Boulder Dash

For thousands of years a boulder has stood, like a lord from the older days, in the forests of Bangor. Before there was a Bangor, before the United States, before even the Penobscots, this boulder was here—standing proud, majestic, unconquered, and unclimbed until this day. Kim Lommler is about to climb it. When she makes it to the top—a grueling task involving both strength and strategy—her task will not be over. Once atop the boulder, she will have an honor and an obligation: She must name it.

Kim Lommler is a boulderer. Bouldering is a type of rock climbing that is one of the fastest-growing outdoor-adventure sports in the country. If traditional rock climbing (with ropes, harnesses, and large cliff faces) were compared to running a marathon, then bouldering would be like running 100-yard hurdles. There are no ropes, no harnesses, and no gear, beyond good shoes. It is just the climber and the boulder—protected by friends who serve as spotters and “crash pads” laid on the ground. Boulderers typically do not climb over 25 feet, but the climbs are notorious for being more physically and technically challenging than big wall climbs. This is one major reason for its exploding popularity.

Kim Lommler has been bouldering for nine years now. She has traveled the world climbing, visiting all of the major bouldering destinations and winning numerous awards and competitions along the way. In 2001 and 2002, the American Bouldering Association (ABS) ranked Lommler as one of the top two female boulderers in the nation. In 2002, just weeks after a major knee injury, she placed in the top seven at the famous international bouldering championship called Superblock, in Florence, Italy. She gained notoriety here in Maine when in 2005, after a two-year hiatus from climbing, and while four months pregnant with twins, she won the University of Maine’s annual Boulder Bash. Lommler, who lives in Orrington, is easy to spot at local climbing areas or gyms because she often has her two toddler sons in tow.

Lommler is in her late 20s, well traveled, and was educated at a prestigious, private college. Unlike many of her contemporaries, she made a conscious decision to come back to Maine—both to be near her family and because of all the “problems” (the word boulderers use for boulder climbs) this area has for her to conquer. “I remember a few years ago, when my husband and I were first married,” Lommler says. “We were deciding where we wanted to live and talked a lot about moving out west . . . and then we started finding boulders. We would go out hiking or driving and find some pretty impressive fields. That helped to settle the debate.”

As Lommler and her fellow climbers have discovered, many of the towns in the greater Bangor area are riddled with boulders. These are not your average slabs of granite; they are massive stones as big as houses. They are like giant golden nuggets to climbers, the number and quality of which, in the Bangor area, are as good as Lommler has seen anywhere. “I have friends who spent hundred of dollars this year traveling across the country to climb. For me, there is no need to leave anymore. So much is right here.”

The only downside to all these boulders, she says, is that nobody knows about them. In 1996, Climbing magazine did a feature on climbing in the Bangor area. They reported: “Maine has enough rock to last a full-time climber several lifetimes. . . acres of hillside strewn with featured boulders . . . It’s amazing these have remained a secret for so long.” Today, nearly 12 years after the publishing of the article, little has changed. Most of Maine’s bouldering is secret and undocumented.

Chuck Drew, along with Lommler and others, has formed www.maineclimbs
.com, a website promoting rock climbing in Maine. Drew, a business and marketing student at the University of Maine, thinks bouldering could be the Bangor area’s answer to so-called “brain-drain.” While Maine is seen as an outdoor lover’s paradise, he says, “the media and the state seem to cater only to those activities which are traditionally in the realm of older sportsmen.”

While Drew acknowledges that snowmobiling, ATVing, hunting, and fishing attract substantial tourist dollars, “many people my age just aren’t interested in those activities.” Young people still want to be outdoors and to commune with nature, he says, “but they’re looking for things that are more physical, more adventure-based.”

Drew notes that areas throughout the U.S. that successfully promote themselves as gateways to outdoor adventure are also, very often, economic hubs. Metropolitan areas like Seattle, San Diego, Denver, Burlington, Boulder, and Honolulu are “young” cities that promote themselves through adventure sports like mountain biking, climbing, surfing, skiing, rafting, and kayaking. Drew and Lommler believe that Bangor can be on this list, but it is going to have to change the way young people perceive it. “This area is a climbing mecca!” Lommler says. “It has the potential to become a major bouldering hotspot on the East Coast.”

They are tackling this perception problem the same way they approach a “problem” made of granite or basalt: toehold to toehold. Over the last three years, Lommler, Drew, and their crew have worked studying topographical maps, cutting trails, bushwhacking and exploring countless miles of forest in their quest for new boulders. “Chuck and I have spent a lot of time lost,” Lommler says. The group has established and cleaned hundreds of problems. (Boulderers use brushes to clear dirt and moss off the boulders before the first ascent.) So far they’ve mapped out nine legitimate bouldering areas, all within 20 miles of Bangor.

Yet, there may be more. It seems the local climbing community is catching on. Frequently, the talk around climbing gyms circulates around rumors of the latest discoveries. “We have already found enough boulders that, if they were developed, would make us competitive with the Gunks or Pawtukaweay, which most climbers consider the best bouldering in the Northeast,” Drew says. “But we are still uncovering new areas. It’s hard to say exactly what is still out there, but we may just be at the tip of the iceberg.”

Both Drew and Lommler say that along with the quality of bouldering, the Bangor area offers one major advantage over other established climbing areas: the potential for first ascents. First ascents are often the jewel in a climber’s crown and they are the way in which many climbers make a name for themselves. Climbers who achieve a first ascent are privileged to name and grade the climb, their accomplishment is usually recorded in guidebooks, and they may be referenced for “beta,” or hints, to the problem’s key moves. The good news for the Bangor area is that it has, literally, hundreds of first ascents just waiting. “It is sort of ironic; the fact that Bangor bouldering is totally undeveloped is what, we hope, will ultimately make it famous.”

Whether Maineclimbs.com fulfills its vision or not, there is no question that, in the future, Bangor will see at least two more boulderers: “Elmer and Isak are already starting to climb here,” Lommler says. The twin toddlers, who often accompany her to the boulder fields, are beginning to demonstrate some of the natural talents of their mother. Kim is excited about her boys growing up in an area with the bouldering potential of Bangor. “I didn’t start climbing until my senior year of high school and I didn’t get serious until my freshman year of college. I just happened to be lucky because Middlebury College had a climbing wall,” she says. “At the time I didn’t know that there was climbing around Bangor, but I am going to make sure my boys do!”