Traverse in from the left on a little arete, at the overlap grab some jugs, and do a spicy rockover to get to the top.  There's always some large branches in the stream to keep your pads out of the water.  Called Sisyphus because if you don't master the balance, you slowly teeter backwards toward the stream.

Sisyphus

Four Hole

Let's Call It "levitation"

Manhole

Barnacle Bill

John's Stand Up

Boredum

Gone in 60 Seconds

Gandalf

The Lobster Tail

An Unexpected Journey

Fallen Ent

Charlie Horse

The Shire

Smaug's Face

Edges

Hobbit  Direct

Zoo Traverse

Grilled Cheese

Two Bits

When I'm On My Own

Bilbo's Revenge

Shillings

Mistaken Identity

Another World

Crystal Method

Sidewinder

Circumspect Ceiling

The Lobster Pot

The Marathon

The Professor

Jaws (Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

Power and Grace

Ricochet

Rio's Smaug Face Problem

Good Rips

The Wanderer

Hobbit Hole

This is the tall arete opposite of Hobbit Hole, its not a incredibly tough problem, just a heady problem because its tall. Just keep your head strong and you will be fine. Have fun and trust your feet.

Start standing with hands on nice holds and either make one move then dyno to the top, or work the flake up and left to the top for a more difficult but less dynamic option... the top out is easy making this a good one for firs time boulderers...

This little route is the left facing arete between "mistaken identity" and "another world" there has been maybe a little more then 3 ascents of it just because it gets over looked.   Start left hand on a sloping pinch and you right hand lower on the arete squeezing a nothing divot. Get a heel hook and magically levitate up to a right hand crimp. struggle to keep the heel and mantle into "another world"    I called it V6+ , but the reality is I don't know...

Sit Start the arete to the left of The Wanderer. The first move is the crux, once you pull over the lip scurry up the arete and slab to the top.  

  The first move is fun but the rest is pretty bland. Not a bad problem to do if you have done all the other easy warm-ups in the area.

The painfully obvious crack.  Start with your hands on a shelf with a heel hook by your hands and prepare for judgement day.  Jam, crimp, thrutch, grovel your way across the left slanting crack till you can stand up into underclings and bring your feet up.  Then finish up the far left arete.  The book gives this V3, I think that it is much harder and never gets too much easier.

Stand start at the crux of Hobbit Hole with a good fingerlock and get your feet on the wall.  Climb straight up with your choice of a gaston or a sidepull for your left hand and balance up until you can stand in the crack.  Finish up easier terrain.

Sit start on a crimp rail and fire to the lip and make the casual top out. 

  The name of this route is very appropriate.  

Climbs a bulge via really bad holds.  Sit/squat start with the two crimps at waist height.  Move up R hand to a sloper/crimp, then match next to it on a sloper.  Work your feet and make a hard move to a crimp (crux).  Stand up on the crimps and topout. 

  Named for a hold that ripped off.

A fun little climb that never gets done. Definitely feels harder than John's Stand Up, but I'm pretty good at crimps so that probably helps. Stand start same as JSU, in the slopiest part of the crack used on Hobbit Hole. Grab a decent LH gas tone and scrunch your feet to the crack. Stand up in the crack, but rather than going straight up to the jug rail, move straight up. Grab a tiny right hand crimp and gun for a good sidepull. Cross over to a mossy edge and grab the juggy arete. Follow the arete to the lip and top out same as Hobbit Hole. It can also be done as a sit start (starting same as Hobbit Hole), which bumps it up to about v6-.

Start on the feature that looks like a lobster's tail. Climb up and right on easy ground (jugs and obvious feet). Downclimb/slide other slide on boulder.   This can be a good warm up in winter to get the muscles moving (do it in sneakers).

Start out matched on the big side-pull (rail) and decent feet but in a slightly awkward location, step up and hit the horizontal crack, move your feet up and make a high step into the crack.  Finish up on easy slab moves.

Start as for Bilbos Revenge but now that the tree has fallen you can traverse the whole crack to the arete for Hobbit Hole. The tree known as Chris?

Crouch start same as Barnacle Bill (at the far right side of the crack) and follow Barnacle Bill up to that cool double jug/sidepull. At this point, the rest of the crack is off, as are both of the aretes. Climb straight up the blank face through terrible slopers and tiny knubbins. Top out on jugs.

To the left of Hobbit  Direct is a tree and to the left of the tree is this route. Sit start with a good slopey hold on the lip and a small crimp down and left. Pick some feet and move over the lip using crimps and side-pulls to a long move to  good hold in the horizontal. Then scamper up the easy climbing to the top. 

  I had originally heard this was supposed more in the V4 range but it felt much easier. Let me know what you think... Did I start in the right place?

Highball line on the back side of the Smaug Boulder. Sit start at Bilbos Revenge and head straight up the dirty face. All the holds you need are cleaned up good.

Start on the obvious edges on the right side of the face with a large, good foot and climb straight up on crimps.  Topout over the awesome juggy lip. 

  V4+ as a sit start, and V7 if climbed as the finish of Sidewinder.

Levitate off bad holds and pop to big crimp on arete, continue up easier ground on arete and downclimb route.   Hard sit start. The start feels like trying to squeeze a hippo between your legs.

A fun linkup of 3 boulders.  Start sitting as for Another World, follow edges left, swing feet onto the arete and transition over onto the arete next to When I'm on My Own, then handtraverse the lip to the left to get your feet on the starting hold of Jaws (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), now downclimb Jaws with a reverse mantle (crux), traverse left into the start of Hobbit Hole, and follow the Hobbit Hole crack to the end. 

  Long and pumpy.

Sit start the very lowest part of the Mushroom Boulder on the sloping lip. Throw a heel and mantle straight up. Pretty dull, but worth doing once, I suppose.

This problem is listed as a project in the Kemple guide but it has been climbed many times.  Pull on to the face with the help of the left arete, and use tiny holds and delicate feet to dance your way up and slightly left towards the arete and notch.  Highly technical and somewhat scary moves will reward you with a thank-god-jug right before the top.  Although it can appear slightly scruffy, the climbing can be worthwhile.

A short, crimpy and powerful problem that suffers from a bad case of exfoliation.  In 2004 most of the holds fell off of the face, leaving the problem in its current state.  Its still fun if you have nothing better to do.  Sit start just right of the pocket on the Professor and layback a right hand sidepull with the help of a tiny crimp below the pocket for your left.  Snag the weird crimp in the seam with your left hand and gaston up to a crimp on the face.  Drop into the double gaston and dyno to the lip.   

An incorrect grade and a missing problem in the guidebook have created confusion about this short climb and as a result, it is rarely tried, let alone climbed.  Although the guidebook description of climb broken edges trending right is correct, most people climb its neighbor, the left leaning arete, and mistake it for this problem.  For that problem, please see Mistaken Identity.

Traverse the crack right, until you reach a tree then topout.

This arete is what most people climb when they think they are on When I'm On My Own.  It is missing from the guidebook, but perpetually caked with chalk and was once vandalized by some idiots with a blowtorch.  A foot-long piece of stone dropped off the arete thanks to their carelessness. 

  Sit start the short arete and layback to the top, making use of the crimps on the left face, and also maybe a few high crimps on the right side.  Grab the lip and mantle up.

Sit start on a rounded jug and a sidepull and balance/power your way up and left to slopers for slab topout.   The starting foot will find your shins if you aren't careful.   Hard for the grade, but fun and friction dependent.

Are you a fan of head injuries and awkward painful climbing?  Do you enjoy bouldering with a helmet and causing harm to your spotter when you fall?  If so, then this is the climb for you!  On the backside of the Zoo, this sharp arete rises out of a hole and while it doesn't look half bad, it is possibly one of the worst problems in the park.  Start at the base of the arete and climb out of the hole while fighting the barndoor into the other boulder, then as you finally reach the crux, try to avoid cracking your head open or knocking your spotter off of the boulder as you grunt for the lip.

This crimpy problem is one of the hardest in the Zoo Area.  It starts on Good Rips, goes left around the corner (under roof), and finishes on Edges.  Sit start on the good jug(s) and immediately toss a heel up with your hands so that you can grab a bad crimp out left with your left hand on the outside of the tunnel.  Don't hit your head as you move your right hand to a crimp just below your left.  Now that you're hanging horizontally, make the crux move up to a good edge on the face.  Control the swing, establish yourself on the face, and finish straight up.

Inside the chimney to the left of lobster tail is a small cave with a crack running through it, sit start as far back as you can, use the wide crack to a welcoming jug and contortion yourself up the chimney to the top.

A fun and easy chimney climb as long as you don't fall and pinball your way down to the ground. Stand start and work your way up the left face towards the top of the "Shillings" arete with good hand and foot holds. Two-thirds of the way up you will transition over to the "Lobster" boulder for the top out.

This climb starts on the north face of the mushroom boulder and goes clockwise to the topout by the tree on the south side of the boulder.   This problem is a very pumpy and challenging traverse with your hands and right heel up on the top and your left legs getting in the way the whole way around the boulder.

Sit start on shallow underclings. Pop out left to edge and cross feet. High heel with left hand in super-shallow dish. Super-thin crimp with the right hand. Pull hard and deadpoint to sloping topout holds.    Location of your heel will make this climb V6 for some and V-impossible for others. Accuracy of your heel placement is paramount. 

  As an alternative for 6ft+ climbers, It is possible to make a big move from the right undercling and left flake all the way to the top.

Two moves.   Sit start, hands up, mantle the buldge and hand foot match to gain the top out. 

  A worthwhile one-move-wonder.

A crimpy crux with feet in all the wrong places...Are we in Pawtuckaway or something?... 

  The beta varies, but it's either techy or a big throw at the crux...Then an easy top out....

Sit start inside the cave like feature matched on a good hold in a crack. Move leftwards in the crack for a couple of moves, then get high feet and flip the hands to underclings. From here make a hard and long reach up and right to a large sloper shelf. A decent climb with some scrunchy movement and friendly holds.

This climb flies a bit under the radar because it's not in the guidebook, but it's deserving of more attention.  

  Start sitting with two obvious low edges and small feet. Make a hard move to gain a good edge and then continue upward via incuts and sidepulls to a delicate top out. Though the rock is somewhat fragile/hollow feeling, this is a really good climb with great flow to the moves.  

  The landing is a little spooky due to the possibility that you might fall down into a gap between the boulders and end up at the bottom of the start of 'Hobbit Hole'. Given that, it's a good idea to be fairly solid at the grade before climbing this or to have a few pads and spotters.

Start at the base of the juggy flake that also serves as the start for Sidewinder. Continue up the flake and make a big move to the lip.  An intermediate crimp broke off years ago.  Mantle over to finish. 

  No, the tree is not "on".

A fun slab climb. Work up the slab, there are a few different ways to go up and all seem around V0. A fun problem for your first time bouldering.

Crux is the beta, work your own out because everyone's is different for this climb. The climb is amongst the majority of the boulders in Boulder Natural (an area referred to as Gandalf's Lair). It is an obvious up and left slanting lower crack the follows the arete and jugs to the top of the boulder (downclimb route). Lots of climbers find the lower sidepull helpful to use with your left hand to pull the crux move out of the horizontal handcrack.

The Zoo is a fantastic area to warm up, cool down or j ust hang out in all day. Consisting of a large concentration of moderate boulder problems, making it a great place for beginners as well as the more advanced. The zoo also has some of the most classic problems in all of Pawtuckaway such as Hobbit Hole (V3), Bolt on Top (V1) and The Professor (V5) . Because of this it is a definite must stop for any visiting out of towners. 

Description

Location

Protection

Routes in The Zoo