Lil' Squamish

The 'better' part of the approach.

It is about time I finally update my blog. So much has been going on this past week that by the time I sit down to write I can’t think of anything to say. So I’ll start on Monday. Jimmy, Whitey, Nic and I all made the trek out to Gold bar! It was mine and Whitey’s first time to the main Gold bar areas, The Forest, Clear Cut, and Sanctuary, and it was Jimmy and Nic’s second time. I had heard that the bouldering was amazing and judging from the guidebooks description and relative abundance of boulder problems rated V.4-V.10 I thought for sure it would be a good place to get a lot of problems under the belt. Unfortunately the main area to Gold bar’s bouldering was guarded by a horrendous 3 mile trek up a nasty, gnarled, and horribly rocky ‘road’. I use the term road lightly because it was more like a washed out river bed. The beginning mile of the trek feels as if it was blasted in certain places by sticks of dynamite, huge pot holes from the size of a small pond to the size of a bathtub marred the road in several places. The next 2 miles was nothing but periodic moments of, ‘holy shit, I have to drive over that!?’ moments, but we made it happen and by the time we pulled into the parking lot at the top I felt as if I had just climbed a pitch of 5.12, WITH MY CAR!

The view from the War Zone!

Regardless, we were here, safe and sound, and my nice new car was none the worse for wear. I was incredibly psyched anyways and nothing was going to stop me from climbing here. We made excellent time and we arrived at the first spot at around 10:00 in the morning. We first scoped out the War Zone and figured it would be too hot so we headed up into the forest and to a huge boulder that held a sweet V.3 called Fern Crack. First off, the minute I stepped into The Forest area I was immediately transported back to Squamish. I couldn’t believe how much the setting resembled the moss covered boulders of Squamish. It was an awesome setting and the boulders were incredible. Fern Crack was great, probably one of the best V.3’s I have ever been on. As we warmed up on this little gem, which was actually quite tall, we scoped the low start and the even lower start and figured we would give them a go. We managed to send the V.6 low start but the V.7 lower start was a little too scrunchy and powerful for a warm up. After we got the blood flowing we all headed over to a legendary problem, at least in our circle, called The Doja.

Nic sending The Doja(V.7), he didn't even have to take off his hat!

We had all seen the video on line and really wanted to give it a try. Doja starts out by walking up a slanting boulder to get to the starting hold, which is a nice incut little finger jug. By inverting your body you make a hard first move by crossing to a flat crimp with your right. Throw a heel on by the starting hold, and bust out left with your left to a pinch on the arête, than bump or swing to the jug and top out, super beefy V.7 that only saw one ascent this day. Jimmy made good progress and managed to hit the pinch on the arête, I could barley slap to the pinch, and Whitey had a good time working the first move. Nic saved the day by crushing the problem twice in a row. The first time he let out a carnal yell and sent the beast, but felt like he could master the moves by doing it a second time, which he did. It was very impressive and we were all psyched for the rest of the day.


All of us watch as Nic tries on the crimpy moves of Fun Puppet(V.9)

After that we headed over to a massive and immaculate boulder that held two problems that we could find in the guide book, Fun Puppet and Dookie’s Pinchfest. I really wanted to work Fun Puppet so we threw the pads down and started feeling out the holds, which were few and far between. It was composed of a good left hand slot, and a bad bad bad right hand crimp. The feet were like slippery nipples that had been sattered randomly across the bottom of the face, somehow you pull on and stab out right to a little flat three finger crimp, from there you get your feet up high and make a huge throw to a flat bucket up above. Freakin’ crazy if you ask me. I managed to hit the three finger crimp but there was no way I had the foot work or crimp strength to yard up to the bucket that felt like it was four miles away, let alone four feet. Whitey had the same progress and Jimmy and Nic had a hard time with the first move. We gave up shortly after realizing this was above our heads and headed around the corner to work Dookie’s Pinchfest. Wow! Another stellar line but way hard for the grade. We only had success doing the first slap move, going out to the pinch was out of the question. Oh well, we packed up and started our search for a boulder problem called Lighten Up, the guidebook describes it as ‘fat boy climbing, big moves on big holds’. This sounded good on a particularly humid day in the forest and there were also plenty of other moderates in the same immediate area of the problem so we were psyched once again.

Me cruxing on Silver Slippers(V.3/5)

Me finally topping out Silver Slippers.

We had to do some trail finding since everything in the Forest looked like a ‘faint trail’ but we found it shortly and ran around gawking at such problems like Silver Slippers, The Tata Box, and of course the monstrous dyno of Lighten Up. The first problem we wanted to try here was a cool ‘V.3’ called Silver Slippers. I can’t describe the beauty and simplicity of this problem, starting on two side by side crimps, and leading to bigger and bigger flat ledges until the top. The slightly overhanging nature of the problem rips you off of the big foot ledge and forces you to campus the last couple of moves. Well, I don’t really know if it was the humidity but this problem seemed way harder than V.3, we were all cruxing hard on the initial moves and it took more than a few goes before we a finally sent it. DAMN, Gold bar V.3 was more like V.5 anywhere else.

Whitey sets up for the loooong dyno of Lighten Up(V.9)

Subsequently we did the V.4 right next to it with ease, feeling a little confused about the grades so far we walked a short distance up the hill to Lighten Up and started working on it.
This problem was crazy good, five stars no doubt! It climbs a fat boy prow on good side pulls and big fat pinches. The only problem is the start, you have to throw a heel up over your head and pull up off a big flat jug that’s literally only a foot off the deck. A little awkward but still way proud. All of the big sidepulls and pinches lead you to a blank patch of rock and then a little flat crimp on the lip. It’s dyno time boys and girls! The dyno in itself is like a V.6/7 boulder problem, STOUT! We gave up on working the beginning and instead worked the dyno. The landing took some negotiating with pads and spotters but we got it dialed, especially after some Bellingham residents showed up, Brian and Art with extra pads. The headiness of the landing and the monstrous strength and commitment required for the dyno side lined me at the time and I just stood back and watched as Nic, Jimmy, Whitey, Art, and Brian threw themselves at the top.

Art before the terrible flapper incident.

Nic tops out the Lighten Up Dyno(V.6/7)

Nic was coming incredibly close, Brian made it look like he could do it static, and Art pretty much latched the top but got a nasty flapper. After a few more ‘oh my god’ moments Nic latched the hold and topped it out, Yeah boyyyy! He was super proud of his progress and we were all glad he could represent for Oly, Wa. After everybody gave up on Lighten Up I did a quick flash of Crimpterbator, which was incredibly soft for the grade, and we headed to the Sanctuary.

The Sanctuary, as described by the book, had tons of boulders right off the path, really nice landings, and a large concentration of moderates. The book was not lying. We walked up the path only to find more and more dope looking boulders all over the place. It was a nice change of pace from the hectic trail finding of the forest and the heat of the War Zone. We walked all the way back to a boulder called the Samurai boulder before we decided to make camp and try a problem or two. We scoped out Hagakure, and The Samurai and started to work on both. We were joined shortly by Brian and Art who set out to work on the same problems. Hagakure is a cool little prow that involves some powerful moves on good crimps and one nice little pinch. The middle and ending moves are not that bad but pulling off the ground required yanking on a knife blade crimp and my fingers, as well as everybody else’s fingers were not having it. The Samurai on the other hand kicked our asses, at first. Stout moves right off the deck led to an easy finish. Wrapping on a big nose like feature and firing to a sloper and slopey crimp finally gave way to the juggy lip. I watched as we all flailed on the first couple of moves, and then tried something different. It turned out my beta worked and one by one we all eventually sent. It was a four star problem for sure, but felt sand bagged. After our Samurai boulder session Brian and Art split, and we checked out Road to Zion, an impressive traverse with an extremely intimidating landing. We ended up working Metroid Prime, a technical V.7 that required some extreme finesse and a big move at the end. No one sent, but we all did a cool slab problem around the corner from it.

Whitey on the 8-bit Slab(V.2)

Nic highsteppin' on Midnight Lichen(V.4)

On our way back down the trail we stopped at two cool boulders that had some classy little problems on them. One of the best V.4’s I have laid eyes, hands, ears, mouths, and noses on, Midnight Lichen. I managed the flash but I wish I had worked it instead, the moves and holds were sick. Here is a video fo Whitey sending Midnight Lichen:

We also did a variation on the adjacent boulder called So it Seams, this was a little easier and yielded to the flash as well with a nice little heel hook, it was sick too.

We finally broke free of the wooded areas and gave the War Zone a shot. We all tried a problem called Danny Devito, more of a one move momentum problem than anything elese, but fun and challenging. It actually turned out to be Whitey’s first V.7, and after he sent he came right back down and sent it again. Nice job Whitey. I wanted to send as well but couldn’t hold on to the slopey lip, oh well. Last but not least we finished up on a problem called Water. A nice little bloc with a terrible landing but a nice view and the faint sound of a stream. The holds were a little more slopey and the moves harder than we wanted at this point in time and we all just gave up and chilled in the shadow of the boulder to cap the day.

On the way back down the terrible road I got a flat, and with another mile of the road left we cautiously drove down on a spare praying to whatever god we could think of to get us back to a real road safely. We did, and then had to stop again to rotate the spare to the back, thanks to some good manual reading by Whitey. To top off the day the exit to I-5 south was closed and the detour took us another 6 miles north before we ran into horrendous traffic at the detour exit. We finally made it back to Olympia by one in the morning with less than kind words for our experience with Gold bar. My opinion of Gold bar is somewhat jaded because of the terrible approach, and the fact that we had the worst time getting home. Overall, I was extremely impressed and can only imagine what it was like being the boulderers who discovered the treasure trove of boulders that lie in the forest below Zeke’s Wall. The rock quality, the setting, and the concentration of problems make this destination world class, and could easily stand up to any bouldering area in the world. For now, I will refer to Gold bar as ‘little Squamish’ and I can’t wait to return. I just have to find a place that rents monster trucks for a good price.