The BoyZ shot up to Pawtuckaway National Park to play on some beautiful top roping routes at the location known as the Upper Cliff. This was our second trip to this section of the park and it turned out to be pumpy, challenging and painful.

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To begin the day we hopped on The Roof a super chill climb rated at 5.7 on Mountain Project. We had done this one on our previous trip to Pawtuckaway as a closer for the day so starting on it seemed fitting. The beginning of the climb was a bit tricky but once you're in that crack going up becomes very fun all the way to the top out! We hit a handful of crack climbs on this day and this was the first that gave us a taste of what was to come.

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From the Roof it was only natural to slide the top rope a smidge right and hit Chamonix, a sick 5.9 face climb. Chamonix proved to be pretty reachy towards the end with a large section of the upper half barren of any solid holds. It took some time but it got sent by the BoyZ once we realized it was only a little hop that was needed to snag a very solid flake. From there it was easy to put a check in the box on that bad boy and move on.

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After cleaning up the gear, we moved over right some more to get into the grit that would start to be the theme of the day; painful crack climbs. We had hopped on The Horn once before during our first trip and it proved pumpy and tough both times we pulled on it. Rated a 5.9+, this crack hurt! It took everything I had to lean back on this one and get to the top but I didn't get the send. We had no idea that a crack climb in our near future would turn out to be even more physically demanding.

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Our second to last climb of the day turned out to be my personal favorite of the session. After ruining our fingers on The Horn it seemed refreshing to tug on some slab. We have been climbing indoors for a while now and our gym of choice (Metro Rock Newburyport/Everett) rarely has crack climbs to mess around with so we all figured some slab would treat us right. But once the rope was set up on Fantastic Face we remembered a key element; outdoor climbing is hard! Rated a 5.10b/c on mountain project, Fantastic Face starts off with crimpy holds with little to no feet you had to lock off on and shoot up with the left hand desperately for the next hold. Following into an epic right hand gaston that is just brutal, you finally go up to a massive flake that saves the day. From there it's a total battle into little sharp crimps and fun foot placements that get you around 60% up the climb which is where your BoyZ found defeat and could not continue.

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And finally the day was winding down. As the sun was starting to get low we slung up the last top rope of the day; The Start. This 5.9 crack climb turned out to be a terror on the hands and feet. This route was full of hand jams and a ton of stepping up on painful feet. Stau5 described the beta best when he said something along the lines of you need to keep going in order to limit the amount of time one foot or hand was in pain, staying too long in one place was not an option. The kid himself powered it out and crushed the climb in the end and was the only BCC boy to get to the top.

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After beating ourselves up on The Start it was time to head on home. Special shout out to Binson for crushing with Stau5 and I all day on 4 hours of sleep. The BCC will certainly be returning to Pawtuckaway in the near future with the ambition to locate Devils Den and The Dome and slap ourselves against the challenges found there. Stay tuned for more blog/vlog mixes from the Boyz Climbing Collective!