NinjaChimp
climber
someplace in-between
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The discription for Bloodsport is misleading. It should read "Stand start on left hand crimp and a low right hand sidepull or undercling." Bloodsport is basically a really hard single move with easier climbing to top out. I went out there yesterday evening and it was hard to tell based on the topo description if this problem is essentially a low start to the V2 on the same boulder or if they are independent lines. I'd post pictures if I knew how.
-Justin
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
The land of Fruits & Nuts!
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Most of these boulders and routes were climbed back in the late 70's and all throughout the 80's. I think that this fact should have been noted. Some very capable people have been bouldering here for decades. Lots of problems, variations and traverses have been been done over the years. To lay claim on anything is moot and misleading. It's nice that some of the old classic problems finally got a name, even if it wasn't a name given by the F.A. Your book also states that there's plenty of room for new development. Well, there isn't. Even the most remote and obscure rocks have been climbed all over. Unless it's like V8/9+, chances are it's been done. Sorry guys/gals.
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drunkenmaster
Social climber
santa rosa
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salamander - put up or shut up. did you even read the book? seriously. i met Charlie "big wall" Wyatt out there sometime in the late 90's when i was finding and doing fa's all over the place. i had heard he was one of the first if not the first to boulder there. he said he and a few buddies were the only people that he knew of that bouldered there since the 1980's (like i wrote in the book) he showed me what he and his friends had done and told me that everything else was most likely first ascents. we cleaned a lot of loose rock and dirt and moss and stuff off the rocks so they were probably our first ascents. before crash pads people were not doing much more than the classics. and i having bouldered in the bay are since the late 1980's probably would have heard about it. so my friends and i continued climbing and naming the problems that we did. then mr rough moved to town and i met him at vacaville and we climbed together and cleaned and did a lot of new problems together that we all considered first ascents.
so i ask you this: can you name any of the "capable" climbers from the 70's - if not then you must of heard about "capable" climbers from someone? if not then what makes you think you can talk sh#t? who are you and how long have you been bouldering in vacaville? have you ever done a first ascent? how about hundreds?
it isnt easy to do first ascents. unless you can prove me and my friends wrong then you are wrong. show some respect.
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Whoa! this brings up cobwebby memories. Not much of a beta post but what the heck. I bouldered on these rocks many times in the late 80s with none other than the same Charlie Wyatt - constant climbing partner for a couple of years - mentioned by drunken. To my knowledge Charlie was the one and only original discoverer of these rocks as a bouldering area. We never saw another soul out there ever, and the lichen and loose holds we pulled off from time to time would seem to indicate no one had ever done many of the problems we were doing at that time. Fun spot, bucolic setting, merits a couple stars anyway. Not a lot of climbing near Davis other than the I-80 piers we had glued holds onto to make killer traverse routes, later slapped with an encroachment notice and removed by Caltrans - leading directly to the creation of the Rocknasium which was the first gym outside the Bay. Ah, bit of flatland history.
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Killer K
Boulder climber
Sacramento, CA
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On the 40oz. boulder natural disaster and the problem to the left both have had big holds break off the top out changing the grades significantly. I just sent the left hand oproblem recently from sds and it feels like V3. Natural disaster is way harder i havent sent it but it seems like V4 the top out is definately the crux now.
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drunkenmaster
Social climber
santa rosa
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thanks for the beta mongrel! and cool to hear some more history killerk. i need to get back out there sometime for a session on the new broken 40oz variations! i like the 40oz and the mother a lot and just hanging out looking at the views is always nice to!
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snakefoot
climber
Nor Cal
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also known as "old rocky" to the home grown in this area, friends and I were cleaning problems/ landing areas from mid 80s-early 90s before moving to the valley(yose) so many of the FA claims are truly debatable. We were there before all the housing was built around and later began to see the rock walls that somebody thought was a great idea to keep the cows away, but never really saw others up there either. we used to drive up the hill before the fences and fire roads. have not read the so called book, but the saga continues and i agree with salamanizer as he knows my good friend Rhett.
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drunkenmaster
Social climber
santa rosa
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yeh i got kind of grumpy, must have caught me on a bad day. ive done a lot of development up on "old rocky" as well :) sorry for being harsh salamanzer and good on ya for the old beta. thats cool that people were climbing there along time before us. fa's are not that big of a deal, fun is. vacaville is a cool place. moss does grow back in a few years but lichen does not grow back as fast at all and loose rock gets broken off once and for all. so sometimes there are tell tale signs of what has been climbed on but sometimes there is also no way of knowing. the book states what has been done as far as i know - if anyone claims an fa that we are claiming/renaming then simply tell me and i will fix it.
thats pretty cool that you were able to drive up there back in the day before the houses! and i like the name "old rocky"
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Killer K
Boulder climber
Sacramento, CA
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Went out today. Someone put graffiti on the northeast face of the stonewall boulder then some good samaritan painted over it with brown latex paint to match the rock. Anyway the frictional properties have been lost pretty much ruining the V1 sit start to the Stonewall problem and the V3 variation to the Stonewall Traverse.
I noticed that the description for problem #13 is missing from the guidebook. I found it to be a fun V2sds.
The boulder north of the stonewall boulder with problem #20 on it is really cool! All of the columns are tilted diagonally at a 45 degree angle and its overhanging! #20 seemed like a right to left traverse along the lip. There is also a V2sds on the right side of the face under a mini-roof that tops out in the center of the face. Traverse the entire face from left to right staying beneath the big holds on the lip is a cool V4. The whole traverse goes at about head height.
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Killer K
Boulder climber
Sacramento, CA
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Out again today. Found a cool eliminate traverse on the RNA/DNA/Barf boulder. I call it Say No to Crack V2 L to R (low) and all the holds on the horizontal crack are off. Probably has been done before. Great warm-up area! Continue to traverse around the entire boulder below the lip for fun!
Worked the moves on Stoned Dangler V6 and it feels just a little bit harder that the Boxcar Traverse V4. Opinions?
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Salamanizer
Trad climber
The land of Fruits & Nuts!
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The boxcar traverse is V6 or there about if you traverse low and stay off the upper lip. Good holds on the start of the steep face have broken off in the past few years making the transition around the right hand corner much harder.
The Stoned Dangler traverse is more of an endurance problem and is really soft for V6 imo.
Killer K, next time you're at the Boxcar, check out the traverse along the far left boulder. There is a V1 called The Swing of Things that traverses from right to left across the face using the big rails. Instead, traverse left to right staying below the rails. It's a pumpy V7. It's a good one to add to the Boxcar cricut once you work the sequence. That side of the rock stays lit by the street lamp, so late bouldering sessions can be had.
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heeheehaha
Boulder climber
Vacaville, CA
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New to this spot, can anybody give more detailed instructions on how to get to Hidden Boulder from Hillcrest?
Actually, detailed instructions about how to get to all of the "Classic" boulders would be nice...
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Eric Holt on Gimme My 40 Sucka (V1)Photo: Chris Summit
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