Updated COAD area bouldering map

This map shows the approximate location of notable bouldering areas between the southern terminus of Copperhead Ridge on the west, and Crumley Ridge to the east. Most of this area falls inside the Cucumber Tree drainage, and is accessed by parking at the Cucumber Tree Connector Trailhead at the end of the street across from the main access to Walmart.

Getting there:  take East State Street to the east from 33.   Turn left on the road that has a traffic light and leads to Walmart on the right.   The OU credit union is on the left side of East State Street, but will be on your right once you turn onto that road and head north.   You will pass some trailers, a house on the right and come to a small (8 car) parking area next to a small barn.  The trail leads up the drainage from there. After 10 min it comes to an intersection with a footbridge on the left.   Cross the footbridge to the left and then stay left on the main trail for about 10 min.   You will pass the emerald in the woods (down hill 50 feet from the triangular trailside boulder) to the left and then turn the corner to the COAD boulders.  The dark green line on the map marks the trail.

1. The  COAD boulders are on the western side of the south end of Copperhead ridge.    This wall has a host of moderate face problems, which are better after you sweep them off, and would be more fun if the down climb was more pleasant.  There are a bunch of decent problems here, most notably the 3 star boulder which is clean and solid.

2. The emerald is a bit downhill from the eastern flank of Copperhead ridge, just downhill from the large triangular boulder, see location on map above.

3. The lions head wall is at the top of the basin, and is best accessed above, just off of the Athens trail near the juncture with the Basswood Connector.  This wall has a great V0 warm up, high ball that you should probably just downclimb.  To the right of the warm up you will find a couple of pocket starts, then a crimpy V10 well to to the right.

4. The sun cave is a shallow rock house is east of the lion's head, and is clearly visible from there and from the major U bend in the Rockhouse trail.  These problems are marginal in terms of rock quality except for a couple of easy slabs on the right.  The problem (and pictured here)  in the linked post is a fun slab on the righthand edge of the rockhouse.

4.5  Upper tier  at about the location of the B in Boulder Cove on the map above is this tall, very easy and well featured boulder problem. A sit down start adds to the fun.  There are a few more moderate problems nearby.  This area at the top of hill, well above the main cliff line to the left of the commitment area.  

5.  The commitment area is uphill from another major bend in the Rockhouse trail, marked by a low wooden bridge.   Just as you cross the small wooden bridge, this area is uphill on the left side of the small drainage.  Bring brooms to sweep the topout.  Commitment is on the left side, while birdsnest is on the right and is a great steep V4/V6+ with a solid pinch rail.

6.  Big momma and several other features mark the left side of the Rockhouse trail.  Big Momma is the striking tall arete on the cliff line.

7. The boxcar boulders are downhill from Big Momma.  This is the best of the three large boulders with some good warm ups, a traverse, and some eliminates.










8. If you continue walking on the main trail to the south east you encounter an obvious trail-side corner cliff with several problems.  The crimpy corner problem marks the next major turn in the trail, with several small problems nearby.

9. There are some scattered cliffs of mixed quality between crimpy corner and the min-twinkie.  The mini- twinkie is high on the ridge after a fair bit of hiking.  The uphill side has a great moderate overhanging problem with solid pockets on an overhang, a rare Athens treat.

10.  Pass a break-down and several small features around the southern end of Crumley Ridge for the sunken boulder, overlooking the Athens Mall to the east.

Lion's Head Wall

So, this is the lion's head on the left hand side of the lion's head wall.  The rock is some of the most solid and featured in Athens county.  A tall V0 ascends under the lion's head and to the immediate right. I typically climb up to the lion's head, traverse a couple feet and then downclimb.   The topout is high, committing, sloping, and not necessarily clean.  Here is a view of the wall:

Detail of the right hand side.   A fun and not too hard problem (V2?) starts matched on the low pockets and heads up to the two sets of spooky eyes.   A harder eliminate starts on the low pockets, then avoids the pockets by grabbing a thin crimp, and follows a series of edges straight up to the jugs above. (V5/6?)  The first crimp is fragile, so treat it with care. The far right side has a very hard and very thin problem (apparently a visiting climber completed that problem in recent years at V10).  An undone project starts on the V5/6 and follows the row of small edges right to meet the topout of the V10.

Fun moderate problems with Anna

The right hand side of the sun cave has two fun little slab problems.  The most interesting is this line and follows a brief ramp/seam to a horizontal with an undercling. 

Anna gets ready to try the fun, technical slab / ramp.  

Thin holds!

Potential for a line or two

Went for a rainy day hike a couple of weeks ago.  A sit down start on the lip jug on the left, then angling up and right has potential.  Sadly the cool feature on the right of the big hueco is not solid enough.  It would otherwise be  very interesting.

Open hand training holds

1.  Finger bucket for 30 degree and steeper walls.

How to make them.

2. Wider version of same design, placed on roof section.

While reaching up and out from the 30 degree wall below
this type of hold makes a challenging open-hand match.

3.  Same design, but made with round hand rail for 'slabbier' walls.

Rail is flush with backing to make deeper,

comfortable open-hand edge.

4.  Open hand training hold, with thin rail. 

This design uses a pine 2X3, with one corner ripped off;

plus a thin oak molding.

5.  I made about 10 of these open hand trainers to create 

a mini system wall in the kids area of the dojo.

All of these holds are basic edges that are intended to be installed semi-permanently at particular angles, and with one face up.  This is a good solution for home walls because such simple designs are easier and faster to make than general purpose holds, and they can fill in space around the bolt on holds.  While basic edges are "boring" they are the most common type of hold, especially on sandstone, and are a great resource for training.

The last type of the training hold [image 4. above] brings up a couple of general points about hold layout.   In a home wall, you should create spaces that allow you to train in different ways.  The last image shows a small section of slightly overhanging wall above a small angled roof.   This a great place to work on hanging slopers, but thin edges are hard to use here because holds immediately underneath can obstruct access the thin edge or impinge on your forearm.

Placing the thin edge on the face of the sloper means that you can still access the thin edge even with a more bulky hold immediately below it.  Plus, an array of these training holds let you practice similar movements from both sloping and thin open-hand edges.

Perfect Conditions

Perfect conditions: for a leaf fight! The trails are muddy in the spring, but Athens bouldering is coming back to life.

Overview map: COAD to Sunken Boulder

This map shows the approximate location of notable bouldering areas between the southern terminus of Copperhead Ridge on the west, and Crumley Ridge to the east. Most of this area falls inside the Cucumber Tree drainage, and is accessed by parking at the Cucumber Tree Connector Trailhead.

How to get to the parking:  take East State Street to the east from 33.   Turn left on the road that has a traffic light and leads to Walmart on the right.   The OU credit union is on the left side of East state street, but will be on your right once you turn onto that road and head north.   You will pass some trailers, a house on the right and come to a small (8 car) parking area next to a small barn.  The trail leads up the drainage from there. After 10 min it comes to an intersection with a footbridge on the left.   Cross the footbridge to the left and then stay left on the main trail for about 10 min.   You will pass the emerald in the woods to the left and then turn the corner to the COAD boulders.  The dark green line on the map marks the trail.

(1) The COAD boulders are on the western side of the south end of Copperhead ridge.
(2) The emerald is a bit downhill from the eastern flank of Copperhead ridge.
(3) The lions head wall is at the top of the basin, and is best accessed above, just off of the Athens trail near the juncture with the Basswood Connector.  This wall has a vo warm up, high ball that you might not want to top out.  To the right are a couple of pocket starts, then a crimpy V10 well to to the right.
(4) The sun cave is a shallow rock house is east of the lion's head, and is clearly visible from there and from the major U bend in the Rockhouse trail.  These problems are marginal in quality except for a couple of easy slabs on the right.  The problem in the linked post is a fun slab on the righthand edge of the rockhouse.
(4.5)  Upper tier?  at about the location of the B in Boulder Cove on the map above is a tall, very easy and well featured boulder problem.  There are a few more moderate problems nearby.
(5) The commitment area is uphill from another major bend in the Rockhouse trail, marked by a low wooden bridge.
(6) Big momma and several other features mark the left side of the Rockhouse trail.
(7) The boxcar boulders are downhill from Big Momma.
(8) A crimpy corner problem marks the next major turn in the trail, with several small problems nearby.
(9) The mini- twinkie is high on the ridge after a fair bit of hiking.
(10) Pass a break-down and several small features around the southern end of Crumley Ridge for the sunken boulder, overlooking the Athens Mall to the east.

East side of Copperhead Ridge: The Emerald

This gem of a freestanding boulder is located on the eastern side of Copperhead Ridge. Starting from the Cucumbertree Connector, hike westward on the Rockhouse trail, towards Copperhead Ridge and the COAD boulders. About 1200 feet past the wooden footbridge you will begin to see boulders up on the ridge. Soon after that, there is a small clearing on the left side of the trail with a 7 foot tall boulder with a triangular face. Turn left, walk away from the main trail, through the clearing, the Emerald is just out of sight, down the hill.

There are several interesting and challenging lines on the Emerald. Problems ascend dishes and pleasently rounded sidepulls on the green slab, next is a mostly blank gray face with a low, intermittent rail crossing it, and the overhanging back of the boulder includes a couple of short overhanging problems. Inspect the down-climb and the top-outs for fallen leaves before attempting the higher slab routes. Mantle finishes guard your escape. Punting off mid-mantle is not recommended.

The back of the Emerald sports a couple of the better (V3-5) problems in Athens County, characterized by decent quality stone with interesting holds and movement. However, because of the fragility of the local sandstone and the mantle topouts the Emerald is best saved until after a good dry spell. A couple scars indicate holds have broken, but prudent climbers can easily enjoy the problems while preserving the best features.

The slab has at least three lines, increasing in difficulty from left to right. The left arete of the slab has potential for an easy route as the leaves and vines reveal some pleasant rounded holds.

The gray face probably has a line that cranks off the left hand side pull / undercling all the way to the fragile looking chicken heads. It looks awkward but doable.

The steep side has two distinct lines, the "Emerald Arete" that ascends the pictured prow with pockets, pinches and edges. The second problem cranks off a sidepull horn to a matching pinch, then slaps the rounded lip. Boost the difficulty of the arete by off-routing the two pockets.

A fun moderate (V1-ish) lowball is possible by starting at the far right end of the rail, and traversing left until it peters out and you can establish your feet on the detached rock under the left edge of the gray face (i.e. no topout). Contrived but fun.

Copperhead Ridge: Wall of moderate face problems

On Copperhead Ridge there are several sections of the main cliff line with near-vertical, somewhat featured rock. This is one of the better sections. The landing is mostly flat, the holds are solid. The arrows indicate some of the more obvious face routes that you might try. The crack on the left can be climbed too.

Bring a brush. As with all the walls with soil up above this one sees some water run-off and may be a bit dirty. The wall is behind and a bit to the East of the 'three star boulder'. Once again, I don't really know what these are called. The top out to the right of the tree is pleasant and relatively clean.