About

This blog was started, as I assume most were regarding bouldering, to highlight new development. As the subtitle states, our style of ascent has always been ground up, without any gear (rope, rack) except for brushes and pads (2-5 max usually 2-4, but if we’re lucky it could be a few more). This is in no way an attempt to state that it’s better or more pure, or anything else. I have always practiced ground up bouldering because, well, it takes less work, and I’m lazy. The thought of hauling out a rope, some gear and then being willing to find a way to set up the TR simply never appealed to me. In fact, I can state straight up that I don’t care for top roping. I dislike the feeling of a rope dangling in my face, around my neck, over my shoulder, under my feet, or anywhere else but under me or packed away in a closet, awaiting time’s message to retire it.

For reasons beyond me I enjoy bouldering, or for that matter just hanging out, in Jtree more than any other place. I’m sure it has much to do with the climate and the atmosphere. I dislike crowds, or lines around problems, and I avoid at most cost the ubiquitous “scene.” The climate is slightly more moderate than the east side, and it’s almost always breazy, mild, and sunny with some days feeling quite simply perfect. Other days are down right horrendous. I’ve bouldered in heavy winds with ambient temps in the 20’s and hail pelting us. I’ve sat in 40’s temps, in the sun and no breeze without a shirt and loved every minute of it. And we have bouldered Cave Man and it’s many variants in mid summer with a bucket of ice water freezing chilling us each time we dunked head first.

Jtree isn’t about the numbers. The rock can be excellent, but oftentimes it can be grainy–even on the quality lines. It is not the typical “quality” stone most seek; nevertheless, the rock tends to produce technical lines that are highly frictionous and demands the utmost care and attention. I don’t consider graininess a bad thing. It’s simply different, or so I choose to make it. But I do avoid rock that simply doesn’t improve with traffic or cleaning. That means I climb on the grains, if they are present, but I intentionally avoid surfaces too loose to improve over time (with a few exceptions. ugh. I have sinned).

If you find yourself in the area, check out some of these problems that have been highlighted here. I hope you find your bouldering experience as enjoyable as comrades and I have found ours.

Best bouldering to you,

RM

update: it’s seems as I add posts, they mostly all end up being a work in progress. Feel free to revisit if I leave out stuff like ratings, FA date, more images, etc. If I fix text, I’ll not strike through as mostly it’s just bad proofreading. But if I change things because of accuracy mistakes, I’ll strike thru and correct it. An example is I fixed “Jtree is about the numbers….” oops. It was supposed to say “Jtree isn’t…” That’s just plain old lame proofreading.