1996 Snow Valley Boulderfest Results

Boulderfest!

The Snow Valley Bouldering Guide

Matt Artz

lot for a brief pep talk and an overview of the rules. He stressed the basic theme of the“comp”: to have fun and not take it too seriously. After a few questions, we were off.A 20 minute hike led us to Snow Valley West, where Pat “Trash Man” Brennan organizedthe clean-up crew. Car bumpers, bottles, Styrofoam cups, and almost everything elseimaginable littered the area. The place started out looking pretty crappy, but the crew pickedit virtually spotless in a few short hours (the only things remaining were a few untouchableobjects like soiled underwear and used toilet paper...yes, people are truly pigs). Pat ticked off the number of bags each person collected, the winner getting a nice new rope for their effort.In the afternoon, the much appreciative Forest Service came by with a truck to move themountain of trash bags and larger pieces of junk off to a landfill.Then there was the climbing. From the easy 1 to 3 point slabby problems on the ABCBoulder, to the classic vertical problems on Orca Boulder; from the variety-pack selection of finger and off-width cracks on the Jalapeno Cracks Boulder, to the wicked 100-pointoverhanging traverse-to-mantel on the Burnt Log Boulder; there were excellent problemseverywhere, and still potential for many more problems and countless variations. Wewandered between the boulders for hours, still only seeing less than half of the routes. Howdid the contest point system match up to the 5.x Yosemite Decimal System or other ratingsystems? “We’re not telling,” Travis told me. By the end of the day, I knew why: because itdidn’t matter. The point ratings helped competitors to roughly place the relative difficulty of the routes, and did give the contest organizers a method to quantify the “winners” of thecomp. But I saw more people caught up in challenging themselves to break through their ownlimitations, and nobody with any real interest whatsoever in “beat the other guy” cumulative point totals.The whole affair was very well organized. Mike Rigney, Jeff Rigney, Brad Singer, TonyGough, and other club officials, with all the beta in their brains and connected by radios,were stationed at each clump of boulders. There was a detailed 13-page problem list, a porta- potty, two water stations, a big box of apples, about two dozen topropes already in place, andall the free gymnastic chalk you could cram into your bag. Best of all, although this wastechnically a competition, everyone seemed to leave their egos in the parking lot. It was likespending a relaxing day climbing with 50 of your closest friends.So who won the comp? Frankly, who cares? There were no losers. Everyone who participated was a winner, from the relatively new climbers trying their best on 1 and 2 point problems, to Matt Hock, who flashed the second ascent of “Ken’s Arete,” the hardest route todate in the area at 150 points or 5.12-something. And the entire climbing population of Southern California was a big winner as well, as we now have another major boulderingdestination to boast of, along with promises of a much larger So Cal bouldering contest to behosted by the ROWCC at Snow Valley in June of 1997. Stay tuned!Page 114

1996 Snow Valley Boulderfest Results

October 19th, 1996Men:

Matt Hock (940 points)Anthony Scalise (875 points)Jeff Price (399 points)Craig Britton (362 points)Bruce Rubio (325 points)Dave Walters (227 points)Matt Artz (226 points)Dan Franchin (161 points)Ryan Williams (139 points)Bob Cable (135 points)Brian McGoldrick (130 points)Dave O’Brien (122 points)Edward O’Brien (82 points)David Price (44 points)Steve Harding (25 points)

Women:

Lisa Rands (833 points)Julia Cronk (33 points)Dixie Riley (26 points)Diane Rice (1 point)Page 115

1997 Snow Valley Boulderfest

After many months of planning and uncertainty, the 1997 Snow Valley Boulderfest came off without a hitch on Saturday, October 4th, 1997. 77 climbers had pre-registered, and another 25 to 30 registered on-site, bringing the total to more than 100! Add to that the 25 or morevolunteers, and the friends and family who came along just to watch, and there were a lot of people up there enjoying the great area and the absolutely perfect weather!

Tad Newman on the second ascent of “Shadow of the Pain,”100 pts., on the Vampire Boulder, Snow Valley South. This hard crack route had only been done once before, by KennKennaga, and saw it’s second, third, and fourth ascents during the contest. And Tad took first place in his age division, with 1,235 pts.

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