Utah

This past week, I went to Utah to visit my girlfriend, Jill.  In August she moved out there to take a teaching position at Wasatch Academy in Mount Pleasant, Utah.  It is a great little town.  Mount Pleasant is nestled in the Sanpete Valley between the San Pitch Mountain range and the Wasatch Plateau.  Though it is far from a bustling metropolis with its mere 3,600 people, it has plenty to off this guy who is also from a small town.

The main attraction for me was the outdoor recreational opportunities.  When staring up at the Wasatch Plateau with the aspens turning yellow and just below them the maples turning red, the beauty almost inspired me to go for a hike.  Then I snapped back to reality and realized I don't like hiking.

 

The maples in the Wasatch Range.

The second best thing about the trip was having the chance to climb in Maple Canyon.  Back in 2008 while traveling through Utah, I had the chance to climb there but had to decline so that I could get to my next destination in a reasonable amount of time.  Since then I have wanted to experience this unique type of rock.  I say it is unique in that it looks as if some kid walked through a river bed, gathered a bunch of pebbles and rocks from the bottom of the stream and then glued them to a wall of varying angles.  This conglomerate rock is very interesting to climb on.  The cobble stones create this interesting puzzle of route finding and figuring out how to use certain holds.  Also, you are always wondering if that cobble stone you are pulling on or standing on it going to come loose to send you and itself falling towards the ground.  

The first thing I noticed when I got to Maple were the maple trees.  Throughout the canyon and up on the surrounding mountains were all of these small maples trees displaying bright red fall colors.  I was lucky enough to visit when then were nearing what seemed to be the peak for the fall colors.  The next thing I noticed was the short approaches.  There were some climbs that you could potentially belay from your vehicle.  I would not recommend that due to the potential for cobble stones coming loose and breaking through your windshield.  The normal approach is 5-10 minutes on easy terrain.  This was quite different than what I had grown used to in North Carolina where you have to hike 15 minutes at the very least. 

Since I mostly climbed with Jill who is still kind of new to climbing, we did a fair amount of moderate climbs.  The first day we went to the Orangutan wall.  There we did a few 5.7's and a 5.8.  Jill cruised the 5.7's but struggled on the 5.8.  The one thing I noticed about the climbing was that these routes were hard to read.  When you have about ten options for every move but only one of them is a good option, it can take a while to find that one hold you are looking for.  Later we did a few climbs at Pipeline with some of Jill's coworkers.  There the climbs are harder and overhung.  These climbs were easier to read but were pumpy.  I ended up attempting to onsight a 5.11c only to mess up the crux move at the last bolt.  I ended up getting back on it a bit later to get it clean.

 

Britt toproping the 5.11 with Jill belaying

Later in the week we went back after Jill got off of work.  We did more moderates and once we were joined by Russ, we moved to some more difficult routes.  My two favorite routes were these two 5.10's at the bridge area.  They are long and slightly overhung allowing for a nice pump to develop in your forearms.  I onsighted both routes and wanted more but it was getting late.

The final day of climbing was just with Jill.  We ended up climbing at the Road Kill wall.  There we did some fun moderates and a 5.10.  The funnest route was this long 5.8.  It had a boulder problem start leading to fun moderate climbing on this exposed face.  Once above the trees you are rewarded with a great view of sections of the canyon across from you.  It was a great way to end the climbing portion of my trip.


For the rest of the time, I hung out with Jill.  On our final day, we headed up to Salt Lake to just hang out before I caught a midnight flight back to North Carolina.  Salt Lake is a nice town with plenty to offer.  The best part seems to be its quick access to the mountains.  Just to the east, you have these rugged looking mountains that offer climbing, hiking and amazing skiing.  Hopefully, one day I will be able to sample a bit of what it has to offer.

Brit and Russ's dog Eva spectating

Sport Climbing in North Carolina

As I stated in my last few posts, I am now living in North Carolina.  The climbing here is fantastic.  The climbing here also known for its traditional ethic and lack of bolts on climbs.  Supposedly at Stone Mountain, the bolts are 30 feet apart on some routes. Well, today I went to a place that is unique in this state.  I went sport climbing

Today I got to hang out with two fellow guides, Karsten and Linsay.  They also had a friend of theirs, Sarah, join us.  The four of us set out to this newer crag to get on some steeper bolted routes.  Now around here steep is kind of a relative term.  You see, a lot of the climbing that we have been doing lately has been on the slabs of Looking Glass.  After driving for 1.5 hours, we parked the car and set off down the trail.  From the looks of the trail this place hasn't seen a ton of traffic yet.  Then when we got to the rock, it short.  The routes there were 40-60 feet tall on a metamorphosed sandstone or a quartzite type of rock.  There are good solid edges.  The only thing is lacks is friction.  The routes here were steeper than anything else I had seen in the state so far but that isn't saying much.  There were a few roofs and some climbs overhung a few feet for the entire route.  Basically, it isn't the Red River Gorge in terms of steepness.

After deciding which routes to start on, I went up a route to set up a fixed line so that Karsten could get some photos of us climbing on the route.  I didn't onsight the route but came back later to put it down.  It climbs up small edges with occasional big holds and longer moves.  It was fun.  the other route we got on was a tips crack that you face climbed around.  It wasn't too hard and since you didn't use the crack that much it seemed to lose its appeal. After those two routes we hung out at the first climb getting photos and having a few laughs.

After that I eyed a fist crack around the corner I wanted to try.  I grabbed some gear and went up it.  Unfortunately I didn't have any gear big enough to fit the crack.  Luckily, there was a small crack to the left that took small marginal gear.  As I started up the crack I realized one thing, the inside of this crack is as smooth as a countertop.  I am not joking.  This crack lacked any friction.  Also a few inches into the crack and you were getting into some wet stuff.  Despite these set backs, I managed to find a technique for jamming the crack with my elbow and groveled my way to the top.  It wasn't a bad climb but needs to get climbed more because at the moment it is super dirty.

I then moved over to a sport route that looked like it was an easy 5.11 from the ground.  I started up the route and the moves were comfortable until the third bolt.  Right after clipping it I realized all of a sudden that I was getting into the hard stuff.  After a few attempts, I managed to pull the first hard move, clip the next bolt and scope out the last few moves.  The most powerful move is right after the third bold but after the fourth bolt, you have a dynamic move then there are no more foot holds.  Typically I would start to smear, a move where you paste your foot on the wall and use friction to stand up.  On this rock you can't do that.  There is no friction.  So the last few moves were just attempting to smear and move up to the next good hold.  Finally, I made it to the top and came down to rest for another go.  The second attempt wasn't much better but I made it up it with less falls.

It was nice to check out another crag.  I managed to get some pictures and Karsten seemed to have gotten some good ones.  We had a great time giving our arms a work out instead of our calves.  For those of you interested, you should check out some of Karsten's photography.  He is a very skilled photographer and guide.  He as managed to blend those two passions well.  His site is www.karstendelap.com.  Here are some of the shots that I got.