Shoreditch_Boulder

Shoreditch_Boulder, originally uploaded by nagore.

Nagore has taken the time to mark up another problem on the shoreditch boulder. That's really great!

The problem tackles the right hand arete. An interesting variation on this problem is to traverse in from the right using the rail. Left hand and left foot on the left hand arete, right hand to the middle of the rail, match, traverse, finish up the right hand arete!

Dates for bouldering comp announced for next weekend

Sadly I will be away on holiday, but it looks like it might be a lot
of fun, and there is some real cash prizes to be had.

If anyone posts pics on flickr can you let me know at
ian@shoreditchbouldering.com or just tag the pics
#shoreditchbouldering and I'll find em.

New competition dates

John Frankland / BOULDER

12pm, Saturday 13th September in Mabley Green (Homerton Road, London E9)

12pm, Sunday 14th September in Shoreditch Park (New North Road, London N1)

First prizes for the men's and women's catagories of £250 cash, with
second and third prizes in climbing equipment vouchers valued at £150
and £50.

Register on the day. Competitions are subject to good weather.

For further information, contact Mile End Climbing Wall on 020 8980 0289.

For further information about the Boulder project contact Takako Jin
or Ingrid Swenson on 020 7739 8080 or info@peeruk.org

Quick break from the sunny UK

Well, the Shoreditch boulder is back under construction, and has been for about the past week. They are going to landscape it and hide the concrete base. It looks like the work could drag on through September.

The Mabley boulder ~should be open now, but I've not had a chance to get up there, been snowed under with work :/

I'm off to the content for three weeks from next Monday, so I'll be saying farewell to the rocks for a little while. On the bright side my break will include 5 days in Fontainebleau!

Best Holds, north face

Best Holds, north face, originally uploaded by Ian Mulvany.

I've tagged up another picture. If you go to flickr you can look at the large version and the names come up nicely.

The two obvious problems are climbing the face, with and without the right arete.

With the arete it's about V2, maybe soft V2 if you know where to go, hard V2 otherwise.

Not using the arete, well, there are a host of options. The easiest is also V2 and the hardest that I've seen done to date is about font 6c, or V4-V5, at least that's what the guy's who did it said, and I'm not about to argue with em.

V2/V3?

V2/V3?, originally uploaded by Ian Mulvany.

I've been thinking about playing with the picnik toolkit for marking up the problems on the boulders, but I'm not too happy with it right now. Here is an example of the kind of view you get on the boulder, but it seems a bt, I guess, legoland. I think I'll just go and browse through my library of bouldering guides to get some inspiration.

Plenty of problems on the shoreditchboulder now

Work has been keeping me busy, but there has been loads of climbing going on at the shoreditch boulder over the past week.

There is a discussion going on on the UKC forum and someone, slintank, has made a claim for some first ascents:


inner city pressure v2
up the right hand arete on the north face of the boulder

shoreditch tw*t v3
the southeast corner topping out on the east face with a sit start.

the highgate shake v5
straight up the slab on the west face. no arete, no drill holes.

Whether they are firsts or not, those are definitely some nice problems on the rock. I've updated some pictures on my flicker set and I may get around to annotating the pics later today.

That said, looking at his description of the highgate shake, I'd probably disagree. If you move in to the centre of the west face from the right avoiding the boreholes, then it's not harder than V3. It's posibly V2. I think getting establish face on might be half a grade harder, but I've not done it yet so I can't say what I think for certain.

Standing Proud

Because it's there, originally uploaded by Ian Mulvany.

This is the shoreditch boulder finally in place. They rolled out the grass yesterday morning, but they have not quite finished covering the concrete base that the boulder is secured to. You can see the square at the bottom of the rock. As a result someone, I'm not sure who, but definitely not the artists, decided that it was best not to start bouldering on the rock yet. It was a bit disappointing not to get on and have a go at some of the more challenging lines, but the disappointment was made up for thanks to a very nice wine and nibbles reception laid on by the waterhouse restaruant.