Ohio

Ohio

Posted on 15. Nov, 2009 by B3 in Ohio

This past weekend I spent at home, in Michigan, with my parents and Saturday I had the chance to visit a small area called Brecksville near Cleveland for a day of bouldering. Mike Tucker, a lawyer and friend of mine from years back in Hueco and Boulder, drove out to give me a tour. Also, if you follow this site you may know of a frequent commenter, Campman (or Campusmang). Mike Rathke is his name and he joined us as well, making the 4 four drive from E. Lansing, MI. It was a gorgeous and warm fall day, it was nice to see old friends and great to see some new rock. I was hoping to find a V10 or a project I could do on my quest to tick a V10 in as many states as possible. The area is small but scenic and I thought the rock was surprisingly pretty good.

IMG_0876

We did several nice warm-ups and moved on to a V6 called Fight or Flight. It took Mike and I almost on hour to complete this and I was really surprised at how challenging it was. It’s a nice sloping lip traverse, with a great cross over move at the end.
IMG_0857Fight or Flight V6/9

We hiked up the hill and did a couple of great easier problems. Here is Mike an a short but good V3.
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Mike mentioned that he had tried what he thought was a project on a previous trip to the area and so we walked up the creek bed and came up to a great looking (for Ohio) problem. It was wet and so we moved on up the hill.
We ran into a local and he took us to a V7 called Blood Gnome. Mike and I both did it quickly and it felt much easier than Fight or Flight. We both climbed a harder variation and were enjoying the warm weather.
I was really motivated to try the project and we found out that it had actually been climbed and was called The Gem V10, and it had been unrepeated for a number of years. Mike immediately referred to it as “B3 problem”. Unfortunately my motivation did little to dry off the problem and our efforts were futile on the wet and slippery rock.
IMG_0882The Gem follows the line to the left, climbing up the arete.

Brian, the local we met up with walked us down to a sunnier sector and one of the best problems a V8 called An 8th of Crack. Mike and I both climbed the line and, while not an amazing problem, it was well worth doing.
IMG_0908An 8th of Crack V8

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IMG_0964Campusman, campusing.

We finished the day on some other random problems and by hiking around. I absolutely love being in the woods in the East, in the fall. In places the leaves were knee deep. All in all a great day to get out and glad to tick another state off the list.

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19 Responses to “Ohio”

  1. ChardonClimber

    16. Nov, 2009

    Thanks for taking your time to visit and give some ohio problems a try! It’s pretty cool to see my home area on this website! Hope you enjoyed yourself and maybe come back sometime, Scott.

  2. mervo

    16. Nov, 2009

    Damn Jemerson, that arete actually looks pretty good. It’s a shame you didn’t get a chance to tick that off the V10 State sheet.

  3. chetroy

    16. Nov, 2009

    Love seeing you use window grades (i.e. Fight or Flight V6/9). I am a big supporter of this grading system. With so many variables, it is almost impossible to narrow a grade down to one solid #. The most realistic system is the poll (http://chetroy.com/home/forum.html, scroll down to grades).
    pe4ce

  4. Tim

    16. Nov, 2009

    Glad to see you had a good visit. Thanks for sharing the photos.

  5. Brian

    16. Nov, 2009

    I like the poll idea. As Jamie noted, the grades in Brecksville are a bit all over the place. Add to this that all the grades are “hear say” and some problems (like Fight or Flight) are highly technical, where as others (like Blood Gnome) are just straight on pulling, and it gets even harder. So it is nice to hear some more opinions.

  6. sockhands

    16. Nov, 2009

    dope… looks way better than my ohio grapplings at old man’s cave south of columbus.

    is brecksville near that hinkley place bennett talked about?

  7. sockhands

    16. Nov, 2009

    it’s worth mentioning that when i logged on to hatespray.spew this morning, it brought a tear of joy to my eye to see a v7 variation listed.

    i trust you found it as fantastic and satisfying as i do.

    bwhahahahaaaa

  8. ChardonClimber

    16. Nov, 2009

    Brecksville is a few minutes north on 77 from hinkley.

  9. Leithoa

    16. Nov, 2009

    It’s about 25min NE of Hinckley. Just north of I-80 turnpike/I-77 interchange

  10. Ange

    16. Nov, 2009

    how far from cincinnati? i’m heading home for thanksgiving and wouldn’t mind checking it out…..Tucker? Tour?

  11. Mike

    17. Nov, 2009

    Ange, I’d love to see you. It’s a long haul from Cincinnati, though; about 4.5 hours. Give me a call anytime–(216) 409-2670.

  12. sock hands

    17. Nov, 2009

    omg u have got to be kidding me. i’ve probably driven past that vicinity 30 times without any clue of climbing.

    how about all that bullet western PA stone i’ve seen photos of? where’s that stuff. not talking about haycock or governor’s stable or whatever… the places with no name!

    is hinckley still a no-chalk area?

  13. Brian

    17. Nov, 2009

    Although I can’t claim innocence and things have been flying under the radar (for the most part), just keep in mind that climbing is actually prohibited here in all forms and we are working on access. Check out http://www.NEOCC.wordpress.com .

  14. Kelly Sheridan

    17. Nov, 2009

    I’m actually going to be within 45 minutes of Brecksville in a few weeks and would love any beta you guys can offer. Anyone feel like sharing the parking info? I can hopefully find my way around from there…

  15. chetroy

    18. Nov, 2009

    yo sock hands
    If you are ever in central PA and want to climb on some of that bullet PA sand/grit stone, email me for some beta at
    chetroy@chetroy.com
    The season is short, the dirt roads are not maintained in the winter.
    pe4ce

  16. Matt

    18. Nov, 2009

    Alright totally unrelated to the post but… I had the v10 with toe rubber, I loved the toe but the heel was a different story.. I could not size down enough to get it to fit me properly. The original v10, however, is the best shoe I’ve ever had!!! So this leaves me with the final question how does the Team ten compare??

  17. Darr

    22. Nov, 2009

    Looking good Mike! Stumbled upon “Ohio Bouldering” in my climbing blogs, and there you were. Small world.

  18. noah

    28. Nov, 2009

    -chalk has been used at hinkley for a while.
    -there is really no great bouldering at these areas, but fun if you’re in the area.
    - I also thought Fight or Flight was hard for the grade!
    - Ben put up a rad v9 or 10 at hinkley that i recleaned and (thought i FA’d) called green monster or widow maker.
    - I thought Eylaria (sp?) had better rock and bouldering then brecksville. I would go there. harder more aesthetic lines near the river.
    - there are several small clusters of sandstone around hinkley that offer good sessions.
    -PA is WAY better, for that matter, I’d go to Cooper’s Rock over all the other spots.
    - i thought the gem went straight up as it is chalked in the pic, not out to the arete, lee robinson would know… i think he did the FA.

  19. rob pizem

    09. Dec, 2009

    I may have time this winter to visit around x-mas,
    Anyone have time to take me on a tour?
    Thanks
    piz : )

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