The Bear, three stars all the way!

The Bear is probably one of the most traveled bouldering problems in Nova Scotia and for good reason. This was one of the first problems we ever did on the island. It's just so obvious. Start on two small crimps, right hand phat pinch, left into the small dish, up to the jug with the right and and over you go. Classic! It's also one of the only problems on Dover Island that benefited from the the big island shuffle during tropical storm Noel. It now has a nice little sit start. Unfortunately it meant that the extension (Polar Bear) has a small pile of rubble blocking it.

I filmed this clip of the Bear during Boulderfest. I had set my sites on getting complete problems and wanted to capture the process of working them as well. Amber was working on the Bear for the better part of the morning. She had done all the moves but just could not put it together for the camera and eventually had to call it quits. It was really hard to not get frustrated for me, so i can only imagine how Amber felt. One of the most challenging parts of shooting is not interfering, not adding to that existing pressure when a climber really wants a problem. Fortunately Jonathan Graham was climbing in the area and agreed to run a few laps for the camera. John even added a little lightness to the moment by screwing up the top out.

On day two of Boulderfest Amber went back to the Bear and sent it, unfortunately i wasn't there for it. Here is the clip of Amber working the Bear followed by the clip from Eastern Tide.


Bouldefest - The Bear from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Music by: Brad Sucks
www.bradsucks.net