the Bozeman Boulder

Ever since my trip to southern Utah in early February I have had the climbing itch. The red-rock climbing playgrounds of the southwest just wet my tongue for more climbing, which meant purchasing some new gear and doing some research about the basics of climbing. My favorite new "toy" is my pair of La Sportiva climbing shoes: they are so amazing! They allow my feet to grip the wall with their firm, slender black rubber soles and give me the ability to rest the weight of my entire body on a ledge a quarter inch thick- its pretty sweet.We have been watching a lot of videos on free climbers, bouldering, and rappelling and have scoured through the amazing selection of climbing books at the Bozeman library also. In addition to educational knowledge, we have been taking every advantage of safe climbing spots as they are in abundance in the Rockies! Our only problem this time of year is waiting for the days above ~45 degrees so that our hands stay limber and able to grasp the rocks.

 

                                                             This afternoon finally brought some warm temps back to the valley and with the sun shining bright we drove to the "bouldering" rock at Bozeman Pond Park. The bouldering rock appears pretty small and you might think it doesn't have much to offer, but rest assured that this hunk of fake rock has about 15 different sections for you to try in varying levels of difficultly from easy-breezy to woah- how do people do that? At the top you can lay around and catch the impressive view of the Bridgers hanging to the north of town and as soon as your hands rest from your ascent you can climb down a different route and test your skills. Today was very successful and I climbed up 4 of the sections with my spider-like La Sportivas- awesome!

~Mary Lane~
Bozeman, MT 3.25.13