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Most of Altman's activ ity takes place a few feet, or even inches, above the ground. "But don't equate height with diffi cu lty, " he warns. Orig inally conceived as mere practice for climbs on big cliffs, boul dering is in fact the proud domain of the sport's hardest moves. Often working alone, and without the lure of fame or financial gain, dedicated boulderers around th'e globe have established climbs just ten or fifteen-feet long, but of tendon-popping, fingerti p-spl itting difficulty. "Without the distraction of being hundreds of feet up," Altman says, chinning himself on a quarter-inch edge, "you can con centrate on moves of. pure power. "
Bouldering doesn't have to be self-a buse, though. People do it for fun, too. Just one small wall with a couple dozen hol ds has hundreds of climbs. Novices just try to get up the thing. Experts avoid the largest, easiest holds, reaching instead fo r the sma ll stuff, devisi ng new sequences, making the game harder. Going nowhere deliberately.
"Bouldering is creative," says Va lerie Hoecke, another local, "so it's a naturally social activ ity. " Hc;'ecke nd Chris Tacy, two San Francisco software designers, show up for Indian Rock's rush hour. They've
ied over on the BART train and disappear into the bushes to change clothes. five, the place is a party. Berkeley students come in droves. Power su its mutate into monkeys.
emp slaves work off the day's frustrations. Everyone tears into the boulders like they're starving, try ng the climbs they couldn't do last week and making up new ones. There's some posturing-even a little cruising action-but al so cheering and friendly chat. A boom box is produced, and hip-hop fills
Tacy's dressed for battl e: shorts, sleevel ess shirt and twenty-two si lver rings in his right ear. He's working Hyper-Snatch, one of Indian Rock's hardest climbs. His right hand grabs a flat crimp, left hand wide pinch. Thumb catch just so. Right foot crysta l, left foot high smear. Stomp, and reel in that pinch: the next sid epull's five feet away. Ta cy yanks hard but comes up short. Rolling in the tree bark, he swears. Hoecke steps up and nesses it, shou lders and hips swive ling perfectly.
bother? There's a staircase up the back and sig htseers watching the Tacy answers: "It's not the summit-it's the effort. I love
He li nes up for another attempt.
