Rock Artists
Last Saturday I met some people about 6:45 a.m. in a parking lot at Columbia State Historic Park. They were going bouldering in the maze of hydro-mined rocks called the Labyrinth, between old downtown Columbia and Columbia College, and I hoped to take some photos.
There were eight of us, five men and three women. They brought climbing shoes with sticky rubber to help them edge, smear and jam toeholds on vertical and overhanging rock. They had chalk for their hands and fingers, to reduce sweat and aid their grip on small features in jagged caves, on smooth walls and water-sculpted spires. They brought crash pads to protect themselves and their friends in the event of falls.
We walked into the Labyrinth a ways and came to a place known as Approach Boulders, where they dropped their pads and slipped on their climbing shoes. Some chalked up a bit. They took turns trying a problem they call the Cave Route. They say it’s rated V3 for difficulty, which equates to around 5.11+ on the Yosemite Decimal System for roped climbing.
In other words, the Cave Route is hard and a lot of people can’t climb it.
‘Lots of core’
Each climber had to start from a sitting position with a crash pad in place, put their hands on the overhanging rock, and seek out toeholds inside the cave. Kyle Loyd, 26, of Soulsbyville, made a sequence of moves look easy, reaching high with one hand for a jug, moving a foot to another hold, reaching high again with his other hand to get out of the cave and onto the face above. The loose end of his hat dangled straight down at times, emphasizing he was clinging to the near-horizontal cave roof.
Felicia Mcintire, 29, a resident of Pinecrest and Tuolumne County for two years, said the Cave Route problem poses a particular challenge.
“It’s a tricky start,” Mcintire said. “Lots of core. An overhang, it takes all the core strength you got to hang onto that wall. You got to use those abs.”
Mcintire said she first went bouldering when she was 13 with her uncle in Nevada and Colorado. She’d been playing soccer since she was 5 years old, starting at club level, then high school in San Jose, college in East Palo Alto, and semipro in Oakland. Then at age 25 she got a concussion and doctors told her she had to find a non-contact sport.
“Too many concussions in soccer,” Mcintire said. “Now I get beat by the rocks instead.”
She and her boyfriend have been climbing the past 10 months. They moved into a van and went climbing at Tahoe, Zion in Utah, and Red Rock outside Las Vegas. They do roped climbing, sport climbing, and trad climbing. She has a special place in her heart for bouldering.
“I love bouldering,” Mcinitre said. “I think it’s fun to
go as high as you can without a rope. You get to work out problems and choreograph it. It’s kind of like a dance on the rock.”
Mcintire said she tried to get outside climbing two or three times a week. She’s currently working on a crack problem on a rock on the east end of Pinecrest, near one of the footbridges where the South Fork Stanislaus flows into the reservoir.
“The climbing community out here is super inspiring,” Mcintire said. “Everyone comes from all walks of life, and shares that passion for doing things on the rock. It’s all about getting that dopamine boost and getting to know yourself a little better by doing something hard.”
Aries Curse
By 7:30 a.m. some of the climbers were working on another problem in another cave in the Labyrinth Main area at Columbia. This one was called Aries Curse. It’s rated V7, harder than the Cave Route.
Austin Roe, 26, and Hayden Loyd, 24, residents of Sonora, took turns trying the start moves. Then Davy Josephson, 33, of Columbia, got on the start and hung out to look for holds, switched his feet around, tried a drop knee move, and climbed out of the cave.
Roe said he started climbing in Columbia in 2011. He did bouldering for two weeks and it opened the door to sport and trad climbing at Table Mountain, and free climbing slabs and faces up Highway 108 near Deadman Creek. Roe said these days he goes
bouldering at least twice a week.
“It’s a great stress relief, to get away from the daily grind, and free up my mind to nature,” Roe said. “Focusing on rock problems helps me reevaluate life, keep my body healthy, keep my mind sharp. As a group it’s great to come together and challenge each other. We have the same passion for figuring out the rock.”
Hayden Loyd and his fiancé, Jordan Taylor, recently opened Golden Chain Climbing Gear on Main Street in Jamestown. He says he’s into all types of climbing: traditional, bouldering, sport.
“For me personally, the creative process of climbing includes an intersection between mental and physical, and interacting with the geology and the landscape,” Hayden Loyd said.
The purity of bouldering comes from the simplicity, he said. All you need is shoes and chalk. It’s almost the purest form of climbing. It’s you and the rock.
“It becomes a direct reflection of yourself, because the rocks don’t change,” Hayden Loyd said. “You get direct feedback from the rock. They’re like a measuring stick of your own skills and mental headspace.”
‘I like how terrifying it is’
When people first started climbing in the hydromined rocks of Columbia is unclear, but local climbers believe organized bouldering probably began sometime in the 1960s or 1970s, when climbers tended to be more secretive about their favorite spots.
The Labyrinth has been a known name for the area for decades. Some distinct subsections are known as the Waterway, Waterway Caves, and Waterway West.
A guidebook for Columbia Boulders, by Dean Fleming and Daniel Forbes, is said to be out of print, but Sierra Nevada Adventure Co. on South Washington Street has a shop copy where climbers are welcome to check it out and take photos of pages.
Cara Congelli, 27, a resident of Columbia, said she started climbing two years ago when she met Josephson, and she’s grateful he was her tour guide when he took her to the Labyrinth.
“The first time I saw it it was the most incredible thing I could imagine,” Congelli said. “There are so many pathways in there. It’s so easy to get lost. It’s like a kingdom of rock in there.
“Bouldering, I like how terrifying it is,” Congelli said. “I like how it’s kind of a physical representation of facing your fears and overcoming your fears. And I love that you can see personal growth in bouldering, in yourself and in the people you’re watching. The group we’re with right now, they’re very supportive. I’m excited about being part of the group more in future.”
Reporter’s note: Before I began working for newspapers in the early 1990s, I spent seven years with Visionquest and Outward Bound as a paid, certified wilderness instructor and emergency medical technician accountable for groups of felony offender teens, courtordered children and adult Cuban refugees. I am in my late 50s and anyone who walks OK on their own can keep up with me.