I've told this story a few times, it's one of those weird coincidental things where the points of the compass just line up. I had been developing up at Three Ravens for about a year and a half maybe, I went to try and get on up there in April, but the road was still under snow through the hills to Four Corners, so I had to turn around and figure out a plan B. I had seen the roadside stuff at Rock Creek outside of Stevenson, a local who liked to talk to me about my vintage Volvo 240 wagon had told me a year or two back that there was good rock up there, so I figured what the hell. Worst case scenario I end up at Bridge of the Gods. This was before I had gotten a real tour of Cascade, and before the Portland Bouldering guidebook came out.
Any way, I went up there, and then hiked over the large roadside boulder to find the gem in the open field up there with Juggernaut and Supernaut. Sent those as FA's and then wandered down that ridge, fairly close to where the trail now goes. Kudos to Tymun Abbott and his Dad for making that happen!
However, I digress. I came up to that first really big boulder, that we now call Big Bertha, and was totally freaking out. I'm like WOW! So I start to brush a bit to see what the rock quality is like, and it's SO GOOD! I take a picture of the half cleaned stone(the thing is huge) and posted it to my Instagram account later that night(this was before there was a @pnwboulderingassociation), and almost immediately after posting this guy leaves this comment on my feed "great job up there" or something like that; so I'm like, who the hell is this guy? I go to his Instagram page, and am immediately floored. I'm like, he's doing what I'm doing, only, it looks like he knows a lot more spots! So I sent a comment back, I guess he had been following my woodworking, and then when I got back heavy into climbing again it did not escape notice.
We got to chatting, met at Cascade for a tour just after the burn, then we joined forces and set into developing Rock Creek Boulders in earnest. The rest is history. That first year we developed 9 crags and sent an average of 250 First Ascents each. And we keep finding more. It's only a matter of time before the Columbia River Gorge gets recognized for the bouldering Mecca that it truly is.
Any way, I went up there, and then hiked over the large roadside boulder to find the gem in the open field up there with Juggernaut and Supernaut. Sent those as FA's and then wandered down that ridge, fairly close to where the trail now goes. Kudos to Tymun Abbott and his Dad for making that happen!
However, I digress. I came up to that first really big boulder, that we now call Big Bertha, and was totally freaking out. I'm like WOW! So I start to brush a bit to see what the rock quality is like, and it's SO GOOD! I take a picture of the half cleaned stone(the thing is huge) and posted it to my Instagram account later that night(this was before there was a @pnwboulderingassociation), and almost immediately after posting this guy leaves this comment on my feed "great job up there" or something like that; so I'm like, who the hell is this guy? I go to his Instagram page, and am immediately floored. I'm like, he's doing what I'm doing, only, it looks like he knows a lot more spots! So I sent a comment back, I guess he had been following my woodworking, and then when I got back heavy into climbing again it did not escape notice.
We got to chatting, met at Cascade for a tour just after the burn, then we joined forces and set into developing Rock Creek Boulders in earnest. The rest is history. That first year we developed 9 crags and sent an average of 250 First Ascents each. And we keep finding more. It's only a matter of time before the Columbia River Gorge gets recognized for the bouldering Mecca that it truly is.
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