Another Day In Disappointment Valley

As if the Just Do It Area (The Appointment / Slap Happy / Just Do It / Spin Cycle …) was not enough of a stellar find, the discovery, or more accurately, the rediscovery of an area. One of those areas that you have always meant to come back to, two years ladder—give or take. Anyway, the Fox Den (not really) is a welcome addition of very steep bouldering—some of the steepest we have found in the last four-plus years.

Bouldering problems like this come along so infrequently. Paul working it out on an new, unfinished problem. There are three other routes along this wall that will be stellar as well.

Fox Trot was the our main reason for our trip (1/15/10) to Disappointment Valley. It is long, overhanging for twenty feet, and offers just enough pockets, edges, and heal /toe hooks to provide a very pumpy V3+ (+ for the pump). Above is Paul leading with his feet.

Fox Trot: Paul rounding the overhang and beginning the climb up the face to the top-out.

Jim on the the warm-down, end of the day. A bit of last light.

Dominguez Canyon

Dominguez Canyon (not far from Grand Junction, Colorado), is a magical wonderland of fun bouldering and potential rock climbing--now a Wilderness Area thanks to a lot of heard work from the Uncompahgre Valley Association et.al. As such, bolting is not an option, a good and bad thing; good for visual pollution, noise, and overuse...but bad for safety.

The Following Photos were taken by Jean Jullien (Juju), who just bought his first SLR (Canon 5d).
Damon, on the FA of a stellar arette V0 Problem. The photo below this was the way down the other side. A bit high-ball. But fun climbing!

Another amazing boulder, there are two proud lines on the boulder, but bring a rope, and watch the top is tricky V4.
Damon at the base of a potential thin to wide hands crack...there are others even better.


The following photos are from the author (Damon Johnston):

Dominguez Petros, there are many more like this one if you know where to look.Jean Jullien (Juju) sitting by the falls about an hour and change up the trail.
Daiva, playing the sliver of a boulder just off the trail...Daiva in the tea cup boulder looking out to the rest of the canyon.Another Petro...which I could read these!
If you look in this photo, you can make out the arette boulder that Juju took a photo of me climbing (first shot in series).Daiva, on the bridge just before sunset...we will be back.

New! Mill Creek Wall Routes

More info to come: Route names, more routes, cave, approach wall, and more.

Telluride's Via Verrata 2009

Yes, there is a via ferrata in telluride. more info to come...

Disappointment Valley Bouldering At Its Best

Many new boulder problems have been going up. FA's include: Dynostatic V7, Beast Within V4+, Stonehenge V4-, and many more. What killer problems!

New ! Mountain Star – A Kids Book About Mountaineering

New ! Mountain Star – A Kids Book About Mountaineering
A true story about a mountaineer (Charlie Fowler) that will teach children how to draw a perfect star. For ages 4 to 7.

• TV interview with author Ginny Fowler Hicks
• Read more about Mountain Star
• Montrose Daily News - A Star Is born
• Mail Tribune-Mountain Star
• Jackson County OR - Press
• Where To Buy Mountain Star

New Bouldering In Telluride—The Tree House Boulders

There is something new in the Telluride area—the discovery of over 30 amazing, tall, and bullet hard boulders just above the Mill Creek Rd. Only a month or so in the making, it has impressed at every new problem. Here is a map and a few photos of what we are up to. The boulders range from short 10’ to 30’ high. There are about 50 new problems to date—changing every day. The hardest grade at the moment is V3 (this will change as we continue to clean new problems—there will be several hard up to V9+ problems).