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.
“Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone (wiki).”
To climbers, “the gritstone” refers to the world class climbing found in the Peak District of England. The English climbers refer to it as “God’s own rock” and its course texture provides great friction, making it an ideal climbing surface. The phenomenal friction allows climbers to use subtle holds and link even the most improbably sequences.
Along with impeccable movement, the gritstone is also characterized by some rather large blocks that are high by bouldering standards and rather short for routes. This, coupled with a strict no bolting ethic make for an incredible exciting style of climbing that often includes the use of traditional climbing equipment, bouldering pads and balls the size of grapefruits.
Coopers Rock, often termed the “American gritstone,” has many of these same aspects, While the rock is not exactly the same as England’s, its sandstone friction climbing, unusually large blocks and restrictions on bolting make it as close as we are going to get in the U.S. While the bouldering at Coopers has been heavily developed in some areas and the crack climbs in others, much of the “grit” at Coopers has yet to be climbed because of the high consequences associated with the style of climbing required to climb the higher and more run out blocks and boulders. Many of the boulder summits found throughout Coopers Rock have not seen human traffic because of the difficult and unprotectable faces guarding every side of these large blocks.
