The Black Cliffs of Boise

The Black Cliffs of Boise. A place where Basalt towers rise up a mind bending 60-70ft. The climbing is short, stemmey, slippery, and covered in a copious amount of bird shit. The routes have been rap bolted to a almost grid sense. While the bolts were necessary on several of the routes that I was on, a majority of them seemed to take solid abet large gear. Red flags go up when I see a line of bolts next to a perfectly good splitter. In addition to the trad/sport conflict at least one of the routes I was on had five bolts in the first 30ft and then you had to run it out 20 more feet to the next bolt. What good is over bolting the bottom of a route if you are still going to deck from the top. Nothing excuses a bad bolt job especially one done on rappel. Also names of routes were painted on the wall bellow several routes.

The climbs themselves were fun, the Cliffs are cragging to the extreme. Five minutes from the highway you have well over 200 climbs. This in addition to the sensitive raptor habitat the ease of access the amount of bolting the area is rife for access issues. The Boise Climbers Alliance(BCA) has installed signage warning of the sensitivity of the area. The amount of people at the crag seemed manageable there were many parking lots, designated and seemingly maintained approach trails.

The main issue and concern I had with the area and its users other than the unnecessary bolts was the amount of loose rock at the top of the wall. Most of the routes could be walked up and top roped. No big deal right? Not if you are kicking off rocks from the top as you scramble. There was a scary lack of helmets at the crag. Other than our group I counted six out of the 25+ people climbing.
People need to remember that climbing is dangerous even if you are 100ft from the road. Wear helmets people, wear them all the time. They might not make you invincible but they sure as hell help with rockfall.

Oh ya sorry I'm not a local but that is my opinion.