Indian Creek Fall 2010

Wow, another great time climbing at Indian Creek this Fall. This place is so magical for me, the climbing and beauty of the desert is so inspiring and hanging in the desert with good friends is what makes this place even more special.  It always great to visit beautiful places and climb amazing routes but more importantly is who you share these experiences with, thanks to all who made this another great Indian Creek trip. Only negative is I did not take enough pictures.

Me redpointing Swedin Ringle 5.12

Will fighting the pump on Quarter of a Man 5.11++

Chris on Disco Machine Gun 5.12

JAH MAN

Sister Superior is the tower on the right

After arriving in Indian Creek, Utah at the end of October and climbing for about a week, Will and I decided to climb JAH MAN (4 pitches, 5.10) on Sister Superior Tower in Castle Valley. The hike in was casual althought we parked my truck not to far up the road because you needed some serious clearance to make it very far. The climb was a lot fun and a cool summit.

Entering the Sister Squeeze



Epinephrine

Will and I bailed out of the Valley to escape the rain and plan to head east to Indian Creek, Utah, along the way we would stop in Red Rocks, Nevada. We decided to climb the long classic moderate called  Epinephrine (2000' 17 pitches 5.9). I had wanted to do this route for the last year or so but it was always to cold in Black Velvet Canyon to get on it. When we woke up the wind was really blowing and the sky was dark and looked like it could rain and any moment. We drove over to the canyon and begun the approach, half thinking that we would be bailing due to the weather, but I always like the saying "you never know til you go". We made it to the base with a couple of drops falling, but decided that we should go up as we could always rappel the route if the weather got bad. Will led the odds and me the evens. At the top of pitch 3 another team showed up and began to simul the route, they asked if the could pass, we agreed assuming the would be faster than us. The pass was made at the start of the main chimneys. I let the leader go by and after waiting for a while for their second to arrive I began climbing, turns out the second was really slow. Turns out we ended up riding these guys all the way to the top, they felt like total jerks for slowing us down, as we were actually a faster team than them and we were pitching it out and not simul climbing. The route itself was  a lot of fun with excellent chimney pitches, cracks with face features and some fun face climbing on in cut holds. We ended up climbing the route in a little over 5 hours and had lunch on the summit and were back to the car in the early afternoon and had the rest of the day to sit around at camp and relax. Always fun to cover so much ground quickly,and turns out the weather was great all day. Next up, INDIAN CREEK!

Me enjoying one of the Chimneys

Will Squeezing

High on the Route

Topping Out

NW Face of Half Dome in a Day



After our ascent of El Cap we took a couple rest days, spent a day cragging, and decided the next objective would be the NW Face of Half Dome (23 pitches 5.12b, 5.9C1, 2000+'). We wanted to take advantage of the warm temps since the route is in the shade all day and with the extended forecast calling for cooler temps and unsettled weather we decided to go for it. We would go for a light and fast approach to do the route in a day with only 3 liters of water and a double set of cams to 2" and one 3" cam, lots of bars and one warm jacket for belays if needed. We spent last Thursday hiking to the base of the climb via the "Death Slabs". We were the first ones at the base that day meaning we were first in line for this popular route. Later that evening several more teams showed up bringing the total to five. We let one team start ahead of us as they agreed to start 1 hour before us and would let us pass if we caught them. There were 2 teams that were going to spend 2 days on the route and would start later, one more in a day team would start right behind us. Friday morning we woke up at 4:00 AM and were climbing by 5:00AM in the dark as it does not get light till almost 7:00. Will led the first 6 pitches and was learning to short fix on the fly.  I took the next 6 pitches and we were making great time, and were only 2 pitches behind the team in front of us, we never saw the team behind us the rest of the day. Will took the lead for block 3 in the chimneys, at this time the pace slowed a bit as the jugging was slow in the chimneys and Will got off route on the pitch to Big Sandy Ledge. I took the last block starting up the Zig Zags using a mixture of free climbing and aid climbing. Made it to "Thank God Ledge" and walked the plank, ended up climbing on the outside of the chimney at the end of the pitch for some scary runout face climbing, what was I thinking.  On the next to last pitch I did a penjilum and began tension traversing to avoid tricky gear placements, finally I placed a bad yellow alien, weighted it and went flying across the face, Will said I was spinning around, upside down, scraping against the rock. I quickly composed myself and went for the same moves, this time a better placement allowed me to reach the bolt. I started leading the last pitch as the sun was setting, when Will joined me on top it was 7:30PM. We had climbed 23 pitches over 2000' of climbing in 14 hours, for a huge day, on the majestic face of Half Dome. Once on top we were both tired, hungry, and thirsty and still had  a 2 hour + descent ahead of us to make it back to the base of the climb were water and our sleeping bags awaited. We stumbled around in the dark trying to find the cables descent route, tourons have placed cairns all over the place making it hard to follow the correct path. We met a guy on top who was waiting for the team behind  us, and he pointed us in the right direction. Going down the cables was painful on the hands, the park had already taken down the posts and slats for the season leaving only steal cable to hand over hand down the steep slab. At the base of the cables we struggled again to find the trail back to the base but eventually we did and slogged down dirt, talus, scree, and manzinetta back to our bivy spot. We could see the head lamps of the team that was behind us high on the route, the had a long night ahead of them. We ate what little food we had, drank water, and crashed out, completely exhausted. Will said this was the single hardest climbing day he has ever had, it ranks pretty high up there for me as well. Saturday morning we made our way down the "Death Slabs" and back to the valley for hot showers and much needed food.

Overall this was the one the great climbs for me, to cover so much terrain in a day is just plain fun!

Half Dome

"Death Slabs" approach

Sunset from our bivy at the base of the route

Me heading for the base of the "Robbins Traverse"

"Robbins Traverse" Bolt Ladder

Will enjoying one of the airy chimneys

Will climbing a splitter crack with great views of the valley

"Thank God Ledge" with the Visor above

Walking the plank on "Thank God Ledge"

Pulling into the 5.8 Squeeze Chimney

Will stuffing his face at the breakfast buffet at Curry Village

Lurking Fear

El Cap and Yosemite Valley

After enduring a few days of rain in the Valley, Will and I decided to jump on El Cap. We climbed Lurking Fear on the left side of El Cap and turned out to be a great climb. We  spent 2 and a half days on the route with 2 bivys. We ended up hiking down in the dark , it is a long ways to the East Ledges decent route from Lurking Fear. We picked up a couple parties who had topped out on the East Buttress and were lost in the dark, so I guided them down the decent. By the way, to those Brits, I am still waiting on those beers you promised for keeping you from spending a cold night out on top of El Cap. The next day we were both quite sore from hiking down with heavy packs.

Will hanging out on the Captain

Bivy #2

Life is Good

Heading Down

Summit View at Sunset

Climbing Off the Couch and into the Mountains

After taking a 3 month break from climbing and working in Texas, I hit the road for a Fall climbing trip. I met up with Will on the East Side of the Sierras and we decided to do 1 day at Toulumne to get acclimatized and get me back on some rock. What was suppose to be a chill day turned into a tough day at altitude for this sea level, non climbing working stiff. We did a couple multi pitch slab routes, then climbed West Crack on Daff Dome for another 4 pitches.

                                                   Will getting his slab fix

Will following the first pitch of West Crack

The next day we headed north to Bridgeport to hike the approach to the Incredible Hulk. This turned out to be a long hot day with heavy packs, 5 miles and 3400 feet of altitude and 3 hours later brought us to about 10,000' and our bivy spot.

The Incredible Hulk from the approach

The following morning we awoke at 6:00AM and began climbing the Red Dihedral (1200', 12 pitches 5.10b) at 8:00AM. The climb was awesome on amazing rock. We enjoyed ideal temps and climbed in long sleeve shirt and pants the entire time. We were first on the route and saw only one party low on the route then never saw them again. The climb took us 6 hours and we made back to camp a little after 3:00PM and began the painful descent back to the car. We were back at the car by around 6:30PM to make for a nice 12 hour day of exercise. Today both our bodies are hurting! All in All not bad for an off the couch climber who has only climbed one day in the last 3 months.

Stay tuned for more updates in the next few weeks.

Will high on the Hulk

Will following the tunnel through last pitch

On the Summit of the Incredible Hulk

Sunset on the Hulk

Can you find the climbers on the upper left?

Salathe Wall (El Capitain)

The Captain

The Salathe Wall on El Cap had been on my tick list for sometime, but for some reason things never worked out to get it done. When visiting Karsten and Andrew in Vegas back in March I asked Andrew if he would be interested in doing the Salathe and he was, Karsten who had done the route 8 years decided he wanted to get in on the action as well and a plan was hatched.
Andrew and I met up last Wednesday evening and began to rack up, Karsten would be driving in late that night. We met up with Karsten el cap bridge at around 6:45AM and headed up to do the Free Blast. Unfortunately there was a slow party beginning to start up the first pitch, we decided to hike some loads to the base of the fixed lines and give them some space. After hiking a load the second was just getting to the first belay. We decided to start up the route and informed them that we would be passing, I started us off linking the first 2 pitches to make the pass and began short fixing on the 3rd, the pass was complete. We made good time up the Free Blast, fixed a pitch above heart ledges, rapped down, ate some dinner at the bridge, hiked the remainder of our gear to the base and began to haul our bags to heart ledges, unfortunately a team of two beat us to heart but they had not climbed the free blast yet. We slept at heart ledges after a long day, I woke up being cold and wet, evidently the ledge I was sleeping on had a seep of water that I had blocked and I got soaked, so I was motivated to get moving. We ended up making it to el Cap Spire, that night, with Andrew leading the first block, me the 2nd block and Karsten the 3rd. I bonked hard at the end of my block and Karsten was so worked at the end of his block he was feeling sick, I think the effort we put in on the big first day was taking its toll. Andrew took one for the team and fixed a pitch above El Cap Spire in the dark. There was a team of 3 Koreans bivied in the Alcove and they had 2 pitches fixed above the spire, we needed to pass them in the morning as they were a very very slow team and we could not afford to be stuck behind them. We woke up early and quietly got our stuff ready, trying not to wake the Koreans. I took the first block and made good time until I hit the Sewer Pitch which I linked to "the Block", no one wanted to lead the Sewer so I took one for the team. This has to one of the worst pitches I have ever climbed, I soaking wet by the time I finished this waterfall of slime and awkward climbing with tricky placement. Andrew took the next block from "the block" to the Salathe Roof as the sun was setting. The Koreans asked us to fix lines, so we fixed ropes for them all the way to the Salathe Roof, something like 8 pitches, they were struggling and moving slow, so maybe we prevented a rescue. Karsten led the head wall pitch in the dark to "Long Ledge" where we bivied for the night, in the process he took a huge whipper just before the ledge when a piece pulled. The next day we climbed off and were on the summit by early afternoon, the decent down the East Ledge was casual.
Overall a classic route with good friends, what could be better!
 Unfortunately when we got down I discovered that a bear had broken into my van and made quite the mess. Most likely a momma bear broke out a window and put her cub in to the work as there is no way a full size bear could fit through the window. The damage was considerable and a bit of a downer, but we still celebrated our ascent with cobras and hit the pizza deck for food.

I decided I needed to leave the valley the next day, with the van damaged my options for staying in the valley were limited.

More pics to come when I get Karsten's!

Racking up

"look there's climbers up there"

Me leading the first pitch about to make the pass, el cap looms above

me leading pitch 4

Andrew leading off of Heart

morning on the heart

me leading below "the ear", photo by Tom Evans

Karsten in the Ear

Karsten on the Spire

"the Sewer"

Karsten riding the pigs

Andrew making it to "Long Ledge"

Karsten @ the "Long Ledge" bivy

on the Summit of El Capitain

Loaded down for the descent

Pizza Time!