Richie Esquibel sending a lap on the original classic main arete on the main block "Living A Dream" which was V5 before the starting rock sunk into the sand and is now started lower at about V6/7~
The world class Fort Ross sandstone boulders on the Pacific Coast of Sonoma County California have one of the best V6's in the world and a few other ultra mega classic lines. There are only about 50 boulder problems total counting the main block and South and North Coves but the plumb lines on the main boulder are tried and true classics. "Fort Rossta" V6 sit start is the center line up the steep high face of the main boulder. Here is the history of this precious area:
It all started when local climbers ventured north from the popular Sunset Boulders at Goat Rock State Park past what was at the time a new climbing and bouldering area, Dry Creek Sea Crag aka The Sea Crag to explore and establish the sandstone of Salt Point State Park. The sandstone was mostly thought of as too sandy and crumbly for high quality lines but in the summer any new stone on the cool local coastline was the place to be. The first climbs were top rope or traditional and were few and far between. Avid local climbing pioneer Mark Howe had found and done some easy to moderate climbs at Sea Crag and Salt Point then myself with Ryan Padgett did the first official boulder problem on the Northern Sonoma County Coast sandstone, "Walk The Plank to the Burning Vise Grip of Love" aka "Vise Grip" V3/4 at what would later be named Shroomland. Then for a year or so the sandstone sat mostly untouched as it had in the past until a new local climber Richie Esquibel who lived closer to the coast than most all of the other local climbers hiked down to check out a boulder we had all seen as we drove past but thought the sandstone on the waters edge is likely too wet and soft/crumbly - doh!! We were all so very wrong, all except Richie. Being new to climbing with only a year or more of climbing experience the best line (best at that time), the highball main right arete was a bit tough as a first ascent for him so he got our friend and local bad ass Marcos Nunez to come try it with him. Marcos spent his winters on the road climbing and bouldering at Joshua Tree and Hueco Tanks so he was strong, skilled and experienced and knocked it out quickly. He first did it from the stand start on the rock that used to stick out of the sand but has since sunk away. He named it "Living A Dream" V5. Within about a week or so my friend and main climbing partner at the time Shawn Rogers heard about it and he and I met Richie and Marcos and his strong and talented girlfriend and climbing partner Bonnie there and we all repeated it that day or soon after. I can't remember exactly but I think we worked the center face up into the main arete "Living A Dream" from a couple starts with the main line at that time being Richie's (now almost forgotten and lost in the sands of time) "Shazinky" V8 that sit started low on the "ball" hold (RIP ball:( and angling up right into the arete. This line was not the path of least resistance but it was direct and hard. The path of least resistance was to do the same start but use the sloper ledge above to cut a hard right and traverse up into the main arete which was about a grade easier but was not direct and as hard as "Shazinky".
That was mostly it for Fort Ross for about another year or so until Marcos cleaned a loose block off the sloper ledge in the middle of the center face opening up the jug stand start to the center face with the rad dynamic deadpoint move from the jug up left to a perfect campus board size edge and past the big rails to the top apex of the boulder that is now the mega classic "Fort Rossta". The sit start would go down soon and we can't remember for sure who got it, either Marcos, Richie or me. As Richie recalls the sand was much higher back then and the sit start was very butt dragger anso he thinks I got the sit first (since I love butt-dragger lowballs lol) and I like that idea :) but we can't be sure. Now it is no longer a butt-drager lowball start). We used to use a different reachier sequence until a shorter person, possibly Bonnie made up the less reachy left sequence with the edges that is now the most popular way for everyone and especially since the "ball" hold broke forcing the moves up left now for the most part. Soon after that the "Left Arete" was done, I think I got it first but I/we can't really remember. Then I did the full traverse from far right around the main arete/"Living A Dream" and down the first crux of the center face to the far left and up the "Left Arete" to finish - "Rossta Traverse" V8 (~unrepeated and likely much harder or impossible currently?) since the ball broke and possibly holds on the "Left Arete"(??). Not too long after that I worked the low right sit start up into "Living A dream" for what I called "Living La Vida Loca" V8 not knowing that around the same time or sooner Russ Bobzien and his friend Jason Hicks did the same or similar start up into the main arete and up right into one of the original moderate lines "Swiss Cheese". So we can't be sure if Russ or myself got the first ascent of those, so we will share the FA credit. After "Loca" I linked it into the traverse for "Living La Vida Smoka" aka "Smoka" V9 (~also unrepeated and likely much harder or impossible currently?) About that time the Berkeley/Bay Area crews nicknamed the center face "Fort Rossta" which we were just calling "Fort Ross Face" since Marcos in his reticent style never named it. Around this time Charlie Barrett did the dyno from the jug on "Fort Rossta" skipping the left edge and throwing up right to the big rails below the top for his FA "Flying Monkey" V8. Another shared FA we found out about later was by Jim Thornburg, a good friend of Marcos' who did the stand start of the center face up right into the arete and called it "Rossta Dreams" either just before or just after I had done the sit start "Living A Nightmare" - I like his name better for the whole line so it is a shared FA by Jim and I and can be called either "Living A Nightmare" or "Rossta Dreams" - my name made sense before the name "Fort Rossta" was given to the center face but now his name is more obvious and has a peaceful NorCal rasta vibe ;)
Then the boulder stayed the way it was for another year or so until the rock at the base of "Living A Dream" sunk into the sand and disappeared (making Living A Dream harder from lower starts now ~V6/7). The sand levels continue to get lower and lower which opened up the direct low low sit start to the main arete which many locals raced for but strong and talented local Ryan Tolentino who lived nearby would get first ascent of and named "Grand Finale" (now mistakenly called "Relentless") and gave it V9. After that Ryan did "Grand Finale" into the "Rossta Traverse" and called that "Relentless" V10/11 but since the traverse was a mega link-up with a down-climb section it was not very popular and people began to call the best hardest plumb line low sit start up into the proud main arete "Relentless" and bumped it up to V10. So the traverse link-up Ryan did would've likely been V11 making it one of the hardest lines in Sonoma County at the time. The only other ~V11ish (or harder~) line at that time was to do a lap (down and back no stepping off) of Marcos' "Hard Traverse" V10 at Sunset Boulders/Mammoth Rocks in Goat Rock State Park which is likely also about V11. The only problems on the Sonoma Coast that are harder are Giovanni Traversi's new V12 and V13 test-pieces at Salt Point State Park other than those Fort Ross still holds the best quality and most challenging full value lines on the Sonoma Coast.
World class climber and boulderer, Santa Rosa local Carlo Traversi said something like;
"Fort Rossta" is one of the closest type stones to South African/Rocklands sandstone with big moves on solid features but since it is on the beach it is possibly the best/one of the best V6's in the world.
{I heard a hold(s) may have broken on the "Left Arete" and that it has not gone since the breakage but I have not been there recently to know for sure~}
As a sidenote;
The day Shawn Rogers and I first bouldered at Fort Ross we decided that if that random sandstone block was that good maybe we should explore some of the other rocks we drove past on the Northern Sonoma Coast on our way home so we stopped at a slabby looking schist boulder that Mark Howe had told us about and named "Not So Super Slab" where he had done the main high but easy VB/0 slab face and a few other moderates and see what we could scrounge up - we scored! With a little cleaning and landscaping Shawn and I over the next few years, along with David Wallach later on opened up many short to medium length steep technical lines from V0 to V9 and quickly dropped the "Not So" from the name and began calling it "Super Slab".
With so much high quality and varied types of stone in Sonoma County it's no wonder why so many top level climbers/boulderers are from here, Kevin Jorgeson, Carlo Traversi, Giovanni Traversi, Charlie Barrett, Jason Campbell, Marcos Nunez and Sean Brady just to name a few. About half of our rocks are publicly accessible but the other half and a lot of the best spots are unfortunately on private property and/or have access issues and are therefore hidden secrets so it may not look like we have a plethora of stone in print or that you can easily see from the roads or trails but it is out there and we are very very lucky :))
"Fort Rossta" V6 YouTube
"Flying Monkey" V8 YouTube
"Living La Vida Loca" V8 YouTube
