We're bouldering in the middle of nowhere. While searching online for Frankenjura bouldering, Frank found out why there are no published topos or guidebooks. The local boulderers agreed to not publish directions to any of the boulders for environmental reasons. Think about it. While climbers are not as bad as others, they still do their amount of damage: smoking and leaving cigarette butts (yes, in the forest), leaving toilet paper everywhere, miscellaneous trash, noise, blazing new trails instead of using established ones. If someone really wanted to find some boulders and do a few problems, they'd have to look hard.

It was sprinkling off and on that afternoon. And it was quiet, except for the occasional car driving on the highway a few hundred meters away, or the farmer on his tractor rolling up the hill behind us. There was no one else around. We put away a few warm-ups, a few problems on this here boulder and that one over there, and then we got to this.

It's just six moves. Six precise hand holds. Foot holds that gradually get smaller. It was fun. I managed to do the first 4, and then the last 3, but I never got around to linking them. There was a hold that you had to hit right the first time, or you'd fall off a small slope. (Damn, wish we had a crash pad.) Frank, on the other hand, almost got the problem. Almost. Over 10 tries and our fingers were toast.

◊ View Six Moves slideshow.

Food Link: Christopher Walken roasts a chicken.
Chocolate Link: David Liebovitz on Chocolatiers and Chocolate Makers.
Video Links: A playful pack of pups, a crazy dawg, and three guinea pigs fighting over a bit of cucumber. Eh, I was bored. It was cute.