[Hide Comment] While it has fallen in to disuse in recent years (until recently), The Noir boulder has seen lots of attention from key players and psyched boulder-seekers like Russell Erickson (who initially cleaned the boulder), Jason Kamen, Bernd Zeugswetter, and Brian Spiering—to name just a few. Back in 2003 or 2004 (I think) I remember Jason Kamen working some hard traversing lines L-R, and I know for a fact that Bernd did literally every single hard "up" line in the creekbed, including Shake Junt (a la the "high" start... Jackson added the low start when he moved the boulder) and a number of others. I never contributed much to the area, since I was always on my way to Lizard's Mouth or The Brickyard.

Currently, I'm very psyched on this area. It's EXACTLY 12 minutes from my house, and has very nice rock. And kudos to Seth, Jackson, Tyler, et al. You guys are reinvigorating a great spot.

Also of note is Upper Noir, a small cluster of boulders directly uphill from the main Noir Boulder. I'll post more on Upper Noir later, but there is literally one of the best V6ish problems around up there. Here's some old posts of historical interest from the every-psyched Brian Spiering:

americanrivierabouldering.b… Apr 26, 2014

[Hide Comment] I seem to remember seeing video of Jondo doing something at Noir years ago (2008ish?). It was a traverse around a corner into some long up moves? He sent and named whatever it was. I think "samurai" was part of the name and it was v10? Have tried to find the video with no luck. Anyone else remember anything about this? Perhaps it is one of the lines listed here. Feb 21, 2015

[Hide Comment] Micah, I remember that as well. I think it was a traversing problem, but I think it was up the hill at Upper Noir (I could totally be wrong). If you go there, you can find a nice little cave that has an obvious sit-start with an obvious L-R trend, finishing on a crux "up" move. I recall Mr. Dusatko and company meandering up there and establishing problems, and while I think they rated said problem on the steeper side of things, I believe It clocks in around V6 or V7. Hard, but not V10. I should add that it's an unbelievably good line. I haven't posted it because I've been super busy and forgot. Go check it out!

But Jondo COULD have done one of the traversing lines on Noir, as well (Jondo cranked... and he also holds the distinction of being the only V10+ climber to climb too high on the Lizard's Mouth traverse, brake a hold, fall, and brake his ankle). Again, the only established line I know of was Jason's traverse from the far left cave in to the juggy patina warmup. The Kevin Costner Challenge would be the next obvious choice: it has many hard moves and gets within spitting distance of V10. Who knows? I fell out of touch with Jondo, but maybe someone could email Paul. Feb 22, 2015

[Hide Comment] Here is the video of Jondo climbing "way of the samurai" youtube.com/watch?v=PsC7oEe… May 12, 2016

[Hide Comment] The lip of the undercling jug rail on the left side of the boulder finally blew off the wall on me today... thing had been flexing for years... Everything still goes exactly the same. Just be a little careful when using that rail for the next couple weeks because the new lip is still a little crumbly. It looks like everything other than the very lip is still solid though. Feb 13, 2021