Boulderfest!

The Snow Valley Bouldering Guide

Matt Artz

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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Participants were given a high-quality guidebook with maps and detailed beta for each of the272 problems (many contestants said the Snow Valley guidebook blew away the Phoenixguidebook!). Trails were well-marked, and each boulder featured an orange cone with thenumbers of the problems posted on it. Each clump of boulders had a full-time volunteer nearby, who had been trained on the specifics of each problem. Four wandering judges, whowere familiar with every problem in the entire guidebook, were available by radio to resolveany issues.

Craig Fry attempts the “Northeast Arete” route, 40 pts., on The Block at Snow Valley East,at 3:56 p.m., just four minutes before the official end of the contest. Despite several valient attempts, he couldn’t complete the problem...but still ended up taking third place in his agedivision, with a total of 1,379 pts.

By 10 a.m., the contestants had left the Snow Valley Ski Resort parking lot, and got therefirst glimpse of the boulders--Map #1, the Little Green Valley Boulders. Some folks startedclimbing here, while others, to avoid the crowds, went further back to The Block, The Brain,Page 117