Upper Cedar Run

This is a south facing hillside with many large boulders scattered across it. The upper boulders are very good quality and a fairly easy hike. This cluster is up to date, but I'm adding new ones as I can.

A breif SNP bouldering history as I know it:

I first started looking for new boulders at Old Rag in the late 90's. I spent a season developing by myself. After nearly a decade of bouldering without a crash pad, I decided it was time to try one. In the fall of that season I recruited a young 15 year old 5'9" Jon Glassburg and then there were two pads. We saw occasional chalk on trail side boulders at the time, but never any boulderers. We were definitely not the first ones to boulder at Old Rag, but perhaps some of the earlier ones to carry crashpads. Development at Old Rag and the surrounding areas would continue through the years and the community grew. The development later on would shift to the greenstone of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This effort would be mostly led by Brendan and Barry Condoron and crew, but has been continued by several generations of local climbers. The development of bouldering in the park itself has been slow. Most of the recorded boulders are visible from the road or trail side. Many areas in the park have been published without ascents. I think this is because the roadside stuff isn't very good. The park is very large and the greenstone is spread out over a 100+ mile range and due to it's tortured metamorphic nature, there is incredible variation in the stone. Some areas are really really good while others sharp and shattered. The good greenstone and all it's variations make for some incredible boulder fields. I often times see chalk on trail side boulders all over the park, and would love to know more of the SNP bouldering story.

The trailside boulders seem to get chalked up occasionally at Cedar Run (this is an access path to the White Oak canyon boulders), but the evidence disappears quickly as you get off trail and deeper into the boulders of Cedar Run.