Alabama Hills—Shark’s Fin Bouldering

Climb Review:

• I top-roped Shark’s Fin two years ago and I came back to this area to boulder.

• The rock was toasted and 1/3 of the holds were hollow and flaky. Fortunately, even the hollow bits were incredibly sticky and the rubber in the shoes loved the texture of the rock.

  The rock is all granite. But the sharp kind, like at Joshua Tree.

  Because this area isn’t well developed for bouldering, I just made my own routes (there are routes on Mountain Project, but not for the ones I did this day). I’ve contributed the three routes below to Mountain Project; I doubt they’re new, but it’s good to document them.

I’m Sticky (VB; Shark Fin bouldering Cirque Climbing)—I climbed an intuitive line six feet left of “I Should Have a Crash Pad”. It’s a good warm-up for that climb as “I Should Have a Crash Pad” has a top-out that is not fun.

I’m Really Sticky (V0; Shark Fin bouldering Cirque Climbing)—If you turn 90 degrees to the right from I’m Sticky, you’ll note a big boulder in front of Shark’s Fin. Start immediately to the left of the bushes, move to the middle of the face of the rock, then go straight up. There are great slopers to aid you up and try to stay away from the crimps if you want to up the difficulty. I think a better climber can do this no-hand, but I got too scared about the possibility of cheese-grating.

No Crack for Old Men (VB; Shark Fin bouldering Cirque Climbing)—There’s a rock north of the previous two routes. On the east face of that, there’s this big crack with a circular hole at the top of it. I climbed this while keeping appendages out of the crack. Everything to the left of the crack is super hollow, so I would not pull or put any weight on it if possible. I only did it near the top as I didn’t see another place to put my left foot as I moved left for the top out. It’s a bit high (it’s about 20’ so it’s a highball?); I would definitely recommend pads if possible.

I’m Sticky

I’m Really Sticky

No Crack for Old Men

Fears Faced

Fear of Falling—My fear of heights is well and alive! While building a moderately high boulder, on a route that I had made up on the spot, it took me a while to work up the courage (or stupidity depending on if I fall or not) to keep going higher. I went up three times and I down climbed it the first two times as I got more comfortable with the rock and felt how hollow most of the holds sounded. On the third attempt, I made it all the way up, but I honestly don’t remember the last three moves.

What Happened?

 

Cassie wanted to paint and rest her knee, so I took the opportunity to boulder in Alabama Hills. Opening up Mountain Project, I saw that Shark’s Fin had easy bouldering around it, so we headed there.

Shark’s Fin—as usual— was busy, so I didn’t attempt the two “Unknown Boulder Problems” and instead tried “I Should Have a Crash Pad.” While the bottom part of the climb wasn’t too bad, the top out was committing. Too committing. So instead, I had fun going around these boulders and found three routes that I think could be fun for other people too.

After about an hour, we packed up, got into our car, and tried to figure out what to eat for dinner as we drove back home.