Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Bardinis Line

Went up to the Bardini Boulders last week. There is almost nothing recorded of the bouldering out there. I know of several lines that have been done but which are not mentioned either in my guide or anywhere else that I have seen and at some point in the not-too-distant future I will provide some pics and ratings to those I know.

Anyway, last week, I climbed this really sweet problem that begins as a sit-start in between the two giant boulders out there, the Bardini Boulder being the lower one (with This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned on it), and the other one on the uphill side of that. The problem ascends the upper boulder. I know that a direct start to this line had been climbed before and I have climbed it once, taking a direct line to where I'm shown in the picture below (this goes at around v4/5 with the crux at about 10 feet). But the line I'm writing about is this sit-start line that begins around to the left on perfect smooth rock. You move right and up into a right hand undercling. You roll through to a left sidepull/pinch and then move up the blunt arete a little before heading right to join the easier line, which, although only v4/5 is pretty highball and takes some nerve.

This sit-start problem is super-high quality and something I've been meaning to do for years. Check it out if you go out there. It's about v6/7-ish.