The weather is finally turning and we saw some cooler temps this past weekend. It was a great opportunity to get the bouldering season underway at a local crag called Bozoo Rocks in southern West Virginia.
At about only 45 minutes away, Bozoo has been the local crag for Virginia Tech students and Blacksburg residents for years. Offering both routes and boulders, the rock is the same sandstone as the New River Gorge. During their time in Blacksburg, many climbers including Kenny Parker and Swiss Andy, left their mark on the crag.
The following are some pictures of Jon attempting a dyno on a V5/6 (French Tit?) across the stream near Savory Wall. The problem traverses left to right from the small flake/corner in the left of the picture to set up the dyno.
Setting up
Going for the dyno
Missing!
Here’s a shot of me on the classic Pocket Problem, V4
The entire set of pictures from our bouldering session at Bozoo can be found here.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
FYI, It’s actually called “Pocket Problem” and not “Pocket Arete” (that’s at McAfee’s Knob). Either way, it would be a classic in any boulder field.
Ooops. Thanks Jon. My mistake, I’ll correct ASAP.
Nice pics man. I thought (or so I was told) those problems were 4/5 and 3, respectively…did holds on them snap or something? Yall outta try the arete on the back side of French Tits…really good problem starting on the undercling and the rh side pull! Is there still a big tree down under Zusquaw(sp?) up the hill?
Oh, Thanks! Really amazing. keep working!
The problem referenced above is called French Titties or Ape Rage. When I was at tech and climbing often we would work ape rage all the time. This is one of those classic problems that is so height dependent. Tall people can hit this move as a deadpoint and call the problem V4 or less. Shorter folks like me really have trouble on this problem and it goes at about V6. The only way I could send it was totally static using a tiny dime edge below the top out hold and a hand-foot match with the right hand. I think we generally called it a V5.
We also always called The Pocket Problem a V3 like mentioned above. Some people say it’s sandbagged, but with good technique it goes easy.
I think I have a half-made guide of Bozoo Bouldering if anyone really gets back into it over there. There is so much rock, and some incredible hard lines that were put up off the beaten trail. Get someone to show you Chameleon if you have already conquered most everything else there.
i want to see all the kind of climbing
Jay, If you have got a partial guide I would love to see it. Melin.trav@gmail.com. Where is Chameleon at? I’ve bee working a route way off the beaten path that could be aptly named that…But I have no idea what it is…other than really hard. V10?