Buck Mt. Bench Boulder

Another age of Bouldering is arriving in GTNP. Daniel Woods and Jimmy Web, Isabel Faust and Josh Larson have already visited. A video on-line titled "best rock on earth" pimps Teton stone. Strong boulders willing to walk, especially for new problems. This block really fits the bill. Excellent stone. Nearly ready. Warm-ups done. (V3-V5) Descent reasonable, around 5.8. A nice trail, called the Stewarts Draw trail, not a NPS trail, but a well-maintained one, that goes right to the block in 1 hour and 50 minutes. Yes, you will need a wire-stick-brush to open the top of hard, new ones, but as you can see in the photo, this is not flaky, lichens, this is tumbled stone with annual snow creep, splitter.     

Start hiking from the Death Canyon trailhead. Hike up trail, to the 3rd foot bridge. 15 mins. Find camouflaged Stewards Draws trail fork on the right, on west side of footbridge. Follow immediately clear trail through lodgepole timber into slightly weedy meadows, NNW. Hike under the ski run outs of Wimpy's Ridge, and Static Draw. Continue NW above draw, then sidehill trail into old growth Douglas Fir and hit Stewarts Draw creek at a big, cracked boulder. This boulder is cool, but not the mission at hand. The crack has been sent at 5.11. The face to the left would have some problems and some stars, after top rope preparations and landing work. But we are here for alpine bouldering, so continue on trail, hop across creek, and leg work the final stretch west, with switchbacks, to the fantastic block on the bench above. Throw down pads, warm up, recon and scrub top outs and send. 

2 or more pads, enough chalk to mark, brushes, wire-stick-brush (15m rope max. optional, not recommended) flat landing.