Tribute to Justin--friend of the Batholith

I'm at a loss for words.

It's true...

These boulder mushi, dwelling among the klettergartens, are relatively harmless...though they are known to sometimes infect a host to help them move to a larger or different zone. This particular mushi causes its host to become enthralled with the different boulders and klettergartens. Untreated, the host wanders(sometimes for years) until the mushi finds a new suitable klettergarten and the host is released from that mushi's grip...though there is often other mushi waiting to take their place, and thus the host remains infected, wandering through the woods, aimlessly from boulder to boulder....

El Sobrante Fortnight

Brimming with all the hopes and desires of American
youth, he set forth as a leader of sorts. Just what
sorts it is impossible to say at this time. But he had
the imaginary support he needed to venture beyond
the small environment he'd come to know as his
home town.

Friends thought him foolish and felt free to fre-
quently tell him so. Deep down they all felt envy.
Envious that he could muster, where they could not,
the courage that was necessary to embark beyond
the notion that survival was based upon the ability
to rise at seven a.m. five days a week.

He felt joy. And well he should. He was a "babe in
the woods" and a "kid in a candy store" all at the
same time. The world was his oyster and he planned
to shuck it, cover it with Tabasco, and slurp it down
his cake hole all within an "El Sobrante fortnight".

Definition of an "El Sobrante fortnight" is yet to be
determined. But reliable sources say the time span is
somewhere between two weeks and a decade. - Les Claypool and the Holy Mackerel



Another very fun session, this time in the far east of the Boulder Batholith...Melodic bells and a hillside of stone greeted us. It had been about 7 or 8 months since I had been to this particular zone...and that was my first visit. I attempted to bring the crew, Levi, Dean, and the brotherman, to some decent rock...bush whacking ensued though we eventually found what we were looking for...









Banana Belt

Pat found a new OW roof that stuck his interest...









Cousin It thought it was pretty good...























Stinkbug






















We then rounded out the day with El Sobrante Fortnight, one of the few previously established problems...











And Levi nailed a cool dyno variant









Still more to do....


Thanks again for a fun session guys...again next week? Maybe we can get Hutch to the right spot too....

Secret weapon trial

Levi, Dean, Tom and Pat hooked up on the East side of the 'lith, but bad phone communications kept my new "secret weapon" partner and I from meeting them. Ben, my roofer/friend wanted to see what the whole bouldering scene was about. A crew session display would have to wait, but I took the opportunity out to get him on the pebbles to see if he had it in him.


At 6 feet 7 inches tall, Ben stretches out on a warm-up.


Mojede ridge runnin'.


I've yet to measure his wing span, but I get the feeling that it may be slightly more than mine.


Pretty sure this is new send--"Ben dare, done dat" V0-


The big fella topping the back side of Pat's Chimney.


Ben was so psyched that he, his wife, and maybe kids have found low-cost recreating in the Butte area. Good for him/us/me.

A cavalcade of cracks

There seem to be a fair amount of crack problems here--Montucky winterable.