Boneyard Action

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Welcome to the Boneyard. This place may have had other names in the past, but with all the bones and animal parts I've seen out there, there's no better name. I feel like I'm being hunted by a mountain lion when it starts to get dark and I just have to squeeze in one more new problem.

I could go on and on about how beautiful this area is, but I'll let the photos do the talking. Let's get the artsy photos out of the way though so we can get to the climbing...


photos - Jeff Sillcox

Eric and I spent an afternoon putting up a few problems back in October. Check out the post here. But the full potential of this place has only just started to be realized in the past few weeks. Andrew Stevens, Jeff Honeywell, Wills Young, and a handful of others have ventured out with me and the current problem total stands around 47 with some very nice lines still unfinished.

If you still think Iron Man is the best V4 on the East Side, you're wrong. You were wrong even before this beauty went up, but now you're very wrong. Jeff H. nabbed the 4th ascent (pictured below) about ten minutes after Wills cleaned it ground up on the FA.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Eight feet to the left is another 20ft perfect patina face that goes somewhere in the V7-V9 range depending where you start. Here Wills cruises the easier ground above the hard moves on the FA.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Andrew on the 2nd ascent of nice V2 wave/arete problem that will probably end up with a dumb name like The Wave, La Arete, La Angle, or La Balance.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Nathan Stevens working a project that he found and cleaned.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Wills trying to find some holds on the FA of another hard, balancy line. I finally completed the line just to the left of this in the perfect orange patina yesterday. I used a pretty ridiculous sequence that is probably V10/11 and then Wills flashed it with the good beta that might be a grade or two easier. More pictures of that line in the previous Boneyard post.

photo - Jeff Honeywell

One of the few named problems... Twin Dongs (somewhere in the V3-V7 range). Jeff H. works out the moves into the dongs...

photo - Jeff Sillcox

...and Wills flashes it for the FA.

photo - Jeff Sillcox

Lots more to come... Wills and I were getting pretty close on another nice project yesterday and I failed miserably last weekend in the heat on another line that has good holds, but all face the wrong way.