Powell River Bouldering Guide - 2020 Update free download

 An older version of this guide was made available in the Powell River Rocks guidebook. I also made an updated version available for download for a small fee.

Since that time, the amount of bouldering in the Eldred Valley has more than doubled. Many new areas have been opened. I no longer live in Powell River, and am unable to fully update the guide at this time. A new developer and I are working on a website that will include all the new lines, areas, and projects that are openly being reported. It will be a user updated interactive interface for all things bouldering in the Powell River area.  Eventually, I do plan on collecting everything and making a proper update. 

Now that the shoulder season is approaching, I'd like to release this slightly updated version with a few corrections and sent projects. It does not include the huge amount of new stuff in the Buttress boulders, the Psyche slab area, or the Sanctuary. 

An important note - Stillwater bluffs is a highly sensitive ecosystem, and an area that the Friends of Stillwater Bluffs are working hard to conserve.  Abide by all ethical guidelines in this guide. If word spreads of any climbers leaving garbage, parking incorrectly, damaging the area in anyway, or annoying residents of the neighbourhood, this guide will come down.

Please re-scrub problems if you are in the valley - if everyone retro-scrubbed just one problem per trip things would stay clean! Be very bear aware as there are occasional grizzly sightings in the area.

Enjoy!

Notice of rights - all rights reserved. No part of this PDF, including photographs, maps or text may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without consent of the author.


Some beta can be found by following my Instagram 'Krizob', or searching Eldred Valley or Powell River bouldering on Youtube. 

DOWNLOAD THE FREE GUIDE HERE

The Dark Pool: Fun in the fleeting sun

Deep water soloing is the 'cool' thing to do. Even if it's in the frigid, dark river waters of coastal B.C.

Eric playing around on the roof

The Dark Pool is a swimming area on Louis River, more commonly known as Eagle River. The area is known by many different names - when I grew up, my friends and I called it 'the caves', due to a little cave you can swim through that puts you behind the waterfall.

Climbers call it 'The Dark Pool' - due it often being covered by shade. Its in a canyon, which can make for some cold waters if you go too early or too late in the day - but that also makes for a few cool lines of deep water soloing.

 While climbing the traverse "The Dry Circuit" that goes along this well featured roof, I noticed a few holds that seemed like they would link up to the top of the wall.

Matt eyeing up the crux on Big Splash.

  Turns out, after turning the roof, there is a fun bouldery section that links up with easy climbing straight to the forest above. You could walk down, but I named the route Big Splash (5.10+?) for a reason - the jump down is the reward.

 I can barely guess at the grade since I only climbed it once, and I have a very bouldery style. It felt pretty easy to me, already knowing the beta for the roof and only having one hard move after. It will need a few other sends to get a consensus.

  No photos were taken of the upper part of the route, but from where Matt is staring in this photo, it goes right through the slightly lighter coloured section on his right, then straight up.

There's a rad boulder at the dark pool too. I've played around in the cave of it, and I know it will go. The trouble is the landing, or more like lack there of. You'd pretty much fall down a slippery canyon. If I can figure out a way to build a landing pad across it and make it safer, this will definitely be worth cleaning. 

Project