Tis the Season for FA's, fun repeats, and ROC THE BLOCS

Here's a common theme in Okanagan bouldering over the last couple years. When the Boulderfields open up, it's like a mad dash to get in and pluck more amazing lines. Except, it's really only a mad dash for a small group of us because there still aren't that many people putting up lines. So, with such a huge area and a small group of developers, really, it's only a race against ourselves. That's kinda nice because we're always winners, or losers, depending on how you look at it. Anyways, on to the business.

This season has already seen a lot of action from boulderers in areas throughout the Okanagan. Cougar Canyon has been getting some love and I know that a few of the guys from Kelowna have been making regular trips down to Boulder on the Bench. Meanwhile, lesser known areas such as the Slayers outside of Penticton have also seen chalk on holds after Doug Orr shared a little info and sparked some interest. Nonetheless, it seems that most of the action has been up in the Fields lately. I'm consistently seeing more pad-toters cruising around the boulders and a lot of lines are getting a good workout.

For a few of us (Jay, Jess, Myself) the season in the Fields, as usual, has already been packed with the climb classics, clean boulders, project, FA, then repeat, routine. It still amazes us just how much rock is in there and how many great lines remain unclimbed. Yes, it takes a little time to get your bearings amongst the chaos, but once you get 'er all figured out, you can run around like a fat kid chasing a rolling Milk Dud, bagging great FA's.

Over the last couple weeks, we've all spent our time opening up new lines in between hitting already  established beauties. Jay has been working the Cereal Killer Low project and another project just past it, both of which are likely in the V11/12 or harder range. I've been cleaning a bunch of great moderate to hard lines (V5 to V10/11) in the Nothing Like Viper and Cave Dweller areas recently while Jess put up a new V0 behind the Evil Empire boulder.

Recently, Jay and I were talking about a line listed as a project in the guidebook (#7 in the Nothing Like Viper Boulders). It's on the Evil Empire boulder (a great boulder filled with moderate to difficult lines) and is the project coming into Evil Empire from the left. We looked at it last year, but never made it back. We figured it would be tough and decided to hit a couple weeks ago. After cleaning it up and working the moves, we realized we had a good thing going with this one. The problem starts on a couple edges in a scoop before making a powerful move into Evil Empire, then working back up and left through some tough crimps to a committing finish. Jay and I used slightly different beta through the crux, but the difficulty seemed about the same. In the end, we happily shared the FA on this one (even though Nikita left me out of the video credit and I cried for hours), and Crimpin' Ain't Easy was born. It's probably about V9+/10 and is definitely 3 stars. It's awesome! Yet another classic hard line in the Fields.

Me on Crimpin' Aint Easy 

Here's a video of Jay employing the "any means necessary to avoid the tiny crimp" beta on Crimpin' Ain't Easy

Oh yeah, just yesterday, with some skin back on the tips and great conditions, I was also lucky enough to add a variation to Crimpin' Ain't Easy. This problem (dubbed Keep Your Crimp Hand Strong) starts as for Evil Empire Low and finishes on Crimpin' Ain't Easy. It adds a couple start moves that are more powerful than those at the start of Crimpin'. It's a cool line with some trickery at the start and probably sits at solid V10. It's pretty crazy that a block with already established, fun problems, put out 2 more terrific, tough lines! That's the Fields for ya.

In addition to this madness, Jay and I also climbed a cool new line in the Cave Dweller area (listed in the guidebook as #5 in the Cave Dweller Boulders). This thing is beautiful and climbs terrifically on some very cool holds. It's got a great mix of power and technical flavor and is probably about V7-ish. The way things are going, there will be a ton more FA's coming soon.

Lastly, but not least by any means is another note on ROCK THE BLOCS. For those of you who haven't heard, this is the Boulderfest we're hosting at the Fields on June 22nd. There's been a lot of interest and we're hoping that a solid crew shows up to throw down in the comp or help out with trails/ clean-up. There's a core group of OK boulderers coming as well as some out-of-towners! We're getting super excited and already have the problems and trail projects for the day picked out. We're looking at 105 great problems and 3 trail projects. Quite a busy day. If you can make it out, we'd love to see you there! Here's a video Jay and Jess put together of some of the classics from the 4 Horsemen room and another from Nikita of Evil Empire (V6). All of these problems will be in the comp, so this is a little beta for ya'll!




For any info on ROCK THE BLOCS or OK bouldering in general, please feel free to email me at okbouldering@gmail.com