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

Night Sessions Continue

I've had lots of comments from subscribers wondering where the videos have been lately. It's been really hard to keep the video coming while i've been shooting for "Night Sessions" so i though i might throw up a tittle teaser of some of the "quality" footage I've been getting.


Night Sessions - Grizzly from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

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.

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/

Visage Coupe - V7

I believe roughly translated it means slash face. This is the hardest boulder problem at Chebucto Foot but certainly not the most dangerous. It's amazing that this problem is ever doable. The black rock is a stark contrast to the orange granite at this seaside spot and is like that because of the frequency that the waves hit it.
If i recall the landing is a bit slippery there. When watching the video you will notice that the spotters have disappeared in the wides shot. Did the ocean take them away? I'm sworn to secrecy.



Visage Coupe - V7 from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Valentines Day Massacre

Here is the video from the Valentines Day Massacre held at Ground Zero Climbing Gym. This was the 7th year that Sean held the event and there was an excellent turnout again. I don't have all the standings in yet but the Winners were...


Valentines Day Massacre from Todd Foster on Vimeo.

Music by: Beastie Boys used under the Creative Commons Sample Plus License. This Track is from a collection assembled by Wired Magazine. Under this license all derivative work is distributed under the same license so you are free to mash up this video and distribute it in any non commercial way. Have fun with it.

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.