The Choss Files #2 – Arrowrock Reservoir

Welcome to the newest section of SplitterChoss.com, the Choss Files. This will be a section that details the search for new cliffs and the results of those explorations. I guess the first installment was technically my jaunt into Rocky Canyon outside of Boise, so we’ll call that Issue #0, and it’ll probably become a collector’s item.

Thumbing through the local guidebook up here there is a section that talks about “Other Areas.” Sounds like a good place to start. One place in particular sounded appealing. Less than an hour away, located on the shores of a reservoir, and the book said a couple routes had been done and the area was supposedly ripe for development. Bingo!

I headed out there last night to see what could be found. Along the way I stopped at a small wall right off the road. It looked ok, but incredibly dirty. I’ve never really seen moss like that on a sunny cliff. Looked like the kind of thing where you COULD put routes up, but you would spend hours cleaning, and that’s just not fun.

Continuing along, the road turned to dirt and I kept my eyes open for cliffs. The setting is very scenic with the contrast of the water and mountains. Finally I came around a bend and saw the cliffs up on the hillside. As I got closer, it looked more and more promising. Walking up the hill, I started to scope some lines. When I finally got up to the rock, I saw it was the same stuff I had just been looking at. Some of it was super mossy, most of it was pretty crunchy. There were a few lines that stood out, maybe 6 or so that looked promising. I didn’t see any evidence of the lines that had been done before.

Overall my impression was that it was a super cool spot with marginal rock. Might be fun to develop if you had nothing else to do, but for now I’ll probably keep looking for other stuff. There is a crag up in the mountains above town that looked like it had some good potential. Next up, Mores Mountain…