I’m 10 feet up on a problem that the guidebook calls “Carnage Central – the site of more broken ankles than any other problem in the park”. I am shaking, violently. The insecure crux move on this classic that I have done every time I come here, sometimes solo over a rental pad, suddenly evades me. Rather than stand up and enter a comfortable, balanced gaston, I stab low into probably the shallowest portion of the runnel I’m working, causing my spotters to gasp as I somehow keep myself aloft. (Editors note: I didn’t gasp, I shouted “What are you doing?!”) Alternating, microscopic, bumps of each hand carry me up as I refuse to take the fall for the 5th time today, convinced the collective clench from the group below is propelling me.
Awful lot of work for a V3, especially someplace where I have previous strung together 10 climbs in a day that check in at least twice as hard. But never after doing 50 other climbs. Today I am “Star Chasing”. Rather than come to this comp and string together 7-8 repeats of my “greatest hits” and try to tick off 2-3 new climbs, I’m going for volume on the good stuff, and I’m loving it. I know its really easy to rave about how great some piece of objective choss is just because its got a hard number attached to it. I’ve driven almost an hour to pull 3 moves on flaky pebble less than 6 foot high, just because someone told me it was worth double digits.
Enter the Triple Crown of Bouldering’s ‘Star Chaser’ category. All boulder problems at Hound Ears, Stone Fort, and Horse Pens 40 have been assigned between 0 and 3 Stars, denoting the quality and classic-ness of the lines. Some very rare gems are even granted a fourth star. 7 hours of climbing, most stars wins, regardless of grade. If you want to only hit the most classic lines and take down those 3 star problems regardless of grade, great. If you want to try and achieve victory through overwhelming volume and grind out dozens 1-star problems in the V0-2 range, also great. Its not unusual to see a competitor tick 120 stars in 50 problems, and another with 120 stars in 90 problems.
I’ll admit it. I had been a grade snob. I was much more interested in taking down that next V7 or the elusive V8 on my trips to the southeast. Star Chasing opened up a whole new world of boulders for me. Out were the years of only doing 30 new problems in 12 months time – in was the time of doing 30 new problems in a weekend.
Did you know there’s a 3-star V0 at HP40 called Lob? I would have never noticed it, but now I had a reason to drop a pad, and you know what? Its amazing. The holds are perfectly sculpted. They are right where you need them to be. The moves are easy but they flow so well! Now when I bring new climbers to a place, I have a much larger set of boulders to pick from that are both classic, and suit a wider variety of tastes and abilities. For every iconic 3-star line that makes the ‘Top 25 Boulders in America”, there are dozens of 2-star lines nearly as good and worth a minute of your time.
An unexpected perk for the extrovert in me was that running manically from one end of the boulder field to the other, and requiring 5-7 times as many signatures, meant I got to meet EVERYBODY. Downside was navigating the social moments of showing up, flashing the project of the novice or intermediate folks, and then moving on without feeling like a jerk. Some Star Chasers do this with ease, others will bowl through, use your pads, and barely say hello as they and their support staff move on. I can say for certain that you can do 10+ problems an hour all day and still find time to chat, spot, and be polite.
The only negative to the whole experience is to my friends. I don’t care if you crush V10, if we go these places, I’m going to rave to you about how you HAVE to do this V3, because if you don’t, you’re missing out.
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I started this article in 2018 after having star chased for two of three events. For 2019 I made a full season of it, and with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes at the individuals, won the season overall. As cool as it might have been to win all 3 outright, the locals go HARD at some stops, and as an upshot I got a full variety of prize packs.
Final tally: 3 stops, 205 boulder problems, 382 stars, and countless new friends.
Oh, and the second season, I definitely made sure to hit that “sketchy” boulder good and fresh.
Justin Meserve is a paradox – he can string together nearly a dozen boulders an hour for 7 hours straight, and yet once there’s a rope involved, he’s pumped out of his mind before he reaches the 3rd bolt.
