quote:

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Originally posted by Dru:

Beckey does have some bouldering beta in his guidebooks - what boulders to bivi under. Anyone else visited "The Great Trog"?

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Never been to that Trog but that is the kind of bouldering beta I am looking for

[Cpt.Caveman]

Sounds like a long way to go just to boulder. I forget where but I also heard that rumor. Must be true.

Although bouldering is great I would not venture 3 miles up a trail just to do it. I just dont see any sense in it myself. Fuck tie into the rope and scare yourself is what I say. I dont really get much fright from a 10 foot boulder but I do get a good workout.

Just my thoughts.

[freak]

I like to fuck around in both worlds I think its bad ass to boulder in the back county I wouldent huf a pad up there but I have been known tote one of those things, I like to call em personal fornication pads, anyways all aspects of this sport are fun Ive gone months with out tieing into a rope when I do I have a blast oh well thats me 2 cents,

oh yeah, ya cant lump all those funny lookin boulder crimpers together, some of them have led 5.11 cracks and taken huge wippers and climbed grade Vs nic

[Matt_Anderson]

Sweet Bouldering in the upper enchantments near Asgaard Pass. Incredibly scenic. We've got some photos with the climber, an erratic boulder, a goat, dragontail on the left. Rember routes @ V0 to V5.

Matt

[pope]

Freak, so that's what those big pads are for! And I thought you were just padding your falls. Silly me. This is just another variation on the 1970's van craze, whereby a guy can let the girls know that he's always prepared for an encounter!

[nolanr]

My take on it is, these guys looking for virgin territory for bouldering are glory hounds who can't quite admit to themselves that everything's already been done. I've been scrambling on some pretty shitty pieces of rock before, there's no reason why anyone else would have ever wanted to be there, so do I get to claim an FA? Write it up for the climbing journals? Whatever. Climbing should be fun, in whatever way you choose to do it, but this obsession I see with getting your name in the record book and climbing something nobody's ever done before is tiresome. My $.02.

[nolanr]

I must have gone right by the Great Trog, but didn't particularly notice it. The Cirque is a cool place. Got to see the N. (or is it E.) Fork of the Nooksack emerging from a little tunnel through the glacier. I think I saw a bear print by the river along the sandbar. It's one of those timeless feeling kind of places. Kinda primal. Like the earth is still forming right there in front of you.

Another really big boulder you can camp under is "Shelter Rock" near the upper Royal Basin in the Olympics. Not sure how it would be for climbing, it's a huge chunk of pillow lava, might be a little friable. It did spit a chunk of icicle right down on my head when I was out there last November.

[mattp]

Nolanr (others, excuse me because this is off-topic)-

Have you ever attempted a climb that you believe nobody has ever tried (or succeeded on) before? There is a certain excitement that I find associated with that, an excitement that I cannot find by throwing myself at something that I know has already been done. I’ve tried to capture some of this same excitement by purposefully NOT reading the guidebook description of a route but, even still, my awareness that the damn thing had already been climbed detracted from the sense of adventure because I felt that I was somehow just playing games with myself by not using the available information. Sure, it is all a game, but I find that the playing board is of a different shape when I am on truly unexplored terrain.

In part, new route exploration is ego driven. But it is not always an ego driven by a desire for public recognition and I know many climbers that have other than to put their names in “the record book.” I have “put up” some new routes that I have published and encouraged others to try. But I have not published reports of everything that I have done which I believed to be a first ascent. Some things I have found not to be worthy, and I told myself they were not something anybody else would be interested in although it might also be said that they were not routes “to be proud of.” I have in one instance published a route as a “not recommended” climb. And there is a Washington peak made of good granite that rivals the Stewart Range, where I have put up three good routes and I have not published any of them. Some times the exploration of new routes may the pursuit of a glory hound, but some times it is just plain fun. And I assure you, everything has not been done already.

-mattp

 

[nolanr]

MattP,

Good points, I don't disagree w/ you at all. I also sometimes purposely head out somewhere w/out checking a route guide first, to see if I can find my own way up something. It does provide for excitement and a sense of discovery.

I guess I was looking at bouldering more specifically. There probably are some boulders somewhere that nobody has climbed on before. But so what. Most likely in places like Ingalls Lake area, if there's an attractive chunk of rock, somebody's already been there. If a person wants to tote a crash pad around and have fun up there or other places, go for it. But to have the notion "I'm probably the first person to ever think of this or ever do this" seems silly. Maybe I was reading too much into this thread. I remember thinking the same last winter when there was a rash of posts about first ski or snowboard descents of various places.

Maybe what really gets me about the whole idea is what I perceive as an arrogance. It seems to discount an entire previous generation or generations of climbers. "They couldn't possibly have done this, I MUST be the first." There have been excellent climbers and bold adventurers around for a long time, who have accomplished some pretty amazing things w/ crap for gear. Their deeds weren't always recorded. It just irks me when some Johnny Come Lately shows up on the scene and thinks he's going to turn the world on it's ear and do a bunch of stuff nobody has ever done before. Anyhoo, that's enough of that.

[Dan_Petersen]

I remember looking at a boulder problem in the Tetons put up by John Gill and disbelieving that any human could have climbed it. It remains to me a pretty powerful testimony to Gill's ability, and probably also to many other climbers. There's as good a reason as any for walking three miles to a "virgin" boulder, to set a line that you can have your peers be awed at.

Bouldering strikes me as more similar to an athletic competition than anything else in the game. You can try and fail at a problem just like you try and fail at ring dismounts in gymnastics. Within your own physical limits, it is a perfectable activity. One can also compare performances with others and "win" or "lose".

Some of us like that kind of stuff.

[Jens]

Bouldering and bouldering guides are cool but........A lot of people have been bouldering at a high standard in lots of areas of the high country for a least a decade now. Yes- hard problems have been done at Ingalls lake, yes- hard problems have been done in the enchantments. Whether it has been a rock jock who packs his slippers and chalk while taking a significant other on a backpacking trip or several alpinist/rock jocks wondering away from basecamp. I'm not taking anything away from the latest crop-- some of them crank hard on the boulders and have good power. It would be wrong to list "first ascents" that were just done by many of the pad toters in any new guidebook. Stuff has been done up in the mountains up to about V7 in my best judgement. So if any of you reading this are thinking about someday writing a guidebook to bouldering areas in popular cascade mountaineering areas (or anywhere in WA) they are most likely not firsts ascents. This may be more true for all over the state than you may think. We've had C4 rubber for a long time now. Power training methods have remained about the same.

[freak]

Pope fuck yeah dude personal fornication pads, dude I have a van too IM set for boulder pimpin! nic

[max]

The Great Trog: Don't make a vacation out of it. I went there and.. it's a big rock you ca nsleep under. That's about it. BUT, the noksack Cirque is AWESOME! This would be a great p[lace to have a party or bring a non-climber type for a good mountain experience. It's about 2 miles in and once your in, it's all about a deep cirque with Mt Shuksan as a backdrop.

 

[Dru]

Big rock you can sleep under= huge overhang for the sit start and pad set to play on.

Those mats are comfy to sleep on too. Combine bouldering with bivying for fun mountain experience.

[texplorer]

Pope,

I saw some guys heading up to ingal's about a month ago with crash pads too. It was kinda weird seeing them huffing their way up there beside the totally different alpine crew headed for Stuart. I suppose I put them one class up from the tailgate boulderers and almost even with the lycra clad sportys.

I guess you guys haven't seen the Beckey Bouldering guide to Ingal's Lake-

Take the easy 10 min hike up to ingals lake. On the west side of the lake you will find several V6's easily doable in your nepal-tops as a warm-up. Continue around to the north for some fun V1 mono problems. For an easy high-ball problem taverse to the Gendarme on the north ridge of Stuart for a fun V0.