Sixteen days, 8 different climbing areas in California and Utah, new rock climbing personal bests, new friends, old friends, givebacks to the climbing community, new climbers pushing their boundaries (and possibly spending less time underground and in canyons from now on!), dinners, drinks – just an outstanding outing.
Climbing friends, keep reading and I’ll be talking about some awesome climbing areas you may never have heard of and/or that I know you’ll want to put on your “must do” lists.
Guidebooks
Please buy guidebooks. I’ve done a lot of writing, and it’s obvious what a labor of love these books are – the authors deserve our support. In general, they’re full of useful data about the general area, climbing history of the area, and can lead to so many awesome adventures.
1 – Pine Creek Canyon / Bishop, CA
Pine Creek Canyon – a place many climbers we’ve met have never heard of (ref. “Bishop Area Rock Climbs”), yet it’s full of beautiful Yosemite-grade granite (without the crowds). Over a hundred sport and trad climbs are listed in the guidebook.
One of our objectives on the trip was to push our trad climbing personal best, so with this in mind, we headed up into Pine Creek to the Barbershop Buttress. The plan was to sport climb “Just a Little Trim” (5.9, 3/5 stars) to warm up, then head to a nice crack nearby to climb “Vegetarian Delight” (5.8, 2/5 stars). Turns out I got schooled on “Trim” as it turned out to be slabby and thin – I bailed, Carol jumped on and soon found herself at the top. We spent the rest of the afternoon reclimbing it; though I reclimbed it 3 times, I never did feel like “OK, I’m ready to lead this” – so we’ll be back.
In the same area is Pratt’s Crack Gully, with 52 sport climbs 5.9 to 13a and 42 gear climbs 5.8 to 5.12a. Our impression is these are Old School ratings so you better bring your “A” game. We’ll be working this area for years to come.
Click me for Pine Creek Canyon Pictures
2 – Owens River Gorge / Bishop, CA
ORG – the rock is “welded Bishop tuff” and varies from slippery to positive and there are hundreds of climbs; some trad but I think of this as a premiere sport climbing destination. It’s not exactly pristine, but once you get into the riparian zone it’s more than OK. The best part is the Gorge runs more or less north to south, so you can find shade when it’s hot or sun when it’s cold.
We had last been in the Gorge in September with friends Diana and Paul – during that trip, I noticed that some of the anchors on the climbs we were on were wearing out and actually verging on scary. I contacted ASCA, and much to my surprise, they sent me a box of mussy hooks, which I brought back into the Gorge with my adjustable wrench, ready to do battle with bad anchors. Carol, knowing I’d have to carry mussys, the wrench and then hang on the anchors while working, took pity on me and lead all the climbs. Bonus! At the All You Can Eat wall, she led “Step Right Up”, “Cinderella” (a first for Carol) and “Crotalusely Challenged”; I did a bunch of wrenching and fixed the anchors for those climbs.
Next to Crotalusely is “Carnubiator”, 5.10a and an awesome slab climb. The crux move involves a RH two-finger pocket and a flagging, balancy move to hit a little LH crimper – and if you’re not tall enough to hit the crimper, the climb becomes something well beyond 5.10a. The first time I stuck this move, I felt like “this right here is why I climb” – too much fun. Unfortunately the anchors at the top of “Carnubiator” are a couple of cold shuts, and replacing cold shuts is beyond my skill level – it would involve rebolting the anchor.
I now have an appreciation of the damage I’ve done by top roping and lowering off cold shuts – I’ll never do it again because they are not easily replaceable (unlike mussy hooks) and it ruins the climb for those who come after me. Build a toproping anchor for top roping, then have the last person clean the anchor and rappel – NOT LOWER – off. This will help us all ensure that those cold shuts remain safe for as long time as possible. Thank you in advance…
3 – Clark Canyon / Mammoth Lakes, CA
We’ve had so many good times in Clark Canyon – more welded Bishop tuff, but unlike the ORG, there’s no river (currently) so the tuff seems less water polished and more positive. We went to an area we hadn’t been to before – Alcove North Side on the Main Wall. Fun afternoon, we didn’t really work too hard except for top roping a climb called “Pick Pocket”, 5.10c that bears revisiting.
Just Go!
Click me for Clark Canyon Pictures
4 – Welcome Springs / St. George, UT
Armed with our “Rock Climbs of Southern Utah” guidebook, and seeking respite from the desert heat, we went hunting
for crags with afternoon shade. We landed at Welcome Springs, I scouted the Sumo Wall, and armed with sport climbing gear we headed up the wash.
This was our introduction to desert limestone – the stuff was pretty scary looking (as in don’t fall on it ’cause it’ll rip big gashes in your epidermis / dermis / hypodermis / I’ve made my point), but very positive. We had a great afternoon picking off some of the low-hanging fruit (in the entire Welcome Springs area, there is 1 5.6, 1 5.8, 1 5.9, 8 5.10 – and lots of 11, 12, 13(!) and one 5.14(!!) climbs. It was great fun, but we may or may not go back as we found other crags in the general area that are a better match to our abilities. If you’re a hard climber, you should definitely check it out, ‘tho.
Click me for Welcome Springs Pictures
5 – Zion National Park / Springdale, UT
In September of 2009 we met our climbing buds Diana and Paul thanks to Bob M. One afternoon,
Bob brought back pictures of them climbing “Ashtar Command” on the Ataxia Tower. We went and looked at it and I immediately put it on my “gotta do this” list. This trip, everything lined up and one morning Carol and I found ourselves gearing up at the bottom of the climb. I was a little nervous, as it was my first 5.8 trad pitch, but after I got going, it turned out to be fun. I actually made a couple crack moves, but it was mostly face climbing while protecting in the crack. After what seemed like not too long, I was at the first pitch belay station, Carol was following and cleaning, then she was off to lead the second pitch, 5.9 sport. I’ve gotta say I love trading leads.
The climb is not too far from the ranger’s station on the west side of the tunnels, so we were treated to plenty of Muggles stopping for the tunnel, getting out of their cars, and taking pictures of us. Somewhere, we’re featured in someone’s “looka those whack jobs” portfolio.
Carol sent the second pitch, I followed and cleaned, then came the scary part – rappelling down off the tower. We discovered awesome rap anchors with bolts that moved and the usual assortment of crusty webbing (note to self: stop climbing without carrying webbing!).
FWIW, I reported the manky bolts to ASCA – hopefully by the time you climb, they’ll have been replaced.
Click me for Ashtar Command Pictures
The next day, 5 of us (Carol, Sue, Randy, Hanyan and me) headed off to the east side of Zion NP to climb “Led by
Sheep” on Aries Butte. Carol and I had done this before, but the rest of the gang was new to the climb. We arrived at the bottom of the climb reasonably early (after seeing Bighorns on the side of the road; another hat trick!), had a little orientation on how we were going to climb as a team of 5 on my two half ropes, and then Carol geared up and headed off. She did a great job – led all the pitches and safely belayed all 4 of the rest of us up to the belay stations. Lunch on top of the butte surrounded by the usual astounding Zion scenery and then it was time to get down. Takes a while with 5 people, plus we had a little rope management demo (Randy got to be the victim of a “throw and go”) but all too soon we were all down and headed back to the barn. We did detour and check out the petroglyphs in the canyon on the way out.
Back at camp, much of the discussion was about canyoneering activities next day, but I managed to persuade Sue and Randy to head out with us to go climbing next day.
Click me for Led by Sheep Pictures
6 – Woodbury Road Crags / St. George, UT
Next morning, we all piled in Randy’s rental and headed out for Kelly’s Rock at the Woodbury Road Crags. Carol and I
had scouted it out a few days earlier, knew it looked like fertile ground for our beginner climber friends (++ being shaded all day) and had challenging climbs for us. A real winner.
Quite a fruitful day for Sue as she completed a mock lead on a sport climb; she even attempted a real lead but didn’t feel the mojo and backed off – I’ve done that! We all got in some nice warmup climbs.
Somewhere in there I wandered down the crag and found a good looking 5.10b climb to lead, which would let me set up a TR for a 5.10c right next to it. The guidebook said the first bolt was “very high”, and I was pleased to see someone had set 3 more bolts underneath it since the guidebook had been written. Wrong.
There was a 5.11b (“K-6”, 3 out of 3 stars) just to the right that went up through a “wonderful overhanging scoop” that as I sat and looked at it looked kinda sorta almost – doable – though we had never attempted anything at that level
outside before. What the hell, I lead the climb next to it (turns out I was on “Tag Team”, 5.10c, 2 out of 3 stars, so I set a new personal best for lead climbing even though I had a couple hangs) and set up a redirect and a top rope for both climbs.
I don’t remember the exact sequence of events, but somewhere in there Carol climbed “Tag Team” and established a new PB for herself on outdoors top rope. I got on “K-6” and climbed it once with one hang, then sometime later climbed it again clean. Stellar – I couldn’t have been more excited – I had pushed my outdoor top rope personal best from 5.10b to 5.11b. Everybody got hugs.
Randy and Sue also tried the two climbs – kudos for tener cojones to try those level of climbs as beginner climbers. With that kind of gung-ho spirit and a few hundred feet of climbing under their rock shoes, next time they’ll be giving us tips! Just an amazing afternoon for everyone…
7 – Snow Canyon State Park / Ivins, UT
Snow Canyon – home of Island in the Sky / Aftershock Wall / “Living on the Edge”, 5.10a for the first pitch and a climb we’d done a couple times before – always worth a revisit. After a couple bouldery pulls at the bottom, the line goes up the face along the edge of a beautiful arch – and at times there’s nothing between your foothold and the air. Just Good Fun!
Carol had not lead the climb before, so with opportunity knocking, she geared up, pulled the first couple moves – and she was off. So much fun. I climbed it after her on top rope, pretty much laughing all the way. Sue and Randy came over from the “warmup” climb, got on the top rope and had their go at it, too. Randy managed to fight his way to the top; Sue used a lot of energy getting over the hardest moves and had to retreat. The fact that the sun had swung over the crag and was now baking our brains out didn’t help, for sure.
A few times during our climbing here, we were overrun by tourists scrambling up to see the Pioneer Wall, and more than once someone asked “How does the rope get up there?” My nephew Mat had mentioned being asked this; it’s much more amusing when it happens to you. I tried to explain lead climbing, but I’m pretty sure people more or less thought we free soloed the climb to put the rope up.
We packed up, said goodbye to Sue (wah!), and headed back out to Woodbury Road to finish Randy off – I mean, to get in a few more climbs for the day.
Click me for Snow Canyon Pictures
Woodbury Road Crags / St. George, UT
Back at Kelly’s Rock, Randy got warmed up and then pulled off his first ever 5.9 sport lead – well done. Out of time and
needing to be back in Zion, he headed east. Carol and I decided we’d had enough fun for the day and headed west.
8 – Pinnacles National Monument / Hollister, CA
A couple weeks before we started our trip, our friend Eric – expert climber and Pinnacles-knowledgeable – mentioned that he’d be interested into a Pinnacles trip during our beautiful fall weather. We picked a date, invited Randy – another expert climber – and early in the morning met at the Spanel Shack, piled into Eric’s car and headed out.
A couple hours later we’re at the Monolith, lacing them up and getting on some of the strangest rock anywhere. It looks like an igneous breccia to me – cobblestone-sized chunks in a welded ash matrix. The result is that there are chunks sticking out of the rock wall everywhere, making for terrific hand and foot holds – as long as they don’t pop out. Therein lies the “fun” – if I yard on this thing or put my weight on it with my foot, what’s going to happen?
After a time, at least on the wall we were climbing on, it appears that much scaling by previous climbers has occurred, and it’s OK to use those projections. Highlights – Randy and Eric worked on Eric’s project “Feed the Beast”; we all had a runs on “Post Orgasmic Depression”. Then we moved to the Discovery wall where we all climbed “The Wet Kiss”. Feeling used up, we scouted a few more climbs for the future and made our way back to the parking lot and home. Another great day out.
Click me for Pinnacles Pictures
Wrapping it Up
Just. Brilliant. Fun. Thanks to:
- Fred for organizing the Utah side of thing and getting our butts off the couch
- Amy for hosting us in Utah (Tre says thanks to CK for causing him to have measurable blood pressure for once…)
- Nancy, Randy, Ellie, Nikki and Tina for food, drink and entertainment
- Sue, Randy, Hanyan, Eric and Randy for making the climbing outings fun
- All our climbing and bouldering buddies for helping us learn how to climb safe and strong
- ASCA for sponsoring the hardware I replaced and for being generally awesome (click over and make a donation, OK?) and helping make our climbing outings safer
Time to get out and enjoy the fall weather before winter comes – oh, wait, it’s always climbing weather in Bishop!
Namaste, Rick
P.S. We keep track of personal bests for two reasons: A – so we know what the return on investment for all our hard work is and 2 – so that we maximize the food rewards! In case you’re interested, go here.
Pingback:Deb Carpenter Younger
Pingback:Rick