Weekender: Climbing and Camping

We sat around the campfire laughing and catching up until after midnight. We took turns throwing knives, we cooked tin foil dinners, and ate candy. We enjoyed the last of summer before it made its annual migration south. The cool night was an indication that this would be the last trip like this for the year.

We awoke early the next morning and were in no hurry to get climbing. The throwing knives made another appearance and we might have actually gotten better. We ate a small breakfast and headed for the crag. It was probably the last warm night of summer and we took advantage of it before autumn could reach in and change everything.

Teardrop

I was able to make it up American Fork Canyon with Greg and Kate Osborne last week. Greg has been projecting "Teardrop", a 5.13a on Cannabis Wall. It rained for a minute or two and got everything a little damp but we still had a good time.

Shooting the Membrane

An early morning meet up allowed me to get a little bit of shooting done before work on Friday. I have been messing around a lot more lately with photography, thankfully Greg and Joe were willing to be the subjects of this morning's shoot. We hit two off the classic American Fork Canyon climbs. Hopefully this was a warm up for a few more ideas I hope to pull together in the coming months.

First Craggin' Trip of the Year

 Eric and I made plans to climb up Little Cottonwood after work the other day. As I was about to leave work, Eric called and changed the destination to American Fork Canyon. The weather was warm and it ended up being absolutely perfect up there. I always go through a little bit of an adjustment when I start climbing outside again. The gym makes your brain lazy. I realized that this type of evening needs to happen a lot more.

 

Too early and too cold

 

The days of early morning climbing have come and gone. Half way into this mornings "warm up"climb my hands were screaming. Every bit of warmth was being sucked out of my fingers as I clung to the frigid rock. The temperature was bellow freezing and with every move I became more and more unhappy with the brilliant idea we had to get up early to climb. I thought maybe I was being a pansy so I let Eric go up after. He had a similar experience. It wasn't long before we were back at the car going for a drive up to Silver Lake.

 

We went for a hike waiting in vain for it to heat up.

 

Black Magic Cave

Beer Can Alley

 Right now I have been really been wanting to mix it up with my climbing. For years I have climbed the same walls and worked the same problems and not really explored new areas. I don't know why, but I have really gotten the bug to go find new climbs and see the world from new high perspectives. Luckily I have buddies like Tanner, he is getting stronger and putting up some difficult routes. He dragged me up some harder climbs yesterday morning at Beer Can Alley. I am hoping to get stronger so when fall rolls around I can do some bigger harder routes.

Another look at AF Canyon

These I took up up Platinum Blonde.

This little clip is from the top of "Winds of Fire" which I believe is a 5.10a... I think.

One Day Multiplied

In an effort to make the most of our summer days Brett Olsen, Robbie Welch, and I decided to go climbing tuesday morning up American Fork Canyon. We decided to hit up "The Membrane", a good climbing spot that had been wet from runoff until recently. Last year there wasn't a good way across the river this early in the year because it is so high. This year there is a great log bridge that makes it easy. The water is high and fast so crossing seems treacherous, if you fall in there is a good chance you will get wrecked.

After we made it across we were getting ready to climb when it started hailing... Really? Yeah it was hailing and then came the rain. So we went for a hike. We felt like explorers. We ended up following what we thought was a deer trail. It ended up being an approach to more climbs up top that we didn't know were there.

After exploring we went back to some good climbing. We ended up just doing the 5.10a on the far left side and then headed home hungry and in the mood for a swim. After a brief soccer game we realized the days adventure could not end. Before we knew it we were on our way to Cedar City where we stayed the night.

We woke early to grab some breakfast in St. George....I am pretty sure we all ate enough to cover our caloric intake for the whole week... Then we found some nice climbs just outside of town. The wall is on the Chuckawalla trail. We climbed the 5.9 on the far right and then did what I think was a 5.10b or c.... really not sure because we didn't bring a book.

Then it was on to Vegas to visit the wonderful Courtney Wattles where she welcomed three stinky guys that didn't have the sense to stop and pack an adequate amount of clothing.... We made a quick stop to get some new shirts so we didn't smell too bad when we showed up. The only thing we made sure we had when we left were our swim suits... and we were glad we did. What we thought would be one day of fun turned in to three.