The South Fork Boulders

The South Fork Boulders are Telluride's newest bouldering area. I discovered these boulders about three weeks ago on an exploratory hike in the Ilium Valley. Since then, Dasha and I have been developing them- clearing and marking trails, scrubbing lichen, and cleaning loose rock. The new area is shaping up nicely.

This spot isn't going to supplant Ilium or the Mine Boulders as the bouldering area of choice for most locals. But hopefully, once it is fully developed, it will provide an alternative to those areas for people looking for something new. I am putting together a topo for the area that I will post for free at some point in the coming weeks. Here's what I can tell you now.

This area is located very close to Ilium. There is convenient parking and easy approaches for all of the boulders. There are three distinct clusters of boulders. The first area- the Eight Week Boulders- has about two dozen problems, mostly in the V0-V3 range, but there will be some harder problems as well. The second area- the Strawberry Patch- contains about a dozen problems in the V0-V2 range. The third area- the Golden Boulders- is the largest, containing about three dozen problems. The rock quality is similar to Ilium. The boulders are generally not as tall as Ilium, but the best ones are in the same range of height. There are going to be some outstanding problems at this new area, particularly at the third set of boulders. I will post more pictures as I get them. Here are a few photos of one of the boulders in the Golden Boulders area. Dasha likes to call this boulder the Fish Boulder.