Coalescence

Spring is here and the lower Pipestone forest is drying out nicely.  We headed out on Sunday to return to a few projects in the Desert and Northern Desert that Odenbeck and Ari had in mind.

We first warmed up on the NW Ridge of the Desert, starting out on Shrub Kill and the Bread-loaf Cracks. Seems Shrub Kill is cleaning up a bit more, and is climbing a bit harder as well.

Shrub Kill - Desert

Shrub Kill - Desert

Shrub Kill - Desert

Shrub Kill - Desert

We then headed down to the Outback Boulder where Odenbeck established Marsupial  - an excellent new addition to the Desert.

Marsupial - Outback Boulder - Desert

Marsupial - Outback Boulder - Desert

Marsupial - Outback Boulder - Desert

Marsupial - Outback Boulder - Desert

We decided to stay on the eastern edges and headed into the Northern Desert towards the compression prow project when we happened upon the A-Cup Boulder.  A nice session in the sun followed, yielding 9 new problems.

Multiple Targets - A-Cup Boulder - Northern Desert

Multiple Targets - A-Cup Boulder - Northern Desert

We then returned to the compression prow project in the N Desert. Ari had pieced this together a couple weeks back, and he came through with a quick send and the FA of Decompression Sickness. Nice work Ari!

Decompression Sickness - Northern Desert

Decompression Sickness - Northern Desert

Feeling the afternoon coming down hard, we decided to scrub a few new problems and relax in the sun.  A nice lowball saucer was started on, and a number of others scoped.   The missions continue...

Long saucer traverse project - Northern Desert

Cheers,
TK

Amalgamation

A good Sunday among boulders, friends, and sunshine.  Plenty of problems climbed and mostly new ones. I think the tally ended up being 28 problems and 20 of them being new. Should be a good spring!

Nelwyn - Desert

Trampoline Backpacks - Willow Boulder - Desert

Madmartigan - Willow Boulder - Desert

 

Vultures of the Void - Vulture Boulder - Northern Desert

Ari wins the traverse proj concentrate face contest

The Sage Cave - Sage Dolmen - Northern Desert

Jumping the Shark - Middle Fonzie Boulder - 13/14s

A fun day out to be sure. Thanks to Ari and Dom for the additional photos.

Cheers!
TK

Interconnectivity

Sometimes winter pulls its weight and climbing in the Boulder Batholith can become a challenge.  While January had very decent conditions, February proved to be difficult for bouldering, though Odenbeck and I still managed a day out exploring and bouldering in the Desert/Northern Desert/13-14s

Fresh snow and fresh boulders on the outskirts of the Desert

Project on the Outback Boulder, Desert

The following weekend even more snow fell and I gave into the season and had a few descents

deep on deep

Soon it was March and warmer temps arrived. I linked up on Sunday with Ari and Honzel and headed back out to the lower zones.

Willow, a nice slab warm up near the Northern Desert 

A couple more warm ups, the center line climbs very nicely.

Compression Project, Northern Desert

All in all it was nice to get back out and pull on some stone with good friends and continue to piece together these lower zones, the interconnectivity of these boulders and zones continues to surprise me.

Cheers,
TK