To celebrate the Solstice, two friends and I went to Bozoo for some mid-week afternoon trad. I was excited for my first time climbing trad in the US, and we got incredibly lucky with the weather. An almost entirely south-facing sandstone wall makes Bozoo an ideal winter crag.
We headed to the river-end of the crag (known as Rigor Wall) to climb a nice 5.6 crack called “Trick or Treat.”* I really enjoyed leading it, even though my first-pitch-of-the-day brain made it seem scarier than it actually was. It was an absolute peach: cruisey, with nice layback portions and an attractive hand crack.
We’d planned to spend the day doing easy climbing and focusing on the art of placing good gear, as well as further introducing our buddy Sykes to climbing outdoors. Bozoo is packed with fun and simple 5.6’s and 7’s, so it was a great fit for us.
After a sweet lap on “Trick or Treat,” we headed down to Double-Tier Wall to climb a crunchy 5.6 crack called “Spring Chicken.”
Jason did an excellent job setting the hard-to-find first placement, and we all really enjoyed rolling right on up after him. It was a really fine example of the awkward and exposed belay stances that seem to characterize Bozoo.
Painfully aware that we were losing the light, we wandered around until we found my goal for the day, “Tastes like Chicken” (5.7). I was feeling confident about the hand crack crux right off the ground, but ended up getting my ass handed to me. I traversed around the side (for the 5.6 variation bypassing the crack), and placed two unsatisfactory pieces of gear.
It was around that time, close to 15ft off the deck, that the Bad-Vibes Fairy kindly informed me that it was time to be done for the day. I backed off the traverse and pulled my gear, only to look down and watch the suitcase-sized boulder I was stepping on shift a few inches. We moved the ropes, our bags, and my belayer, and I kicked the bastard loose.
On that note, we traipsed back across the scree-field in search of an evasive shortcut (a new route I like to call Jason’s Folly), hopped the stream, and trundled on home. Another good, if humbling day in the books!
*This name is listed as a place-holder in Mountain Project as the name given at FA is currently unknown.