BURST
Portable, a much-loved mini boulder that went missing from its home in Squamish, has been found — in California.
The foot-tall rock — a popular attraction for local and visiting climbers alike — went missing in early September, prompting outrage and calls for its return.
“Some people are pissed about it. Some people think it’s hilarious,” said Jesse Godlington, founder of Squamish Climbing Guiding in Squamish. He said it wasn’t the first time the rock had gone missing.
“I’m sure this won’t be the last time it gets stolen,” he said.
On Jan. 19, five months after it went missing, a picture of Portable was posted to social media . It was sitting at the foot of a popular bouldering site in Bishop, Calif., and sporting a red toque and googley-eyes.
Ethan Salvo, a Squamish climber, was in the area when images of the rock in Bishop started appearing online.
“I got a message from a friend who had sent me this Reddit post and was like, ‘Dude, the Portable has shown up in Bishop,'” Salvo said in a phone call from California. “My first reaction was like, it’s got to be fake.”
He called a friend at the Iron Man boulder and asked her to run up and check if Portable was actually there.
“She Facetimes me at the Boulder, and her and her friend are holding the Portable with this hat and googly eyes on it,” Salvo said.
Salvo drove up to the Iron Man boulder that night. “It’s now just been in my Subaru Outback with me, camping in California,” he said of Portable.
Goldington said the mini boulder has been a part of Squamish’s Superfly boulder site for as long as he’s lived in the town and has become quite famous.
“When people come to Superfly, they’re like, ‘I gotta check out the Portable, as well,'” he said.
It’s been around long enough for local lore to have developed around it, including a story about a climber who scaled a nearby rock face while holding Portable in one hand. Estimates of Portable’s weight range from 50 to 70 pounds.
The rock offers a number of bouldering challenges for people to try. The most popular is called the V4, where a user rises up from a sitting position to stand atop the boulder without touching the ground.
As its name suggests, Portable can be picked up and moved but tradition is to leave it by the Superfly boulder so locals and visitors can enjoy it.
“It’s a little bit of a gem to Squamish climbers,” Salvo said. “You’re constantly walking by in the summertime to a crowd of maybe up to a dozen people, all filming each other trying to get on this little rock.”
So far, no one has admitted to taking the rock and no one knows why it was taken, though Salvo said there were all kinds of theories circulating in the local climbing community.
“There was just pure speculation. There was no evidence behind anything,” Salvo said. “We all just kind of figured that it was maybe gone for good.”
Salvo expects to return to Squamish in early February, and will be bringing Portable with him.
“I feel like I have some responsibility,” he said. “People will come to Squamish and want to experience this — and it is fun, at the end of the day”.