More snow.

Once again I am stranded in town, except this time the weather is a bit more epic.  We knew that a storm was coming in, but I wasn't expecting this much snow:

  Check out the North 6-shooter!

Grim.  Super grim.

I woke up, got pissed at the weather, and drove into town.  At 7:30am I was the second person to drive from the creek back to 191, and the road was covered in a couple inches of snow.  Even on 191 there was a ton of snow.  The driving conditions were treacherous for this Central Valley girl.  The road didn't get clear until a few miles outside of Moab, and even then it was still bad.  

I rested yesterday, knowing that I have only a week left.  My hands are super fucked up:

 my toes hurt, and if I'm going to spend another week here, I'd like to actually send something. 

On Thursday I went to the Fin with the midwesterners and Seth, Evelyn and Tom.  I started out on Fin-tastic, which had a sketchy reachy move off the deck, and then tried to do Hot Fun Sunday.  My notes from last year on that climb say "got schooled on lead".  It's comforting to know that not much has changed I guess.  I got schooled on lead, then I TRed it and fell, and then sent it on TR the third time.  That thing is kind of a sandbag I think.  Not only is the crux thin and somewhat powerful, but it widens out to tight #4 camalots at the top.  This gave me the opportunity to practice my armbar/elevator door combo that I pioneered on King Cat.  It worked well!  I'd be pretty psyched if I went back and sent that thing.  

So that was 4 pitches.  

Then Seth and I went over to the Virgin Voyage, a 5.10++ finger crack.  I made it almost to the end and fell.  On a 5.10!!  Then again, it was a ++ according to the pitch.  I TRed it clean after that, kicking myself for falling.  Honestly though, I climbed for quite a distance on small gear, and that was the goal.  The climbing is never the biggest challenge for me here.  It's the leading. 

So that was 6 pitches.

Then Evelyn put up The Felcher, which has a super cool bouldery start and goes into a shallow thin-hands corner with feet!  That was a cool climb, and I was psyched to toprope it.  Seth OSed Skid Row, which is a .5 corner that goes out a roof.  It looked cool, but I was toast.

A 7 pitch day!  Not too bad for IC.

Ken and the midwestern boys, plus the Boulder crew that rolled in for a few days bailed that night in attempt to avoid the incoming storm.  It was a huge bummer saying goodbye to the tent...I mean Ken.  Yesterday Seth and I drove out to the Needles Overlook and the Anticline overlook to get some good views of Indian Creek, Hart's Draw, the Six Shooters, Moab Valley and the Colorado river.  Plus the ultramarine-blue potash mines.  

After going back to the Creek pasture, Jeremy, Morgan and Elaine showed up and broke out the Maker's Mark whiskey, and cooked sausage in their rental SUV.  The weather had already turned to shit, but they got some good climbing in at Donnelly Canyon.  Today I am here, and hopefully tomorrow will be climbable by the time the afternoon rolls around.  Otherwise, it woudn't hurt to take 3 rest days, honestly.  I think I'll get a hotel room tonight, and savor sleeping in a real bed, with a real toilet nearby.

Also, here are some photos of me on a climb called Run Like Hell at The Wall.  I'm hoping to get more photos of me climbing, but since my camera is down, I'm depending on other folks to email me photos...and you know how that goes.  I stole these from Maki's FB page.

And now for my wish list for the last week here:

Second Meat:

Sesh One Cooking

Cube Steaks

T Bones tonight

Broken Tooth:

Polygrip

Heat Searcher

Broken Tooth (please someone put a TR on this for me?!)

Way Rambo:

Slice and Dice

4x4 (only if we get a hot day!)

4x4

I'm not sure if I'll get to go to all of these places, and even if I do, if I'll be able to do all of these climbs...but it never hurts to wish.

The weather is bad

The last time I wrote I wasn't so sure that it would be climbable on Monday.  As it turns out, it wasn't, but we climbed anyway.  I woke up to this:

 

and this:

(* miraculously, my camera still takes pictures even though the LCD screen is broken.  Now it is a true point and shoot)

Around 2pm I went up to Supercrack with Ken, Blake and Greg (the guys from the midwest/Kentucky), and fired Coyne Crack in windy, cloudy, sub-40 degree weather (freezing with windchill?).  I came down with the worst brain freeze of my life.  It felt like I'd shoved ice cubes up my sinuses and down into my lungs.  It was so FUCKING cold.  I ran down to Blake's Sportsmobile (Blake is a quintessential redneck intellegentsia, and if you have never heard that moniker, I'm making it up - so now you have), fired up the JetBoil, and downed a bunch of hot soup.  COLD.

Tuesday was another slow day, but we made it up to Cat Wall before noon.  I got pretty psyched and jumped right on King Cat.  I made it through the wide section with a left fist/right chicken-wing armbar/left kneebar shuffle, but the I fucked up while I was racking up and didn't have the right gear for the layback section.  It wouldn't have mattered anyway, because I can't do the roof.  I cannot find the mythical "bomber fists" that Shannon told me about.  Damn.  Pulling the roof is NOTHING compared to trying to jam it.  Oh well.  Maybe I'll get psyched again some other day.  Then I aided up Cat Burglar to put a toprope on it.  I even sucked on toprope.  Splitter yellow aliens and I just couldn't get good fingers.  Maybe I need green aliens?  I was fine when there were feet, but as soon as the feet dropped away I was hopeless.  On the bright side, I got to do a new route at the Cat Wall, a 5.10+ climb called Kitty Litter that was pretty fun.  Today I'm resting, because the weather sucks AGAIN.  Tomorrow is supposed to be gorgeous with Friday and Saturday turning to shit again.  I hope that we can make it good.

Oh yeah - and I bought another set of cams... .3 through 3.  Hell yeah!

in town. must post.

So the last day that I blogged was Thursday, and it was dumping snow in Moab.  Friday was sunny, but bitterly cold.  Drew was having Eurovan problems, so he took my rig in to town to figure out what was wrong (as it turns out, the car won't start if the passenger seat is swiveled around).

So Joe "the Crusher" and I lazed around camp til the afternoon, and then drove out to the ruins in beef basin across from Way Rambo and went for a little hike.  The ruins are super cool!  There's a 3 story structure, for very very tiny people.  Or for storage.  

Saturday Drew spent the morning with Joe and me warming up at Battle of the Bulge.  Drew led the warmup, and then Our Piece of Real Estate, and then I led Battle of the Bulge, which is thin hands for me, so not too bad.

Drew bailed so he could ride his bike, and Joe and I went out to Tricks are For Kids.  I was fairly optimistic, since Alex said that it was wide green camalots, which I can jam.  Joe onsighted, because, well, he's the crusher.  It's fairly boring watching him climb.  Very similar to Alex.  It would be fun to see him on something difficult.  But that may have to wait, since he bailed back to Colorado today.  

I attempted to toprope Tricks, but it was HARD!  I felt like I needed to find a system.  High ring locks and thin hands in my face with a bit of a shuffle, aiming for pods where I might be able to get a rest.  I may have been climbing too much thin hands, because my toes are super fucked up.  I have to think that the pain factor may have been holding me back.  I got half way up (which is a full pitch in and of itself), looked up, and shouted down to Joe "I think I have a pretty good idea for what the rest of the climb is like...I think I can come down now".  And that was that.

We'd talked about doing the North Six Shooter today, but it's so freakin' windy that Joe bailed, so I went to Creek pasture to look for Ken from Ohio, who came out with Blake from Kentucky.  They wanted to go up to Optimator Wall, and flail around...which didn't excite me too much.  So I think I'll hang in town, do some laundry, buy some veggies, and charge up my sonicare toothbrush.  It's going to be a good day, and the weather is supposed to be milder tomorrow.  Yeah!

the weather in your favorite climbing area

check this website out:

climbingweather.com

you're welcome!

Indian Creek update

Lot's of stuff to write about - 

OK: On Friday Jeremy, Flint and I went to Way Rambo.   I put 2 burns on Slice and Dice, one on toprope and one on lead.  No sends.  To warm up I almost sent Way Rambo on TR, which isn't so bad for a warmup burn.  Jeremy sent Slice And Dice, which was pretty cool.  After Way Rambo, we drove over the to Optimator Wall, where I belayed Jeremy on Annunaki, toproped it, and then led Soul Fire, a climb that would be really awesome if it weren't for the pillar next to it that you can almost always bail onto.  Which I did.

The next day, B-Rad and Katie from SLC came down, and we met them up at Second Meat Wall.I toproped everthing except the last route of the day.  Both Flint and Jeremy sent T-bones, and I TRed it clean.  Did Tube Steaks tomorrow and At Your Cervix to warmup, and then got on Family Home Night, a solid 12 climb with lots of purple and green camalots.  Naturally, I got worked on the purple section, though I think I figured out some sort of finger-stacking shuffle to make my way up the splitter.

After that I led Sesh One Cooking, and was fairly disappointed to whip in the green camalot section.  I'll blame it on being tired.  Blah.

Took two rest days, which was spectacular!  I even got a hotel room.  Hey, I got a job, I don't have to always live in the dirt right?

Drew showed up Monday night, and we climbed with this crusher named Joe at the Cat Wall because the weather went from sweltering to freezing.  I warmed up on some unnamed 5.10, which is super fun, and then led King Cat, got worked, and then toproped it, and STILL got worked!  I think that the "crux" move of pulling over the roof is easier than the roof itself, which is heinous cupped hands.  Plus this section in the middle that I worked out some arm-bar/fist action in.  It's HARD!!  Shannon - you are a BEAST!!  After that, I watched Joe flash Burl Dog, super proud, and then TRed Kool Kat, and then we went over to do Wild Cat, which was awesome!  Except I ended up aiding through the .5 splitter section.  It was pitch 6 and I just didn't have the energy to try hard.

Wednesday we went to The Wall, a place where I had never been before.  There are only 6 routes described in the guidebook, but the place is stacked.  Drew and I warmed up on a 5.10 called "The Trial", and then Drew TRed a 5.10 thing called something-or-other-Pink-Floyd-themed, and then I flashed Pigs on the Wing, and stellar thin hands crack.  STELLAR!  It's my favorite pitch in IC so far.  Joe impressed us all by onsighting Learning to Fly, a splitter overhanging yellow alien finger crack, and then I went back and led the something-or-other-Pink-Floyd-themed route to end the day.

Today we are resting, which is good because the Creek is covered in snow.  The weather is supposed to clear, but I suspect that it will still be cold.  That's ok - there are a lot of routes to do that are often too hot to climb on this time of year.  

Not sure what we are going to do tomorrow, but we will be chasing the sun for sure.

Photos to come.

Oh yeah, for some reason I keep running over shit with my car.  Last week I ran over a pot of leftovers and my completely-full aquatainer.  yesterday I ran over another gallon of water and my pack.  I thought everything was ok, but apparently the LCD screen on my camera is broken.  FUCK.  I think it can still take pictures though, so maybe when I get back to Davis I can get the screen fixed if Circuit City hasn't gone out of business yet.  DRAT!

Back in the Creek

Sorry - no photos yet.  I've either been climbing or belaying, or watching people toprope. None of those situations lend themselves to terrific photos.

I got to Moab Sunday night to find that Jeremy, my partner, wasn't expecting me until Wednesday, so he was resting on Monday.  Damn.  So I bivvied in Jeremy's latest conquest's driveway in Moab, and then we drove to the creek.  

I decided to rest on Monday - just try to get my wits about me, shrug off the "go go go" of driving for 14 hours and get my shit organized for the next few weeks.  We're staying at the superbowl.  I doubted Jeremy when he said that they have a nice site, but it's pretty sweet.  All the way in the back, with a large berm separating us from everyone else in front, and a bunch of tamarisk in the back.  Lots of places for a girl to pee (this is important in a campsite).

Tuesday we went to Fin, and it was brutally hot.  Did my first climb of the trip: "No beggin'", a mellow 5.9, and then toproped Nagasaki, which was kinda hard, and then that 5.11 thing that is mostly purple and green cams that Shannon brutalized her hands on last year.  I was psyched that I didn't fuck it up and fall this year (which would have bummed me out, cause I TR-flashed last year).  Then I decided to sac-up and lead Double Trouble, a 120 foot .11- that starts with liebacking yellow alien size.  I get pretty gripped on liebacking, especially if it's fingers, and ESPECIALLY if it's right off the deck.  So I pulled through and made my way through most of the climb just fine until I got to the top, and lo and behold, it's not a hand crack anymore...it's fingers...or some weird squeeze...or some combination of the two.  About 15 minutes of meltdown later, I had a toprope on it so that we could all climb it, and I could climb it again and realize how silly I am for being scared.  Which I did...somewhat easily...Oh well.  Guess it will take some time to get my lead head back.

Wednesday we went to 4x4 wall, warmed up on some .10 fingers lieback thing that was pretty short, and then went over to look at the Wall's namesake: 4x4.  A looooong flare/corner with a short section of 2s, a loooong section of 3s, and a horizontal roof with a tight 4 crack in the corner.  I "let" Jeremy lead, and decided to toprope, not knowing what to expect.  It actually reminded me a lot of the pitches on Astroman before the Harding Slot, cause you can kneebar most of it.  The hands were certainly wide, and I spent most of the time cupping, and then moved on to bomber fists!!!!  I got to fist jam!  Even more exciting, I did the undercut/overcut fist jamming thing through the roof!  I fell out trying to get over the lip, but then lowered and figured out how to do it.  I'd like to go back and lead it...that size isn't the easiest for me, and it's a rad climb.

Following 4x4, I belayed Jeremy while he got worked on Hydraulic Pump: a Steve Hong route that starts at .5, changes corners and moves into .75 liebacking (though I do a finger stack with my right hand and a tight jam with my left and shuffle up).  The top is, as this dude Trout says "kind of fucked up" because you go through the hard-ass .75 section back into .5 splitter, which pinches down to .4, and then there's another changing corner, after which you have to get into this pod with flaring hand jams/fingers in the back...then you get to clip the anchors.  Full value 12+ for any hand size - there ain't no rests in any of the 80 feet.  It's rad.  I'd like to go back and try it again on TR and see if it would be fun to try and send.  One way of training for it would be to run up hills every single day for 2 wks.  Yeah...that might do it.

Today was a boring rest day.  It's becoming overcast, so hopefully the temperatures will cool off.  We were talking about going to Second Meat Wall - I'd like to finish up T Bones Tonight (I fell in the roof at the very end on the flash attempt), and maybe do Cube Steaks and Sesh One Cooking.  Or maybe go to Way Rambo/Optimator, to chase the shade?  Not sure. We're in a big disorganized group so I hope that the group dynamics don't fuck with my climbing time.

I'd like to get to the point where I'm running it out a bit more and taking falls again.  I'm not there yet, but Jeremy says that he's not putting up any more topropes.  But I think that a few tears might change his mind...if it comes to that...which it shouldn't.

Brad and Katie from SLC are coming in to the Creek Friday evening, so I'll climb with them on Saturday and Sunday, wherever they'd like to go. I've never met Katie, but B-Rad is cool, so I'm sure that his wife is awesome.  So 3 days on.  And then Drew is coming on Monday (hopefully he doesn't want to climb on Monday!).

I'm thinking about buying another set of cams, .3 to #3 size...I totally can't afford it...but I like to have tons of gear!  At the moment I have doubles, and then trips and quads of some finger sizes.  

Any more route suggestions?

Another reason to avoid pro rock climbers

check this out.