Allen's Park, the Past, and the Present

Allenspark East Bouldering barely matters. Why? Cause you weren’t there when it did.

As bouldering areas are found and developed, many more fall into the past. The founders Mike Freischlag and Curt Frye took me there over a few weeks last summer to reclean some holds.

When Mike and the late Skyler Crane, who died in a motorcycle accident a few years back, found a day of sport climbing at the Iron Clads, a crag east of Allenspark, a bit uninspiring they went looking around the forest and found the bouldering. Good work boys, solid shit. Of course I’ll find out more than ten years later, but nothing’s changed at these places, hardly anyone has even been there since. The area is o.k. to today’s standards, but good enough to be held secret at the time.

In the Picture here is a friend Kevin Murphy on The Mammoth Rub Boulder, (lets just call her big boned), the Mammoth Rub was one of the many boulders in the area held sacred at the time of the area’s development. Matt Samet, the area’s premier developer, said, "at one point during the time we were developing Allenspark my friend was taking people up there to show them the area. At the time I was very proprietary of the place, for no good reason. A complete ego-manic." Matt laughs at the recollection. " I told her, your not taking those people up there, I put up 98 percent of the problems, and I get to say who goes there and who doesn’t! I was being such a prick." With great ego, and a healthy dose of good fun, Matt would culminate to calling himself "Allen" because "this is my Park. " (Classic) "The rest of the time they slagged the shit out of me! The slagging is evident in the names of the best problems.

Allenspark East was and I guess still is; just another bouldering area. I found that a little story of a place helps it along. There are problems being put up, problems to be found, problems unrepeated, and people to tell you the stories of ‘em. I wanted to hear the stories from the developers and maybe learn something myself. But it was by watching the guys trying there hardest to climb Skyler’s memorial route, a problem way above their level, I got all the beta I needed on why this place is special. Like any area on any other day, it’s about blood, sweat, tears, and a little slagging of your friends past and present