Arriving at Zion, “Zion Climbing: Free and Clean” guidebook in hand, Carol and I started scouting out climbs.
We hiked in by way of Petroglyph Canyon (yes, we stopped and checked out the petroglyphs) and found the bottom of “Led by Sheep” fairly handily and decided, yeah, let’s try this one.
A few days later, Bob, Carol and I packed up early, headed out and scrambled up to the bottom of the technical climb, started gearing up and – oh-oh – that 20% chance of rain started to look more like 100%. Not wanting to be caught climbing wet sandstone, much less caught on top of Aries Butte in a lightning storm, we aborted and headed out.
As an aside, it had nothing whatever to do with the fact that a certain person (yeah, OK, me, Mr_”Cotton_Is_Death_So_Don’t_Wear_It_In_The_Back_Country_Guy”) hadn’t brought a raincoat and was dressed in cotton pants.
Somewhat later, joined by new friends Paul and Diana, we again headed out early in the morning. Paul and Diana would be one rope team; Bob, Carol and I would be the other.
Karma rewarded us for our three-times-persistence; climbing up to the saddle next to Aries Butte, planning to climb Led by Sheep, we encountered Desert Bighorns at the saddle. If that isn’t a hat trick, I don’t know what is. As we were gearing up, a bighorn peeked back over at us and decided the crazy humans weren’t leaving, and departed for good.
I need to mention that SuperTopo gets a BIG FAIL for the beta on Led by Sheep – the guidebook suggests taking “10 long slings, and some parties may want a small rack” – there are no more than 4 bolts between anchors and if you climb it and find something useful to stick trad pro in, send me a picture. The rock is what I’d call barely cemented sandstone. A much better description of what you’re in for can be found here.
Paul and Diana geared up and set off; Bob, Carol and I started up as soon as Diana left the ground. I lobbied for lead climber; interesting stuff as it’s basically a big slab climb with little or no handholds (I suspect if there were handholds, they’d break off if one were to yard on them). Interesting for me as slab climbing is not something we get to practice much.
The second, third and fourth pitches seemed much easier, either because they WERE easier or because I got used to slabbin’ it. We all got on top, had lunch, took lotsa pictures including one of a lightning-fried-tree (TOTALLY justifying our days-earlier decision not to climb in the storm) and then rappelled off.
Fun day, awesome views, easy climbing – highly recommended!!!
Click here for PICTURES. Best viewed as a Slideshow.
Namaste.
~Rick
P.S. Thanks to Bob, Diana, Paul and Carol for sharing pictures!