Establishing Boulders in Oklahoma

Hueco Tanks, TX is the world standard for bouldering grading. AKA a V5 at hueco is how difficult a V5 everywhere should be. 

The past 5 weekends (6 with Oklahoma) I've been off living the dream climbing around the southern United states and taking pics as I go of myself and friends crushing rocks. I had planned to go to Oklahoma with Evan, Jack, and Moe the weekend after I came back from Hueco Tanks to possibly establish some new boulders on Mount Scott. Myself having the most experience with outdoor climbing and having visited the Standard for bouldering (Hueco Tanks) the previous weekend, I had a pretty good idea on how the routes should be graded. 

We set up camp after the quick 3ish hour drive to the Wichita Wildlife preserve camp area, and messed around climbing on some trees lit by head-lamps. The psych was high, none of us had ever gotten an "FA" (First Ascent) on any rock climb, so we didn't really know what to expect. Basically the basics of establishing an outdoor boulder are: 

• Clean off the route: Remove any branches or other foliage and brush off dirt and loose rock
• Climb every move of the route from start to finish and "Top Out" the boulder meaning stand on top of it when finished 
• Name & Grade the route: The person who gets FA on a route also gets the privilege to name it. Then hopefully he has friends around to also climb it, and they all agree on a "V Scale" grade such as V3
• Lastly you take pictures of the boulder and GPS mark it for when you put it's location on "Mountain Project" (a website of all the climbing routes that exist). 

With this knowledge in hand and pop-tarts in our bellies we set off up the road to Upper Mt. Scott. We pulled over at the first possible area for cars to pull off on, and take a gander up towards the top of the mountain. We notice several large boulders on the hill and set off on some recon to see if there was anything climbable on the lower section. Having been bouldering outside a few times I knew what to look for; Boulder height, hand holds, loose rock, fall zone, even foot holds are important to identifying if a boulder is possible to be climbed. 

We found 3 boulders after about 10 minutes of hiking up that would eventually yield 4 actual rock climbs. We decided as a group we wanted to find 4 actual boulders before heading back down to the car and grabbing the crash pads and gear, so we headed further up the mountain towards some larger rocks. We found what we would later call "The Rook" boulder, and that single boulder would yield 3 rock climbs. With our 4 boulders located we grabbed our gear and headed back to the first boulder. 

This Boulder had a very unique ledge like feature that came up to about the nipple area on us (We're all roughly 5'11"). Because of the high ledge it meant we would have to "Mantle", meaning use very upper body heavy move to get on top of the ledge. Jack hit it first and got it with no issue. The mantle is quite easy, followed up by some high hands to a crimp towards the top, some high feet follow that and you hug the top of the boulder while walking your feet up the side eventually leading to the top out. Jack got the "FA" and named it "Mantle to Greatness", and we all decided it would be a V2 in difficulty. Made a great warm up route. 

The next boulder is located directly behind the "Mantle to Greatness" climb on a small, long, boulder behind a large tree/bush thing. It caught my eye when we were scouting around because of the very defined top of the boulder that had a very nice edge. It would prove very good while climbing as we threw heel & toe hooks on it as we traversed it's 7-10 foot length to a semi-hard, small, mantle at the end. Evan got the FA on the route and named it "College", since he felt it mimic'd the College experience (Easy until the end, when it gets real). We rated the route at V3.

Jack throwing a heel hook at the finish of "College" V3

Jack getting ready for the final move off the sketchy foot jib. 

Satisfied with our first two climbs of the day we folded up the crash pads and headed up to our next boulder, "The Rook". Moe named the actual boulder since it was very square he felt it resembled the chess piece. We determined from the initial recon that these routes would be fairly easy based off very obvious hand holds. Moe, not wanting to miss the chance on getting an easy FA, laced his shoes up and hopped on the first one. The route rides the "arete" (corner of the boulder) starting on two side pulls, working it's way up to another nice side pull with the finish being EXTRA committing with 1 horrible foot to push yourself to the top of the boulder. Needless to say pushing off 1 sub-optimal foot with the consequence of slipping off being "Cheese Grating" down the 5 feet of boulder below you is never ideal! Like the boss he is Moe reaches to the finish with no fear, Aptly naming the route "The Pawn" rated V1. 

The next route would be on "The Rook" boulder again. This one on the left side of the face staring sitting low on a side pull and firing up to a right hand crimp. You work your way towards the left of the route grabbing a sub-optimal side pull and smearing feet on nothing and doing a quick but precise power move to the top. Jack got the FA on this one too naming it "Footloose" based off the lack of feet the further up the route you went. We rated it V1 as well. 

Jack sits on top and watches as Evan sets his eyes on the next move of "Footloose" V1

The third Climb on "The Rook" boulder is on the backside in relation to the first two, distinguishable by the pronounced low ledge. The climb starts sitting on low smear feet and hands on a sloper-crimp left hand up high and a right on a lower crimp. You work your left hand out further onto the downward sloping ledge, matching it while throwing a high heel hook, then throw your right hand up to a pretty decent side pull, finishing with a left hand at the top of the climb. Jack would get the FA on this one as well and named it "Ladybug Central" based off of the insane amount of lady bugs living behind a gigantic flake we pulled off. The climb went at V3. 

At this point we had realized we miscalculated the amount of water we would need for 4 people and accidentally consumed all of it... This compounded with the fact we had not eaten yet the dudes were leaning towards heading back down the hill. Sadly for Jack, Moe, and Evan, I had my eyes on these two protruding boulders a few hundred feet up the Mountain all day, and I was going to climb them damnit! So I forced us further up the Mountain side, luckily it would pay off with the best climb of the day. 

We get to the area I had dragged us to, and we see a green speckled flat face that I think spoke to Evan and I from the distance, whispering "Climb me"... in a non creepy way.

We set up our pads under it and get working on the beta for this climb. The climb starts hanging low on some decent sloper hands, followed by bumping a right hand up and bringing your feet up to the start holds. You do a fairly large reach to a left hand side pull located in the middle of the boulder and walk your feet down to the bottom of the boulder. This part would be our first "Crux" as we couldn't figure out a way to go past the left hand side pull as there was nowhere to put our right hand on the face of the boulder. We tried matching the side pull, throwing an insanely low undercling, even toe hooking the start of the climb in an attempt to gently place a right hand on a garbage crimp. Luckily for us in all our attempts to figure the route out, we broke off a decent sized flake and it made exactly what we needed...a right hand crimp side pull. It wasn't much but it was all we needed, We grabbed the left hand side pull and brought the right hand down to a crimp about shoulder level. Then we entered into the 2nd Crux zone.. the GIGANTIC right hand cross to a sloper. Unlike the last issue, we weren't struggling with lack of holds, rather a lack in technique that required us to get smarter in order to complete the problem. We walked both feet further over left following a low crack and bumped our left hand to a sloper side pull, setting up for the crux. Bumping right hand into a "Gaston" on the originally left hand side pull and then throwing for the far right hand sloper. After about 5-10 attempts each we finally all nailed the move and topped out the boulder easily. Super rewarding to discover a beautiful boulder, figure out that it has a climb on it, and then project it into submission. Evan got the FA and named it "Life Force" and we decided to rate it V5-V6 since it was right on the edge. 

All in all we had an excellent day bouldering, better than I think we all expected. There are zero boulders established on Mt. Scott itself meaning everything we climbing was a legitimate First Ascent. The community usually expects super strong crushers to go out and establish routes but they forget about the lower end routes that get established by regular dudes. Jack, Evan, and I all climb roughly V7-V8 in the gym, by no means "expert" or insanely strong at bouldering. I encourage anyone who wants to go out and try out our boulders to do so, message me if you feel like you need a better idea of where they're located and I'll give you some good directions on how to hike up to them. 

The crew feeling tired and satisfied after the full day of bouldering. 

Evan also made a pretty great video of our short trip and you should check it out! 

How we did a 3 day 1,200 mile trip

I cannot overstate how much I LOVE last minute plans, the thrill and excitement added with the challenge of planning a dope trip with limited time really gets me pumped. My buddy and Coach Denis and I had been talking about getting outside for a few weeks and had thrown around the idea of Oklahoma or Arkansas for some sport climbing and bouldering. We got a weekend pinned down that worked for Arkansas but the weather was looking like it was going to rain, and I'd rather not drive 6-7hrs to sit in a tent for a weekend haha.. 

On the Tuesday before the planned trip Denis texts me this: 

"Yo bro, lets do frikkin New Mexico. Climb at Last Chance & Sitting Bull Falls" 

and I'm all for getting on world class sport climbing so I was all in, but I remember that Hueco Tanks is only 2.5hrs from Sitting Bull Falls so I added:

"Dude lets do Hueco Tanks too and make it a really great trip" 

He was all for it so we prepped to leave on that Thursday night to drive to Carlsbad, NM thru the night. 

This weekend would fall on what I call a "Low Personal Funds Weekend" or "LPFW" (acronym made up) meaning I had gotten paid the week before and was running low on personal cash (I had roughly $100 left). Right off the bat I'm thinking about costs of the trip: Gas, Food, Guiding, Emergency. 

We would take my 2014 Ford Focus Hatchback that gets roughly 30-35MPG highway so I would get about 300-370 miles per tank and it's 600 miles to New Mexico with about $20ish to fill up my tank. We would have to make food 2 nights of the trip and we would buy food while driving. I also knew we might need a guide for Hueco Tanks which is $25 a person. We ended up with 3 climbers on the trip; Denis, Doland, and Myself so the fuel costs would be split 3 ways which made things way cheaper for all of us. So Roughly my individual costs were these:

• $60 in Gas
• $25 in Guiding
• $10-$15 in food

Being the outdoors manly men that we are, we camped the whole time as well, which saves about $75-$100 a night. That's SUPER cheap, but don't be fooled, we ate good for the first two days but the third day our only food till about 10pm was Granola, Chex Mix, and water (Denis I think just drank water..)

I knew this trip would be a 'tight' trip based on how I usually travel but I was able to swing a 1,200 mile trip for roughly $100-$150 per person which I think is awesome. 

The Plateau

In rock climbing I am far from professional, I probably fall somewhere in between amateur and a mediocre climber, meaning I can usually boulder anywhere from a V5 to V7 and maybe occasionally a V8 if the route is set to my climbing style. On rope I go anywhere from 5.11-5.12a depending on the route again. After a while of climbing, for me 7 months in, you find yourself struggling to get past a certain grade of route and from what i've seen it's usually a v4 or v5 in bouldering and a 5.10d to 5.11a on rope. I found myself in this same place a few months ago and it's a very frustrating feeling that you're very strong in your climb but you cannot progress into a new grade, they just seem a little too hard and a little to technical sometimes. My first experience with the plateau was when I first started climbing and I had bought these climbing shoes from REI I think they were La Sportivas or something and I had bought them in my actual shoe size which felt pretty good but ask any climber and they'll all tell you, when climbing you must give up on having comfy feet. I was bouldering V3s and beginning V4s but my feet kept slipping off the wall or I couldn't get my toes to grab a tiny foot hold, luckily my gym in Dallas has a pretty cool program called Climb Fit with an excellent coach named Mario Stanley. Mario was the first one to inform me on the fact that at a certain point you will start out climbing what your shoes can do, so at that point my plateau was being caused by my inexperience with climbing equipment and was easily corrected with a pair of some toe numbing climbing shoes of my own (Over Exaggerating they're not that bad). 

Skip forward a few months and i'm successfully doing V5s and a few rare V6s on boulder and 5.10d pretty solid on top rope but not progressing past these. I even got to the point where I wouldn't even try routes that were harder because I told myself I was wasting energy on routes that I wasn't ready for yet. After a few weeks of this i'm sitting at the gym frustrated as hell that I can't send routes and I run into this guy named Alec who tells me some of the best climbing advice i've ever heard. He tells me to stop focusing on the grade and focus on the moves, do a climb because it excites you or because a certain move interests you, make climbing about piecing together fun problems instead of grinding through a process that just gets you frustrated in the end. This helped me progress past my plateau because I wasn't focusing on a grade of a climb I was just focusing on how a certain climb looked, and because of that my footwork got better, I tried harder on routes, and I was sending routes that I hadn't even looked at previously. Obviously this was all mixed in with training and working out, and I also do yoga a a few times a week now. 

The Plateau is different for everyone, whether it be equipment, training, or a mentality affecting your progression, I find in climbing it always helps befriending someone who is better than you and gaining wisdom from them. Plus the more climbing friends you have the less climbing seems like working out and more like a social experience you do with friends.