Night Bouldering with Dave Graham

Petzl athlete Dave Graham is a night bouldering specialist. He spends a lot of time out in the wild, climbing the world's hardest problems by the illumination of headlamps. Here, he tells the story of how he discovered the fine art of climbing after dark, and offers some tips for others who want to give it a try.

Dave Graham on Zarzafar (8b+/v14), Zarzelejo, Spain. Photo: © Oscar Carrascosa

The legendary Fred Nicole had recently established Dreamtime, the world’s first 8c (V15) boulder problem, in Ticino. I was 19 and eager to try this incredible line, so I made the trip in January. It was winter, and the high mountains surrounding the valley where Dreamtime sat meant the days were very short. We discovered that the previous night’s humidity lingered in the valley until midday, so we slept super late, typically arriving at the boulders around 1pm, maybe three hours before the sun dropped behind the mountains. 

Our Swiss friends from the local Uri town of Altdorf had been showing us around the woods, and upon hearing us fret about light, they gestured towards a pair of lanterns hanging in the corner of the room. 

"We just take the lights you know. It’s no problem! And the conditions are perfffect!"

We stared at a pair of gas-powered Coleman camping lanterns. The ingenuity of the Swiss people dazzled us. Minds blown, we reflected. This opened all kinds of doors.

We rolled out the next day and bouldered well into the night, Dreamtime felt amazing in the crisp conditions. It was at this point I began to experiment with the different tools at my disposal. The gas-powered lanterns were a step in the right direction, but due to their size, fuel requirements, and tedious filament problems, they became obsolete. New Petzl headlamps took their place, and gave way to an easier, battery-powered night-climbing revolution. 

Dave out after dark with his TIKKA RXP. Photo: © Oscar Carrascosa

Night bouldering: a brave new world

I have split the last couple of months between the alpine bouldering areas of Colorado, the granite Sierras above Madrid, and massive expanses of perfect sandstone in South Africa, and it’s been crazy to see how the bouldering world has changed. Every night when I hike back to the car, I hear hoots and hollers from illuminated blocs in the distance, dark shapes milling around them. There are distant points of light: people just heading out towards their projects, psyched to session another rig, looking for a posse at the next cluster of lights they can find. 

I often choose to climb at night as opposed to during the day. Call me a night owl, but there is something incredibly special about being out in the wilderness after dark. If your goal is to find amazing friction, or simply climb on despite waning winter light, I think it’s an option many aren’t aware of. It takes a little practice, and feels a bit odd at first, but some of the best moments you can ever have climbing are found in the pitch dark, in your own little bubble of light, off the deck, in the zone…. Just make sure you get your lighting dialed and you are good to go. 

With that in mind, here are a few tips and things to consider if you’re game to try some night bouldering yourself:

Creating a lighting base

When lighting your project the primary goal is to illuminate the rock with the flattest light possible. If the intensities of the light are too varied, your eyes will struggle to adjust between the stronger and weaker sources. 

In order to achieve a balanced distribution of light I like to create a base with two Petzl ULTRA headlamps. I bring three large-capacity ACCU 4 battery packs, which I feel gives me a reliable amount of light for a really long climbing session. The ACCU batteries are rechargeable, which is massive. You may not want to use the ULTRA on its highest strength, and with two lamps you can typically create balanced light coverage for at least five hours. 

Usually I mount little rocks or sticks in the headlamp’s strap, and place them on a backpack or a jacket, for stability. The last thing you want is for your headlamp to fall out of a tree when you are pouncing to the last hold!

Filling in the gaps

Sometimes you’ll notice the main lights can cast strange shadows on key holds, making them look abstract or distort their shape or size. To combat this and generally fill in gaps where the base lights might not be reaching, you can use smaller lights, like the TIKKA RXP, which gives off a particularly nice illumination, as it’s Reactive Lighting system automatically adjust its beam depending on how much light is needed. You can even program your RXP with a laptop and set up different modes—you can tell it to only use the wide, diffused beam, for example, and not the spotlight.  The RXP is also USB-rechargeable, so I never worry about running the batteries down, since they just get plugged back in the adapter in the car every day.

Personal illumination

When I climb, I wear a personal headlamp so I can light up the holds or features obscured by my own shadow. I usually use a classic TIKKA or TIKKINA, since they are compact and lightweight—I hardly notice them once they’re on. Compact headlamps like these rarely bump into the wall or scrape against features when I get close to the rock doing tight moves, an important consideration when climbing with a headlamp. Generally I tell my spotters to turn off their personal headlamps. It’s not good to have moving light sources while you’re climbing, since you can’t control where the shadows are cast. 

Climbing smart after dark

It’s important to remember that climbing at night is an entirely different ballgame. Being out in the wilderness after dark offers many new challenges to the climbing experience. Topping out boulders requires more vigilance, as does spotting. It’s important to be prepared when the climber exits the main light area and embarks into darker, spookier terrain. Spotters need to pay particular attention as well, as it’s very difficult to see people falling when all the light is coming from behind you. Additional padding is recommended. It’s also wise to have the climber scout his downclimb before going for the send, and bring his own light for whatever descent may be necessary. 

On the way out…

After a night session, make sure you mind your surroundings. If there are predators in your region, stay on alert for them and hike out in groups. (In Colorado we have to watch out for Mountain Lions, which are terrifying beasts.) Make sure you mind your footing as well, as it’s surprisingly easy to take a heinous digger tripping over a tree stump or a random rock while hiking back to the car in the dark after dominating your project. If you are hiking through talus, take extra caution that your crashpad doesn’t bump into anything and knock you off balance. Falling into pits and chasms is ruthless and damaging.