J-Crack 5.9 (5.11c) II on The Book @ Lumpy Ridge

Justin, of Estes Park, floats through the crux of Visual Aids (5.10b) on The Book.

One of my favorite places to climb in Colorado is Lumpy Ridge. I'm really psyched on Lumpy because this close-to-home crag is situated in a sub-alpine setting overlooking one of the most awe inspiring vistas in all of Colorado. The views to the south and west into Rocky Mountain National Park are unparalleled and gives climbers a panoramic view of the majestic peaks. Also, the climbing is world-class. Dare I say it... I enjoy the crack climbing of Lumpy Ridge although it's not to everybody's liking. The flared, bottomless cracks that are ubiquitous to Lumpy Ridge are what draw me to the area. Not to mention most of the climbing falls into the 4-6 pitch range which I find to be the perfect amount of climbing for a casual day out. Linking up these routes can prove to be some pretty great training as well.

Gina and I decided to get away for the weekend and even if it meant going 45 minutes away from home to Estes Park, it's still nice time away from home. On our first day we decided to climb the classic Book classic J-Crack with the direct "headwall" finish. J-Crack is undeniably a fantastic route and some would even say it's classic. We thought it was an excellent 5-pitch outing. The weather was beautifully tempered with brilliant shining sun and temperatures in the upper 50's.

Approach: Approaching The Book at Lumpy Ridge is straight forward. From the trail head hike north and west for roughly 30 minutes. At a certain point a trail junction is met and a sign that says, "Climb access to The Book" appears. Take this trail to the base of the Pages Wall area. J-Crack is on the J-Crack Slab area to the right of the Pages Wall area. Look for a flake leaning up against the wall. This is the start of Pear Buttress. J-Crack begins about 50 ft. to the right of this up blocky terrain.

Gina just hossin' it on the approach.

The Book.

J-Crack is faint but visible as a backwards J. 

Pitch 1: 5.6 100' Begin at the base of the broken terrain. Or, if climbing this in early season, begin on the mini bergschrund after kicking steps! From here, fire up blocky terrain into a chimney like feature. Step right out of the chimney onto the face of the large flake that forms the chimney and fire up to a cozy belay ledge. Belay on medium cams and nuts.

Pitch 2: 5.9 120' This pitch is full on from the moment you step off the belay until you reach the "belay ledge." Climb into a short corner and place good pro just above your head. From here traverse down and significantly left to gain the "J." This is very tenuous 5.8/5.9 and also slightly scary as the last good pro is 15' out to the right. Gina's foot slipped on the traverse following this pitch and she took an unexpected zinger out to the left! When you reach the "J" fire up on insecure, flaring and hard to jam finger locks, hand jams and weird palm scums. This is sustained for 85' and finally ends at a lower angle section of the crack. Belay on medium nuts and cams- save some for the belay!

Gina firing pitch two!

Pitch 3: 5.11c 80' The intimidating headwall pitch! From the belay move through a section of 5.9 crack that is surprisingly much better than the previous pitch. After 60' a pod of sorts is gained and the business begins. Stepping up into the thin, right leaning "finger" crack proved to be tricky. A #00 Camalot C3 is useful here. It's full on once entering the crux and there is no rest for 20' or so. Fire up through insecure tips locks and weird slopey pinches for 20' until a thank God judge is reached. Hoot and holler for a moment and then fire in some cams for the belay. This crux section takes small cams... place them quickly as the pump timer is quickly running out!

Gina sizing up the 5.11c section on pitch four.

Pitch 4: 5.6 150' From the belay ledge move left around a flake into a crack system. At the time of our climb this crack system was literally a river of water from the melt off at the top of the cliff. This crack takes good pro and leads to a blocky system of alpine-esque loose blocks and weird slab climbing. Follow this right until the Cave is reached. Belay on medium cams and nuts. From here the options are plenty.

If I had the choice I would climb the following to exit: Cheap Date 5.10b but considering this pitch was a waterfall, we opted for the Hurley Traverse.

Pitch 5: 5.7+ 50' Because Cheap Date was in a deluge this was our alternate but proved to be a highly superior exit pitch than the Cave Exit. The Hurley Traverse begins ascending towards the cave but then sharply traverses right on good holds. The crux move is stepping out to the edge of the arete and is protected by a decent stopper. From here, move around the corner (no pro) and move up on blocky terrain into a stemming dihedral for 5 moves. The good thing about this traverse is that it fires back left at the end so you're able to protect your second with ease. Belay on a few chickenheads and back them up with a #2 Camalot. Beautiful pitch!

Gina at the last belay stance. Conditions were very alpine flavored. 

Gina cruising through the crux on the Hurley Traverse.

Descent: Follow the weaknesses to the east of The Book. A few rappels off trees make this a bit quicker and in wet conditions ease ones mind. Contour back west when the 4th class terrain levels out. This probably takes roughly 30 minutes from summit to base. Carins also mark the way.

This route is fantastic! Although it's a real pain in the feet. This is a perfect route to acquaint yourself with the unique qualities of Lumpy Ridge crack climbing. This ain't Zion! I thought the 5.9 pitches were good- but I have climbed better 5.9 at Lumpy. The headwall pitch is good albeit a bit short. The Cheap Date to Outlander finish would be a superior way to end the day. I think J-Crack/Cheap Date/Outlander would be a phenomenal day on The Book! But, this route is straightforward, fun, fast and a great way to climb some classic rock in Lumpy Ridge.

The Good Ol' Boys: Shune's Buttress, 5.11+ IV

Looking up canyon from a belay on Shune's Buttress.

After a week of climbing and guiding in Red Rock, Nevada the real mission of my trip was coming to take shape. Matt Kuehl, Ryan Strong and I had planned on spending a week in the picturesque climbers paradise Zion National Park near Springdale, Utah. Unfortunately a torrent from the Northwest had swooped in and soaked most of the Mojave in a spring deluge. This put a halt in our plans and we messed around for a day in Southern Nevada at Keyhole Canyon. The Keyhole is a cool, novel crag to explore on rainy days- it's not much other than that though and I was obviously becoming impatient as I desired to be high up on a wall overlooking the Virgin River.

Last Tuesday we loaded up Matt's van and my Jeep with climbing gear, beer and cigarettes. The necessities of a desert climbing trip. Without much hesitation we left the city Hunter S. Thompson called, "the home of the death of the American dream" and steered our vessels in the direction of the towering walls of Zion National Park. After a short three hours we were basking in the sunny rays of southern Utah. We set up camp outside of the park at a plot of BLM land known as Smithsonian Butte, cracked open a beer and decided to drive to the Park and ride the tram for a while and scope out the lines we had chose to climb. The psyche level was high and just seeing the Technicolored walls striated in shades of ocher, rust and burgundy lit up by the setting sun sparked an insatiable fuel to climb in all of us.

But a good warm up to Zion stone is always a welcome opportunity before getting way high up on the steep, long walls. We thought climbing Mean High Tide on the Cerberus Gendarme would be a good start but unfortunately a slow start over loose, chossy rock forced us to rethink this decision and instead we cragged some of the classic single pitch lines at the base of the Gendarme. A few notable classics include Squeeze Play, Fails of Power, Scarlet Begonias, Flip of the Coin and a new personal favorite Intruder. What started as a bad day feeling as if I had let the team down by opting to back-off the first pitch of MHT turned into a great day of single pitch lines in a beautiful area of the park. Personally, the day of cragging turned my mood around as I onsighted (unfortunately in poor style, grabbing the chains at the end of the pitch) the delicious splitter finger crack Intruder which gets a grade of 5.11+. My first ever ground-up traditional onsight of the grade... super psyched!

Ryan and Matt rappelling off The Monkeyfinger. The 5.11a second pitch visible.

Later in the evening after devouring a delicious meal of burritos, the gang decided that a go up on The Monkeyfinger would be the best choice for the following day. I had been on the route already last fall with Eric Whewell and I thought this time around would be a good opportunity to redpoint the crux (5.12b) pitch low on the route. Matt and Ryan would certainly enjoy the wide pitches and the thin hands pitches (their strong suits) and I could lead the lower pitches. It sounded like a good plan but the following morning when we rolled up to the Temple of Sinawava, the whole area was damp and seeping. We opted to climb the first two pitches to have a first hand look at the conditions and not to our surprise, the stone was damp. Damp, fragile Zion rock is not good for taking crux zingers... so we headed down river to the Minotaur Tower and tackled The Megamahedral (5.11, III/IV). This went without a hitch and seeing as I had led my "block" the remaining pitches were up to Matt and Ryan to lead.

The first lead was Ryan's and was a megapitch... roughly 220' feet of tough, varied climbing clocking in at 5.11. The first pitch was a long, right facing dihedral that varied in style from offwidth to chimney to thin hands and ended on a beautiful, big belay ledge below an enormous chimney. To the left of the chimney is a 5.10+ offwidth pitch that was a little run-out. Despite the run-out, Ryan cruised the pitch and the pitch ended on another beautiful belay ledge. Above this was Matt block of leads. His first pitch kicked off with a wide-hands pitch in a right facing corner for 100' until a left-angling roof was encountered. At the roof fingery climbing out right led to a awkward slot and 30' of run-out, sandy slab climbing that was most likely terrifying to lead... nice work Matt! After this 5.11 pitch another 5.9 pitch led up an obtuse corner which led to a handcrack in a headwall that led to a belay ledge at some trees. From here, the last pitch led to the summit tower... this was my lead and the rock was covered in moss and loose rock. But reaching the summit was spectacular!

On the summit of The Minotaur tower at Angel's Landing.

 Reaching the summit of the Minotaur boosted the team morale and raised the psyche to Level Midnight (very high, in case you were wondering). And after we had a team dance session back at camp to The Talking Heads we decided a rest day would be in order after we had essentially "linked up" The Monkeyfinger and The Megamahedral in a day, no less! Our rest day included 3.2% beer sipping by the river while looking for crystals. We didn't find any crystals but we did sip some beer and find some cool looking rocks while we waited for The Intruder to go into the shade. We wanted to get some photos of the route and Ryan wanted to redpoint the burl doggin' line. Check out Matt's blog sometime in the near future for photos of how that turned out... We both pretty much lobbed some big air off the top of the route.

After the rest day, which was concluded with warm PBR at the base of Intruder, we rallied to get all the gear together to have a go at one of Zion's mega classic long, free routes; Shune's Buttress. Who is Shune? Not sure but the route was put up by Steve Chardon and Dave Jones and eventually freed by none other than Conrad Anker. A towering piece of steep rock on the northeast flank of Red Arch Mountain, the buttress is certainly a free climber's wet dream. The buttress is home to Shune's and another hard route that looks interesting, Rites of Passage. We hit the tram early in the morning on Saturday and was at the base of the route around 845AM. From there it took us 9 hours in a team of three to summit and return to the base of the route... here's how it went down:

Shune's Buttress climbs the right facing corner in the shadow.

Approach: Take the free tram (in peak season) to the Grotto picnic area. Once in the picnic area head north and east to a sign that says, "AREA BEYOND THIS POINT CLOSED TO ALL ACCESS." disregard this sign and forge through to a trail on the right. Follow this trail to the base of the route, scrambling towards the end to gain the ledge at the beginning of the splitter corner that is the first pitch.

Pitch 1: 5.11c 160' The opening pitch of the route is reportedly the crux. The first two pitches of the route were my block to lead. So, with this knowledge I was pretty hyped up to be leading what I thought was the hardest pitch on the route. The route begins with a wide section that leads to a 100' section of 1" crack in a varnished corner. Looking up at the pitch it looks intimidating but the adjacent walls are featured allowing for many decent footholds. Sustained jamming leads to a slight rest. After this rest a wide section must be negotiated and from there weird 5.10+ climbing is encountered. Definitely weird. Definitely awesome.

Matt following on the first pitch.

Pitch 2: 5.9 90' Above the comfy belay ledge of pitch one, a looming wide crack through a roof awaits. This section is relatively difficult but the following chimney is even more weird and sustained. A pretty mellow pitch, comparatively, leads to a two bolt belay below a long, wide squeeze chimney.

Pitch 3, 4, 5: 220' 5.10+ When the three of us had talked about breaking up the route into blocks it came to our attention that leading all these pitches together to create one "megapitch" would be the best option. We had two 70m ropes and the "megapitch" ended up being just shy of 230'. This means Matt would be leading one gigantic offwidth/fists/chimney pitch. It worked out well and the pitch was certainly mega- mega wide, mega challenging and mega fun. Mega. After the meganess a mega belay ledge was reached and afforded us some mega views of a mega National Park. Mega bolted belay.

Matt starting up the megapitch that comprises pitches three, four and five.

Pitch 6: 5.11a 50' This was a shorty and sporty pitch. It's a leftward traverse off the belay on some marginal crimps. It was strange climbing on crimps again... we had been climbing splitter cracks for so long, something that used to feel familiar now felt foreign. Either way, we all moved through the pitch easily and all bunched up at a not so comfortable belay perch right on the arete of the buttress. Looking up at the next pitch... things were starting to get real...

Ryan flowing through the 5.11a moves on the 4th Pitch.

Matt hanging at the belay after Pitch 4. 

Pitch 7: 5.11+ 150' Ryan's big lead lay ahead and looked extremely exposed and very difficult. A jagged finger crack splitting the dead vertical wall led to a roof... from there, one could only guess. But Ryan moved through the crux pitch quickly enough but fell at the roof because pulling a roof on ringlocks is nothing close to easy. The .5 Camalot sized crack was a hard one for him to wrangle but he eventually pulled through and set up a hanging belay in a pod. This pitch was definitely the crux and definitely one of the BEST pitches of rock I have ever climbed. Fluid movement, beautiful stone and sobering exposure all add up to one classic pitch of rock climbing.

Pitch 8: 5.9 160' The final pitch was a beautiful splitter hand crack through the headwall. Not only was it a perfect angling splitter but in addition to the crack were innumerable face holds to crimp on for a long, grand finale. Ryan styled this pitch and as we followed we each knew we had completed an uber classic route. The upper headwall was one of the most grand pieces of rock I have climbed.

Matt greeting the camera on top of the route.

Descent: Two double-rope rappels off the northwest face lead to the top of Pitch 5. From here, two single rope rappels (70m only) lead to the ledge on top of Pitch 2. From here, a long double rope (70m only) rappel leads to the base of the route. A short hike back to the grotto leads to the tram which leads to ice cold beer in a cooler. Enjoy!

The route is a fucking classic. Pitch after pitch of beautiful climbing on beautiful rock in a relatively quiet setting. A beautiful summit affords astounding views of an idyllic National Park. Easy approach, big belay ledges and a quick descent are all added bonuses to the fine climbing this route has to offer. If you climb the grade, you must climb this route!

Texas Hold 'Em, 5.11c IV 1,100'

The final pitch of Texas Hold 'Em- a beautiful splitter corner.

After arriving in Las Vegas two weeks ago from a personally successful bouldering trip in Joe's Valley, Utah (came close to sending "Worst Case Scenario," V9 and "They Call Him Jordan," V8 and sent multiple V6's and V7's) I was pretty amped up to get on a rope. I guided a few days earlier in the week on some of Red Rock's trade routes (Frogland, Birdland, Tunnel Vision) and with the arrival of the good ol' boy from Wisconsin, Ryan "Jungle Dog" Strong, I was psyched to try some harder, longer routes.

The route we had in mind was somewhat obscure considering its proximity to the Red Rock mega-classics like Dream of Wild Turkeys and Prince of Darkness but none the less it receives high praise from the limited amounts of people who have climbed the route. Texas Hold 'Em is a John Rosholt line that climbs parallel to the uber-classic hardman line Texas Tower Direct and the neo-classic hardman line The Velvet Tongue. It was inspiring to be able to see these lines up close and personal and rappelling the lines only fueled the desire to climb at such a high level (someday...). But anyway, Texas Hold 'Em is a burly route with two back to back 5.11 pitches and some very unique climbing amidst the land of moderates and patina edge crimping.

A "topo" of the line. Photo courtesy of Karsten Duncan.

Ryan leading the first pitch through some desert scrub oak. Yuck!

Pitch 1: 5.8+, 150' The route begins with lackluster climbing over ledges and bushes about 100' to the right of Epinephrine. However, the route's crux is pretty difficult considering the moderate grade given. Perhaps I wasn't warmed up but the little roof pull proved to be far from easy. After some cool face climbing above the crux, a two-bolt anchor is reached at a great ledge.

Looking down on Pitch 2. Ryan is just leaving the belay.

Pitch 2: 5.9, 130' A pretty cool pitch. It begins with some nebulous run-out face climbing with moves clocking in around the 5.7 range. A good little head check for sure. Above the face a left leaning, left facing corner is gained. This corner provides thin crux moves and eventually leads you to a bolt up and right. A spicy mantle gains this bolt and another mantle gains the belay ledge.

Pitch 3: 5.6, 150' A throw away pitch. However, this pitch gains the upper corners which comprise the route's main climbing features. Climb to a left facing corner to gain a bushy ledge. Take this right about 100' and belay at the base of a good looking corner system.

Pitch 4: 5.8, 160' This pitch had a pretty alpine feel to it. The hardest moves are right off the belay ledge and are just a few tricky moves of 5.8 corner climbing. This leads to a blocky section through a wide crack. This is sort of grovelly but a good warm up for what's to come later in the route... The pitch ends at a decent ledge with an old bolted anchor.

Ryan entering the wide hands portion of the 5th Pitch. 

Pitch 5: 5.10c, 180' This is where the route really turns on. Above the belay looms a wide crack through a roof. The climbing to gain this wide crack is sort of funky. After gaining the crack a few exposed fist jams lead to a thinner crack. This crack is super fun. A lot of movement from left to right and back and forth through good locks lead to a really exposed roof pull. I thought the thin crack section was the definite crux but Ryan thought pulling the second roof (protected by bolts) was the crux. I think there's definitely something to be said about pulling the roof on the sharp end... really exposed and tricky pinches through the roof. Ryan was out of sight for this portion but moved through this second crux without much mental deliberation. The exposure on this pitch is intense! This leads to the top of Texas Tower and a two bolt anchor.

Pitch 6: 5.10a, 90' As you look above the belay a traverse left, as our topo indicated, looks improbable but as you continue up the pitch perfect feet lead the way. The climbing on the pitch leading up to the traverse is really fun and engaging. Nice crack climbing to a cool "Air Jordan" type move when the handholds disappear but the feet remain good but spaced out. Ryan eeked his way through this section and instead of climbing dynamically (as I did) he casually made the move statically. It's hard to protect the second here... but confidence overcomes any run out, right? This led to a hanging belay below a left-leaning corner and a couple of bolts.

Ryan about to execute his version of the "Air Jordan" move on pitch 6

Pitch 7: 5.11c, 90' Right off the belay the moves are thin on this opening crux pitch. Good crimps lead out right but the feet are dismal. These first few moves are tough clocking in at around 5.11a. This leads to an easy ramp up and left where a bolt can be clipped high. Thus begins the real crux sequence. Good pinches and slopers up and right on an awkward ramp (read: hard smearing and heel hooking). Ryan fired this pretty quickly but he certainly tried hard and pulled through to a no hands rest at a roof. Here's where the climbing gets kind of weird. Looking over the roof there are no obvious holds. But to the left of the left-end of the roof is a jug... but it was out of reach for Ryan. Gaining this jug proved to be his personal crux and after firing for it multiple times without success he gave it one last attempt and stuck the jug. From here a tough little corner and mantle to a sloping stance reaches the anchor. This is definitely a height dependent crux as reaching the jug around the left end of the roof was definitely not the crux... Ryan fired the real crux in fine style.

Pitch 8: 5.11b/c, 100' A tough pitch. The first portion is a difficult flare. This flare has nothing at it's apex for hands (or even fingers for that matter) and the walls on each side are a smooth brown varnish. Climb this for 40' with two bolts and some small cams for pro. Once you exit the first flare a downclimbing traverse into the next flare is the actual crux. This is comprised of OK hands (facing the "wrong" direction) and smeary feet that lead into another corner. It's like a face climbing version of a changing corners type section. This leads to another difficult flare though seemingly easier than the first. All in all this is a sustained pitch fluctuating from 5.11a, 5.11c and 5.10+ respectively.

Ryan in the second flare on pitch 8. Sobering exposure!

Pitch 9: 5.11a, 120' This pitch is absolutely one of the gems of Red Rock climbing! It's a tough looking chimney/flare to a perfect wide hands crack that traverses the underside of a roof feature. Sustained jamming for 60' feet lead to a leftward traverse on an airy ledge overlooking all of Black Velvet Canyon. Ryan styled this pitch and towards the top when the hands get thinner (Red Camalot sized) but I nearly gassed out but pulled through with one more lieback move up and over. A sweet pitch! This leads to a bolted belay at the base of a long right leaning corner. Be sure to fix your tag line to the previous anchor or suffer the dangling in space consequences for all of eternity!

Ryan finishing up the last pitch on the leftward traverse.

Descent: Fixing a tag line at the 2nd to last belay prevents any dangling in outer space as the last pitch is quite steep and pulls through an intimidating roof. Double rope rappels to the top of Texas Tower and then double rope rappels down Texas Tower Direct/The Velvet Tongue lead to the ground. The walls are really steep in this portion of Black Velvet so stuck ropes shouldn't be an issue. The real issue is at the end where ropes could snag on brush and ledges.

Conclusion: This is a fantastic, long, sustained route on one of the more intimidating sections of the Black Velvet Wall! The route is right on for the grade and for those intimidated by the grade should breathe easily knowing that the hardest portions are protected by bolts. However, certain amount of run out is encountered along the way especially on Pitch 2, Pitch 6 and Pitch 9. Be prepared to run it out in 5.7-5.9 terrain. But for what it's worth the gear throughout the route is bomber. The belay stances are comfortable and the wall is steep, exposed and aesthetically pleasing. It helps to have a strong partner too... I know I would have been dog-tired had Ryan not pulled his weight leading some of the hardest pitches on the route. He crushed it! If I were to do the route again, as I most certainly will, I would definitely gun for the redpoint ascent of Pitch 8 and would definitely lead the last pitch... that's a world-class lead! All in all, this route is worthy and probably one of the overlooked gems in Red Rock Canyon that is worth checking out if you climb the grade!

More Winter in the Front Range

After a brief period of severely cold weather in January it seemed like winter was gone for good. Temperatures rose and melted a lot of the snow in the mountains. Martha on Mount Lady Washington was in very lean conditions and most of the ice sections were dry-tooling or just regular old rock climbing. But a storm rolled in just recently and left the Park covered in a large amount of snow creating some considerably dangerous avalanche conditions. I waited a few days for the dangerous conditions to subside and ventured out into the area solo with a mission to climb Hallett's East Ridge.

800 or so feet of moderate snow climbing.

The approach to the East Ridge is pretty great and quick. It's a 1.8 mile walk to Emerald Lake via a hardpacked hiking trail. This is the same approach to the famed North Face of Hallett Peak's rock routes. It goes by quickly and passes Bear and Nymph lakes. The climb itself is pretty straight forward. The first section climbs the couloir between two buttresses on Hallett's northeast side. Moderate snow leads to a col between the buttresses. At this point a storm was rolling in hard so I bailed down Chaos Canyon (read: epic postholing). The route continues underneath a buttress of 4th Class rock and merges with the Chaos Couloir (Mod. Snow) and gains the East Ridge proper to the summit of Hallett Peak (12.718ft.).

I bailed down the southeast slopes through a ragged boulder field. Believe me... it sucked. Getting to Lake Haiyaha was one of the worst two hours of my life... worse than being sent to the principals office in middle school... worse than watching the Packers lose the Super Bowl... worse than falling into Chaos Creek which happened shortly after arriving at Lake Haiyaha.

I followed the creek but made a misstep and plunged into the creek up to my knees. My feet were wet, cold and I was very tired of post holing through waist deep snow. Luckily I met two snowshoers who lent me a pair of trekking poles. We followed the creek almost to Glacier Gorge junction and then busted back up hill towards the Bear Lake trailhead. A good day, but not great. The route would be really cool in its entirety and the descent down the Flattop Trail would be certainly less heinous than the alternate.

Looking into Chaos Canyon from the col. Otis Peak across canyon.

A few days later the weather changed and allowed for a bit more rock climbing in Eldorado Canyon. I had been wanting to climb a famous route called The Grand Giraffe for quite some time but it had slipped off my radar. The route is a notorious offwidth and a great one at that. It's a perfect size actually and climbs really great. #6 Camalots all the way!

I climbed the roue with a buddy of mine whom I had met on Mountain Project. This is a site dedicated to uniting dudes from across the globe to climb. It's an addicting site and I get made fun of constantly for surfing the "proj."

The climbing was straight forward, fun and engaging all the way from pitch one to pitch six. The climb starts out with a solo of the lower ramp to the base of Ruper. From here the route follows that routes first pitch and then busts left through a weird 5.6 chimney. Looking straight up one can see the looming gaping maw. A wide crack busts through a bulge (crux) and through another bulge (second crux) before depositing you on the Upper Ramp. From here the route goes up two more pitches of engaging, run-out 5.6 and 5.7 climbing to the Ruper Saddle. Three easy rappels down the Chockstone Chimney and the Vertigo Tower raps puts you back on the ground near The Yellow Spur. Voila! A beautiful climb.

A coil of rope. 

Looking down from pitch three.

Looking up at pitch one. A beautiful pitch. 

The #6 Camalot I walked up for forty-five feet. 

And finally just yesterday to put a cap on a great weekend my friend David and I climbed the West Face of Castle Rock in Boulder Canyon in mixed conditions. No ice was encountered but a lot of dry tooling and crampon action was had. We tread lightly on the route as to not scar the route for future summer rock climbing. The route went at M3 (roughly equivalent to 5.8 rock but with sharp, unwieldy objects attached to both hands and feet) and was to date my hardest mixed lead. Three pitches of equal difficulty led us to the summit of Castle Rock home to Country Club Crack, Athlete's Feat and the infamous Viceroy.

An Instagram selfie taken from the top of pitch one.

The conditions throughout the morning on route. 

David at a good stance before a dicey slab section on pitch one.

Winter Routes in Rocky Mountain National Park

Seeing this always makes me weep just a little bit. 

Mountains are generally daunting objectives and even more so in winter conditions. It's easy enough to write off even getting out into the mountains for, let's say, a hike by saying something like, "It's too windy..." I am no stranger to the excuses. I've used them all. It's too windy, cold, snowy, etc. but one thing I've learned about climbing routes in the winter is that half the battle is just going. This includes setting the alarm a bit earlier, putting on long underwear and slogging out 5 miles into a wind blown cirque. I'm not much of an alpine climber yet but I can say climbing the nasty stuff is really fun.

Martha climbs the south side of Mt. Lady Washington (in foreground)

Martha, (5.6 WI2 M2 II) on Mt. Lady Washington, Rocky Mountain National Park*

I had first heard about Martha from Brent Butler who had said he wanted to ski it one day. After climbing the route I'd advise him not to descend it on his skis. When I looked into the route a bit more there were many appealing factors that would make it a great candidate for an introduction to alpine mixed climbing. First and foremost the route is in the most impressive alpine arenas anywhere; the Long's Peak Cirque. The setting alone is enough to beckon any climber to it's high reaches. Tall, clean, alpine walls of granite loom above on Long's Peak's Diamond east face... a frozen Chasm Lake provides a surreal backdrop 800 feet below... couloirs and gullys of all shapes and sizes are scattered about the entire cirque providing climbers with daydream material for future ascents. The route is south facing making it a good choice for mid-winter ascents as the freeze/thaw cycle is a bit more responsive on south facing routes. The narrow couloir is classic Chamonix style alpine climbing including a mix of rock, ice and snow. I needed to find a partner whose main priority was to get after the nasty shit up in the mountains.

I met my buddy Tom recently at a Wilderness First Responder course in Boulder and he seemed psyched to get out into the mountains. I mentioned this route and he was all over it, ready to "rip" it as he put it. We climbed a couple rock routes together in Eldorado Canyon and Big Thompson Canyon and we clicked, making us an ideal partnership for the alpine setting. We rallied from Lyons at 6AM Friday, January 25th towards the Long's Peak Trailhead.

Tom Causley. Just rippin' it. 

In an aforementioned blog post about alpine rock climbing, the approach into Chasm Lake is nothing short of amazing. Brilliant sunrises, rugged terrain and cold alpine air are all bonuses to the excitement that gathers within during the approach. Only this time there would be way more snow. All in all the approach towards Chasm Junction is relatively benign- though we traveled over snow. Once arriving at Chasm Junction we descended towards Chasm Lake and climbed a short, steep snow step to reach the craggy banks of the pristine alpine lake. At the lake we put on crampons and walked across the lake, as the crow flies, to the southern flanks of Mt. Lady Washington. We ascended a tongue of snow towards the base of the route where, finally, we roped up and began the five pitch route behind a slower group of two.

Approaching Chasm Lake.

Pitch 1: 200 ft. 5.4 The first pitch begins at a twenty-five foot rock step that is easily ascended using tools or hands. The climbing is pretty straightforward over a swath of low angle alpine granite. Above this a loose slope of scree and snow leads to a nice belay ledge to the right of the base of a snow couloir. Crampons weren't necessary in the conditions we climbed it in but would help in icier or snowier conditions.

Top of the first pitch.

Pitch 2: 200 ft. Moderate Snow A long, moderately angled (45 degrees) snow pitch leads up to a rock step at 200 ft. This is a cool pitch and the warm temps of the south facing couloir made the snow great for kicking steps. Snow climbing is generally pretty easy at this angle.

Looking up at pitch two.

Pitch 3: 190 ft. 5.4 M1 Tom led this pitch. A smooth, featureless rock corner leads to another short stretch of snow. After the short stretch of snow another narrow (3 feet wide at most) chimney/slot thing is encountered. The climbing here is cool. Tools were helpful here as some of the rock had great cracks to tool into making this a really fun mixed pitch. Good pro and lots of fun.

The narrow slot of pitch three.

Pitch 4: 200 ft. 5.4 M1 Another similar section to the previous only this pitch had a metric fuck ton of loose rock which made the climbing unnerving. The party above us went directly over the loose rock (why they did this I'm not quite sure as they sprayed down quite a bit of loose debris onto us) that typically freezes up and provides a nice WI2 pitch. I wasn't feeling too psyched on the loose rock so I placed pro high, stepped down and left into a chimney and climbed out and around a chockstone. This was the better alternative and more likely the proper way to go. Above this was a rock rib strewn with loose rock and marginal pro. A decent belay stance was had above this below an awesome looking section of mixed climbing.

Pitch 5: 150 ft. 5.6 M2 (WI2) Above the belay a steep wall of ice and good looking alpine rock was encountered. Awesome stemming and gear led to a sweet short pitch of ice. No screws necessary and for the most part the tools were used in the ice but not necessary. I thought this pitch was a great finale and the views of The Diamond from the top of this pitch were stunning.

Pitch five. A short ice step visible at middle of photo.

About 400 more feet of arduous boulder scrambling led to the uneventful summit of Mt. Lady Washington... My lungs were about to burst and my head was swelling like a badly sprained ankle. Moving quickly that high up and through large boulders was harder than the actual technical climbing. I couldn't wait for the descent... or so I thought.

Here I am making a weird face on the summit of MLW. 13, 281 feet. 

Descent: Our descent was the most direct but unfortunately the least fun. We scrambled through large talus along the east ridge of MLW. This led us slowly back to Chasm Junction. From here we high tailed it down towards the Long's Peak trail head. This roughly lasted 2.5 hours. In total our time car-to-car was just under 9 hours.

Overall I'd say Martha is a classic, big mountain alpine objective worthy of anybody's ascent. If you have the gear, the know-how and the motivation to be out in the mountains during the winter, this is a great route to test your mettle against. For me it provided a beautiful entry into the world of long, alpine mixed routing. As I write this I am dreaming of the other routes in the area I'd like to pursue like Alexander's Chimney, Dreamweaver, The Flying Dutchman, Fields' Chimney and the intimidating Notch Route on Long's Peak. The only thing that stands in my way now is the wait for the right conditions...

*A Note on Conditions: Typically Martha will have more snow and ice en route. However, due to the last few weeks of dry, warm weather the route was in non-typical conditions. There was barely any ice. What ice there was on route was not of any usable fashion. I carried no screws nor did I carry any iron. I found that a single rack from C3's to #3 Camalots and a rack of nuts was sufficient enough for protection on route. Finding good pro for belays was often times tricky. For the most part good belay stances can be found or made and belaying can be done directly off one's harness. If your partner isn't secure in this type of terrain I'd suggest finding other routes to do. In fatter or typical conditions I'd imagine a set of ice screws and tools would come in awfully handy.

Gina makes her way through windy conditions to the summit of Flattop Mountain.

Flattop Mountain, 12,324 ft. 

The name "flattop" isn't exactly characteristic of a name of a mountain that haunts my dreams. In fact I never really gave Flattop Mountain too much thought beyond the fact that it's southern flanks holds some unique rock and mixed routes. When Gina said she wanted to go for a hike this last weekend I immediately thought about getting back up into the Long's Peak area or doing a ridge route on Mt. Meeker... I didn't think "Flattop!" But when we decided to "climb" something "casual" in the Park, Flattop Mountain fit the bill and the outing was very gratifying.

We slept in until 9. We lazily rolled out of bed and I complained about how my feet hurt. We made coffee, ate a hearty breakfast of yogurt and packed our daypacks with gloves, hats, water and snacks. The day was going to be extremely chill and we were both very stoked about it.

The drive up to Estes Park was decent. No traffic and of course Gina became slightly car sick as we winded through the serpentine turns of upper St. Vrain canyon. The Mummy Range loomed in the distance as we descended down into Estes Park. The granite of Lumpy Ridge, dull and gray, reminded us of previous adventures we had in our favorite mountain town. In the distance we could see Otis Peak, Hallett Peak and the day's objective Flattop Mountain, shrouded in low-hanging clouds. The Bear Lake road was torn apart and we wound our way around steep curves and turns until finally we made it to the lot which was swarming with snowshoers and a couple of backcountry skiers. Bear Lake is a hot spot in the park as its close proximity to impressive peaks, like Hallett, allows for easy, non-technical access. Gumbies and seasoned vets alike admire this area for it's pristine beauty which is unparalleled despite being so close to the road.

Bear Lake lot loaded up. 

While everybody else in the lot geared up with trekking poles, snowshoes or skis, we simply put on our approach shoes and took off down the trail to Bear Lake- a mere 256 feet from the trailhead. The snow was densely packed from hikers and snowshoers frequenting the trail and because of the lack of fresh snow, made for easy hiking. A few left turns onto adjacent trails led us directly to the Flattop Mountain Trail... and the summit waited only 4.5 miles away.

The hiking was easy and we stopped often to drink hot tea and have snacks Gina brought along. I would have forgotten the food altogether which proves just how much smarter Gina is than me. The views of Estes Park to the east, Long's Peak and Glacier Gorge to the southeast and Hallett and Otis Peaks to the southwest are downright awe inspiring. The mountains had recently been touched by a dreamlike amount of hoar frost creating a surreal effect on all the shear faces.

Long's Peak and Thatchtop Mountain.

We followed a well-marked trail to above tree line and then we made the mistake of following other footprints through the snow which led us offtrail towards a large rock outcropping. Here we met a family of snow ptarmagins that kept us company while we made our way south back to the trail. Once gaining the trail again the wind picked up and we both threw up the hoods and zipped ourselves in tight. An excessively stunning view of the Odessa Gorge and it's famed Notchtop Mountain greeted us as we crested the west side of Flattop's broad east "ridge." The opportunities for couloir and mixed climbing routes raced in my head and I felt distracted even though the wind was whipping at nearly 35 miles per hour. The dreams of the mixed nasty entered my brain space again. Gina seemed to be doing fine tucked away in her softshell jacket. Her toes began to feel cold so we rallied for the last mile to the broad summit of Flattop.

Last few hundred feet of the hike. 

We neared the summit and only a large cornice of wind-hardened snow lay between us and the flat summit of Flattop Mountain. The rocks all around us were covered in a unique wind whipped hoar frost that gave the last five hundred feet of hiking an Antarctic luster. A line of rock cairns led to the summit and finally we stood on top of Flattop's summit, snot dripping from our noses. A few photos were taken, we admired Hallett Peak's idyllic summit and gazed across towards Snowdrift Peak before making our way back down the trail to the car.

Another photo of us on another mountain... Still really fun!

The descent was quick and straight forward. In total it took us 5 hours and 15 minutes to go from car-to-car with a summit in between. The relaxed nature and stunning beauty of this part of the park makes this hike an excellent candidate for a day hike, a trail run or a family outing in the mountains. There are many spots to break for lunch and admire the surrounding beauty. The trail is never too steep and is always well marked with cairns or blaze orange tags along the trees. It would also be a good ski descent if there were more snow (wait until March or so). In the end this is a four-star hike that I'd recommend to anyone looking for a relaxed day in the mountains.

Looking down at Emerald Lake and the north flank of Hallett Peak. 

A General Update

Well, it's been a while since I've posted here and the last post was a relatively detailed account of my experiences in Zion last month. Since coming back from the Utah desert I've been focusing rather diligently on returning to Zion and sending a few harder routes- most notably The Monkeyfinger and perhaps an attempt on the Free Moonlight. My training program is a 6-week program developed by Steve Bechtel and focuses primarily on finger strength and endurance- two required sets of strength when climbing hard cracks in Zion. I'm currently finishing week 3 and will begin my rest week tomorrow (Monday) and from there another heavy week followed by a taper week will conclude my 6-week plan. After that a power-endurance (or "tolerance") phase will begin and that will bring me up to about early-March when, shortly after, I will be returning to the desert for more work and personal climbing exploits.

In the last few weeks while not focusing on training I've had the opportunity to sample some of the winter activities here in the Front Range. Last week I climbed a mixed route (Hessie's Chimney, WI4 M5) near the ski resort Eldora. A humbling and frigid experience but no less an exciting learning opportunity, mixed climbing is a new monster I find myself drawn to know more about. The whole experience left me wanting more but the fickle nature of mixed/ice routes in the Front Range leaves many climbers, including myself, waiting for the perfect conditions. Many of these routes come in early (October and November) only to sublimate in the middle of winter and return in the late season (March, April, May) which leaves some climbers shit outta' luck throughout the winter unless they jump on the routes early. Luckily there is skiing...

This past weekend found me trying a familiar winter sport... skiing. It's radical, exciting and for the longest time as a snowboarder I found it sort of lame. But now I see the utilitarian purposefulness of skiing and foresee it becoming a larger part of my life because it's a means to overcoming long, wintry approaches in the mountains. So, that's where I'm at now and I'm heading back to Wisconsin for the holidays so I'll see some of you at the gym there...

A Glimpse of What's To Come: Zion National Park, November 2012

Looking west from the Mt. Carmel Tunnel into Zion National Park

After a long stay in the Las Vegas area that included some guide work, some long routes and many good times with the good ol' boys I found myself once again in Zion National Park.

But first let me briefly describe the events that went down in Las Vegas; Day 1: Epinephrine (5.9, IV) with Jason Molina... an exquisite route up a fantastic hunk of stone in one of the most aesthetic places on Earth with an awesome partner... a great way to start my trip. Day 2: Rest. Day 3: Guiding two clients up Ginger Cracks (5.9, III). Day 4: Single-pitch guiding. Day 5: Guiding Birdland (5.7+, III). Day 6-10: More cragging with a couple longer routes mixed in... Nick Rhoads came to town, we drank a lot of beer, whiskey and watched a lot of action movies including Con-Air, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Terminator 3: Salvation, Troy and a few others. Eric Whewell and I waited out the shit weather that was happening in Zion (sad face, we were supposed to be there for a few extra days, such is life...) with some sport climbing at Sunny & Steep. I had a great time in Vegas with old friends and even met some new ones... Jemarcus Mayweather. But, I must write up about some new and profound experiences in Zion!

Temple of Sinawava: The Monkeyfinger runs up the center of the photo in a dark corner system.

The Monkeyfinger (5.12, IV)

With a name as comical as that it was hard not to put it on my list of "to do's" for this upcoming trip. But then I looked at the climbing and it became even more difficult not to include it on the list. Luckily I had found a partner who was also just as psyched to get up on this thing. Eric Whewell, my buddy and guide mentor, wanted to get on this classic line as well. The Monkeyfinger is one of the oldest free routes in Zion. This means it was one of the first to go "all free" without aid (that is climbing with the use of points of aid to weight and stand on in order to place gear higher). Drew Bedford and Roger Armory free climbed this line in 1984. At a stout 5.12 it seemed daunting but the crux corner was right up my alley. I had been on one of Bedford's 5.12 Zion routes before and anticipated a similar (read: awesome) experience. Though extremely difficult the climbing is also extremely engaging, exciting and excellent.

But because of the fleeting hours this late in the season the route didn't go into the sun until about noon. This meant we would have roughly 4-5 hours to complete the entire route and rap back down before the sun was gone. Although rappelling in the dark isn't all that difficult it's something I choose not to do if I can. We figured we'd be hard pressed to make that happen so we rallied a rack together at the parking lot near the Temple of Sinawava and hammered out as much of the route as we could. As it turns out we climbed well over half of the route in under 3.5 hours which means had we an extra few hours of daylight (in April or May perhaps- training starts now) then we would have climbed the route no problem. Here's a brief pitch-by-pitch breakdown and a few extra personal notes.

Racking up for The Monkeyfinger while freezing our nuts off. 

Pitch 1: 5.6, 120 ft. This may be the only unremarkable pitch of the climb. Although in itself it does have some amount of merit. The pitch begins about 100 feet left of the prominent corner system that makes up much of the route. The opening slab moves were either sandy or wet. Two unfavorable options. Climb up, trending left to a two bolt anchor below the Pillar of Faith. Route finding was actually sort of tricky on this- too high and you'll be looking at harder downclimbing to get to the anchor, too low and you'll be doing unprotected traverse moves.

Eric destroys the first 5.11 pitch. 

Pitch 2: 5.11a, 75 ft. This is where the real climbing begins. A step left out into a crack system leads up the left side of the Pillar of Faith. The pillar is actually an large inset flake system with a step across move about midway. After this step across moves some tricky 11- moves lead to a moderate hand/fist/offwidth crack to reach the anchors. Eric styled this no problem. This was an excellent pitch!

Pitch 3: 5.12b, 75 ft. Looking up at the pitch it didn't seem as intimidating as the grade would suggest. Remember, Alex Honnold soloed this... The crux looked thin, 00 C3 thin and in the soft sandstone shortly after a rain I wasn't gung-ho to be taking any sort of falls onto gear like that. The crux is a black-varnished left-facing obtuse corner. This is most definitely my preferred style of climbing but the pitch proposed many cruxes within a 20 foot section. After getting established in the corner with decent gear below my feet, a strange sequence of pinch/locks led me to a restful stance. Mind you I had already fallen before getting to this rest. This first sequence seemed 12a or so. The second sequence was a backstep-stem out left, high right foot, left-hand tips lock, right-hand undercling tips lock to big throw right hand to a good finger lock. From here 5.10+ liebacking led to a fun chimney ("Mike Cripke's Basement") and the anchors. Definitely hard but very well protected.

The roof on pitch 4. 

Pitch 4/5: 5.11b/5.10b, 180 ft. This pitch was a monster! Looming above was a steep finger corner/crack through a roof. Eric decided to link the pitch in order to move quickly through these two pitches and also avoid a hanging belay. Eric chimneyed the remaining 15 feet to the roof and gained a restful stance to place gear high through the crack. He and I climbed this section differently. Eric smeared hard and almost underclinged out and around the roof to reach a decent lock in the crack. From here a high step move led into the tasty looking crack above that lasted for another 150 feet! I chimneyed as high as I could to clean gear, got a left foot high and precariously moved my right foot way out to the right side of the roof and made a long reach through to the good lock above the roof. Significantly harder than the 11a pitch. The remaining 150 feet was a steep left-facing corner... fucking awesome. The climbing was fully engaging and for Eric was a monster lead. A few weird sections came about below the first set of anchors where some really strange flaring thin hands led to locker #2 Camalot hands for 80 feet to another set of anchors below a sweet looking OW.

Descent: By this time it the sun had left the wall and we started to feel cold again. Along with the cold the sunlight was fading fast. I wanted to continue through the Monkeyhouse OW above but I opted to rappel and save the upper pitches for a longer day sometime in April or May. 2 long (double rope) rappels brought us back to the base of the route. We had climbed roughly 400 ft. of a 900 ft. route in under 3.5 hours. I was pretty pumped at the prospect of coming back and sending... so that'll keep me warm this winter.

That night in the parking lot at the Temple of Sinawava we racked up for the big bad Free Moonlight Buttress. But after dinner Eric's shoulder seemed to be bothering him and we scrapped the idea of torquing on 5 consecutive pitches of 5.12 the following day for a few shorter link-ups on the Mountain of the Sun. This turned out to be a good decision for the both of us and the routes we chose were no less than classic!

The Headache (5.10, 3 pitches)

I haven't experienced all of Zion's shorter free routes but I can take a leap of faith by saying that this is probably one of the best in all of the Park. It is certainly the best 3-pitch route I have ever climbed. The route is consistent in the grade, sustained, moderately long, has great position and simply awesome.

Splitterville

Pitch 1: 5.10- 75 ft. The route begins in the obvious 2.5" splitter hand crack at the base of the wall. It's fairly obvious which way to go and how to go about doing so. This is a really good section of straight in hand jamming that leads to a rest below a jagged crack that weaves it's way to the anchors. Mountainproject.com has the crux listed as a 5.10b crux but both Eric and I didn't think that the upper OW section was the crux. In fact, no offwidth technique was required to negotiate this section. Personally I thought the crux was just the first 20 feet of jamming. Either way, good jamming and athletic climbing leads to a hanging belay at 75 feet.

Eric pulling through the roof on pitch two of The Headache.

Pitch 2: 5.10- 160 ft. This was my personal favorite pitch of the route. Eric climbed up through a perfect #1 Camalot sized corner crack/corner for about 100 feet. Then a pretty radical 2" crack busts through a roof that has supplemental face holds for feet making this a pretty easy pull at the 10- grade. Above the roof a 2.5-3" crack at a lower angle leads to the anchors on a good ledge. The wide-hands crack is one of my weaknesses and I'm glad this one at the end of the pitch was on lower angle terrain otherwise it would have been a bit more of a battle and I'm sure the grade would have been a bit more stout as well.

Eric following pitch three of The Headache.

Pitch 3: 5.10 160 ft. Above was a jagged splitter crack that ranged from hands to fingers to an offwidth pod. This would be the crux of the route and was pretty sustained. From above the anchor a low angle crack led left to a dead tree at which I stepped across into another crack system. This crack climbing was more like face climbing as there were jugs periodically placed throughout the pitch. None the less, the moderate face climbing led to a thin, steep crux into a wide pod. From here the route busted left on good feet and solid hand jams to an anchor. A good pitch and rather sustained in the grade.

Descent: Two long rappels (two ropes) down the wall between Never Again and The Headache. 

Smashmouth (5.11, 4 pitches)

Smash Mouth climbs a splitter crack for 4 pitches in the center of the photo. 

This route is reported to be "better than Fine Jade" on Castleton Tower. I wouldn't know about that but Eric said it was "pretty good, but not as good as Fine Jade." So, I'll take his word for it. But what I do know is that this route was stacked with splitter crack climbing. It reminded me a lot of a route in Wisconsin called Straight, No Chaser. 

Eric leading the opening pitch of Smash Mouth. 

Pitch 1: 5.11- 100 ft. Eric led off the deck through a thin hands crux which was abruptly halted by a large ledge. From here the route traveled right and up through a low-angle corner crack to a roof. Pull through the roof and clip the anchors for a pretty good start to a great route. All in all this was the worst pitch (but great by some standards) because of the large ledge in the middle of the pitch.

Eric following the unique face/crack climbing of pitch two. 

Pitch 2: 5.10- 75 ft.  Above the first belay was a line of bolts that led out to the right to rejoin the splitter crack. This presented the crux climbing of the pitch. The right trending traverse up and right was full of exquisite and thoughtful face climbing on really good sandstone that actually felt and looked more like the limestone found in southern Utah. After the face climbing a splitter crack appeared but climbed more like a face climb. I thought this was excellent climbing and was definitely stoked on leading this pitch.

Eric leads the left-trending 5.11 crack on pitch three of Smash Mouth. 

Pitch 3: 5.11, 100 ft. At this point the splitter crack that makes this route a worthy attraction appeared. A thin, finger sized splitter that zigged left and zagged right and through a bulge beckoned our digits. Eric cast off and climbed fast through the opening section and once the angle steepened he paused to contemplate if he had enough .4 Camalots to proceed. It turned out he could finagle some other sized gear in. The crack through the steep section was very peculiar. It was less splitter and more flaring than appeared from below. All in all, I thought this was a difficult portion of the route but apparently the following pitch was harder...?

Pitch 4: 5.11, 60 ft. I was feeling pretty tired by the time I finished the previous pitch and I knew it was my turn to lead. I looked up at the pitch above skeptical of my ability to hold on for any longer... but I saw the anchors only 60 feet away and the crack above looked more splitter than it had before. It looked like a good size for my digits (.3 & .4 Camalots) and the length of the pitch inspired me to rack up and take off. I was super psyched that all the moves and all the locks were bomber and I moved fluidly (or so I thought) through the lower portion of the crack to a bulge crux. At this point my technique wavered but my ability to campus on tight locks prevailed. I just heave-ho'd my way over the bulge (quite comical actually) and kept cruising to a good stance below the last section of crack that was left-leaning towards the anchors. This was a sick pitch and the final moves, well, they are exciting...

Eric following the excellent final pitch on Smash Mouth. 

Descent: 4-single rope rappels down the route. Easy.

Zion is a beautiful and majestic place to visit and climb. I think it's starting to become one of my favorite destinations to climb. The walls are towering, awe inspiring, intimidating, motivating and fucking beautiful. The Mormons nailed it on the head when they called this place "Zion." The climbing is physical, steep, relentless but generally more forgiving than the climbing found in Indian Creek. This trip was planned around the desert weather and unfortunately it seemed like it never cooperated with what we had intended. With shorter days, colder temps and unfavorable aspect on certain routes it was hard to climb what we had intended. But we made the best of it and figured out a better plan for future attempts on some of Zion's longer free routes.