Chuck Fryberger

I first met Chuck five years ago, in Hueco Tanks. From his appearance at the time (slightly pudgy), I guessed that I’d be schooling him at the boulders, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The next day, Chuck threw down my V7 project as a warm-up and went off from there.
In the Rocklands Chuck majorly steps up his game, breaking the V13 barrier with quick ascents of Ray of Light and Black Shadow. Radder yet is his first ascent of Splash of Red, an ultra-highball with the crux at the top. Before he sends this striking prow, he falls from the last moves, bruising his heel badly. A month later he’s no longer limping and returns for redemption. In his typically modest sandbagger style, he pegs the problem at roughly V5, but repeats by Zangerl and the Canadian strongman Dan Archambault bring the consensus up to V11. His peaceful warrior approach to bouldering is well-thought-out, effective, and impressive, and on more than one occasion, Chuck cranks problems that shut down our two V-virtuosos, Andy and Daniel.
“I’m all terrain, man,” says Chuck as he marches through knee-deep puddles left by a recent rainstorm. A five-year drought in the Rocklands has broken this year, but that’s not stopping Chuck. The Rocklands trip is Chuck’s brainchild, developed with two primary goals in mind: boulder as much and as hard as possible, and make a hi-def feature film. On both counts, Chuck is highly successful (check out specimenfilm.com for the movie).