Do you know what bouldering is, how it works and how it began?
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Bouldering
“Bouldering is the distilled essence of climbing.” – Adam Polinski
What is Bouldering?
“Bouldering is the distilled essence of climbing.” – Adam Polinski
John Gill is considered to have fathered bouldering on the boulders of Stone Mountain in Georgia. While bouldering had probably taken place in numerous areas before this, Gill was the one to really solidify it as a training technique. Gill used the boulders he found as a way to practice more challenging moves as a preparation for longer, roped climbs known as routes. That combined with his background in gymnastics may have been the single most influential force that has led to bouldering becoming its own climbing discipline.
Bouldering is climbing shorter rock features without the use of ropes. In recent years, bouldering has developed its own safety equipment. Crash pads, which most likely started as mattresses dragged into the forest, are thick pads that can be folded up and carried on a climber’s back. It is laid out at the base of a climb and with the use of spotters can keep an experienced boulderer relatively safe.
Many climbers are drawn to bouldering for a variety of reasons. With a limited amount of technical skills and equipment required, bouldering is often the first type of climbing an individual is able to consistently practice. Though not recommended, someone can boulder by themselves or in a group. Often people enjoy the more social environment created by bouldering. In some cases, bouldering is a great alternative for those who don’t particularly care for heights, but who do enjoy many of the other elements of climbing.
For better or for worse, I guess this will be my contribution to the guidebooking at Coopers Rock. There are three primary boulders here: the first is pretty manky but it is great for warming up or traversing, the second had a handful of quality slab climbs on gritstone and the third is the gem. It is a tall gently overhanging black face of cracks and edges with a super hard iron patina. That face is covered with classic boulder problems from V2 to V8 with nearly everything in between.
The climbs feel high but are pretty average for the area. The boulder has an obvious traversing crack (V4) spitting it horizontally and several straight up lines including an arete (V5) and thin powerful face climbs (V6-V8) that pass through the crack feature . All of these grades are approximations. If anyone meets a guy in the woods named Ray he can tell you some names, the first ascensionists, and what he thinks of the grades himself.
