Ascentionist: Autumnal Adventures

My fingertips are raw from crimping down on fresh edges yesterday. Untrafficked Corbin Sandstone is coarse. But the crimping felt good. The pulling felt good. The edging felt good. The sunshine and breeze felt great. The sound of the leaves dropping and settling into their winter beds was sublime. I worried smoke from a nearby prescribed burn would run me off, but it never drifted over the ridge to where I dropped my bouldering kit for the day.

While I’ve bemoaned my lack of stamina and fitness lo, these last few years, I had a decently bang-up day sending seven new problems with two or three in the V1 range and worked a couple harder problems almost to completion. I’m aching pleasantly in the upper back, hands, and triceps. It’s the good kind of pain that points to a reasonable effort; not too much, not too little.

The surprise send of the day was The Legend of Zelda. It’s the left side of the northeast arete of the Arcade Boulder. Yes, I know Zelda wasn’t an arcade game. I had cleaned the top out while cleaning the overall boulder and only gave it a passing look. After sending Splatterhouse yesterday, which is a directissima through the lower part of the ramp feature on the east face of the boulder, I brushed off the area at the top of Zelda to prepare for an attempt on the line. I wasn’t expecting what happened.

I scooted the pad under the corner. I decided to call it The Legend of Zelda because the rock is vaguely shaped like a pointed hat a wizard or elfin adventurer would wear. It kinda makes me think of Merlin’s Hat at Horsepens 40 but smaller.

Anyway, I crammed feet into shoes, stood up, dipped my digits into the majick white powder and proceeded to send. I was not expecting to flash the problem. There’s a nice crescent-shaped edge around the right side of the arete that provides a positive edge for a sidepull/undercling. There are two small dish-shaped holds for feet angled perfectly to maximize the sidepull/undercling’s utility, and then there is a surprisingly positive sloper for the left hand. The first move is to rock up on the feet, heel hook around the arete, and bump the right hand to a nice, flat 2-3 pad at the apex of the face, and then step up into the first left hand sloper, find a hidden, but positive crimp up on the ramp, match feet, grab the sharp ridge with the right hand, and rock onto the ramp and follow it to the summit.

The difficulty is technical and not strength-dependent. The holds are all there. The heel hook is key. The hidden crimp is key. Finding the sloped ledge to match feet is key. But having super contact strength and pulling power isn’t as important.

FA of The Legend of Zelda

Arcade Boulder, northeast arete

I was shocked to pull that one down first try. Sitting on the pad afterward with a stupid grin on my face I decided I would give the harder-looking central line on the north face a solid try. I ended up giving it more than half a dozen solid tries and felt like I was really close to sending it. The crux seems to be committing to a small, rounded edge as a foot while cranking up on a small, rounded crimp on the blunt, slabby arete near the apex with the right hand to gain the desperate slab, and the deep pocket for the left hand near the very tip top of the face. I only brought a single pad yesterday, and there’s a pointy rock behind the problem. I wanted another pad and likely a spotter to feel totally confident committing to the thinness. That one will go. Feels like it’s in the V2-V3 realm. Especially if purity is maintained by not grabbing the big hold on the obtuse arete to the right which is also squarely within the problem I did after I stopped trying the harder line. I called the subsequent problem Mrs. Pac-Man. It felt like it landed somewhere around V1. It’s only slightly contrived, with the admonition that the big, flat, waist-high ledge to the right is off limits.

Attempting Pac-Man

By that time the sun had been beating down for a few hours. It was distinctly warmer as I moved around from the shaded north face to the southwest face where I cleaned up another line. I didn’t expect to send it either, having waned in energy, and was feeling like I had put in a solid day of bouldering already. But once the line was clean, I couldn’t not give it a try. It’s mostly straightforward with a heady little bump near the top, high stepping past meager feet to gain the summit. I called it Dragon’s Lair. It was a fine finish to a pleasant day amongst the small stones.

Yesterday felt closer to the bouldering efforts I put out in my late twenties. I’m not wrecked today. My stamina is improving. I’m also smarter about fueling and recovering than in the past. I’m climbing smarter, not harder. I wish I had more free time to engage with the magic pebbles I find in the woods. But alas…

As of the middle of November 2026, I have put up nearly ninety new problems at this area alone over the last two years. At this area and others I have climbed thirty-eight new problems in 2026.