A few weeks ago, I watched a short video from route developer in the Lanaudière region, Steve Bourdeau. Steve shows us a typical day in the day of a route developer. Even though I’m immersed in a rock climbing environment on a daily basis, I found this video to be very informative and enlightening. It helps understand the reality and the work required to equip and climb a new route in the region.
If I don’t understand perfectly the realities involving wearing a harness (except to brush certain problems), I have been developing boulders in the Laurentians region for almost 10 years. I thought that it could interest some of you to better understand what that implies. It is often thought that after 2-3 brush strokes, a little chalk, boulders are born on their own. The biggest implication is time. The time to search, find, clean, try, find the sequences, break holds, find new sequences, wait for the right conditions, grow enough skin, send, among others… Basically, developing boulders takes time!
Recently, I came across older pictures of some virgin boulders when I found them. I often take photos and videos during my climbing sessions, so I figured I could tell you about the process of developing a particular boulder. Even better, this problem is probably the one that took the most effort out of me. My plan was to briefly present to you the process of opening outdoor boulders. Slowly, this idea was transformed and mixed with a kind of personal diary about my journey with this problem. I am passionate about developing boulder so I love to include as much details as possible… If you like stories that are a bit too detailed, be my guest! Let’s proceed in chronological order to get a good grasp of the essence of the process. But before that…
FINDING ROCKS
It might seem simple, but finding rocks is probably the hardest part of developing boulders. It’s not just about finding rocks, it’s more about finding the right ones. In the Laurentians, most boulder areas are made up of 1 to 5 boulders of varying sizes. Obviously, there are some exceptions, but in general you have to walk a lot or use your car to climb at more than one place in a day. This means that when we find a new boulder, or even a small zone, you must question its value. Will other climbers be willing to walk 30 minutes off-trail in order to get back to this problem someday? You can open boulders for personal enjoyment, but it’s always good when other climbers come to repeat the lines afterwards.
There are two ways to find these pebbles. The first is to blindly walk in the woods and hope to find some new jewels. It is preferable to do that during winter since you have a better visibility (without the leaves in the trees). I have found many classics this way. On the other hand, after walking for a while without finding anything (we’re talking about many hours, or even weeks!), It can be discouraging to proceed in this way. You also have to be careful about where you decide to go for a walk. The privatization of land in the Laurentians is accelerating exponentially and, in some regions, the owners are not very kind …
The second method involves researching potential boulder areas before showing up on the field. This method has evolved over the years with the improvement of technologies. The use of Google Maps / Earth is essential and allows us to better target our searches. The use of these maps was made possible from 2013 onwards, when we had access for the first time to a “quality” winter map (still quite average!). Each year, Google updates these maps which become more and more detailed. We always pray that the update occurs in the fall or winter, otherwise it is impossible to detect the rocks from above. Here are two examples of what rocks can look like on a map, between 2013 and 2015. At the time of writing, the last good usable map dates from 2015. So we understand that it is not so easy to find… Some areas are more easily identifiable than others, for example those with deciduous rather than coniferous trees.
After spotting these potential areas, we must go and confirm on the field. Certain clues like the width of the boulders, the shadows (often indicating a Steep) and the way the trees are arranged around the boulder suggest potential quality. In 80% of cases it turns out that the boulders are disappointing or just too small. Rocks that are 15 meters wide, but only 2 meters high often destroy our high hopes. When we manage to find 5-star lines (we are often satisfied with less …), these are the moments that allow us to stay motivated to keep on searching.
DAY 1
It was the first day of September 2019. I had spotted potential boulders a few weeks before. It was a particularly hot year, so the temperatures didn’t really allow for serious bouldering at this time. I had previously planned a specific route that would allow me to go and see 3 new areas. About an hour round trip, but my finds this day made me spend almost 3 hours in the forest.
The first place I planned to check out was 10-15 minutes from the parking lot. At about a hundred feet of the boulder in question, I already knew that I had just found a monster. I saw it, there, in all its splendor, surrounded by dense and abundant vegetation, suggesting that no one had visited for ages. It was effectively a virgin boulder of about 16-18 feet in height. As I approached the giant, I quickly saw the potential for several lines to be established all around the boulder. Obviously, the excitement is hard to contain in these times. Finding such a quality rock happens quite rarely. But I still had no idea what kind of problems this boulder would throw at us.
This is what the boulder looked like when I found it on day one.
After 30 minutes, I had cleaned the bottom of the lip and part of the prow with a metal brush. With a small crowbar, I had broken the more fragile holds that would potentially have broken later. Nothing is more frustrating than working a boulder for a few days only to break a key hold making the problem impossible. It is therefore more efficient to do this work from the start, also to ensure the boulder’s safety. Surprise falls when holds break can be dangerous.
At first glance, this line seemed possible, albeit very difficult. Here is a short video of the first day, when I scrutinized the holds and possible body positions of the problem. This kind of video can also be used to convince friends to come back and work on it with me. A picture is worth a thousand words. In video, it’s even better…
After about an hour of cleaning and observing the boulder … it now looked like this:
A good start for a line that was still totally unknown. There was still a lot of cleaning that needed to be done. After all this, I continued on my way to other potential areas. I have found more amazing rocks that day, but it will be a story for another time…
DAY 2
Very motivated, I return to this boulder with a friend, Noah, a week later. The roof is wet, so we have to fall back on other lines. We brush and climb easier stuff. Between two showers, we end the day with an ascent of The Abyss, around V8.
Noah on the first ascent of The Abyss. We were going to have to come back to try the roof project.
DAY 3
A week later, I go back with 2 other friends, Samuel and Jean-Benoit. We all have a similar climbing level, so finding the sequences on a new boulder this way is much more efficient. We try different methods. We try to see if the line is possible. After a few hours of working the problem, about 75% of the movements had been done by one of the group members. There were still some missing pieces to complete the puzzle. This day, we a stand start to the project, which climbs the prow/arete after the roof. We called it Le Premier Protocole, with a difficulty of around V7 or V8. At this moment, we understood the difficulty of the project a little better, but a few foot movements remained mysterious and the links between the different parts of the boulder certainly appeared difficult.
Samuel tries the first difficult movement with a heel. It does not work.
Jour 4
It is now October 2019 and the season is drawing to a close. There are only two to three weeks left before the cold weather and snow get here. I go back to the project with Noah. At this point, it does not occur to me that we could send that day. We only wanted to continue understanding the sequence of movements and, above all, to have a better idea of the difficulty of the problem. It is hard to stay motivated to try a boulder if the difficulty is too far from your level. Thus, there is often a point when you accept that the time invested could prove to be useless if the boulder is ultimately too difficult. In this case, you can share the project with stronger climbers so that they can try their luck. You must invest the necessary time to understand this difficulty. At the end of this session, all the movements of the boulders had been done except for one move, which however seemed possible. The real difficulty would be to link the 15-16 movements of the problem. This day, when we left, we had the impression the grade would revolve around the V12 mark.
day 5
A little over a year has passed since the last session on the boulder. It didn’t get out of my mind for a second, though. I have been climbing all year long with the intention of going back as soon as possible. Unfortunately, after the pandemic it took me a few months to get back into shape. And I knew for a fact that I would have to be in my best shape in order to have a chance to send this particular project. The temperatures in October were perfect and I took the session to remember the beta I had found the year before. Quickly, I redid all the movements and I succeeded in doing the foot movement which remained mysterious last year. Small victory. At this point, the only thing preventing me from trying to link the boulder problem from the beginning is a doubt about the right method to get out of the roof. Two ways were possible, but I couldn’t decide which way was more effective. It is difficult to attempt a boulder at your physical limit from the start if we are not completely convinced of the right beta to use.
Here I’m trying to remember the different sequences we had found the year before. We can clearly see the V12 that I had inscribed on a rock below with chalk in October 2019. It had survived winter. It was more of a joke than anything else. Please do not write on rocks in already developed areas.
DAY 6
The day 5 session stuck in my head and now that all the movements were done, the possibility of sending seemed tangible. I returned to the roof during the week after work. It was a short session at the end of the day that seemed to be doomed by the rain, but my obsession prevented me from staying rational about it, so I took the chance to go with the goal of working on the link between the roof and the final arete. After an hour of climbing, it obviously started to rain. The session was cut short (as expected), but I found the method I needed to use. It made me happy and I left with my head held high in the poring rain. I arrived at my car completely wet, but my mind was awake and extremely excited.
DAY 7
Three days later, the temperature was perfect. I went back with my girlfriend. I knew all the moves. The season was drawing to a close and a certain pressure began to set in. I warmed up and quickly did some good link-ups of the different sections. Damn! Was I going to send? It seemed possible. On my best try, I fell at the end of the boulder, in the stand start section. Time was running out, the temperature promised to be vert bad for the next week. But I still thought I could do it next time.
Jour 8
It rained all week. I decided to try my luck on the only clear day. The boulder was wet. I tried to dry it but in vain. I returned home without having climbed at all.
JOUR 9
It rained the day before, but the sun and the wind were doing their work. The temperature of 6 degrees was perfect. I got there around 3pm, the project was completely dry. A certain nervousness set in since snow was imminent in the following days. I warmed up with my usual routine: I climbed a few easy problems on the same boulder, I did a few moves on The Abyss in order to prepare my muscles for a sustained effort. I repeated a few moves on the project to finish warming up properly. On my first try my foot slipped through the first difficult part. On my second try, I missed the toehook by throwing my foot on the wrong spot. At this point, I probably only had two or three good tries left for the day. I took about twenty minutes of rest. I pulled on again, everything was working well. I got at the point where I would always fall and, despite a certain fatigue, I knew that I could do it if I didn’t make any mistake. This last part, I had practiced it about thirty times; I knew it very well. A few seconds later, after a few deep breaths and desperate movements, I found myself at the top of the boulder.
This feeling is probably the one that drives me to constantly search for new magical lines to climb. I was alone, at the top of the boulder, warmed by the few remaining sunrays. I enjoy climbing with my partners, but I couldn’t do without these climbing sessions all by myself in the middle of the forest. You can’t receive encouragement or post-send fist bumps, but that quietness that is so hard to find these days is worth its weight in gold. I stayed at the top of the monster for a few minutes to savor my victory and these last perfect moments of fall climbing. The difficulty of the boulder was probably a little easier than I had envisioned from the start. The next climbers can give their opinion. As I loaded my three crashpads onto my back, a few fleeting moments after reaching the goal I had become a little obsessed with, I was telling myself… on to the next.
And that is how a project ends. And then you find a new one.
Here’s a short video showcasing the whole line.