Newfoundland bouldering road trip - Dirtbag

Corner Brook
Newfoundland
July 28, 2008
The Asylum














This was our second day climbing at the limestone cave called the Asylum. We went there late the day before. We climbed around a bit until it got dark, then local climber Kenny Tuach took us on a adventure through the cave system a little further down the river valley. We explored around there until about midnight, it was a blast and i highly recommend it as a rest day activity.

The Asylum is a large limestone cave carved out by a small river. Routes there are steep with huge incut features under the vertical roof sections and can get small, slopey and crimpy close to the lip where the wall becomes more vertical. Describing problems is a challenge because of massive amounts of the features you can start on. Routes there could be as much as 50 feel long or more as you climb from one seam system to the next.

There is really no way of telling if the problems we did were first ascents but we feel pretty confident that the problem Ben Smith put up was. During the many tries at this problem several holds broke away so it makes sense that nobody had put a lot of pressure on them before. If there is a down side to this climbing jungle gym it’s that it doesn’t seem to see a lot of climbers other than the couple of locals there and there are a lot of suspicious holds. Kenny and crew need more pads and people to climb with. So while you set at your computer and book your next ferry ride to Newfoundland here is a little clip of Ben Smith on a FA of “Dirtbag”.

Warning there is some material that you might find offensive if you are a animal lover, proceed with caution.

Bouldering Newfoundland - Dirtbag (FA) V8 from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Music by Brad Sucks