Seam Nightmares at Northwest Branch

It's been an interesting couple weeks transitioning from summer break back to teaching, but even being back to work full time I'm blessed with a schedule that still leaves me plenty of time to get out and play afterward.  Yesterday I got even more into my school year routine with what I'm sure will be the first of many afterwork sessions at Northwest Branch.

From the first time I visited NWB, I've wanted to work on Seam Nightmares, yet somehow never actually got around to it yesterday.  Combining small handholds and open feet on a slightly slabby surface, what I did yesterday was in fact as fun as it always looked.  I'll admit a frosted mug of beer felt great on my fingertips last night though!

The only odd thing about yesterday's session is that I don't really know whether I actually sent the problem or just made a good day's progress.  I did top it out, but am not sure whether the hold I was starting from was actually the beginning.  Here's where I started...

This is on the first of the "good" holds, though there are two smaller spots roughly in line with my left elbow that could possibly be holds with a little bit of belief.  Looking for info on rockclimbing.com, the description of starting "way out left" made me think that I had started too far in, but this FA photo is taken in the exact same position and is labeled as moving into the crux.  That would also seem to support the fact that there's an earlier beginning, since the photo isn't labeled as the start, but those possible holds off to the left seem way harder than anything I encountered further up.

I'm sure I'll go back and try to play with it from the lower start regardless of whether this was an "official" send, but it would be great just for general clarification to hear from anyone who knows for sure.  

Injuries, recovery, and life beyond the rocks

Yesterday afternoon my mom and I stopped by Northwest Branch so she could finish Mikey Likes It, a short traverse that she's been working on during her past few visits there.  With a slightly shorter reach and less control of slopers than I have, she instead relies on a sharp crimp sequence to get her through the middle of the boulder.  Effective, but much rougher on the fingers over the course of several attempts.  She had nearly completed it on Sunday after the open house for the recent trail improvement project led by the Access Fund's Conservation Team (follow their travels on Facebook), and I felt certain that she would piece it all together if she came back with the sequence still fresh in her mind.

After a quick warmup and several frustrating attempts, she finally topped out around the ledge, thankful to have put the painful crimps behind her.

For me, as I take some time off to rest a strained lower back, it was a good reminder of what I want.  It's always hard to rest an injury, especially when we've found something like climbing that makes us so happy.  But seeing my 63-year-old mother out on projects like this, it makes me realize that I'd rather miss a little time now if it means still being healthy enough to do what I want thirty years down the road.  In fact, given the choice between a few years of climbing really hard or a few decades of easier climbing, I'd take the latter every time.

In the short term, I'm conscious of the plans I've made to travel this summer, including my first trips to Montana and Squamish, and a visit to Colorado afterward.  As much as I'd wanted to spend this time getting stronger to climb harder on those trips, I'd rather end up climbing easy routes out there than none at all because I pushed too hard too soon.

As I talked earlier to my friend Jon who's resting a finger injury, I was impressed by his positive outlook on the situation.  Having recently spent some time studying training and nutrition, he now finds himself as excited about the recovery process as he normally is about climbing.  He recognizes it as an opportunity to heal his entire body, not just the most serious injury, and will undoubtedly come back stronger as a result.  Hopefully that commitment to healing will also bring about a commitment to prevention, including the scheduled rest periods that Brian advocates, which I've always seen the value of but rarely had the discipline to put into practice.

One thing I said earlier in the week, and am finding more true every day, is that being injured gives us extra time to do the things we normally can't fit in.  It's actually a bit of a gift.  If we can't bear to be completely removed from climbing, we can still spend the time studying, practicing ropework, or even sitting around typing like I'm doing now.  Ideally though, we go out and do all of those other things we wish we had the time for.  Last month when my first round of back pain arrived just in time to cancel any spring break climbing plans, I instead spent three of those days in DC visiting all of the museums and gardens I hadn't been to in forever.

I even managed to meet my wife for lunch a couple times, a rare occurrence since she started working for the US Forest Service in November.  She's actually admitted to me that she secretly looks forward to my injuries, because she knows she'll see more of me as a result.  And I can't say I blame her.

Today, rather than climbing in this perfect weather, I took a walk to our local farmers market and bought some delicious looking local bread, cheese, and kale.  It's something I've been meaning to do for years, but never quite made the time.  Then I came home and had a beer on my deck for the first time (in daylight anyway) in way too long.  As I sit out here now, the birds are echoing across the stream valley while the scent of grill smoke drifts through the trees.  Not that I don't miss climbing, but I've had worse Friday evenings!

Northwest Branch guide draft on mdguides

It took a while to get started, but I've finally moved most of my Northwest Branch information into an updated guide document for the area.  This guide is by no means intended to replace Cory Hanson's fantastic topo guide that so many of us relied on for our initial trips there.  That guide is still a great resource, and I continue to be impressed by the quality of the mapping.  My new guide simply provides users with a different view of the boulders, more in line with the guides currently existing for other areas in the region.  It's about 50% complete so far, and I'm hoping to get the rest of it done over the next month or so.


The current draft of the guide is posted here on mdguides, a new website created specifically to host free mini-guides for Maryland climbing areas.  Most of that site's content will be focused on bouldering, since Indy's website and guide already cover most of our route information so well.  The best part about the site is that contributions are accepted from anyone who has knowledge of an area and is willing to share that information for free.  That being said, creating guides (even small ones) is a lot of work, so it's completely understood if anyone decides they'd rather be compensated for their time and energy.  Ideally though, we'll be able to see the majority of our bouldering well documented within the next year or so.


Do you have an area where you boulder frequently and would like to write a mini-guide for?  If so, contact the site's administrator at MD.MiniGuides@gmail.com.  (Unfortunately the site's administrator is temporarily unable to access the email account, and requests that feedback/questions be posted directly in the comment section for now).  And on a somewhat related note, I'm still trying to compile a list of Maryland Bouldering Videos.  If you've made one and don't see it on the list, feel free to email me or make a comment on the page.  Thanks!

Moving rocks at Northwest Branch

Today was a gorgeous day for a bit of trail work at Northwest branch, with clear skies and a cool breeze keeping us comfortable throughout the day.  With projects planned by local Paul Barringer and the Mid-Atlantic Climbers, we were fortunate to be working under the expert direction of Jeff and Dave, the Access Fund's traveling conservation team.  Jeff and Dave are traveling around the country from February to November, assisting with conservation and improvements at climbing areas from internationally known destinations like the Red River Gorge to small local spots like Northwest Branch.

Their main project this weekend is the improvement of the trail leading down from the parking lot, constructing steps for erosion control as well as safety.  Finding that most of the suitable rocks were on the other side of the river, they set up a tyrolean to send them across.

Some were already perfectly sized, while others required the use of hammers and a drill run by a portable generator to make them more manageable.

At least until I broke the hammer...

After clearing out some of the small rocks to create even surfaces, we laid a few of the larger rocks into place before calling it a day.

There's still a good bit of work to do though, so if anyone feels like coming out tomorrow (Saturday), we'll be back out there starting around 9:00 to finish up.  Jeff and Dave and the Mid-Atlantic Climbers will also be at Northwest Branch starting around 2:00 on Sunday for an open house event, where they'll be talking about this weekend's work in addition to past and future projects.  It also looks like we'll have great weather for a bit of bouldering, and would be a great opportunity for anyone who's been wanting to check out what Northwest Branch has to offer.  Speaking of which, I've been working on transitioning the NWB materials on this blog into an updated guide, and the current draft (posted here) is about 50% complete.  I'd love any feedback anyone has about formatting, fonts, or any of that other fancy stuff.

Better head off and rest up for tomorrow, but can't wait for another great day of work at some of my favorite boulders!

Muddy Waters and Low Traverses

Often the best climbing is that which comes unexpectedly.  With Friday's rain arriving just as I had met Vincent Faires for some much-needed bouldering, and Saturday forecast to be more of the same, I had resigned myself a full day of couch sitting.  Then as morning passed, the rain stopped and clouds lifted, leaving the warm afternoon sun free to work.  Realizing things might be dry, Vince and I headed down to Northwest Branch to check it out.

It turned out that although the river was full and muddy, the rocks were completely climbable.  Wanting to play on another variation of the low traverses I had done on Tuesday, we made our way down to the Tick boulder.  I've almost come to think of The Tick as my outdoor system board, with its slight overhang and perfect assortment of holds, all above a comfortably flat landing.  Exploring my Maryland roots by finding every possible eliminate on a small piece of rock, I told Vince that I was hoping to begin on the left arete and follow the first couple moves of The Traverse before dropping down to the central sidepull jug and continuing the previous traverses.  I envisioned a series of small precise movements bringing me within range of the jug.  Vince, deciding I shouldn't be the only one exploring roots, went big in true Texas fashion to hit the jug directly from the initial crimp and slot.  Great, now we were playing a game of take-away.  The Tick had officially become a gym.

                                                            Photo: Vincent Faires

                                                                                             Photo: Vincent Faires

                                                            Photo: Vincent Faires

                                                            Photo: Vincent Faires

                                                            Photo: Vincent Faires

Vince managed to send after a few attempts, and I followed not too long after.

As with the other traverses I mentioned, this was fun and challenging, but I'd still recommend doing The Traverse first.  This was just another way to change things up a bit, to keep enjoying a fun boulder in a good setting after the "official" lines have all been repeated to exhaustion.  If anyone gets out and comes up with anything else fun to play on, I'd love to hear about it!

Northwest Branch: Outside the box

Sometimes it's fun to climb the classics.  Other times it's fun to climb outside the box.

On Tuesday afternoon I went down for a quick session at Northwest Branch, not particularly psyched on any problem that came to mind, but still wanting to get out and enjoy the warm weather.  Making my way downriver, I reached Chaos Roof without any further inspiration, and looked across the river to see someone on the Tick boulder.  Feeling social, I rock-hopped over to join him.

For his first time bouldering outdoors, local student Chris Gregory certainly seemed comfortable on the rock as he worked to link the beginning section of The Traverse.  After warming up, I attempted to show him my sequence, only to find myself unable to stick the cross move after several attempts.  Frustrated at failing on a problem I usually have wired, I decided to switch to something else I've been playing on, a low eliminate on the left side of the boulder that Chris quickly joined me in working.  Sit-starting on the central sidepull jug, it moves left through two sidepulls and a long undercling, avoiding any holds above.  One variation goes up to a jug for an early topout, while the other stays below the rail for the full length of the boulder.

Ironically, although I usually fail a few moves into these problems even when I nail The Traverse, my luck went the opposite direction for once and I ended up sending both variations before darkness finally fell.

Both were fun and a good challenge, and I'm sure I'll be getting on them again.  Are they as good as The Traverse?  I think not, but they're certainly worth doing if you've done everything else on the boulder.  I guess all that really matters is that they were enjoyable at the time and helped me in some way to get stronger.  A change of pace is always good, right?

Northwest Branch video- five classic traverses

With another bout of snow and ice looming yesterday, I took advantage of the remaining mild weather to run through one of my favorite circuits down at Northwest Branch.  I've always loved traverses, and Northwest Branch has several of my favorites, providing a perfect blend of slopers, crimps, and diagonal cracks, all with relatively clean landings that are ideal for a solo bouldering session.  The video below shows what I feel to be five of the best traverses, as well as being five of the best moderates at Northwest Branch:

Santero (V0)

Crack Line (V2)

Snowflake Traverse (V4)

Mikey Likes It (V5)

The Traverse (V5)

Copperheads at Northwest Branch

                                                                                            Photo: Paco Martinez

Despite the temperatures being in the 60s for the last couple days, winter will officially be here in just over three weeks.  We've come to the end of one of the more spectacular fall seasons in recent years, and the brilliant red and yellow foliage has transformed into a drab brown carpet.  While we may miss the color, the good news is that we've come to the part of the year when our boulders are actually visible from more than 100 feet away, and we don't need machetes to clear a path through the undergrowth.  But before we go charging haphazardly through the forest, do you see anything unusual in the photo above?  How about now?

                                                                                            Photo: Paco Martinez

Although I've always kept an eye out for copperheads as I walk through the leaves, I was a little shocked when Paco Martinez posted these photos from Northwest Branch yesterday.  I mean, despite the cautions in Indy's guide about possible copperheads at areas such as Rocks State Park and Sugarloaf, even he says he's never encountered one while climbing, and I certainly haven't seen any.  But there it is, right in the middle of a relatively urban climbing area.

Does this mean that we shouldn't climb at these areas?  No, it just means we should be careful and aware of our surroundings, which pretty much applies to any sort of outdoor activity.  Despite our fear of snakes, we're fortunate to only have two venomous varieties in our area, both of which will generally only strike when threatened.  So in addition to scanning the ground around and ahead of us, we can be aware of areas such as logs or rock piles where snakes are likely to hide, and try to avoid them or move carefully past.  For example, jumping forward off a log while stepping over it, rather than stepping straight down and startling a hidden snake into striking.  Or if you're about to climb a boulder that can be easily walked onto from another side, go up and check the top for snakes beforehand.  I'm sure it might sound a little paranoid, but I can only imagine pulling through an already sketchy topout only to find yourself staring down a copperhead.  But like I said, I have no firsthand experience with them, so rather than claiming any kind of expertise I'll suggest looking at this information from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.  Be safe, and have fun!

Northwest Branch cleanup success

This past Saturday, almost 30 volunteers came together at Northwest Branch to participate in a cleanup hosted by the Mid-Atlantic Climbers.  Although I was out in Boulder attending the Adventure Film Festival (more on that later), I was happy to hear that they were able to collect a huge amount of trash and perform some much needed trail maintenance at one of my favorite bouldering spots.  And as I mentioned in an earlier post, this kind of work not only benefits us by letting us climb in a more pleasant environment, but also sends the message to both land owners and other user groups that we as climbers can have a positive impact on the areas we visit.

                                                            Photo: Mark 'Indy' Kochte

Here's a great time-lapse video of the NWB cleanup, put together by Mark 'Indy' Kochte.  And for anyone interested in getting involved, there will be another Adopt-a-Crag at the Ilchester crag on Saturday, November 19th, with check-in starting at 8:45 a.m.  You might not find any mattresses, lawn mowers, or car doors like we did last time, but who knows what other hidden treasures await?

New chalk bags too!

Another rainy weekend, but made it down to Northwest Branch for a couple hours yesterday after work.  Maybe it was the cooler temperatures, or maybe all the system board training I've been doing, but it went MUCH better than my last visit!  Although I didn't work on any projects as originally planned, it felt good to finish three of my favorites (Snowflake Traverse Variation, Mikey Likes It, and The Traverse) in a single try each.  I also had an awesome time hanging out with a couple that were bouldering on the Floating Pyramid when I got there, and joined me when I crossed the river to play on The Tick.  ***And if you two are reading this, the email you sent me unfortunately didn't come through, so here's the address if you want to try again***

The day was also exciting because it was my first opportunity to get out and dirty up my new chalk bags, which until then had been relegated to gym duty.  Made by the crew at Asana Climbing to match my awesome crash pad, they feature miniature versions of the patch designed by the talented Erin O'Brien and embroidered by the good folks at Custom Patches.

The Community Bucket features a huge interior with a comfortable fleece lining, a water resistant bottom, brush holder, and durable carry loop.  The roomy zipper pocket on the side was perfect for storing my keys, as I've recently been reminded that falling with objects in my pocket (especially keys and cameras) rarely ends well.  All of this topped off with a brilliant dual-closure system, utilizing both a drawstring and a zipper to prevent spillage.

The Biggie bag, while at first glance too bulky to be comfortably worn while climbing, has turned out to be the best chalk bag I've ever used.  No more fumbling to get my hand through a narrow opening, just an effortless entry into fleece-lined happiness.  I'd actually never realized how much energy I'd expended just in the simple act of chalking up, but even one less moment spent hanging off terrible holds can make all the difference.  Maybe it's all psychological, but I honestly feel like I've been climbing harder since I've been using it.

A huge thanks once again to Erin, to Adam Healy and everyone else at Asana, and to Custom Patches.  I love my new toys!

Calm before the... storm?

After a long summer of doing pretty much whatever I wanted, and a week of meetings and classroom prep, today was supposed to be my first day back with my students.  While I admit I'll miss waking up with nothing to worry about but climbing, it'll be nice to see them again.  If we ever get to school that is...

You see, although I'm sure people are tired of the hype surrounding our recent East Coast weather phenomena, I'm still amazed by the fact that in the last week we've had a teacher day cut short due to an earthquake, and our first student day cancelled by a hurricane.  And as I sit here in my living room, looking out the window at the sun through the trees, I'll say it's pretty nice to actually have a "snow day" with decent weather.  In fact, had I not spent so much time training on the system board yesterday, it'd be a perfect day to be out climbing.  Not to minimize the aftermath of a storm that caused at least 20 deaths and a good deal of property damage, but I made it through with only the slight inconvenience of having to pick up leaves and twigs in my yard today while I'm home.  In fact, possibly the most tragic damage I witnessed firsthand was the scene pictured below...

But damage or no damage, Irene still brought a pretty rainy weekend, which is never good for climbing.  So Friday afternoon after work, I decided to take advantage of the few remaining dry hours and head down to Northwest Branch.  Having not been there in a while, I have to say it didn't go as well as planned!

I headed downriver to the Chaos Roof Downstream Slab, intending to run laps on Mikey Likes It and Snowflake Traverse, which I had been linking back and forth for endurance work on my last few visits.  As it turned out, I couldn't make it through even a single lap of either problem!  So I just hung out and did a bunch of variations of Snowflake instead.

At first I was a little disappointed about my inability to finish the two traverses.  Ok, so I'm still a little disappointed, but I also recognize that what I'm experiencing isn't a loss of strength due to inactivity.  Rather, it's a temporary decrease in my bouldering ability brought about by my choice to focus more of my time on trad climbing this year.  And while it's frustrating to be shut down by problems that had come so easily just a few months ago, I remind myself that I'm now a heck of a lot faster and more comfortable on routes than I was before.  Ideally, now that I have more time to spend bouldering again, that strength will come back.  And when it does, assuming I keep devoting enough time to routes to retain my current comfort with gear placement, that increased strength will open up new routes to me in addition to new boulders.  I think the key is balance, as well as the recognition that I'll never be as good at everything as I'd like, unless of course I cut everything else out and declare myself "a boulderer," or "a trad climber," or any other such label that those of us with vertical aspirations tend to adopt.  But hey, I just like to climb stuff.

Northwest Branch featured problem: The Business

Showed a couple people around Northwest Branch on Saturday, and met a few more along the way.  Though we stopped at several areas to climb, probably the favorite stop of the day was The Business in the Roof Area.  A good contrast to most of NWB's problems, characterized by technical moves on sharp crimps, The Business is a powerful overhung climb up perfect slopers.  Rated V6, it often feels much harder compared to other similarly rated problems in the area.  Partially this is due to the large amounts of core strength needed, especially for the initial foot sequence.  If slopers, compression, and power are your thing, you won't want to miss this one!

Ben Dooley on The Business

Ben Dooley on The Business

Northwest Branch thaw update

Went to Northwest Branch to get a few pictures on the south side of the river yesterday, and looking across the river it seemed like the snow was mostly gone in the main areas.

In the photo below, you can see the Suspended boulder area (not yet covered on this blog) in the foreground, with the Pyramid and Anklebiter boulders near the large tree in the center, and Gumdrop,
Crack Line, and Uphill Slab in the background.  It's hard to appreciate how much rock is really there until you see it from across the river!

Northwest Branch slowly thawing

Stopped by Northwest Branch yesterday after work to see how much snow was still left.  The path was pretty icy, but Uphill Slab, Crack Line, Gumdrop, and Trailside boulders all seemed pretty clear.  The rest of the area pretty much looked like this:

Looks like the snow might still be there for a while, so here's a sneak preview of a few areas I haven't covered yet.

Thoughts on impact

Here are two pictures I took at Northwest Branch yesterday.  What is your first thought when looking at them?