In the year 1999, Colorado stood at the edge of a major change. A giant bouldering wave was about to come crashing down on the Front Range. Up to that point, the hardest problems were the Big Three (Trice, Slapshot, and Meathook) established by Jim Holloway. For various reasons, these problems seemed unattainable to the typical boulderer. The accessible big ticks of the day were problems like Center Route V10 at Morrison, Fleshfest V10 (with the original beta), and Right Angry Man V10 at Lumpy Ridge. Climbers like Herm Feissner, Peter Beal, Charley Bentley, Matt Samet and Pete Zoller led the way. Most of the bouldering in Colorado took place in easy to access areas, like Flagstaff and Morrison. Hiking any more than 20 minutes probably seemed a little ridiculous to go “practice climbing”, although a small group of dedicated boulderers including Jim Belcer, Ian Glas, Dean Potter and Tommy Caldwell were hiking up to Emerald Lake and, with a hint of things to come, establishing problems like The Kind Traverse (which was originally graded V10 and then uprated).
In the fall of 1999, Tommy Caldwell, on a tip from his father who had been trout fishing at Lake Haiyaha, took Brian Capps and Nick Sagar up to Chaos Canyon and established Tommy’s Arete and Handicapps (originally suggested by Brian to be V8). This was the beginning of the swell and the following summer was really the first year the wave began to crash in earnest.
Dave Graham was a young climber from Maine who displayed tremendous raw talent from the beginning. He had been traveling out west, working his way through some of the hardest sport routes in Rifle, and was still quite an up and comer. He and Brian Capps had met in Rifle and Brian took Dave to Chaos Canyon to check out some new bouldering. Brian says that Dave didn’t do too much in the first few days but after warming up to the elevation, the hike, and the bad landings, he began to leave a permanent mark on some of the best stone in the West.
That year (2000) Dave established most of the problems in Lower Chaos. On one of his more impressive days he climbed the first ascent of Freshly Squeezed and Bushpilot, calling the former V10 or V11 and the latter V9. He also did The Automator, the Centaur, The Gobot, The Fat Lady, Deep Puddle Dynamics and Gang Bang Arete. This frenzy culminated in Nuthin but Sunshine, which Dave graded V14, even though he had never repeated a problem V13 or harder. The next year was more of the same as Dave and his good buddy Chad Greedy marched up the hill and put up classics like Left El Jorge, Eternia, Skipper Roof and Golden Rows of Flows and countless other problems that may go unrecorded. Dave seemed unstoppable and climbed nearly every line he put chalk on. His efforts put Rocky Mountain National Park on the map and even today, 8 years later, people line up to repeat these great boulders.
At the same time, a strong group of motivated climbers from Ft. Collins had dedicated themselves to putting up hundreds of new problems throughout Northern Colorado. These efforts were led by Ben Scott, although Tom Blackford, Jeremy Bisher, Ryan Anglemeyer, Will Lemaire, Mike Mangino and many others were heavily involved. In particular, Will Lemaire and Ben Scott have both made incredible contributions that will not be forgotten. They made areas out of Arthur’s Rock, The Poudre Canyon, Red Feather Lakes and countless smaller clusters. Chris Sharma and Dave made their way up to the Poudre Canyon, but it was really this group that paved the way. Of course Dave did establish several hard and classic problems in the Canyon, including one of the best and hardest in Colorado, Circadian Rhythm.
Things continued closer to Boulder as well, with Tommy Caldwell’s ascent of the incredible Turn that Frown Upside Down at the now closed Damnation Boulders.
As a youngster living in Michigan pouring over the climbing magazines I could take no more and decided to move out, feeling like I had probably missed out on the wave of development.
About 8 months after I moved out I got a call from Ben Scott, who had taken to looking into other parts of the Front Range. He, Ken Kenny and Rob Pizm had stumbled upon Mt. Evans. Ben managed to keep Evans a secret for the better part of three years and established many classics like The Dali, Bierstadt, Cerat and Timeline. Cameron Cross also has left his mark on Mt. Evans with great problems like Slander, Gorillas in the Mist and City Walls of Dying Dreams. Around that same time Dave returned from Switzerland to hike even farther up Tyndall Gorge in the Park. There, above Emerald Lake at the Hallet Boulder, he established several hard problems including Fireball and Stranger in a Strange Land. Interestingly enough I invited Dave to get a tour of Mt. Evans and he declined. Problems like No More Greener Grass, Silverback, Super Gui and Ode to the Modern Man had yet to be climbed.
If all this wasn’t enough, young Daniel Woods was just toping out on Turning Point, a V8 in the Flatirons. In one year, he went from V8 to V12 and proceeded to crush every hard problem in Colorado. More and more climbers were turning their attention to bouldering and the talent pool was big and deep. Other lines quickly filled in. James Litz established Freaks of the Industry V13 at RMNP, Luke Parady put up No More Greener Grass V12 at Mt. Evans, Dave Graham’s incredible Suspension of Disbelief in Eldorado Canyon and Harry Robertson with Clear Blue Skies and Mental Pollution Low V12 and Randy Puro with Silverback V10. Angie Payne made first female ascent of Bushpilot, The Kind Traverse, Castaway, Black Ice and many others. The pace was feverish and with the rise of www.8a.nu, competition was fierce. Daniel grew into a dominant force in American bouldering. He put his amazing power to work at Mt. Evans, and established Ode to the Modern Man V14. The next year, his friend Paul Robinson moved out from New Jersey and quickly Paul was on Daniel’s heels. Ty Landman joined the race. In the last two years, these three have simply dominated the climbing scene in Boulder. And what better way to display their dominance than to climb the hardest problem in America.
Years ago, Dave had found a massive boulder in Chaos Canyon and on it’s north face lies an impressive overhang. It was known for years as “the Green 45″ and it held the one thing that shut Dave down. He was the only one to do “the move” but no one else was even close. Fast forward 6 years. Three climbers bred on all of Dave’s hardest problems stood ready to push things into the future. It was only appropriate that local Daniel Woods would make the first ascent of Jade, not only the crown jewel of the Park, but the crowning achievement of what I call “The Golden Age of Colorado Bouldering”. Tyler and Paul both made impressive repeats and it was hard to pick up a national magazine or click on a website and not read about what was happening in Colorado.
Of course this couldn’t last forever. Soon after the season ended in the Park, Daniel left for Europe. Ty and Paul hung around for the winter, only to head out of the country at the first signs of spring. Harry Robertson, Rob D’anistasio, Mike Feinberg, Johnny Goichechea, Ryan Olson, Seth Allred and Sander Pick will all most likely have moved away by the fall and all are extremely talented boulders. Although climbers like Ben Scott, Olson, Lee Payne and myself continue to search, it seems unlikely that another big area is left to be found in the Front Range, north of Denver. Most of Chaos Canyon has been picked over and it seems like new problems are either going to be a long hike or of mediocre quality. That’s not to say that development won’t continue, and that great new problems won’t stlll be established. It’s just that the pace will slow a little as we all feel the after shock of this massive wave.
Although this may seem disheartening to those that are left behind, it presents a new challenge. The slate has been wiped clean and the future is undecided. This new chapter will force us into creative thinking. I am fortunate enough to have one foot in the past, the last 8 years of my life bouldering in Colorado, and one foot stepping towards the future.
