Climb 8 - Saturday May 31 - Now We're Cookin' With Oil

Jer, Mallory, and I went for a bike ride this morning. We attempted Big Cottonwood Canyon for the first time. Due to time constraints and my inability to go fast, I only made it to Solitude - 12 miles up canyon - before we had to get going so Mallory could get to work on time. This ride was much harder than I had imagined. It seems like the canyon is not terribly steep, but on a bike it is a totally different story. After the ride and a brief lunch with my folks and my sister, I headed back up canyon with Jer and Dave. We went to Ferguson Canyon for some trad training and climbing. There were a ton of people up there, but they were all sport climbers so the trad routes remained open. For the first 30-60 minutes Dave took the time to show us how to set an anchor on a multi pitch route with no chains. After we felt confident with this, we then began climbing. I attempted to lead the first climb. It was rated at 5.7 but I had difficulty with it.
I gave it another go to just get stuck just above that and by that point I was exhausted. Jer followed and made it easily past those sections (I then saw how to approach them), but got stuck in two other spots higher up but managed to finish the climb anyhow. I am sure Dave was just getting so bored with us taking forever to lead a single pitch 5.7 trad climb, but he is such a nice guy that he doesn't say anything about it. He then climbed it and only took a matter of a couple of minutes. This made it difficult to get a good picture of him - not to mention that top roping pictures are just nowhere near as cool as lead pictures. The best shot I got of him was as he was rappelling back down to the bottom. At this point Dave had to go so we bid him goodbye. I then attempted it again on toprope. I was able to get up it with rather ease this time with the added confidence of the toprope situation. I need to just get to the point where I have that confidence all the time. By this point, Crazy had come and chatted with us and left already. He didn't bring any gear and didn't really want to climb after his Omelette for lunch. I was determined to successfully lead a climb toady so we headed over to another easier trad climb just around the corner. I have done this climb before, but not with trad gear. Instead, I would climb this route and then lean as far over as I could to clip into the bolts on the face. This time I lead it trad. Having done this one before I was able to climb it much faster than I would have if it was my first time. It really is just a confidence issue I need to get over. Anyhow, I climbed it and then rappelled down. I then remembered that one big reason I wanted to climb this was so I could belay from the chains with the Petzl Reverso3 that I was loaned for the weekend. I had used it as a standard belay device, but I wanted to try it in reverso mode. So I quickly climbed it again and then set up to belay from the top. Jer followed and cleaned the gear while I belayed from above. I was totally digging the new gear. The only problem I had was that we were using Jer's old rope which is very thick so it was a chore getting it to go through the device without having to force feed it. The device also allows for emergency lowering and I wanted to try that. It was difficult again because of the thick rope and especially at the bottom when the most weight was against it, but I was stoked I was able to try it out. We finished around 7 this evening with the short hike back to the car. The beetles and the wildflowers were out in full force today. The mountains certainly are an enjoyable place to be this time of year. This was a good day. With a short lunch break, I basically was out playing from 8:30am to 7pm. That is what I call a Saturday. On Rock.

Climb 7 - Friday May 30 - What Are We Doing Again?

I have been busy this week. I started a new job and had a lot of things going on in the evenings as well (including a neighborhood dog barking debauchal). Stacy left town to go camping with some girls from work for the weekend which meant I have no plans for the weekend. This immediately translates to me climbing both Friday and Saturday. Unfortunately, sometimes it is difficult to convince others of the same schedule. I finally did talk Jer and Mallory into joining me tonight. We went up to Steort's Ridge, but then realized that there are no chains in the middle pitches of the climb and we were not confident in our anchor setting abilities, so we headed back over to Storm Mountain and climbed Layback Crack again. The idea was to then climb Le Creme De Shorts right beside it afterwards, but we ran out of daylight. So we headed down and had a nice meal at Lone Star Taqueria (pictured). The fish tacos here are fantastic. If you are out of town or if you are from in town and just haven't made it over here, you need to make the trek. It is worth it. On Rock.

Day 53 - Thursday May 22 - Riders On The Storm

I was beginning to get a little bummed out about the weather this week thinking it was ruining all my climbing plans. Then I remembered that I ski. I am a skier. I can use this moisture to my advantage and slide around on it in its semi-frozen state. Cody came over to my house around 2:00 this afternoon. He borrowed a pair of Insanes and Switchbacks so he could get his tele on. We then headed up to Alta for some afternoon runs. We skinned back up to the Gunsight bowl where Jer and I skied on the first. Visibility was very low so we found a line that had some trees nearby that would give us some sort of reference point. When we began skiing we found the snow to be very interesting. There was about 10" of new snow, but it was not bonding well with the old stuff. As soon as we put any weight on to try to ski it would just move down the mountain. It didn't even slide like I would expect it to. It was as if a small wave would just steadily creep down the mountain stopping just as quickly as it started. This made the steep areas difficult to ski; not because of the moving snow, but because we ended up skiing on the old layer of snow which was a collection of snow, ice, and dirt from that big wind storm we had about a month ago. It wasn't until we reached the lower angle stuff that the skiing began to really excel. I was surprised on how much fun it was. This is May 22. What's the story? My last real ski day last year was May 4. The rest of the summer required avid searching for snow. This year may be considerably easier with the fact that Alta still has a 130" base. Some chutes may never melt this year. We did a second lap on the lower section since that was all that was worth it. The CodeMan is really coming along with his telemarking. He was looking good today as you can see from the photos. We had a good time up hiking around and skiing again today. It has been three weeks since I last skied and it seems like it had been a lifetime. I felt out of shape and as though I had forgotten how to ski (although I remembered rather quickly). I think the weather is supposed to clear up tomorrow so I am hoping I can get out climbing before I head down to Spring City for the weekend. I will be back up here on Monday so if any of you are looking for a climbing partner... I will be available. On Ski.

Climb 6 - Tuesday May 20 - The Calm Before the Storm

On my way home from climbing today with Brock I received a phone call from Jer asking when we were going. I responded and said we had just finished and that he had missed it. He then invited me to join he and Mallory this evening for another outing. Stacy was busy tonight and it is my week off, so I accepted. They picked me up around 6:45. This was a bit late so we decided to go somewhere where there was little to no approach. In my time spent going through the book this morning I marked the Storm Mountain Picnic Area due to a number of climbs that are basically within the picnic area itself. We arrived to find several other climbing parties already on the wall. Our first and second choices of climbs were taken, but we decided not to give up and we found a crack climb a little further east. I think Mallory was hoping we were going to climb sport because she doesn't yet have faith that we know what we are doing with trad gear, but this was our only choice. The weather started to look a bit sketchy at this point so we hung out for a minute to see if it was going to change (all the while playing with our new gear and showing Mallory how to use it). Eventually, we decided the weather was fine and I led the climb. *I must take this opportunity to thank and acknowledge Mallory for the photos featuring yours truly.* We only did the first pitch since we were running low on time at this point. The guide book says this climb is a 5.5. I wouldn't disagree with that, but at times it did seem a little harder than that. It is called "Layback Crack." It was a really fun climb. I want to go back soon and climb the second pitch as well. Mallory climbed second and cleaned the gear. The idea was that she would be able to take a look at my placements and learn a little more, but she ended up just climbing and taking the gear out. Jer climbed last and by the time he got back to the bottom it was really getting dark fast. Jer gets the Boy Scout Award of the day for being prepared with 3 headlamps in his pack - one for each of us. I did not get home until about 9:45 (about 45 minutes past my bedtime), and Stacy was confused as to how I could be out so late climbing. It was a fun night. I was stoked to get out and lead trad again. I am getting better. I need to keep going so I don't forget everything I have learned. The problem is that the storm is supposed to come in tomorrow and stick around for basically the rest of my time off. I even have climbing partners lined up for the rest of the week! We will see how it goes. Until then, On Rock.

Climb 5 - Tuesday May 20 - Taking Back Summer

This is my week. I have finished working with Voile. I do not start at Petzl until next week. I have a few things to do around this house, but other than that it is my week to play. Due to the lack of climbing partners yesterday, I stayed at home and got some of the things done. I also watched the Godfather for the first time. That is what a movie should be. It was phenomenal. One scene I have to mention is when they kill the brother-in-law, Carl, in the car. The shot is taken from outside the car and your attention is drawn to his feet that have broken through the windshield while there is so much more going on behind it. It is fantastic. But I digress... today I went climbing. I had some time this morning to go through my books and online to try to find some new places for me to climb. I bookmarked a few. I met Brock at his house around noon. We decided we wanted to climb trad and I had it narrowed down to 4 climbs. We ultimately decided to climb Beckey's Wall simply because I have been there recently and I knew what the story was. The approach was just as hairy as ever. I led the first pitch this time (last week I led the second pitch), and Brock followed then he led the second. He is a much better climber than I. He spent much less time leading the second pitch than I did last week and he has even less trad experience than myself. I am looking forward to having the chance to become a better climber over the next while with the bouldering wall at my new office. I took my GoPro camera today and mounted it on top of my climbing helmet. It worked great. I took some first person footage of me leading the first pitch, but it turned out to be really close up and really slow moving (not to mention it was like 732MB!) so I deleted it. I will possibly add some climbing video as the year goes on, but for now I hope you enjoy the photos I am pleased with how they came out. The quality is nothing like with my D60, but they are not half bad. You just can't zoom in too close or you will figure out how low quality they really are. We had a great afternoon out there today. The weather was beautiful. The climb was fun. I feel like I am getting better at gear placements and everything that goes along with them. This is my week. The only bummer is that it is supposed to rain like the rest of the week. What? Not on my week! On Rock.

Climb 4 - Thursday May 15 - Follow the Leader

I met Mike Schultz tonight after work at his house. Things are a lot different inside since he recently married. We packed up and drove to Little Cottonwood to Becky's Wall. I know what you are thinking... "Becky's Wall, Dust? That sounds like it could be climbed by Uncle Jesse's wife on Full House." Well, maybe it could; but today it was climbed by me. Becky's Wall is a two-pitch climb. Mike led the first pitch in a matter of about 10 minutes. I followed suit and cleaned the gear trying to note how he placed each piece. At the chains Mike gave me a few quick pointers and then I was on my own. I led the second pitch in a matter of about 1.5 hours. I am sure Mike was super bored just waiting for me, but he was kind enough not to say anything. Part of the reason I was so slow was because I found myself placing gear every 6 feet of the climb. It was my first time leading trad this season and only my second time ever... give me a break. I was able to use a couple of nuts during this climb which I felt good about. There were a couple of interesting sections in this climb. Even though I had just placed a piece of gear that I was really confident in, I still got really nervous knowing that I have never fallen on trad gear before. It's gotta happen sometime, but not today. I finally made it to the top and belayed as Mike came to meet me. He told me I had made very good placements with only one exception. I felt good about that. I wished I had my camera at the top when he was climbing toward me, but I was belaying and that would have been a lot of extra weight to carry up the climb. I think I am going to try to bring along the GoPro when I climb with just two people from now on so I can at least get some shots. I will take the Nikon out when I can worry about getting photos instead of climb or belay all the time. This was an enjoyable evening. I think I will be back here soon with Jer so we can work on our leading abilities. On Rock.

Climb 3 - Wednesday May 14 - Trad is Short For Traditional

should have guessed it. Of course there is. This is a north facing climb. It was a huge winterJer and I went trad climbing for the first time today just the two of us. I skipped out of work a little early and we made our way up to Pentapitch in Little Cottonwood. We got lost on the way there and had difficulty finding a trail, but we did make it... only to discover that there was still 15 feet of snow at the bottom of the climb. We. What did we expect? Oh, well. We climbed it all the same. The initial idea was to each climb it twice (we were only doing the first pitch). Jer led the first climb. He first climbed to the top of the snow in his sandals and then put in some gear, then changed shoes and began really climbing. The climb is a finger sized crack all the way up. Jer found that he just kept wanting to use .5 cams, but he ran out of them pretty early and had to use what he had. After what seemed to be a while, he did eventually make it to the top and then he came down for my turn. It was at this point that we realized that we were running low on time. I only had time to clean his gear and not lead the climb myself. Oh, well. I am going climbing again tomorrow. It is a lot easier to climb and you can do so with far greater speed when you are just taking gear out of the rock and not putting it in. Putting it in requires thought, skill, strategy, and patience. Taking it out just requires hands for squeezing. I quickly made it up the climb (with the exception of one cam that proved rather difficult to remove) and we then cleaned up our stuff and made our way back to the car. The hike was far easier when we were able to follow the trail. In retrospect, I have decided that real trad climbing is much more fun than faking it at Dogwood. On Rock.