Bouldering is a form of free climbing that is performed on small rock formations or artificial rock walls without the use of ropes or harnesses. While bouldering can be done without any equipment, most climbers use climbing shoes to help secure footholds, chalk to keep their hands dry and to provide a firmer grip, and bouldering mats to prevent injuries from falls. Unlike free solo climbing, which is also performed without ropes, bouldering problems are usually less than six metres (20 ft) tall. Traverses, which are a form of boulder problem, require the climber to climb horizontally from one end to another. Artificial climbing walls allow boulderers to climb indoors in areas without natural boulders. In addition, bouldering competitions take place in both indoor and outdoor settings.
Central Park is an urban park between the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City that was the first landscaped park in the United States. It is the sixth-largest park in the city, containing 843 acres (341 ha), and the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated 42 million visitors annually as of 2016.
Longs Peak is a high and prominent mountain in the northern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The 14,259-foot (4346 m) fourteener is located in the Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness, 9.6 miles (15.5 km) southwest by south of the Town of Estes Park, Colorado, United States. Longs Peak is the northernmost fourteener in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the highest point in Boulder County and Rocky Mountain National Park. The mountain was named in honor of explorer Stephen Harriman Long and is featured on the Colorado state quarter.
Devils Tower is a butte, possibly laccolithic, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet (386 m) above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet (264 m) from summit to base. The summit is 5,112 feet (1,558 m) above sea level.
Camp 4 is a tent-only campground in Yosemite National Park in the United States. It became notable after World War II as "a birthplace of rock climbing’s modern age." It is located at an elevation of 4000 ft on the north side of the Yosemite Valley, close to base of granite cliffs near Yosemite Falls.
Rock climbing is a sport in which participants climb up, across, or down natural rock formations or indoor climbing walls. The goal is to reach the summit of a formation or the endpoint of a usually pre-defined route without falling. Rock climbing is a physically and mentally demanding sport, one that often tests a climber's strength, endurance, agility and balance along with mental control. Knowledge of proper climbing techniques and the use of specialized climbing equipment is crucial for the safe completion of routes.
Stoney Point, also known as the Stoney Point Outcroppings or Chatsworth Formation, is a Los Angeles City park near the north end of Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Chatsworth, Los Angeles, California, part of the city of Los Angeles. Stoney Point is a popular destination for hikers, equestrians and also with rock climbers because of its large boulders, which afford many opportunities to practice the sport of bouldering. The top of the rock formation offers excellent views of Chatsworth, the Santa Susana Mountains, Coyote Pass, and the entire San Fernando Valley.
Great Langdale is a valley in the Lake District National Park in North West England, the epithet "Great" distinguishing it from the neighbouring valley of Little Langdale. Langdale is also the name of a valley in the Howgill Fells, elsewhere in Cumbria.
Smith Rock State Park is a state park located in central Oregon's High Desert near the communities of Redmond and Terrebonne. The day-use area of the park is open daily from dawn to dusk. The park also has a camping area as well that accommodates tent camping only. Its sheer cliffs of tuff and basalt are ideal for rock climbing of all difficulty levels. Smith Rock is generally considered the birthplace of modern American sport climbing, and is host to cutting-edge climbing routes. It is popular for sport climbing, traditional climbing, multi-pitch climbing, and bouldering.
The Flatirons are rock formations in the western United States, near Boulder, Colorado, consisting of flatirons. There are five large, numbered Flatirons ranging from north to south along the east slope of Green Mountain, and the term "The Flatirons" sometimes refers to these five alone. Numerous additional named Flatirons are on the southern part of Green Mountain, Bear Peak, and among the surrounding foothills.
Rocking stones are large stones that are so finely balanced that the application of just a small force causes them to rock. Typically, rocking stones are residual corestones formed initially by spheroidal weathering and have later been exposed by erosion or glacial erratics left by retreating glaciers. Natural rocking stones are found throughout the world. A few rocking stones might be man-made megaliths.
John Bachar was an American rock climber. Noted for his skill at free soloing, he ultimately died during a free solo climb. A fitness fanatic, he was the creator of the climbing training device known as the Bachar ladder.
Ragged Mountain, est. 761 feet (232 m), is a traprock mountain ridge located 3 miles (5 km) west of New Britain, Connecticut, in the towns of Southington and Berlin, Connecticut. It is part of the narrow, linear Metacomet Ridge that extends from Long Island Sound near New Haven, Connecticut, north through the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts to the Vermont border. The mountain, a popular hiking and rock climbing attraction located between metropolitan Hartford and Meriden, is known for expansive vistas, vertical cliff faces, mountain ridge reservoirs, unique microclimate ecosystems, and rare plant communities. Ragged Mountain is traversed by the 51-mile (82 km) Metacomet Trail.
Derek Geoffrey Hersey was a British rock climber who specialized in free soloing, and was for many years an active participant in the Boulder, Colorado climbing scene in the United States.
Eldorado Canyon State Park is part of the Colorado State Park system. It was established in 1978 and is located in Boulder County near the city of Boulder. The park consists of two areas, the Inner Canyon and Crescent Meadows. The park encompasses 885 acres (3.6 km2) with a variety of recreation opportunities available. Eldorado Canyon is home to one of the world's most accessible and comprehensive rock climbing areas. This state park is open during daylight hours only, visitors are expected to leave before dusk.
Poke-O-Moonshine Mountain, spelled Pokamoonshine on U.S. Geological Survey maps, and sometimes known as just Poke-O, is a minor peak of the Adirondack Mountains. The name is believed to be a corruption of the Algonquin words pohqui, meaning 'broken', and moosie, meaning 'smooth'. It is located in the town of Chesterfield, New York, United States, on New York state Forest Preserve land, part of the Taylor Pond Wild Forest complex within the Adirondack Park. Due to its location next to the pass through which most travelers from the north enter the range, it has been called the "gateway to the Adirondacks".
Ashima Shiraishi is an American rock climber. Shiraishi started climbing at the age of six at Rat Rock in Central Park, joining her father. Only a few years later, she quickly established herself as one of the top boulderers and sport climbers in the world. Her numerous accolades include first-place finishes in international competitions, and multiple first female and youngest ascents. Shiraishi is featured in several short documentary-style films, and is the subject of the documentary short "Return to the Red" (2012).
Chipping is a rock climbing technique that uses a hammer and chisel to manufacture new or increased hand-holds on the natural rock to make a climbing route more feasible. It is a controversial technique due to both environmental issues, and a sense that it goes against the very challenge of free climbing. The practice was more common in the past, it is considered less acceptable in modern climbing.
Heckscher Playground is a play area located in New York City's Central Park, located close to Central Park South between Sixth Avenue and Seventh Avenue. It is the oldest and largest of Central Park's 22 playgrounds.
Rat Rock is an outcrop of Manhattan schist between 600 and 604 West 114th Street in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The boulder measures approximately 30 feet (9.1 m) high and 100 feet (30 m) long; it is notable as one of the only remaining such rocks remaining in Manhattan's street grid. It was named Rat Rock for the large number of rats nesting in it, similar to the other Rat Rock in Central Park. The row houses around it were built in the 1890s, when land in Manhattan was significantly less valuable. Though the land on which it sits has greatly appreciated in value, Columbia University, which owns Rat Rock along with most of West 114th Street, has no plans to remove it, as it has been estimated that removing the rock could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The fence around it was placed by the university in order to prevent vandalism. Columbia professor Andrew Dolkart described it as "an extraordinary survivor" of New York City's development, because it "hints at the geology of the city", and The New York Times labelled it one of New York's "most amazing natural wonders".
