Bouldering Newfoundland - "The end of the road"

I first explored the west coast of Newfoundland with my wife and kids in August of 2005. It was supposed to be a family vacation but i just could not avoid looking for climbing potential. On our last day of vacation we drove along the south coast from Port Aux Basque to Rose Blanche. It's the end of the road, from Rose Blanche you can go no further without a boat. The entire trip was incredible but it was this little outport surrounded by clean granite that convinced me that i had to return.

Fast forward to August this year. I returned with Chris Richardson and Ben Smith on a short climbing trip. The day we landed in Port Aux Basque was rainy and miserable so we used the time have a quick look around before we moved up to Corner Brook. I had some pictures that i showed the guys but they really did not show the full potential of this unknown climbing destination. After a few sidetracks i finally take them to the historic stone light house that seems to be the only draw to this tinny community. We park the jeep and strike out down the coast. It's not long before we are running around like crazed junkies on the high of our life. There's steep, clean granite walls everywhere and we almost abandon our plans of heading north. This place would be the benchmark for the trip. If the other areas don't compare we would just spend the rest of the trip here.

We head up the coast and climb at the Pasadena boulders, the Asylum, Gull Pond and then returned with only two days left on the trip. Feeling rushed we got right to the business at hand. Here's a few of the gems we found.

Bouldering Newfoundland - Rose Blanche from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Music Track #1: elB - August(Reggae Rework)

Music Track #2: Brad Sucks - Dropping out of School

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

A blogger has needs...

and i needs some climbing.

I actually got outside for the Monday night bouldering series. I know, i should have been hoveled up in the office/grotto but it was such a great day outside and i needed to get climbing. All excuses aside I managed to crank together another video from Dover Island Boulderfest. The Wave is another of those heavily traveled problems on the island. Thankfully the Nova Scotia granite is showing no wear (from climbers anyway).

Less than three weeks to Boulderfest. What's on your to do list?


The Wave from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

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

I Heel Good - V7

It was during the second annual Climb Nova Scotia Boulder Fest that i filmed this clip. It was mid afternoon and i was not having much luck. There were lots of people climbing but it seemed when ever the camera was rolling the climbers were not getting the sends. I had spent most of the morning filming Amber Geerdink attempting the "Bear". She had done all the moves but just couldn't piece it together, so i moved on. I was shooting around "The Wave" when Jonathan Graham came running around the corner with a huge grin on his face. He had just done a new problem and offered to repeat it for the camera. With the help of Jonathan and my two extra camera operators (Ghislain Losier, and Chris Murphy) we were able to get some quality footage of this Dover Island classic. That moment turned everything around, it seemed that everyone was ready for the send train.

The ruminants of hurricane Noel blew through the Maritimes last fall and it would seem that "I Heel Good "would not escape it's wrath. I've been told that the under-cling at the lip that Jonathan matches on has broken a bit. How much i'm not sure. There wasn't much in the way of holds on it before so it's hard to imagine how waves could have changed it.

I'm planning a trip to Dover soon to sum up the damage for myself. I'll have the Dover Island mini-guide written by Sean Therien in hand to compare with. Until then get your psyche on Boulderfest is coming...

Bouldering Nova Scotia - I Heel Good from Todd Foster on Vimeo.
Music by: Sean Cassidy

Dover Island - Orangutan

In September of 2003 hurricane Juan came ashore in Halifax and pounded the eastern coast of Nova Scotia. It left devastation in it's wake by taking many huge boulders and classic problems. Dover Island took the brunt of the force. The Fish Mouth boulder was picked up and smashed in half in the bottom of a gully. Orangutan was also scarred by loosing a really nice incut at the lip. The problem still goes but it sure has changed how we looked at the island and the power of the ocean.


This past fall we were surprised again by the raw power and unpredictability of the Atlantic ocean. Dover Island and much of the coast around Halifax was assaulted and changed due to the remnants of Hurricane Noel. Orangutan again took the hits loosing another small crimper on the right lip. Apparently it still goes but people seem reluctant to change the grade from V4. Several other boulders were effected during the storm. In today clip you can see the "One Scoop" boulder looming in the background, it was also displaced during the fall storms of 2007.





(I'm not sure witch hold is gone from this picture, comments any one?)








Boulderfest is coming up again this year and i encourage anyone who hasn't done this three star Dover Island classic to get out there and get it done. Orangutan may not be there after this fall!

Here is a re-cut of Orangutan (with lots of extra footage) from Eastern Tide: One Season in Nova Scotia.


Bouldering Nova Scotia - Orangutan from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Music By: hisboyelroy
Song: Revolve
http://www.hisboyelroymusic.com

Another taste of Porcupine.

After posting the first video of Porcupine Fortress i got a tone of comments. I had apparently inspired a lot of people to check the place out. I heard of two separate groups that visited there within a week. Some were expecting it to be a good place to take beginners but this spot is probably better suited to climbers with a little more experience. If you climb in the V4 range there's plenty to do.

Both groups said that although they could see the fortress from the road they got a little lost going in but once they got there they had a great time. Jeremy Benjamin wrote a report on the Climb Eastern Canada message board...

I made it out to PF with a crew of peeps this past Sunday. It was a beautiful day. We were all first timers to the area, and a good time was had by all.

Some things we would like to share with anyone headed out there... We got a little lost following the directions in the Bouldering guide book. From the 103 the book says to take exit 6, then a left at the T-junction towards Hubbards and then a right towards North West Cove. These directions take for granted that you turn left at the intersection at the end of exit 6, so we would stress that after taking exit 6 it is left, left, right. Not just Left, right. Once we figured out our mistake and got to Coleman’s Cove Rd to park we easily found the rocks in the ditch to cross into the woods. Before you cross the ditch into the woods you can look across the lake and see the big wall at the bottom of which are the boulders. So that is where you are headed. The hike is not too long but also does not resemble the "wide and well marked trail" described in the book. The woods are sparse and there seems to be trails going in all directions. So it was easy hiking, but hard to know which way to go. As far as we could tell there is no arrow on the other side of the stream, but we may have been in the wrong spot on the stream when we crossed it. We also did not encounter the windfall that you have to go under, but we did happen upon the hunting blind. Once you find that, you really are almost there and the landmarks of the lake and the wall that you have to be between are pretty easy to find.

The super classic problems that we loved...

The Quill V0 has no *'s in the guide book but deserves all three*** in my opinion. 16 feet high at the top out, I think it gives Orgasmatron some stiff competition for the coolest V0 around. Super cool.

Anchor Chain and Confidence both V4***, and both on the Battleship boulder. Two very different styles of problem both saw ascents, and put smiles on many faces. I think Confidence was my favourite of the 2 but they were both rad.

I hope this clip gets people stoked to get out before the window closes on this area for the spring. Fear the bugs!


Bouldering Nova Scotia - Porcupine Fortress from Todd Foster on Vimeo.


Music by: Screw-Jay http://www.screw-jay.com/,
Brad Sucks http://www.bradsucks.net/

Jack's Arete

I am Jack's Raging Bile Duct.
I am Jack's Cold Sweat.
I am Jack's Complete Lack of Surprise.
...I am Jack's Arete.

Anyone Remember Fight Club? Jack was the name of the dude who lived in Tyler and the Narrator's house before they became squatters and formed Fight Club. This movie left it's impression on the crew of original Nova Scotia bouldering developers. Several areas and problems are named from references in the movie.

Jack's Arete is a tough V4 on the house boulder. It's a classic LOC slopey arete and a must do, but beware this little gem has sent many a hard man packing.

"This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time."

JACKs Arete***, 15ft, V4 – Climbs the arête starting on shallow flakes and eventually onto a very sloppy ledge on the face near the top. Fantastic and rarely done successfully.
description from Greg Campbell's unpublished guide.




Bouldering Nova Scotia - Jack's Arete from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Porcupine Fortress - A fun day trip

The Porcupine Fortress area is small, but dense. It sports some of the biggest freestanding boulders I have seen in Nova Scotia and the rock is heavily featured. In most cases the landings are not bad, although there are some exceptions. The area offers potential for V0 to V13 problems, with everything in between. Since it is on Crown land, camping is an option. The one drawback is the distance from Halifax (45 minutes).
Description from Teth Cleveland's Site

I had initially planned to include Porcupine Fortress in Eastern Tide. We made two trips down to film some of the better boulder problems and had gotten some good footage, unfortunately i had a mishap with one of the tapes and it got totally munched up in my deck. I even attempted to take the DVCam tape apart to fix it with no success.

It was early in the spring, the swamps were thawed and the bugs were just starting to come out so i never got back to make up for the lost tape and so the porcupine fortress footage remained in the archive.

Watching the footage again reminded me of how fun this little bouldering area around Hubbards can be. This area sees little traffic so i'm sure the project i left undone is still waiting...

Here is the first installment from Porcupine Fortress.
Problems in order of appearance: Quill V-0, Quiver V4, Confidence V-4


Porcupine Fortress from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Music By:Misfilter "Like an Angel"
http://misfilterband.com/

Diamonds

We began Developing the bouldering area know as the Land of Confusion during the winter of 1998/99. Major development continued for several years, mostly in the winter. It was during those early years that i bough a Digital Hi8 camera and attempted to capture as much of that development as i could.

At that time the professional cameras were just too heavy and expensive to be draggin into the scrub of the LOC. Once the advent of the MiniDV came along i virtually abandoned the Hi8. The quality just would not stand up next to the new DV format. Because tape itself was relatively cheap i never reused a tape. Also with small format tapes the oxide would not always hold up on multiple passes and i never wanted to take the chance of missing a moment due to tape issues. Much of the early footage never made the cut in Eastern Tide and sat in boxes until recently.

Anyone who has done any amount of development in the inland areas around Nova Scotia (that's only a hand full of people) knows that the holds are not to be trusted on new problems. This was especially true in the LOC. I can't remember how many little flakes broke off of new problems leaving them devoid of any "holds".

The footage quality is not good and this was really before i has started shooting seriously but it's still an interesting look at what we had to deal with when developing the LOC. Dirty, wet, crumbly holds, waist high brush, bad hair and even worse fashion.

For your enjoyment an early first ascent (FA) by Lance Thruster of a problem in "The Strip".
Diamonds - V2


Diamonds from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Small Boulders put up a good fight

The Scrappy boulders are the farthest boulders on the main "Land of Confusion" loop trail and aren't the tallest of boulders either. I remember the first day we found them, i could not help but wish that they were flipped more upright. I also remember the enthusiasm for them was a bit low and someone even referred to them as the scraps ( useless, worthless, or ineffective). In Greg Campbell's guide he even refers to them as "The Scraps". Well it would not be long before these little guys put up a good fight revealing several surprisingly tough problems, 19 boulder problems in total and five V6 or harder. These boulders are now known as the "Scrappy Boulders".

Here is a re-cut of the LOC classic "Potted Plant Expert - V6" climbed by Jonathan Graham.

It should be noted that there is a excellent variation to this problem that starts with a sit start at the far left of the traverse and goes straight up. It's a bit easier and a good option for people who aren't big on lowball traverses.

The Potted Plant from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Short but tough

Sorry for the delay on this one. I haven't been all that excited about the video quality on youtube. This clip is suffering in video quality most of all so i've been looking for options. until then....


It was the first day i had ever used my DV camera and the "Get a Grip" crew from Cape Breton were in town for some sends so we took them out for a run around Polly's Cove. First stop was"Havana Affair". It's a nice little problem at the Joey Ramone area, a perfect fit for a stubby guy like Kenny Mac.

Here is the cut of Havana Affair - V5.
Note: in the "Halifax Bouldering" guide it's misprinted as Savannah Affair. I could not find the original documentation (if it ever existed) but i believe the FA was Sean Therien on one of our first days climbing in the area.


Music Track: I like it like That(s.thaens)
By: stefsax
http://stefsax.come2me.nl

Lets see that again

I'm trying a different video sharing site to host some of my videos. I think i get better quality from Vimeo. What do you think? Here is Havana Affair again.


Bouldering Nova Scotia - Havana Affair from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

"When Stars Attack" V7 - Bouldering in the LOC

When filming Eastern Tide: One Season in Nova Scotia I tried to get as many first ascents as possible. At that time there were a lot of FA's going down and I really wanted to capture that energy. When I missed the FA I tried to get the first ascensionist to repeat the problem for the camera.

I was also anxious to get a lot of good sequences in the can. Unfortunately for many of the bouldering developers I would have them repeat the problems several times and film them from different angles until I thought I had the right sequence.

At the time of filming "When Stars Attack" was the hardest problem in the LOC loop, going at a stiff V7. I think to date it has only been repeated by a hand full of climbers. I've tried it several days out and have not been able to do the right hand cross over. I've watched the crux section a bunch and it seems to be all about turning in the right hip (I'm also sure being tall has a bit to do with it as well).

Here is a re-cut of the problem "When Stars Attack". I'm not sure where Zig got the name but it would make a great title for a reality TV series. Who's willing to go head to head with Britney?!


When Stars Attack***, 13ft, V7, SDS – Starts 6ft right of Bop Gun in the obvious fault line. Follow the fault line up and left to the lip. Much harder than it appears. Description from Greg Campbell's unpublished guidebook.
Music by: Tyrad
Song: Struttin'
http://tryad.org/

Buckteeth V10 - Bouldering Chebucto Head

This is a clip of Ben Blakney attempting the boulder problem "Buckteeth" at Chebucto Head. We shot this video in February or March 2002. It was quite cold that day and that may have been the only thing saving Ben from excruciating pain.

I showed this clip to my wife and she could not understand what was wrong with us. I can see her point. As a climber, when you get fixated on a particular piece of rock it's hard to walk away without success.

Enjoy!

Eastern Tide Trailer

The Eastern Tide trailer is making it's rounds. I was on the Urban climber TV site the other day and found a great comment post:

03/31/2006 by ucmag UCMAG Highlights: Watching the group climb Pleasure Dome – a series of three climbers all just working the top of a tedious mantle top out. I had to watch this section at least 10 times and could not stop laughing. The beauty and harmony of hundreds of boulders amidst awe-inspiring landscapes throughout Nova Scotia. Bouldering in its purest form: a group of friends having a blast at their local area inspiring each other, giving it their all and climbing for the love of what they can do. Mouth watering potential- we are introduced to areas sporting their fair share of established classics, but also left dreaming of what appears to be an endless supply of potential

That is exactly what Eastern Tide and this Blog are about.