Okanagan Bouldering
A Decade of Development in Central B.C.
It’s hard to believe that it was almost seven years ago that I wrote an area profile titled “The Okanagan’s Bouldering Boom” in this very publication. That piece included statements like “the Okanagan has seen a bouldering resurgence that doesn’t show signs of slowing down” and “to say the bouldering is diverse and that there is something for everyone is an understatement.” It highlighted the massive amount of bouldering development and the explosion of interest in bouldering in the Okanagan region of B.C., all while putting the psyche of the area’s developers into print. If nothing else, “The Okanagan’s Bouldering Boom” alluded to the idea of the region as a high-quality, future destination.
Well, the future is now, and the stoke of developers and Okanagan boulderers has not diminished over the past decade. In that time, more areas have been discovered and developed, previously discovered areas have become well-developed and highly concentrated, access work has been undertaken, a guidebook has been released, Rock the Blocs festival was created and is still going strong and the Okanagan has firmly entrenched itself as one of North America’s seasonal bouldering destinations.
The Okanagan Valley now holds 20 bouldering areas and over 2,500 boulder problems. From Penticton to Kelowna to Vernon, the Okanagan is loaded with diverse bouldering locations. Previously, I stated, “The rock varies from Tuolumnestyle, knobby granite to rmnp-esque boulder fields filled with ridiculously featured Monashee gneiss. Settings range from lakeside escapes to higher elevation ‘kid in a candy store’ boulderfields. You’ll find arêtes, caves, faces, traverses, overhangs, jug hauls and much more. In fact, during the summer, it’s quite easy to begin your day on horizontal gneiss in the backcountry, move down to the lake for vertical
granite and top it all off with a refreshing swim.” These statements still ring true and many of these areas are now highly developed and loaded with new problems. Describing bouldering activity in the valley as a frenzy over the last decade would be an understatement.
Locations such as Skaha Provincial Park, The Slayers, The Butcher Shop near Penticton and Cougar Canyon and Ellison Provincial Park near Vernon are still gems of the Okanagan bouldering world and surely help cement the region as a destination, but there’s little doubt that over the last decade, The Boulderfields has become the flagship location of Okanagan bouldering. No other area in the valley, or possibly the country, has seen the same amount of activity or development in that time. The Boulderfields is now one of the largest and best bouldering areas in this part of North America.
Over the past decade, The Boulderfields (affectionately named The Fields by locals) has experienced a development explosion that includes a jump from less than 100 established problems to what is now, at best guess, over 1,600 established lines. Some suggest that the area holds double that in potential, and could easily eclipse 3,000 lines when development nears its end. With that jump in problem concentration there has been a parallel increase in the quality, boldness, and difficulty of the lines. The Fields’ lines are very diverse and now range from V0 to V14 in difficulty with hard projects awaiting some love. Most of the rock in the Okanagan is solid gneiss, and the gneiss in The Fields is extensively featured and steep, resulting in the area’s rumored powerful, gym-climbing like style. You can find pretty much everything in The Fields. Easy, hard, tall, short, good landing, bad, safe, life-threatening, worldclass, yada yada – it’s all here folks.
For years, I’ve been proclaiming that the bouldering in The Fields is as good as or better than nearby destinations such as Squamish and Leavenworth. Yeah, I know, bold statement. I’m sure some think of me as little more than some sort of Boulderfields zealot, but those who have made the trek know the truth. That first walk to the rim of The Fields usually seals the deal. Imagine pulling into a parking lot
with only a few cars, surrounded by trees, and seeing little evidence that boulders are anywhere nearby. Then, you walk for about one minute and all of a sudden, in front of your feet, a massive spread of boulders reveals itself. The shear immensity of the scene causes your jaw to drop. As you walk down the trail, passing boulders at every turn, you look closer and realize that the rock and lines are incredible. After a 10-minute walk, you’ve seen enough lines to keep you busy for years, and yet have only seen a tiny fraction of the bouldering in The Fields. After a full day of pulling down on classic after classic, you return to the parking/camping area, and take a look around at the lack of people, free camping, and relaxed vibe and think, “Damn, that Andy guy was right.” Alright, maybe that’s not the exact wording, but many people can’t believe that such a huge, world-class bouldering destination can have free camping, be so quiet, and still be so unknown. Time after time, we see people coming to The Fields to escape what places like Squamish and Leavenworth have become,
and rarely are they disappointed. Slowly but surely, The Boulderfields is gaining the notoriety it deserves, and that is the result of a lot of work over the last decade.
Since the last area profile in Gripped in 2012, and the release of my small bouldering guide for The Fields in that same year, much has changed. In 2013, local developers decided to showcase The Boulderfields and its little-known gems of problems with the inaugural Rock the Blocs Boulderfest. Little did we know, but it would become an annual gathering that would draw top
climbers from around the world, year after year. In its seventh year, it’s grown into Canada’s largest outdoor bouldering festival. Since the beginning, Rock the Blocs has been about getting the climbing community together to enjoy the incredible bouldering in The Fields, and the quality of the area’s problems and the event itself have kept people coming back. Attendance numbers at the inaugural festival were around 70 participants, while last year’s event was well over 400 attendees. The growth of Rock the Blocs is very much a reflection of the development of The Boulderfields.
In 2014 and 2015, Clayton Arnall’s films, The Fields: A Bouldering Film and Out of the Shadows showcased Okanagan bouldering to a much larger audience. A number of the region’s key developers were included and clips of beautiful, inspiring and unknown lines piqued the interest of climbers from around the world. That year also marked the creation of the Okanagan Bouldering Society (obs). The same group of boulderers who developed most of the lines in the Okanagan Valley had the foresight to see the potential of the region as a destination and decided to create an official body that could be a voice for the bouldering community in the valley. Since that time, the obs has worked to have The Boulderfields recognized as a provincial recreation site and now has a partnership with the Rec Sites and Trails B.C. to manage the newly updated Boulderfields site. As a matter of fact, this relationship helped the obs save vehicle access to The Fields when it was threatened over the past year. The obs knew that the area was going to get popular, so they wanted to make sure the infrastructure was already in place before that occurred. The obs has also been the body who has worked tirelessly over the last four years to maintain, develop, and secure access to bouldering areas in the Okanagan.
In 2018, after many years of work, my Okanagan Bouldering guidebook was released. This beast of a project is about 540 pages in size and includes 1,800 problems from throughout the Okanagan Valley. The goal of this book was always to showcase Okanagan bouldering as a whole and share the incredible bouldering in the region with those who were interested. Local boulderers were a huge part of the creation of this book, and their support and excitement is always inspiring. As soon as it was released, Okanagan Bouldering sold like hotcakes and people were able to access all the information for areas they had
“OVER THE PAST DECADE, THE BOULDERFIELDS (AFFECTIONATELY NAMED ‘THE FIELDS’ BY LOCALS) HAS EXPERIENCED A DEVELOPMENT EXPLOSION THAT INCLUDES A JUMP FROM LESS THAN 100 ESTABLISHED PROBLEMS TO WHAT IS NOW, AT BEST GUESS, OVER 1,600 ESTABLISHED LINES.”
previously only heard whispers about. It seems that this resource may be the last piece of the puzzle for proving to people that Okanagan bouldering is as good as advertised.
And all that brings us to today. As I look out the window on a warm, sunny spring day, after weeks of bouldering on amazing problems throughout the valley, I’m filled with the anticipation of the early season in The Boulderfields. The days of pulling into the parking lot and being the only soul there may be gone, but a decade after my first brush strokes hit that perfect Fields gneiss, my fire for the place has only grown hotter. Every year, when the snow melts and the first day of The Fields season is upon us, excitement spills over and I make my trip up the bumpy hill to this place that truly satisfies the soul. Seven years ago, I said, “The Okanagan has definitely begun to flex its bouldering muscle and shows promise of becoming an exciting and enjoyable destination for many years to come.” Well, it seems that thought has come to fruition, and Okanagan bouldering has become a key player in the North American bouldering world.