Indian Creek

Last Day of Cragging at the Creek

North Six Shooter at Sunset

Matt on Generic Crack (5.10-)

Me getting the onsight on Quarter of a Man (5.11++)

Me Redpointing Scarface (5.11)

Will onsighting Annanaki (5.12-)

Kathy and Will at Reservior Wall

The Incredible Handcrack (5.10)

Kathy on Slice and Dice (5.12)

Dan onsight attempt on Layaway Plan (5.11+)

 

Swedin Ringle (5.12-)

Desperate Clip to the Anchors on Swedin Ringle

Made it back home to Texas to spend Thanksgiving with the fam after spending the last few weeks in Indian Creek, Utah. Indian Creek has to be the best crack climbing area in the world, and having only climbed there once before, this is now definitely my favorite cragging area. We had a great group of climbers to hang out with in the creek as many of the people I met in Yosemite were there as well. Lots of fun, climbing long splitter cracks on great sandstone rock, with good friends and excellent camping, what more could a climber want. After climbing the "Lightning Bolt Cracks" on the North Six Shooter Tower on my last day, my body was completely destroyed, I had climbed 5 days in a row and my body needed some rest. So I am back in Texas for the month of December, then I will fly out to Chile on January 9th for some Patagonian adventure. Then back to the Creek in the Spring!

Zion

                                                    Iron Messiah            

                                            Kathy jugging on Space Shot

                                     Kathy loaded up on Space Shot

Steep Jugging on Space Shot

At the end of October I left Yosemite to make my way to the Utah desert for the remainder of the Fall. I stopped on the way to Indian Creek in Zion where I met Kathy and we spent a few days climbing in this area. On the first day we climbed Iron Messiah, a multi pitch route with lots of chimneys and interesting climbing on soft sandstone. On the second day we cragged on some single pitch routes and on the 3rd day we attempted a big wall route: Space Shot. Next onward to Indian Creek!

Update

Sorry for no updates, but I have been busy climbing. I need to do a huge update with trip reports on the latest climbs I have done in the Yosemite Valley like the Steck Salathe on the Sentinel. The next big rest day I will post an update. Today I will be leaving the valley and heading towards Zion National Park in Utah for a few days, then I will be spending most of November in Indian Creek and the canyonlands of Utah. I plan to be camping at the Creek Pasture campground in Indian Creek, look for my white van if you happen to be in the area.

Steck Salathe

Sunrise in Yosemite Valley                                                           

Dressed for Success

The Narrows

Double Armbar

Strenuous!

Glad I am not Claustiphobic

Valley Sunset

El Cap Sunset

Happy to be on the Summit

I was wanting to do one last big route in Yosemite before I left. I had been climbing with Kathy from Seattle, doing some long moderate routes and cragging. We knew Derrick and Ari were going to do the Steck Salathe and I suggested that we should do it as well. Kathy was a bit skeptical but once she found out it was one of the 50 Classic Climbs of North America, she was on board. I had wanted to do this route for many years but could never find a willing partner, luckily Kathy had no idea what she committing to.

We got an early start and began hiking in the dark, following the guidebook info which suggests the climbers trail leaves the 4 Mile Trail after .5 miles we stumbled around in the dark trying to find. Finally we decided to keep hiking up the trail til we hit the creek crossing which was probably 1.5 miles up the trail. After that the approach was straightforward and involved some exposed terrain and scrambling to get to the base. To my surprise there were 2 parties at the base of the route. We knew Derick and Ari would be there but there was another team that just beat us to the base of the route. This concerned me, and I was not looking forward to being stuck behind another party, plus they were hauling a pack which inevitably would be knocking rocks down on us.

The route was burly from the first pitch on, no real easy pitches on this route, it would be 16 pitches groveling, strenuous climbing. After about 5 or 6 pitches the party in front of us decided to bail, they had had enough. We quickly caught up to Derrick and Ari as Ari was stuck in the narrows. I got to lead the narrows pitch, which was very interesting and a bit spicy on the exit. Kathy started up the next pitch as the sun was setting. I would then lead the next 2 pitches in the dark to the summit where Derrick and Ari had waited for us. We topped out at around 9:30PM which was pretty good considered we had a late start waiting on the party in front of us and having to wait for them early in the climb. The decent was epic in the dark and took considerable time with the tricky route finding. Overall this was a huge day on an amazing route that I will never forget. Lots of chimneys and wide strenuous cracks with an alpine feel, that left us fully worked.

Everyone should do this one!

Rainy Days

I have spent the last week or so getting in some great free climbing with routes such as the Northeast Buttress of Higher Cathedral, the Free Blast on El Cap, another repeat of Serenity Crack to Sons of Yesterday, and several days of cragging. Today is a rest day as a big storm has made its way to Yosemite Valley and will rain til Thursday of this week. Last night I sleep in my van instead of my tent anticipating a wet night, when I was awoken at 2:00AM to the sound of breaking glass. I quickly peaked out the window to see a bear climbing into a car parked in the row behind mine. I watched for about 10 minutes as the bear destroyed the inside of the car and then came out and headed toward my van. I banged on the window and scared him off. About 20 minutes later I heard the sound of something banging on a car on the other side of the lot, the bear had found another victim.
Life has been good hear in Yosemite with lots of people to climb with and its nice to be around people that share your same passion.

Fall in the Valley

Solo Climbing on the Royal Arches

Pendulum on the Arches

Enjoying the Swing

Slab Climbing on Crest Jewel

Long Runout and Off Route on Crest Jewel

Great View of Half Dome

I have arrived in Yosemite Valley for some Fall climing. Unable to secure a site in Camp 4 and with warm temps Will and I headed for Toulumne after taking an evening run on Nutcracker. In Toulumne we got on some of the classic moderate there such as Lucky Streakes on Fairview Dome, 6 pitches 10d; Regular Route on Fairvew Dome 12 pitches 5.9; and Cresent Arch on Daff Dome 5 pitches 10b. With a return to the Valley the weather here has changed and the temperatures are perfect for climbing. The high temps in during the day are in the upper 60's to mid 70's and the lows at nigh in the 30's or 40's.

On our 2nd day climbing in the valley we decided to do the classic linkup of Serenity Crack to Sons of Yesterday, 8 pitches of 5.9-5.10 climbing with a short approach and easy decent make this and enjoyable and high sought after climb. Having done the route earlier in the Summer I knew we needed to be up early to beat the crowds unfortunately some French guys beat us to the base of the route by about 20 minutes. For a party of 3 they moved fast and we only had to wait on them a few times on the route after letting them get up 2 pitches before we started. The route was fantastic as always although some weather began to move in with strong cold gusts of wind and a few drops of rain. We went for the light and fast approach without jackets which meant a few cold moments at the belays and raps. Nonetheless a great day on the stone. On our second day back in the Valley we decided to do another classic linkup, the Royal Arches 16 pitches 5.7 to Crest Jewel on North Dome 10 pitches 5.10 for a total of 26 pitches and close to 3000' of technical climbing. We woke up at 5:30 in the morning hoping to maximize our daylight hours as it gets light around 6:30 and gets dark around 7:00PM. We started on the Royal Arches just before 7:00AM and soloed the route in a little less than 2 hours, taking a casual pace knowing that today would be a long day. After a short break we made the mile hike, 1000' of elevation gain to the base of Crest Jewel on North Dome. We just beat some Euros to the route. The route was quite the contrast to what we had been climbing, going from crack climbing to slab climbing with few holds. The route went quickly despite me getting off route a couple times and heading towards some anchors that were not marked on the topo. We also did not bring and actual topo of the route which made route finding somewhat adventurous. We were treated to great views of Half Dome all day on the route and awesome views of all of Yosemite from the summit of North Dome. What goes up most come down unfortunately and we had to make the long slog down North Dome gully which took us a few hours from the top. All in all it was a 10 hour day from camp to camp and we still had a couple hours of daylight to spare. Such great fun to cover so much technical climbing in a day with remarkable views of Yosemite Valley. Today is a much needed rest day.

Smith Rock, Oregon

After leaving Leavenworth I began to head South toward Smith Rocks, Oregon. This was good drive over several mountain passes, and I was a bit concerned about the van. The van had some work done on it Wenatchee, WA, I had the camshaft senson replaced after it was running really poorly, and got it tuned up hoping that would get it running well. The van survived the trip much to my releif. Smith Rocks is known for its sport climbing and I had spent some time climbing her many years ago when I lived in Oregon for a few months before landing a job in Seattle. The sport climbing was hard for me, since I have been mainly climbing cracks and slab, or alpine stuff, so the steep face climbing left me a little out of my element, but I think it is good to mix it up and do climbs out of your comfort zone. Anyway we had a good time shredding our finger tips on the sharp volcanic rock, Will adapted well to the climbing at Smith, which in some ways is similar to the Limestone he is used to in Texas. We spend 1 day climbing down in the Lower gorge climbing the basalt cracks there. Great crack climbing on steep columnar basalt with long pumpy routes. We ticked off nearly every 5.10 crack and a couple of 5.11's by the end of the day I was quite tired. I even took a 25 foot whipper on a 5.10a crack as I was about to clip into the anchors, a foot slipped and off I went whipping onto my last piece which was a #4 camalot, with the rope stretch and Will giving me a dynamic belay, I had a nice clean flight. It was the 1 climb I did not wear my helmet on as well, go figure. My shoulder had been bothering me for a few days so I decided to sit out the next climbing day and just play photographer. The weather here has been great, but tomorrow I starting the long drive south to Yosemite, where I will climb for 2-3 weeks, then make my to southern Utah for the remainder of the fall.

Captain Kirk on Why Climbers Climb

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Leavenworth Cragging

Sunday we arrived in Leavenworth, WA for a little cragging and some warmer weather after the rain and cold of Alpine climbing at WA Pass. We did some climbing at Castle Rock and did Outer Space on Snow Creek Wall where we were harrased by mountain goats. Next on to Smith Rock, Oregon.