High Sierra Bouldering

adam brink wrote: Another question: If I was to backpack into some backcountry places to boulder in the summer, what would they be? You don't have to give away all your secrets but maybe a good hint about the mother load that you found.

heh. good try.

one word of advice: there are at least three kinds of backcountry bouldering.

level one is basically roadside, like the best-known areas in tuolumne, and it could be anywhere aside from nicer summer conditions. most of these areas are well-known.

level two is the sort of area you can reach with an hour or two of easy hiking. chaos canyon in the rockies or the tank boulder in tuolumne or way lake are obvious examples. many of these are known destinations, other folks are likely to be nearby, if you have the energy to drag a pad, you can. if you blow it, you could probably crawl out w/o any embarrassing helicopter action.

level three is back-country bouldering in obscure areas or farther in. there's no point in bringing a pad, because if you're jumping off from height, you're doing it wrong. take a shorty rope, so you can throw it over a bloc or have someone sit on top. otherwise, hi-balls here mean soloing. even a sprained ankle could be serious. there's plenty of this kind of thing in the sierras-- it isn't all talus fields. but you can't approach it as another bouldering session.

a few hours with hiking guides, google earth, and occasional photos from backpacker trs, and you can be in business pretty quickly. stacks of it out there.