Utah is a rock climber’s dream land. The
state has so much high quality climbing to offer, spanning almost every
discipline. We were immediately drawn into the incredible limestone sport
climbing in the south west corner of Utah around St George.
We met up with Yannick and Kirsten to spend
the following four weeks climbing with them. Our good friend Cory was also down
for a few weeks visiting family and was able to squeeze in a week of climbing
with us, and we had the pleasure of seeing Yannick’s dad, Robert! We spent
our first few days at The Grail in
Lime Kiln Canyon, technically part of the Arizona strip. The Grail offered
a slap-in-the-face intro with its dead vertical, long (sometimes as long as
55m) routes. It was great to feel a pump again. The middle of the main wall
offers the best rock quality: blue/grey stone consisting of phenomenal edges
and features with often slabby feet. The area is a technical climbers’
heaven.
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| Graham on his flash of "Vesper" (5.12b) |
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| A rare shot of us climbing together...... thanks to Kirsten Hundza! |
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| Kim on her onsight of "Greyhound" (5.12a). Photo credit: Kirsten Hundza |
In addition to The Grail, we spent most of
our time at two other crags about 45 minutes out of St George: Wailing Wall in the Welcome Springs
area, and Black and Tan at the
Woodbury Crags. The styles at these two walls complement each other
beautifully – Wailing Wall offers mostly vertical or slightly overhanging
routes 5.11+ and up, and the style ranges from sustained powerful routes, to
lines with hard technical cruxes. Black and Tan on the other hand has mostly
shorter routes, often with heinously difficult, steep boulder problems. A
delightful combo! Some of our highlights from the month included Graham ticking
the three 13c classics at Wailing Wall, “Treebeard”, “The Cross”, and “Pucker”,
Kirsten sending her first 5.12a, “Jumanji” at Black and Tan, Kim finishing off
her project “Resurrection” (5.13b) and climbing her 10th 5.13, and
Yannick sending “The Cross” (5.13c). Throughout March, we reunited with several
other friends and met a lot of wonderful new people that we were lucky to spend
our time with as well!
We wrapped up around St George in early
April and headed north. We stopped for a day in Zion National Park, where we
made use of our endurance on the long overhanging bolted routes at the Namaste
Wall in Kolob Canyon. Wow! The juggy huecos on this wall were incredibly fun
and pumpy to climb.
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| Kirsten staring down the Namaste Wall in Kolob Canyon |
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| Graham on his send of "Namaste" (5.12a) |
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| Kim working the crux on "Huecos Rancheros" (5.12c) |
On the next day we arrived in Orangeville,
home to Joe’s Valley. Knowing we would have only about a week, we got right to
it, immediately climbing three days on. Heavy rain kept us inside on our rest
day, and then we punched out another four days in a row before leaving.
Bouldering that many days on is tough on the body, but it was worth it! Graham
finished off “Worm Turns” (V10/11) and “Resident Evil” (V9/10), Yannick made
quick work of the classic “Worst Case Scenario” (V9) among other goodies, Kim
finished off some projects from last year like “Kill By Numbers” (V5) and
“Double Delicious” (V6) and Kirsten sent her first two V5s, “Gatorade” and
“Mono E Mono”! We had the pleasure of staying and visiting with our friend
Nikki and her pup Stella while we were in Joes, which was super great as well.
What a switch to have the comforts of a house to return to after a day on the
rock.
We had a good run in Utah, but even after
six weeks we barely scratched the surface. Hopefully we’ll make it back next
year to sample even more of what this state has to offer. For now though… off
to Smith Rock, Oregon!
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| Black-throated Sparrow one morning at Black and Tan |
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