Field of Dreams

Google Maps has changed the face of bouldering. "Nonsense!", you say. "How could a piece of corporate software / web application change bouldering at all?" The answer, of course, is that online satellite imagery has allowed climbers to prowl the world looking for new bouldering areas. In Colorado, for instance, several new areas have been found using Google Maps (or Google Earth).

Unfortunately, the resolution of the Google Maps satellite imagery for much of Canada is too low to look for boulders. On a whim, I tried looking at the National Geographic map too (powered by Bing), and was surprised to find that for some areas, they have much better (higher resolution) imagery. I spent some time scoping out the boulders at Mt Babcock (near Tumbler Ridge), and was excited to see that the boulders were FAR more extensive than I had previously thought. I had bouldered at Mt Babcock several years ago, establishing several problems with Shelley and our good friend Curtis Sauve. But now it seems that we had been only to the most minor of the areas at Mt Babcock. The really exciting areas (expanses of apparently huge boulders) are still waiting for a visit!

I have compiled a image of the entire Mt Babcock boulders. I was going to keep it to my myself, but decided against it. Enjoy!