Thank you for giving my first attempt at a web page a visit.

This page spent quite a bit of time in my mind before I finally decided to devote some time to making it a reality. Let me tell you right off the bat, I am no webmeister (something you will see for yourself).

I decided to create this site both as an excuse to learn about web design (and all the programs that go with it - Photoshop, Illustrator, etc...) as well as to get some information out there on a subject where information is sorely lacking: Bouldering at Lake Tahoe.

An unfortunate and severe injury gave me a lot of time with nothing to do. So, in an attempt to kill some of that time while I heal, I read books (many, many books) picked the brains of computer geek friends, and went out to map the local bouldering spots.

I decided to teach myself HTML coding by hand, rather than using one of those new fangled WYSIWYG dealies. As I learn more, the look of this site will change to reflect my knowledge. For now however, you're going to have to live with my crude attempt. Well, enough about my shortcomings as a page author. Let's talk about the local bouldering.

I have lived at Lake Tahoe (which for those of you who don't know, resides at 6000 feet, about 150 miles North of Yosemite) for a little over 4 years. I consider myself a very well rounded (which is not to say good) climber. I have an equal passion for both sport and trad; one pitch clip-ups and multi-ropelength epics-in-waiting. But if I had to pick just one aspect of the sport and forego the rest, I would have to go with bouldering. Its user friendliness and challenge have always interested me at least somewhat more than gear driven rope climbing.

In the time that I have lived here, I have met climbers from all over the world. People from as far away as Slovenia and Australia come to sample everything from the tall and unique cracks of Lover's Leap, to the 150-degree ceilings of Cave Rock. But none of these people ever had any interest in the local bouldering. This does not surprise me in the least. While the local boulders are pretty decent, they are not something a visiting climber would really seek out. I figure this is in part due to almost no public information. No, Tahoe's boulders are more a place for locals to go after work, or near the end of the day when it is hot. With this site, I hope to give visiting climbers a place to go on a day when motivation to rope up might be lacking.

As far as the history of the area's bouldering goes, I know as much about that as I do about web coding. However, I do know whom some of the local talent is.

Almost certainly, the Hatchett brothers (Mike and Dave) are responsible for at least some of the problems. You may have seen them in the odd climbing or snowboarding movie. Compact, longhaired identical twins, they are most well known (at least around here) for the development of sportclimbing at Big Chief, a popular basalt crag high up on the shore of the Truckee River canyon. Other likely suspects include Dimitri Barton, Paul Crawford, Joe "Smokin' Joe" Missick, Brian Biega and probably numerous others who I have either never met or heard of. To the pioneers of local bouldering who may feel slighted, I am sorry.

Of course, knowing little of the area's history means I have not gathered much information regarding route names or ratings. Frankly, I would rather spend my time teaching myself something useful than hunting down the one person who might actually know the name of that obscure sit start problem. If I were trying to make a guide for sale I would probably try harder at getting the history down. But this is all on my time, so I am going to skip over it for now.

Any problem that actually has a specific name has it either because that is what I have always heard it called, or that is how I have always described it to someone else (i.e "Dude! Did you send the Big Face yet?!?"). All ratings are based on my own interpretation of the problem's moves. Anyone who is not: 69 inches tall, 160 pounds, with huge hands, a negative 3 ape index, and native of Long Island may find the problems somewhat easier/harder. I have attempted to be conservative with my ratings, since we don't need any more ego-bloated boulderers in the world.

Estimating a problem's grade however, becomes difficult when it involves a problem I can't do. Any grade you see with a question mark after it reflects what is an educated guess on the part of myself and my bouldering pals who also can't make the crux move. I would appreciate any input from anyone who can tell me more about route names and grades.

While Tahoe hosts a fairly wide variety of bouldering, I am going to focus (for now) on those areas I am most familiar with. Those being Bliss State Park on Tahoe's West shore, Old County in Tahoe City, and Split Rock in Truckee. I will attempt to add more areas in the future, and don't be surprised if some roped climbing sneaks it's way in!

Whoops! Hang on just a second there! You didn't think you could go off half-cocked without hearing the usual disclaimer, did you? Well here it is: The author of this site makes no guarantee about your safety while experiencing any of the climbing described herein. If you fall because of loose rock, an unexpected sandbag rating, or because you are on the wrong problem - well that's just tough s#*tpie! Same goes for getting hit by a Tahoe tourist idiot while you are crossing the road. So be careful, alright? Right. Off you go.