Sometimes You Have To Improvise

P Arsenault not wanting to move out of the shade on Elementary V0, Munson Lake, NB

It was a good couple of days of New Brunswick bouldering.  The sweltering heat and humidity kept us in the easier grades, but most importantly, the bugs were tolerable.


Four of us spent much of Sunday in the shade and on the slabs, and added two new problems to the East side of Munson Lake.  When it got too hot, we broke for lunch and had a little tequila with lime on ice.  Not having a knife, we had to improvise.

As you can see from the middle photo, I had my suspicions, but Dom had the right idea; shears not only work well for clearing paths through the shrub ground covers, they also cut lime wedges with precision.

When the others took off for home, I headed to the shade of the Hardwood Area and put in about an hour-and-a-half of work scrubbing the 5 or 6 chunks of granite that form the Trailside Boulders.  Tired, but with a few hours of daylight left, I set up my tent, then took a bath in the brook before making supper and tucking in for the night.

The Trailside boulders in the Hardwood Area.

Light rain overnight cooled things off for a good half-day on Monday.  Sebastian L met me in the am at the Corner Stones and we dispatched some of the starred problems, before working the long-standing crack project on Colt 45.  Together we (well, Seb mostly) figured out the beta, and each managed to pull off all but one move. For me it's number 2, and for Seb it's the opening move that's the problem.  It has really neat moves between cool holds up an obvious line.  Definitely a 3-star problem that we are both so close to completing that we will likely send it next visit!

S Lancelot executing the namesake move on Enter The Dragon, V4 (Glute Boulder) at Munson Lake, New Brunswick

Just a shot of Inversée for the guide