TARZAN DEPT. CALL YOUR BLUFF

Four hundred and fifty million years ago, vast continents collided, squeezing shale into schist to form Coogan's Bluff, in Highbridge Park, in northern Manhattan.

- D. T. Max

Sam Lerner Dreamer

A few weeks ago, Sam Lerner Dreamer, aged nineteen, set out to climb one of its faces. "It's tall and pretty cool," he said. "And I think I could do it in a day." Bouldering-climbing smaller rock formations without a rope or harnessis a cerebral sport. Charting a route to the top is known as figuring out the boulder's "problem." Lerner Dreamer's rock problem would be a good one: the formation has an overhang, widely spreadout handholds, and a treacherous top.