Bouldering Colorado Guide

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Bouldering Colorado Guide

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Last seen: 12/24/2008
Location: Colorado
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Almost twenty years ago, I was a guest lecturer, and opening act at the American Alpine Club's annual meeting, which for that year (1989) was in Atlanta. It was the same years that Todd Skinner and Paul Piana gave their presentation on involving free climbing the Salathe Wall on El Capitain in Yosemite Valley. Jeff Lowe and Ed Webster, who was a roommate of mine at the time, was also in the presentation line up, I believe giving a show about climbing something outrageous in the Himalayas.

Anyway, I presented my slide show, then called "Modern Rock Gymnastics," in front of a large crowd of mostly, suit and tie, mountaineers. In the presentation I projected images of big wall climbing, 5th class free climbing, and finally a spread on bouldering, explaining how each level achieved was based on many stepping stones lay down by our climbing predecessors. I received a standing ovation, and was immediately thereafter approached by a publisher, George Meyers, who was well known in the climbing community and guide book business for his hand draw topos of Yosemite Valley, a break through for guide documentation at the time. George liked the presentation and showed special interest in my bouldering section. He then asked me if I would be interested in doing a bouldering guide. I told him that I had been documenting bouldering throughout the state of Colorado and doing a state wide guide would be great. He of course thought the scope to be too vast and complex and so Colorado Front Range Bouldering, my first guide, was published.

At that time bouldering was still quite obscure and not taken so seriously in relation to traditional rock climbing. I remember, back in the day, save for areas like Horsetooth, and Eldorado, a boulderer was rarely seen and the bouldering fields were unpopulated, fresh and crisp. Areas like the Flatirons, Mount Evans, Rocky Mountain National Park, Castlewood, Ute Pass, Red Cliff, Redstone, Telluride, Unaweep and Naturita to name a few, were all obscure destinations for the few of us who ventured out seeking bouldering as an alternative to rock climbing. We basically had the places to ourselves and we treated them with the utmost respect.

Well, times have changed and as I continued this ultimate goal of a state wide guide and revisited the areas time and time again, I was often astounded by the growing numbers, and the changing attitudes of those boulderers I encountered. Most seemed very friendly, having fun in the great outdoors, but I also noticed a change, especially within the last decade of a new breed of boulderer, somewhat territorial, and upon further conversation, somewhat disrespectful to, or oblivious to, their predecessors. When recording and cross checking these areas with the present day influx of activity, I would often ask a person or persons what they now call any given boulder. The response, in the more recently popular areas, for example, I would say what do you call this nice piece of apparatus, referring to the boulder being climbed upon, and one would respond that it is called Dale's Boulder, another would say no, it's called Lynn's Block, I then would refer to an online blog, magazine, etc. and it was stated as Boulder D, in my own ancient documentation we called it Ambiguous Block, at that point I had to decipher what it should be named and finalize it for the project.

By the way, I believe in Bouldering Colorado, it is truly a work of art, and is and asset and educational tool that the climbing community should embrace. To be continued.

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