Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Winter Session at Reservoir Rocks: Great Barrington, MA

I finally got around to editing some of the climbing videos from the past two weekends at Reservoir Rocks in Great Barrington, MA. 

The first video is from Sunday December 9th, 2012.  It had rained for a few consecutive days leading up to this outing which i think deterred other climbers from making the trip to GB because Keith Banta and I had the entire boulder field to ourselves for the entire day.  If you have ever climbed at Reservoir Rocks, you would easily understand that this is not common for the area as it is very popular.  Despite taking weeks off from climbing due to some lingering back issues, I was able to climb two new V9's as well as get through all of the cruxes on "Filter"-V9 but had to drop off after getting to the jug because the topout was still soaking wet from all of the rain.

The second video highlights our bouldering session this past Saturday December 15, 2012.  The climbing conditions were prime for December climbing and this time we weren't the only climbers taking advantage of the conditions.  We ran into Mike and Bill from CT who were psyched and ready to tackle their projects (Mike successfully sent his first V10 with "Pressure Drop", Scott (a local GB climber) met up with us to show us some of the less known boulder problems and numerous other groups were scattered throughout the reservoir boulder field.  The topout on "Filter" was dry this time and my eagerness to get back on it payed off as I was able to send the boulder problem on my first attempt of the day, way psyched on that!

Until the next outing...keep climbing everyone and have a great holiday!

Media Update:









Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Winter Session(s) at Great Barrington Mass.


I have spent the last two weekends on the boulders at "The Reservoir" in Great Barrington Massachusetts. This place has always been one of my favorite bouldering areas due to the quality of the rock, the climbing style of the boulder problems, the relatively close proximity to home and the sheer abundance of established and undone boulder problems.

I have been climbing here since 2006 and it is becoming more and more obvious that I am not familiar with probably 75% of the established climbing at "The Reservoir" or any of the other satellite bouldering areas in and around Great Barrington. I have found passages from the New England Bouldering Archive section where the original developers of the area list new problems and areas and even go as far as developing bouldering circuits of 30+ boulder problems all V4 and under within a 100 yard radius of the Erkenen Boulder (AKA Crystal Method Boulder). I don't know about you guys, but I can only think of a dozen or so problems under V4 in that immediate area. I guess I need to befriend a few more locals so I can tap into their resources and knowledge of the area. I realize that a guidebook will never be released for the area due to access issues and restrictions, but someone has to be tracking all of the climbing and development in the area....or at least you would think someone would be, right?

Here are some random pictures from the past two weekends; I am currently working on a compilation video that should be done later this week.











Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Stonehenge Area at Nine Corners Lake

Before my voluntary leave from outdoor bouldering, I was able to enjoy a few solo bouldering sessions at Nine Corners Lake.  I focused on the Stonehenge area since it typically sees far less traffic than the main bouldering set and because I haven't sessioned over there in quite some time.

If you're ever at Nine Corners and are looking for some new(er) boulder problems, the Stonehenge area is about 300 yards east of the Nick Stoner boulder.  Follow the water's edge away from the rip rap damn that you cross to access the boulder fields and the boulders will be visible in about a 5 minute walk.

Media Update:


Thursday, December 6, 2012

Poaching Kippy's old Nine Corner Videos...

Nothing better than some Old School Nine Corners Lake videos to keep the psych levels high.  Back in the day when Jesus was the reason, nodoby know there was climbing at Nine Corners and footwork was irrelevant...there were a selective few who knew how to crush boulder problems.   To those who rock, we salute you!!!













Tuesday, December 4, 2012

McKenzie Pond Video

It's been a long time since my last post....

I'll sum it up by saying this; 2012 has been a very trying year.  I was fortunate enough to have had more outdoor climbing sesssions this year than in any years past but have been trying to tune out the chronic back pain that I have been experiencing since the end of December 2011.  I have had three spinal epidurals (cortisone injections), I have been to chiropractors, accupuncture specialists, back specialists, spine specialists...the list goes on and on...

It has been a very disheartening process, especially with no solution in sight.  I have taken myself off of the steady perscription of pain killers and muscle relaxers that the doctors keep writing me scripts for and have opted to take the remainder of 2012 off from any climbing related activities in hopes that I can experience a pain free day again.  I will be back soon, hopefully pain free and full or energy and life again!

In the meantime, all of this free time on the weekends will mean more time to explore the unknown in the Adirondack Park and the potential for new bouldering areas, more time to focus on new climbing hold concepts for the 2013 season and some much needed time to revise all of my sketches, maps, pictures and boulder probelm descriptions of the known and not so well known boulder fields that the 'Dacks has to offer. 

Before I started to take this break from climbing, I did have one epic week of climbing around Thanksgiving.  My office was giving us Thanksgiving Day and Good Friday off from work so I took the three work days leading up to the holiday off as vacation time.  I was able to climb six days outside in some stellar fall conditions during that time.  I will do my best to get the videos and images up on the blog in the next week or so.  Until then...

Media Update:  Fall Session at McKenzie Pond