Boulder-neer-ing

Katie looking for her next gully/testpiece

There has been a serious lack of climbing lately. With moving and travel there just hasn't been a lot of extra time to make the drive to the lake or dodge. It was no surprise that we were pretty excited to be driving back up to the lake yesterday. We'd planned on hiking out to Jenga and then maybe hitting a couple other areas as well.

We took the ferry over the Wisconsin River to start things off. I hadn't been on the ferry since I was a kid and it was much more entertaining to me this time around. I'm still not sure why they didn't just build a bridge. Funny.

The hike in sucked. I'd forgotten how bad it could be and it was all grown over and horrible and loose. We spent a little bit of time at Jenga and then packed up and left, tired and sweaty.

We started walking out but neither of us really wanted to go out the way we came in. We found some random gully and started up after a quick scout. It's been a while since I've done loose, scary, 4th class gully and I've definitely never done it with a pad on. It was kinda terrifying actually. We were off balance the whole time and the pads kept on pulling us back. The route itself was quicker for sure but man was it scary.

We both figured that we'd developed a new style of climbing....boulderneering. Mountaineering is easy. Climb up, climb down. Maybe it snows a bit. Pffffftt. Child's play! Lets see someone do the first "padded" ascent of the K2 or the Eiger! It'll add yet another totally absurd variation to the mountaineering world and really, I think we all know that's exactly what everyone needs. Plus if you fall you already have a sled attached to your back. Perfect!

I look forward to hearing about everyones exploits in the world of boulderneering. Let's pave the way people. The climbing world needs us!!