This past April was a beautiful month as far as weather was concerned, but we didn't get out climbing all that much due to our new son Austin being born. I was able to get out a couple of times with some people from work, then we made it out once after Austin was born.
During the end of March and the beginning of April there was a group of airman from the British Royal Air Force here at Hill for some training. A couple of these airman were climbers and came to the wall to climb a few times. One of these airman, Matt, really wanted to get outside and do some multipitch climbing here in Utah before he headed back to England so I offered to take him. He didn't want to do anything too difficult so I decided to take him up Becky's Wall in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Becky's Wall is a 3 pitch 5.7 that has one of my favorite 5.7 pitches ever on it, so I figured it would be a good route to do. Matt lead the first 5.6 Pitch, I lead the second 5.7 pitch, then Matt lead the third 5.4 pitch. All in all the route went really well and ended up taking just the right amount of time since Matt had somewhere he needed to be that afternoon. Unfortunately, we didn't get any photos.
A couple of days later a guy named Charlie who works in the same building that I do invited me to come and climb Tree Crack with him at the Schoolroom area in Ogden. Charlie is really into trad climbing and wants to start breaking into the 5.11 grade on gear, and Tree Crack is a 5.11a crack route with a short crux so he thought it'd be a good starting point. We also invited Colin to come along as well.
We did the long 45 minute hike up to the schoolroom area, and Charlie wanted to go for the onsight of Tree Crack right off the bat, so he racked up and went for it. He made it through the crux without any problems, but ended up pumping out and popping off about 3/4's of the way up the route. Next Colin went up the route on TR and eventually made it to the anchors. After Colin's TR, we pulled the rope and I lead the route cleanly first try making this my hardest Trad flash to date.
Charlie Starting up Tree Crack - 5.11a
Charlie finishing up the crux section
Colin on TR
Me pulling through the crux
After we had all climbed Tree Crack, we decided to TR a 5.10d sport route just to the left of Tree Crack since they share the same anchors. We each took turns TRing the route before moving onto something else.
Me on Tastes Like Burning - 5.10d
Charlie's Turn
After we had all TR'd Tastes Like Burning, Charlie wanted to try a 5.10b called Jammin for Jesus, but he didn't really want to lead it, so I racked up and started up the route. Unfortunately, the route had absolutely no decent pro anywhere and despite it's name, didn't have any jams anywhere. It was a face route that followed a tiny seam for protection, but you just couldn't get anything to fit in the seam. I fiddled with gear for a little while and made my way partially up the route, but eventually I decided to give up on that route and to move one climb to the right onto a 5.11c sport route called Phat Abbot. Phat Abbot ended up being a really fun route with a slick, slopey crimp on the crux move. I fell off a time or two, but I eventually figured it out and made it to the chains.
Starting up Jammin for Jesus - 5.10b
Clipping the crux bolt on Phat Abbot - 5.11c
After Phat Abbot I had to take off. Charlie and Colin stayed and did some more climbing, but Amy needed me home for something, so that was it for me.
The next week Amy had our new baby Austin, so no climbing that week, but the following week we were able to get out to check out the climbing up at Echo Canyon. I had heard about how Echo is a conglomerate climbing area like Maple Canyon, and it's only a half hour from where we live, so I decided that we needed to check it out. There are only a couple of developed areas at Echo, and a lot of it is hard, so we decided to check out the Bear Hollow Wall since it has a couple of easy lines on it, and Amy had just had a baby a week before.
Echo Canyon ended up being really fun, the climbing was almost identical to Maple Canyon, and we were able to do two routes, a 5.9 called Maple Jones, and a 5.10a called Corn on the Cobble. I onsighted both routes, and Amy TR'd Maple Jones, but wasn't feeling up to Corn on the Cobble yet. Danny also played around on a TR of Maple Jones.
Maple Jones - 5.9
Amy on the TR
Danny's Turn
Well, That's it for the climbing I did this April.
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