Season 2012: Wet & Clean (Sort of)

It was raining today, which made it a good day to walk the woods at Carver. The only trash I picked up  was a movie ticket stub.  Thanks to everyone for helping to keep the area clean.

I strolled out to the Titlest Boulders and cut back the nettles and brambles that are starting to grow along the trail.  My main reason for heading out there was to check out the condition of the boulders in that group.  I gave a shout out to Andy T. in my last post for cleaning the Water Tower Boulder (at least a large portion of it) back into a climbable condition.  Andy also cleaned and got the first ascent of Problem #17 on page 9 of the guidebook.  This problem is listed as the Water Tower Project in the bouldering guide, but now that it is no longer a project, Andy has named it Unearthed and goes at V1. Sometimes things are projects for the simple reason that no one else was ever motivated to clean it off.

Unearthed starts in the notch just behind the tree and heads up and right to finish just left of the high point on the boulder.

While I was out at the Titlest Group I rough cleaned the top of the right-hand side of the Titlest Boulder. I also cut back the landings around the James Dean and the Quota Boulders.

After that bit of work, it was off to the Bonzai Boulders to pick up any more trash I might find. There wasn't any, which was awesome! I was so stoked I rough cleaned the Ivy Boulder (on the map on page 35). This boulder hasn't been climbable in at least 6 years. There are two problems listed in the guide for this boulder on page 37, College Prep, grade unknown and Shop Class, V2.  Having now cleaned the ivy off this long, low boulder I also suspect there will be a lip traverse that starts the same as College Prep and heads right to finish Shop Class. There is also a little problem that will start under the little roof and move up and over for the exit.

The Ivy Boulder with a lot less ivy than it has been used too.

And after 4 hours of trail maintenance and boulder cleaning, some of it in the rain, I was really sweaty and REALLY DIRTY. My fingers even got dyed the color of my gloves.

So thanks again to everyone for helping to pick up trash, clean boulders and keeping the woods generally friendly.  Don't forget to be a patron of the Stone Cliff Inn every once in a while.  Mr. Rosenbaum has shown us a ton of support by continuing to allow climbing on his property and we should show him some gratitude by enjoying a beverage and some food in his restaurant. The patio does have a great view of the river.

If anyone has Carver photos or videos they would like to share via this blog, let me know and we'll set it up.

Missing Moss

First, to everyone who has already bought a copy of the Carver Bouldering Guide, THANK YOU! That thanks also goes out to the businesses currently selling the guidebook.

• The Stone Cliff Inn (the owners of the restaurant and the property are being very supportive of the guide and the climbing community - go in a have a beer every once in awhile)
• The Circuit Bouldering Gym (NE & SW locations) 

A lot of people feared that a guidebook would cause the woods to be overrun with loud, dirty boulderers. If the past two Sundays are any indication, then those fears are unfounded. Well, OK, we have been getting a little dirty reclaiming some lost problems, but yesterday there were 6 of us total in the woods bouldering between noon and 5:30p.m.

The hand full of us, between climbing some already clean problems, managed to clean off the top to Optimus Prime (V3 - Yosemite Boulder), Emil Muzz (V2 - Dragnet Boulder), Universal Head (V7 - in the Dragnet pit), Joe Friday (V2 - next to the Dragnet Boulder) and last week we partially cleaned Soldering Iron of Justice (V5 - behind the Traffic Boulder) and Chipmunk (V3) and Fox Squirrel (V1) - both of those are on the little boulder left of the Angry Squirrel Boulder.

Thanks to Mark, Mindy, and some others for doing some scrubbing instead of just climbing.

I'll have new photos up in the next post and hopefully some video as well. I'm tweeting @CarverBoulders if you want to follow me there to hear about blog updates, access issues, where guidebooks are available and when I'm planning on being in the woods at Carver next. Hope to see you there.

Overview Map of the Carver Bridge Cliff Boulders

So the guidebook is going through a few tweaks/edits to the rules and some grade changes. In the meantime, here is an overview map of the boulder fields out at Carver - you should be able to download/print/etc. It is 11x17 and all of the boulders with problems on them should be shown in Dark Grey. Good luck and if you have questions, please post to the comments.

This map was originally hand-drawn on a very large piece of paper by Jered Bernert and with some help from a friend it was scanned, converted to a JPEG and then I digitized it in Adobe Illustrator and added the other various peices that make a map a map.

If you have specific questions about problems and such, you'll probably have to wait for the guidebook to come out.

Carver Bouldering Overview Map

Trespassers Ye Be Warned!

But first:

• Thank you to everyone who has joined/re-joined the Carver Climbing Club and keeps your membership card with you while you are climbing. The property owners are pleased with how things are going.

• Also a thank you to boulderers who are taking some time to clean some of the moss and other debris off the boulders. The long, wet spring we had has made for a more robust moss crop this summer.

And now:

• If you are using the property without a membership card and refuse to leave when asked by a card carry member, then you risk being charged with trespassing by the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department.

As a member, the process goes like this:

• Inform the climbers of the Membership Card policy and that they cannot use the property without having a card physically with them. If they refuse to leave, please inform the manager of the Stone Cliff Inn who will call the sheriff's department. Try and give the manager as much information about the trespassers as possible (# in the party, car they arrived in, location in the woods, etc.).

Do not get in an altercation with anyone. Be as polite as possible.

Thanks again to everyone who is doing the right things to help ensure that the property stays open to climbing.

First Day of Summer

And Carver is still wet. The moss is thick and seeping. It is looking better for the next few days. If you're planning on going out to boulder, take a nylon bristle brush and clean at least one problem in the main woods before you head down to the Bonzai (frontside) boulders looking for drier terrain.

Also be sure you're a member of the Carver Climbing Club and you have your membership card with you - wherever you are in the woods, bouldering or rope climbing.

Thanks from everyone who wants to make sure the access stays open.

Busy Day on the Cedar Boulder

Had a good time with some friends on the Cedar Boulder. It would suck if we're counting down the days until Mr. Rosenbaum cuts off access. A rant follows the photo - you have been warned.


Finally got out to Carver yesterday. It had been almost three weeks since the last time I was out. But I've heard some stories from the land owner, Mr. Rosenbaum, via other friends who've been going out regularly.

He isn't very psyched with climbers right now. It feels like an unfair amount of the criticism is being leveled on the boulderers, some of it rightly so, but some of it is being shoveled our way because of some ingrained local politics.

Here are three events that Mr. Rosenbaum brought up to me yesterday or to some friends last weekend:

1. Group of boulderers hanging in the parking lot drink beers and passing the marijuana around after a session. (He is running a family restaurant and plenty of the Twilighters are kids as well. The group is lucky he didn't call the sheriff. The OLCC could also come down hard on his business.)

2. Couple of rope climbers pull up last Sunday while he is roaming the parking lot asking if people are members of the Carver Climbing and checking IDs. They tell him they are not members. He explains that this is private property and they won't be able to climb. They then cop an attitude and tell him they've been climbing out there for years and have never been members. (That kind of entitled attitude from climbers is one of the main reasons he is unhappy. We have to police this area ourselves. Ask people if they are members; if they are not they have to leave. Mr. Rosenbaum is not enjoying spending his weekends finding out if someone is a member.)

3. Climbers should to be out of the parking lot by 9:00pm. There have now been at least 2 instances where the restaurant staff are trying to leave, which includes locking the gate down at the road, only to have climbers' cars left in the parking lot. On one occasion the night manager had to call some employees back to help her check the woods for climbers. (That is money out of Mr. Rosenbaum's pocket to pay his employees to come look for your sorry ass.) I think that time involved some rope climbers up at the cliff. The staff told the climbers to leave so the gate could be locked (it was after 10pm already) and the climbers told the staff they weren't done yet. Quit being jackasses people. You'd hate it if someone came to your job and was just hanging around refusing to leave once you were ready to go home.

So I heard a rumor that the Carver Climbing Club met last week and changed the dog rule to be, "Don't bring dogs out to Carver anymore." Also, "No Drugs. No Alcohol."

If you want a beer, go have one in the restaurant (it is cheaper than losing a climbing area).

Hopefully the Carver Climbing Club will use its new website to:

* Advertise when the club meetings are so their members could actually attend and find out what the club is doing to keep climbing open at Carver.

* List a complete set of rules, especially ones that have changed recently.

* Organize some clean-up/trail maintenance days

- and maybe correct the spelling of the Stone Cliff Inn on the "Attention Climbers" signs that have been recently posted at a couple of the trail heads on the property.

You can email the Carver Climbing Club to let them know you boulder, you're a member and you want to know what's going on to preserve access. Be nice.

Spencer out

A Bit of Carver Climbing History

So a friend of mine had some old Carver Climbing Club stuff he loaned me to photograph. The first is the button you would get to put on your climbing pack to show you were a member of the club. I joined in 1999 and these were no longer in existence. This is the first one I've ever seen. You?


These next few images are of the pamphlet that was created to to inform climbers (this was before people really bouldered) about the rope climbing at the Carver Bridge Cliff.












Yep, the date on the cover of the pamphlet reads 5/14/91. Not too much has changed since then. You still need to be respectful to the landowner, Mr. Rosenbaum, and now also the Stone Cliff Inn Staff. And you still need to treat the land better than your own.

Cleaning at Carver

Climbing in Portland is dirty business. Each year we endure months of rain only to head outside that first dry week to discover that our favorite problem has been reclaimed by moss and dirt.

You now have three options:

1. Come back in a week or two and hope someone else has cleaned it for you and put enough chalk on the holds to make you feel like your back in the gym.

2. Go ahead and climb it dirty in all its epic goodness until you pitch off just before the send because your foot slipped off that dusty edge or you got moss in your eye.

3. Take one for the team and bust out your brush set.

Hopefully you’ve chosen the noble path of helping out the whole community and decided to do some brushing or gardening if the problem has gone more than two seasons without a cleaning.

Before you begin, here are some tools and some tips:

• No wire brushes – The basalt around Portland is soft enough that wire brushing will remove important texture.
• Nylon bristle brushes – These can be old toothbrushes, scrub brushes from under the kitchen sink or fancy brushes from climbing companies like Revolution, Lapis or Metolius. I recommend trimming the bristles down with a pair of scissors to make them a bit more firm.
• Painter’s pole – Attaching a brush to the end of an extendable pole means cleaning more holds from the ground and less time standing on your girlfriend’s shoulders.
• Start from the top – If possible, clean from the top down so you don’t have to clean off the same hold multiple times.
• Broom - Using a broom head for the final bit of cleaning works best to get more of the fine, loose debris off the holds.

Moss removal – Leave the moss alone if it isn’t covering-up anything important.

That should get you started and remember to watch out for loose rock and slugs.

Spencer out

Welcome

Kim W. on Legal System V3

This is the first post for the Carver Bouldering Blog. This blog will support the print version of the Carver Bouldering Guide which is being finalized.

First things: The Carver Bridge Cliff and the boulders are on Private Property. You must sign the release form at the Portland Rock Gym or at The Circuit and be over 18 to boulder or rope climb at this area. You must also have picture ID with you and be prepared to show it to representatives of the Stone Cliff Inn. Sorry, but those rules are the wishes of the Land Owner, Mike Rosenbaum.

Other rules are basic like: No glass containers and clean-up any litter you see in the woods. Keep your dog on a leash or at home. If you do bring your dog please clean-up after them. Keep your noise level to minimum and be respectful to the patrons of the Stone Cliff Inn.

You may park in the gravel lot by the Columbia Boulders except on Friday and Saturday after 5pm. After 5pm on these nights climbers should park near the intersection of South Gronlund and South Hattan roads and approach from the trail near the Pioneer Church.

There are over 300 boulder problems at Carver ranging from VB to V11. Like any area the problems range in quality and cleanliness. Quality is mostly dictated by Mother Nature. Cleanliness, however, is directly impacted by you. Please take some time to scrub holds and remove moss where appropriate. A majority of problems at Carver have to be cleaned every Spring to remove the rapidly growing Winter moss.

Please keep an eye on this blog to find out when and where the Carver Bouldering Guide will be available to purchase.

Thanks

spencer out