Making The Best

   Thanks to all the cleaning over the past few weeks the boulder fields are looking more dense then ever. It seems as though with every new line that gets cleaned two more appear under the roots, moss and dirt. Lately, the Fred Meyer Boulders have been the area with the most to offer.
   In past summers I have devoted most of my time to developing the boulders at Tee Harbor. Unfortunately, after finishing my long term project, Burden of Hospitality (I will write more about that later), my interest in the area has waned. Don't get me wrong, Tee Harbor is a prime area but a little change in scenery was needed.

Burden Of Hospitality, Juneau's New Hardest Problem

   This summer the bulk of our outdoor excursions have been to either East Glacier, home to our lovely grey, glacial polished, granite erratics or Fred Meyers, home to the best highballs around. It's been rejuvenating to say the least. When you live in an area as isolated as Juneau, it is easy to get bored and feel as though you see the same thing everyday. Sometimes you just have to remind yourself to go somewhere else. Lucky enough, we have several great areas to visit.

Janelle Climbing the Dyke Problem

    East Glacier is home to some of the best rock in town. The granite reminds me of the foot on Midnight Lightning. Most of the texture was rubbed away by the glacier leaving some slick relatively featureless boulders. Where there is texture, it's amazing! Tacky yet satisfying. There are dozens of problems ranging from V1 up to V11 with several projects scattered around. Personally, I have two projects that have received the majority of my attention: the sit starts to Beak & Claw and Crooked Crow.
    The sit start to Beak & Claw has been a project for a few years now. A line that moves up slopey rails to a technical mantel over the lip. I have done all the moves except for one. It's very subtle and condition dependent. Most likely it will have to wait for cool fall conditions. In the rain forest during the summer it is rare to have cool temps and low humidity; especially during a summer that has rained as much as this year.

"The Move"

   Lost Rock is home to the next project. Located in the woods on the right side of Glacier Spur Rd about 1/2-3/4 mile past the intersection with Mendenhall Loop Rd, this boulder is home to several superb problems including the slab dyno Massive Dynamic. The problem that has peaked my interest is the sit start to a problem I established this year called Crooked Crow. While the top moves are fairly straight forward using underclings and heel hooks, the sit is some of the most difficult compression I have ever tried. There is just enough texture to hold each position, but despite my efforts, I don't have either the strength or vision to move between them. Hopefully as my knowledge of training and the efficacy of my efforts increase, so will my understanding of this problem.

There it lies in all it's glory, Crooked Crow

   In the past weeks our efforts have been at Freddy's (Fred Meyer Boulders). After all the cleaning from the past blog post, we were able to take advantage of a break in the weather and establish a few new problems. Polinko in particular is really fun!


   As summer creeps to its end, we're doing our best to take advantage of any and all the climbable weather we get. It's looking like we are going to have a few more climbing days this week, so stay tuned for more news from Juneau. Till then, Train Hard & Climb Harder!

Productive Rest

   So I sure picked a good week to take some rest. The sun has been out  and the boulder have been dry. But despite my training schedule yesterday and today ended up being really productive! I headed out to Fred Meyers and decided to do my self some cleaning.
   The first bloc I headed to was one that I cleaned a few weeks ago but needed a little more work.  There was a branch hanging over the lip. I gave that the chop and then made sure the trail was nice and devils club free. Once done there I headed up to the lair. The scene was not good my friends... A nice big tree fell onto our landing. I cleaned out as much as possible but to get the whole thing out of there we're going to need a crew. If anyone is interested let me know! Well aside from that I got some lines  under the big slab cleaned up that should be cool. They look like they'll have some fun moderate climbing up to a committing lip encounter.

There's two lines that stand out. A low sit start to some slopers and a quality line heading out the roof to some crimps and a proper top out!

See? Its bigger then one man can move

   Next I headed over to a boulder that I have looked at for a long time. I never found myself ready to clean this thing but yesterday was the day. Its funny because when I finally set to getting it clean it was not time at all. Within 10 minutes the top was cleared of mud and moss. This boulder may end up being more of a project before its a climb. Compression will be the name of the game. The left side is fairly positive but the left side is pretty nasty. Aside for the obvious line it appears that there may be something else to right in the dihedral but it will take a little imagination to figure out.

The compression project!

Its steep!

   Another Great future problem that is now going to be possible is the Twin Beaks. Today Janelle and I headed back up to Freddy's to finish cleaning a problem I started like 2 years ago. Yeah it took a while but done now. Its a nice little roof on the way to the Gandolf boulder. At one time I sorted out the beta but was unable to finish due to a lack landscaping. But like the others  its now clean and ready to go thanks to some help from my lovely fiance Janelle.

Janelle feeling out the holds of Twin Beaks

   I'm really excited to get out there and try some of these new problems. They look like they will be some fine additions to the area. Now we wait for a little rain to finish the cleaning, a little chalk and we have some new problems. As soon as my rest cycle is over you better believe Im gonna get out there and give these things a few burns! Its looking like next week we have some sun in the forecast. Im excited to climb. Hope your able to get out and grab some stone too, till then train hard and climb harder!

Stealing Days

   Well guess what? Give up? IT'S BEEN RAINING!!!! A lot. I've also been taking advantage of the rainy days by training at home. Since Janelle and I built a wall in our living room, we've had the ability to climb with specific goals for each workout. We also have rings, a sling trainer and a hangboard. The hangboard in particular has become increasingly utilized. Before recently I didn't use one but as of late it has been proving its place in my training schedule. As with many climbers, I've always felt that my biggest weaknesses are my fingers and core. While hanging is super boring, it's ideal for targeting finger strength, and once the gains became apparent, my motivation has soared.

The Beastmaker and some motivation...

   Training aside we've had a few days to get outside. For Janelle and I, the count is two days in the past 20 days... Yeah. They have been productive though. One day we made it out to Freddy's. After warming up Janelle and I both got to work on our projects. Janelle set to work on Huggy Bear. A quality line on the Lookout Boulder. It went well and she made a ton of progress. Perhaps it will go next visit?

Janelle Working through Huggy Bear

    While Janelle worked on Huggy Bear, I set my sights on the Rail Project. A sit start to Huggy Bear that is perhaps the longest standing project at Freddy's. I first tried this problem my first summer in Juneau seven years ago, and it had been tried for years before that by several other local climbers. When I first tried it I couldn't envision the moves but after such a long time away it finally made sense and I was able to link the problem in two parts. It isreally cool to see these old projects come to fruition and change from a vague line of holds into a boulder problem.

An early attempt sorting out beta

The crux

   On our next day out we went out to one of our favorite but rarely visited areas: Granite Creek. To get there you travel up the Perseverance Trail Head located at the top of basin road. After about 2 miles you get to the beginning of the Granite Creek trail which takes you to the base of Mt.Olds. In this top basin is the house boulder. So far there are only a few established lines on it. My objective was the Crown Project, a beautiful sustained compression problem up the steepest face of the boulder.

Mt.Olds and the House Boulder

   After the 3 hour hike we were all pretty tired. We hung out enjoyed the sun, salmon and cheese and  then I was set to work. On all of my previous visits up there I could not figure out how to get out of the overhang, but after a few attempts I figured out how to finally get over the lip. Now even though I had some beta figured out, it's still not a done deal. The Crown is one of those boulders that you can only try so many times before you're worked. Add that to the brutal approach and you... don't send. Ha, oh well, it's up there for another day. 

The redpoint crux. 

Too High To Fail? I think not

 
   Hopefully with the arrival of July will come some more dry weather. Till next time Train Hard and Send Harder! Cheers

Rest, Rain & Work

   This past week has been a busy one. Dylan, a local climber, and myself ran the first of what will be an annual climbing summer camp through the Zach Gordon Youth Center. We had 8 excited boys from age 8-13. It was an awesome opportunity for these kids to experience rock climbing outside of the occasional birthday party at the climbing gym.
   We started the week with an introductory day at the Zach. Here in Southeast Alaska, rain tends to be the norm and the first day's weather was no exception but it worked out for the best.  Having an indoor wall made for an effective way for these kids to get comfortable climbing on a rope and trusting the equipment.  Once we got these kids familiar and prepared, it was full steam ahead.
   For the next three days we were lucky enough to have a break in the rain and we headed out to the rock. Day one we went out to the Sea Cliffs. It's one of the only sport climbing crags in Juneau, and offers climbs from 5.6 up to 5.12. The scenery there is amazing, and in our short visit we saw two humpback whales and a curious seal.

Dylan and the Kids.

One of the kids high on a route at the Sea Cliffs

   The following days we went bouldering at the Tee Harbor and Fred Meyer Boulders. Kids were crushing! Everyone topped something out and had smiles on their faces. While at Tee Harbor, I demonstrated some boulders hoping to get the kids stoked. I climbed up the classic All Your Waters and attempted a repeat of The Donkey Show. Donkey Show is an odd problem, it is very short and very low percentage. I established it around 2010, have only done it twice, and I most certainly have tried it much more than that! Despite my efforts, I failed on this repeat but I think it's good for the kids to see that. No matter how much you climb, you always fall and that's okay. 

   On our last day the rain returned, but it was alright because after several hard days on the rock we were ready for a break. We set off to the swimming pool to use the latest addition, a Climbing Wall!!!!!!! It is gently overhanging and a ton of fun, and I couldn't think of a better way to end a summer climbing camp.

   As for my own climbing, it has been limited. I just read a new training book that has outlined a training cycle that myself and my fiance are going to try. I really like that it has defined the points where you should be peaking which is something that I have lacked in the past but is very important to the AK boulderer. We only take a limited amount of trips a year and it will be nice to know that we are going during the peak of our training efforts. 

    Well any ways I have been resting but am now back on the horse. Here's a nice clip of myself actually climbing The Donkey Show just before I took my rest. Hope you enjoy and that we don't get too much rain so I have some more to share next week!

Finally!

    It's been a long time since someone has written a post about the bouldering here in little ol' Juneau Alaska. This blog is here to share the latest climbing news in our little town. Hope you enjoy and hopefully this will help anyone visiting to know that they should bring their rock shoes.
   So whats happening right now? Lots! In the past 7 years there has been an explosion of development on the local blocs. Around town there are two primary rock types:

Tuff

Dylan Miller Climbing Love not Lost at Freddys

and Granite

The Author's hand on Special Sandwich.
A problem located on one of the many glacial erratics of the East Glacier Trail.

   Along with the different kinds of rock we have we also have different environments ranging from dark, dank temperate rain forests to alpine meadows that are only accessible for a 2 or 3 months a year. 

Myself on the Crown Project up in Granite Creek

   We also have a nice spectrum of grades from v1 to v12 and some pretty lofty projects. Please note while the climbers in town get out and travel to different areas we are isolated and grades are always just an estimate and it doesn't matter anyways!!!!

   This is just an overview of what our little town has to offer. As time goes on I intend to update with recent information and upcoming events at our local gym. Please feel free to contact me if you're visiting. We are always happy to share what rock we have. For your stoke here is a video of a traverse that I established this season called the Epoch Traverse. Its located at the Tee Harbor Boulders on the Warm-up boulder. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!