Published in Sunset MagazineFor the uninitiated, bouldering means more or less what you’d expect it to mean: scrambling up a not-too-high rock, without ropes to catch you if you mess up. At the Dogpatch Boulders, it also means a fear-free way to give climbing a try. Here, the walls are 10 to 17 feet high, but the floor is 3 feet thick with high-tech memory foam (the same force-absorbing stuff you’d find in a Tempur-Pedic mattress). So go ahead, explore the Wave Wall, whose slope goes from a few degrees past vertical to a curl worthy of Mavericks, or the freestanding boulder you can climb up and over and down the other side. There’s even a kids’ zone, with dino-shaped holds, a jungle gym, and a tunnel slide that the grown-ups will try to poach.
