On 11/11/11 it happened to be Veterans Day which means that I got the day off. Since Veterans Day happened to fall on a Friday, and it also happened to be my normal Friday off, I also got Monday the 14th off so we decided to go on a roadtrip for the four day weekend. We decided to meet up with my sister Stephanie in St. George, UT since that is the halfway point between us and her, and there is some fun climbing there as well.
We headed out on Friday morning and arrived in St. George about 5 hours later. Stephanie hadn't arrived yet so we decided to do some climbing at Chuckwalla Wall since it is super close to the city and it would be easy for her to find.
We started out by climbing "Apostasy", a fun 5.10a through a bunch of huecos (that's basically all of Chuckwalla Wall), I easily got the redpoint, then Amy followed it on TR.
After Apostasy we moved down a couple of routes to try a 5.10c called "Popular Demand", I don't think that I have ever climbed this route, so i wanted to get the onsight. I made it to about a foot below the anchors but all of the hand holds ran out and I couldn't really see my feet to figure out where to move them. I was on two slopers for hands and basically just ended up sitting there pumping myself out until I fell off. I paid a bit more attention to where the feet were as I headed up again and got to the chains without a problem, but I was feeling pretty pumped because of hanging out earlier. Amy again ran up the route on TR and we pulled the rope just before Stephanie arrived.
Steph wanted to climb something easy, and the easiest route on Chuckwalla wall is a 5.9 called "Sands of Blood". I ran up it getting the redpoint, then Steph and Amy TR'd it.
After climbing "Sands of Blood", it was starting to get a little dark, but Danny had been wanting to climb, and luckily we recently bought him a harness. I climbed up a low angled section of the rock just right of "Sands of Blood, and belayed Danny up to me while Steph climbed next to him helping him out. It was pretty cool seeing Danny climbing and loving it. Here are a couple of pictures of his first time climbing.
By the time Danny was done climbing it was dark so we decided to call it a day.
The next day we decided to head into Snow Canyon State Park. Snow Canyon has been one of my favorite places ever since I was little, and it is one of the places that made me want to be a climber. We started out the day by hiking into a little slot canyon called Jenny's Canyon, then we went to the sand dunes so that Danny could play in the sand.
Finally it was warm enough to do some climbing so we headed to Circus Wall. The classic climb on Circus Wall is a 5.7 called "Pygmy Alien", so we decided to start out with that. "Pygmy Alien" starts with some third class slab, steepening into 4th class slab, followed by a little bit of easy fifth class slab and ending with 100 feet of near vertical face climbing on varnished patina edges to a cool little cave 200 ft. up the face. I lead the route without a problem and following our usual pattern, Stephanie and Amy TR'd it.
After "Pygmy Alien" we climbed a route that I have always seen and wanted to climb, but have never gotten around to it. The climb is a 5.6 called "The Barbarian". The route follows a left facing corner crack for 150 feet. It was super easy and we all took turns cruising up it (unfortunately we didn't get any photos).
Amy and Stephanie both wanted to be done with climbing for the day at this point, but I wanted to do at least one more route so we decided to climb the first pitch of "Cloudwalker". I started up the route, and arrived at a set of belay anchors about 50 feet up, but at this point I noticed some bolts heading right up a steeper face. I thought the route looked fun so I decided to go that way. The route ended up being a super easy (like 5.5 or 5.6) face climb past tons of bolts (the route was way overbolted, especially for the dificulty) to a set of anchors about ten feet left of the anchors atop "The Barbarian". Again Amy and Steph TR'd the route, and again we forgot to get any photos.
Sunday we went to church, Stephanie headed home, and then we went to Pioneer Park to do some hiking and get some photos. We didn't do any climbing so I won't include anything more about that day here.
Monday we needed to drive back to CA, so we didn't have a lot of time, but I had noticed a few new routed in Pioneer Park so we decided to check them out.
We started by climbing a steep hueco'd 4 bolt route that I thought looked like fun. It was a pretty good route that felt like a 5.10c. I ended up going with my right hand to the crux hold on my first attempt (which made it so that I couldn't clip the third bolt) so I fell off, but the second time I went with my left hand and completed the route. Amy then TR'd the route, but she isn't really a big fan of overhanging routes so she didn't like it very much.
After that route, Amy just wanted to head home, but I wanted to climb at least one more route, so we decided to run up a fun little 5.9 just down the canyon from our first route of the day. This route follows vertical huecos past 2 drilled angles and one bolt to the anchors. Again I ran up it and Amy TR'd it then we headed home after a good weekend of climbing.
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