We arrived in Moab Tuesday afternoon. There was fresh snow on the La Sals, and the forecast called for thunderstorms, so we delayed going down to the Creek. Wednesday we repeated a couple of climbs along Potash road, bouldered at Big Bend, and then bought groceries for camping at the Creek.

We arrived in the Creek after dark, and we discovered that camping is no longer permitted at Newspaper Rock. Always a bad idea because the canyon is narrow and there is a danger of flash floods. The sandy, vegetation-free soil of the campground should have been a clue, but it was nice camping under the cottonwoods.

We camped at the Needles Outpost $25 a night. Showers are available. We met Tracy Napolitano. Thursday and Friday we climbed on Scarface Buttress. Here is a list of climbs I did. Of the climbs we did Thurs and Fri, I like these the most (2nd ed. numbering): #9 thin hands, face holds, and lieback, #34 wide hands and chimney, #12 Scarface. The guidebook is great. It amazes me that when the Wiggins party climbed Supercrack in 1976, the road into Moab was dirt and a wooden bridge crossed the Colorado. When were highways 191 and 211 paved?

Friday night we returned to Moab. Thousands were in town for a bike race, so we couldn’t get a hotel. We got a campsite in the Moab RV park near City Market $20 a night. The first night was marred by the drunken hillbillies next to us. The man kept calling the woman a stupid cunt. Apparently she turned his dog against him.

Saturday we climbed at Potash Road again. I did “Nervous in Suburbia” 10a, “Lucy in the Sky with Potash” 10a, and “30 Seconds Over Potash” 5.8. A couple of locals climbed next to us, and they referred to the woman making the odd calls from the other side of the Colorado as “goose lady”.

After climbing we drove the bike race route in reverse, going down river road and then up Castle Valley into the La Sals. We discovered Mill Creek, and saw where people park and hike down to the climbing. It is obvious the climbing is on Entrada sandstone. I asked someone at Pagan about it, and there are about 100 routes there. No guidebook, so just choose something you think you might be able to climb. It isn’t all high-end climbing: there is stuff in the 5.10 and 5.11 range.

I studied the map and consulted a hiking guide in the bookstore. If you were interested in making an ascent of Mt Peale (12721 ft elevation, 6200 ft of prominence, 23rd most prominent peak in the lower 48), you would take highway 46 east from La Sal Junction, and then get on Upper Two Mile Rd to La Sal Pass Rd. The latter two roads are dirt, but passable with 2WD. Drive up to the vicinity of La Sal Pass, a col which separates the south La Sals from the central La Sals. Mt Peale is an off trail route straight up to the north.

Sunday we went skydiving. When we walked back to the hangar, Steph Davis was sitting on her tailgate in her wingsuit.

We returned to the Creek and camped on the Bridger Jack Shelf Sunday evening. A thunderstorm came through and doused everything. We cooked pork chops, rotini pasta, and broccoli. A large praying mantis visited our campsite and I can’t recall ever watching one of them up close.

Monday we climbed again on Scarface Buttress. Climb #10 to the left of “Where’s Carruthers” is superb. It is 100′ long, and it starts out with thin hands and stemming in a pair of cracks. The upper section has cruxy liebacks between good rests. I protected in both cracks without using runners, which caused the 0.75 Camalot to walk deep into the crack. I spent over 15 minutes retrieving it by using nut tools and a sling to reach the release bar.

Used camalots: .4,.5,1,2,3,3,3.5,4 and 3 medium to large stoppers. The placements are good: I tested most with a fall.

Harlan strung a line over Sculpture Canyon:

It took about 2 1/2 hours to rig the line. I was impressed with the setup: 11mm static cordallettes for the anchors, threaded tubular to anchor the backup line, steel carabiners. Though the backup line was merely hand tightened, he was able to tape it tight to the main line without any Christmas garlands. A 3 inch O-ring to connect the leash to the line. With three good bolts on either end, the line looked safe. The leash was a bit short.

helmet
harness
chest harness
atc with biner
gri gri with biner
2 draws
fifi hook
2 daisies
2 ascenders
2 etriers/biners
locking biner
climbing shoes
chalk bag
knee pads
fingerless gloves
traxion pulley
nut tool

Common Climbing Gear

2 60m climbing ropes
cordalette
3 hooks
4 tie off loops
4 spectra slings
gear sling
6 camalots, .4 thru 3
30 nuts & stoppers
haul sack w/ daisy, biner, swivel and knot protector
32 free biners

6 tricams
bolt hanger
18 free biners
rope proctector

Other Personal Gear

sleeping bag (maybe bivy sack)
knap sack
head lamp
topo
camera
nalgene bottle
stuff sack
hand sanitizer
tooth brush
lip balm, sun block, first aid items
keys
wallet
multi-tool

Clothes

pants
hiking shoes
socks, 1 pair
sweater
wind breaker
head sock
long sleeve shirt
underwear

Other Common Gear

portaledge w/ fly
pupe toob

Food & Water

12 clif bars
2 lunches
breakfast
dinner
starbuck double shots
3-4 gallons water
zip log bags, garbage bags

Post-Mortem: December 6, 2007

I wish I brought eye protection. Even tho it was clean pro, I was nervous that a piece might pop and hit me in the face.

I wore climbing shoes, but would have been better off with a stiff sole to proect the toes, which are constantly pointed into the rock. Stiff soles also protect the arch of the feet, which get sore standing in aiders. The heels together-toes splayed stance does increase stability.

I should have packed lunch in my knapsack, since I was unwilling to stop and dig in the pig for it.

After I finished hauling, it took too much effort getting the pig off the haul line. There must be an easier way…

The pig was too heavy. I may have been hauling 100 lbs. I need to weigh everything and get the weight down.

More medium sized nuts would have been nice. Smaller tri-cams were indeed necessary in some of the pods. I’m not sure if the larger tri-cams are necessary, but we didn’t finish the route so who knows. I would like a good set of offset nuts. Also, there may have been some places where I was having trouble getting a piece in and hooking would have been appropriate.

It rained that evening. We ate dinner at the Three Angry Wives.

Saturday the rock was wet. We went to Hoover Dam. In the afternoon we climbed “Intestinal Flu” 5.8. Maybe it continues with a second pitch, but it looked harder than the guidebook grade so we rapped off.

That evening we ate at the Red Rock Casino. We sat in the bar until the 9pm showing of “Balls of Fury”.

Sunday we climbed Frogland 5.8. Our car to car time was about 6 hours. We may have lost an hour waiting because we weren’t the first party on the route.

We (me, Grant, Paul) hoped to climb the Regular Route 5.9 on Fairview Dome. It had two parties on it, so we attempted Lucky Streaks 10b instead. I had difficulty on the 3rd pitch, taking a fall at the crux. My attempt fatigued me, but I eventually got through by pulling on gear. The ramp above was almost slabby climbing on knobs. I was taking forever trying to arrange protection, and eventually I fell, popping 4 cams and coming to a stop 70′ below eye to eye with my belayer. I was not placing a lot of protection because I didn’t have many small cams. Also, because of the shallow crack, I could not align the cams in a downward direction, and as a result they were twisted out of place by my fall. I would recommend a double set of aliens and a double set of nuts for this pitch.

Sunday, 6 August 2006

Climbed a 5.8 and a 5.9 route at Clark’s Canyon near Mammoth Lakes.

Drove to New Jack City with Grant and Tara. Led “Midway” 5.10c/d and “Make a Way” 5.10a/b. Top-roped “Espresso” 5.10c.

Tuesday, April 18

At the BLM Red Rocks gate at 6am. We parked at the Oak Canyon trail head and hiked up to the base of the Rainbow Wall, our eyes on “Original Route”, grade V A2 5.9. Arduous gully choked with boulders and brush. We had route-finding difficulties. The pig was 50+ pounds, and it makes a poor back pack. At what we thought was the base of the route at 10am. Actually we climbed an unnecessary pitch, since there was a walkable ramp to the right. At the actual base, there was a 5.6 pitch. I led the first difficult pitch, A2 5.7. Had trouble getting gear to stick in the seam. Took two falls. On the first I popped two pieces, one of which hit me in between the eyes causing some bleeding. I had used a lost arrow and a blade, both of which bottomed out and should have been tied off, though I didn’t do that. I ended up busting out left to do some reachy free climbing, seemed much harder than 5.7 but it was difficult to tell with all the gear I had on. At the belay I had much difficulty hauling the pig. Turned out I had the traxion pully upside down. It was 2:30pm and we had only done 2 pitches, with another 6 to reach the bivy ledge. Had to conclude that we were out classed by this wall, so we rapped off.

Had a 4pm supper at the base:

7 oz chicken (foil wrapped)
3 servings potato flakes
2 small carrots
1 small onion
1 small squash
2 oz butter
1 cube vegetable bouillion
salt & pepper

Dice the vegetables. Boil everything but the
chicken & potato flakes for 5 minutes in 2 cups
of water. Add the chicken and bring to a boil.
Turn off heat and add potato flakes. Stir and serve.

Made it back to the car around 7pm.

Wednesday, April 19

Led “Bonaire” 5.9 in the Black Corridor, and top-roped the unbolted face to
the right of it.

We got out to the park a little before noon and hiked out to the Wonderland of Rocks. My brother knew a highline was strung up between North and South Astrodomes. We went up the NW shoulder of North Astrodome (5.4) and performed a Tyrolean accross the line. As my brother was going back the owner of the line, Sean Schneider, showed up with his friend Buddha, and told us not to weight the line with carabiners when doing a Tyrolean. We noticed they came up the NW shoulder of South Astrodome, which is class 3 and considerably safer.

At this point my brother made it back to North Astrodome, and I was on South Astrodome with Sean and Buddha. He invited me to walk the line, using a red leash attached to the line via a steel ring. I was having some difficulty stepping away from the cliff, so he encouraged me to take a fall and get over the fear. So I threw myself off, which with the 6 foot leash and a similar amount of give in the line results in a 12 foot swinging fall. Getting used to the fall did help me, and I was eventually able to take about three steps. Because of the length of the line (140′) it was hard to walk, and I’m not good at walking near the anchors. On one of my walking attempts I fell to the leash side, and instead of turning backwards 270 degrees, I turned forward to the line, so that the leash was running around my leg. As a result I was flipped upside down and sent spinning, and I bruised up my leg.

Once I was dangling 6 feet beneath the line, I batmanned up the leash to get back to the line. However, Sean recommended reaching as high as possible up the leash and flipping upside down to hook the line with your feet. Both techniques involve some athleticism.

After having our fill of the highline we went over to Lenticular Dome and climbed “Mental Physics” 5.7.

Sunday–December 18

We climbed “Overhang Bypass” 5.7. Then we wandered north into the Outback and climbed “Hobbit Hole Offwidth” V0 and “Flintlock Dyno” V0.