Crawdad Canyon

Crawdad Canyon, a small climbing resort/swimming pool, has had me curious since I learned of it in the new southern Utah guide book. I was a little leery of paying to climb. St. George is surrounded by amazing climbing walls with no entry fees. Curiosity and our relatively inexperienced group bumped Crawdad to the top of our list.

Needless to say I was impressed. It is an amazing little canyon that will no doubt be a destination for future kid friendly vacations. The swimming pool and campgrounds were nice, the climbing was amazing, and the canyon stayed much cooler than the rest of the St. George area. All the climbs were labeled and well protected with sport chains at the top of the majority.

We spent the most of the day in the canyon and I found it hard to leave. If you get a chance, and can spare eight bucks, make sure you take the time to visit.

Neena's first tour

A couple Saturday's back things were lining up for a good day to get some big lines I have had my eye on, but when Neena said she wanted to go for a tour I jumped at the chance. I called around trying to find a set up for her to use and before long, thanks to Caroline Gleich, we had everything we needed.

For those of you who don't know, Neena has Crohn's Disease. It is an auto immune disorder that causes her body to attack her digestive tract. There is no cure so over the past year we have been trying to find a treatment will work for her. This was the first time in months that she had expressed any desire to do something like this. 

We woke up and took our time getting to the hill. I decided a good first tour/summit for her would be Patsy Marley. We took our time stopping for snacks and even had a nice lunch. It was good to be out in the mountains together. Her endurance isn't where she would like it to be, but she was a champ and was determined to make the summit. 

Standing on top of Patsy Marley with her was a neat experience. It was our first summit together. The ski out was a little hard on her tired legs but she did great. It was an awesome experience to be able to spend the day doing what I love with my favorite person. 

Dirty Dashin'

 One of Neena's friends runs the Dirty Dash and as a wedding present he let a group of us run the event. It was a blast. We got there late and weren't really dashing most of the time. It was fun just hanging out and getting muddy. The worst part about the day was showering after... It was so cold my muscles seized up. Walking back to the car wasn't a joy but the stop at MamaChoo's made up for it.

 

Rock Canyon Lately

 The past few weeks have been cold and wet, but there have been windows of opportunity where we were able to get out and climb. Rock Canyon is home to some amazing climbing and is only a stones throw away from home. We were able to sneak up there twice this week to do some fun multi-pitch routes on the northern side of the canyon.

The first day took us up Trilogy Buttress where Blake, Jeff, Parker and I climbed two separate routes. I let Jeff and Blake take the better more "Fun" route. Parker and I took the other way up which is exposed and thin on protection. We only did the first pitch and then rappelled off of the side while Blake and Jeff climbed on.

Cosmic Space Dust Lasers was the next climb we got to do. Yesterday was perfect for climbing. It drizzled slightly for a moment, but that was all we got while we were up on this three pitch climb. This was Neena's first time going up multiple pitches and this route couldn't have been more perfect. It was simple and fun. She did great and led the second pitch, which had one of the cooler sections of climbing. We had a good group and Parker shot some great photos.

 BABE.

Coming down the last pitch of Cosmic Space Dust Lasers.

Tower Land: Pounding Pitons

Driving a piton into a moenkopi crack with a massive hammer is something I didn't think I would ever get to do. I had set up this idea of what my climbing life would be like and labeled this as "outside my realm". It is amazing what a lack of understanding can do. Ignorance can stop you from doing just about anything. Dreams change when understanding grows. I now have a completely different idea of what I want to do and accomplish with my climbing. This trip unlocked a whole new world of climbing for me.

Neena, Eric, Whitney and I drove down in a caravan and camped out next to each other. We planned a big breakfast and Eric and I got to be the chefs. We then met up with the rest of the group and got assigned our "coach". Neena and I were assigned Andy Knight, a guy I have heard about and seen around for a long time but never met. He has been at it a long time and done a lot of amazing things in climbing. Andy put up the second ascent of the route we were heading to do. I think the first ascent was in the early 90's sometime.

The climbing was everything I had hoped. Aid climbing is the perfect way to learn to place gear. You put in a cam or a piton and bounce on it to see if it will pull out before trusting it to hold you so you are able to move higher. I learned a lot more in one climb than I think I would in a month of placing gear climbing regular routes.

Neena was a champ on belay as I stayed up on the climb for hours. I climbed about three quarters of the route before turning it over to her to finish. She was amazing. I loved watching her smacking away at those pitons. She was able to get on top of the tower and rappel off the top. It has been fun seeing her take to climbing on her own and push herself. It was an amazing trip and it was only made possible by Darren and Jen over at Mountainworks, the best climbing shop around.

The route was called "Strummer" but the tower is referred to as "The Crooked Penis"

Gear..... Andy was nice enough to let us use his stuff. I need....

Babe....