The temperatures in Yosemite Valley have been slowly dropping. The fall storms have been light and sporadic. Conditions have been slowly improving in America’s best granite bouldering destination.
One of the best parts of bouldering in Yosemite this fall has been climbing on all of the newer boulder problems around the Valley. Since the last printing of a bouldering guide, the volume of problems in Yosemite has nearly doubled. Areas like Bridalveil have been developed by the BetaBase crew and have yielded awesome moderate and difficult climbs.
Bridalveil Pogo sits just a few hundred feet from the parking lot on the massive boulder. A heel hook to an undercling, a huge slap to a sloping hold and a difficult jump mark this height dependent classic. The problem’s dynamic nature marks a stark contrast from the traditional static style of most Yosemite boulders. Further up the hill are the awesome Meat N Potato climbs.
The left arete, Meat features a difficult move over a bulge, surmounted with either kneebar trickery or a calf hook. The climbing afterwards involves balancey liebacking up the arete to a good hold. At V4 and just up the hill from the Bridalveil Pogo, this is another not to be missed Yosemite problem. The adjacent Potatoes (V5) is also quite good.
Outside of the Bridalveil circuit are more new problems like Avocado. Slab crusher Beth Rodden made the first ascent of this Curry Village slab testpiece, clocking it in at a very conservative V6. A few climbers have repeated the problem guessing it to be closer to the V9 range. In this photo, Ironworks manager Lyn Barraza crimps down on the tiny holds high above the pads. This problem is another great new addition to the Valley slab circuit.
Beyond the new problems are the old Camp 4 classics like The Force. Jerry Moffatt established The Force during a trip to Yosemite in the mid 90s, naming the line after one of the first lines in the Michael Jackson hit “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough.” In the chart topper, Michael sings, “Because the force, it’s got a lot of power.” In this picture, Robin Puro is climbing The Farce, a slight variation to the Force. Moffat started just left of Thriller and climbed straight up, making a powerful move and then gastoning a reinforced hold. Most climbers now use the second hold on Thriller, which splits hairs and makes the problem a bit easier.
One of the classic and often overlooked aretes in Yosemite, Fish Eye arete rests just next to the Hexentric at the Cathedral boulders. Orginally given the sandbagged V4 rating, the problem sees very few repeats. Here, Tommy Caldwell shows how it’s done. He sit starts the problem, goes high right hand to a crimp, slap the arete then crushes to the top.
The temperatures are dropping low this weekend and conditions will only continue to improve. Head out to Yosemite soon to see the best new problems and some of the classics.
