For Labor Day we decided that we should head to Maple Canyon
since we haven’t been there yet this summer.
We wanted to head to Maple Sunday evening, camp there, then climb all
day Monday, but we knew that with It being Labor Day, there was no way that we
were going to be able to get a campsite in Maple. I decided to check in the guidebook to see if
there was somewhere close by that we could camp, then just head into Maple the
next morning. Initially I was thinking
of camping at Axehandle Canyon since the rock there looks pretty cool, and the
guidebook mentions that there is a lot of undeveloped rock, but at the same
time, it seemed pretty out of the way for climbing in Maple the next day. Luckily, I didn’t give up my search for a
better camping spot, because I stumbled upon the two pages in the guidebook
that mention Log Canyon.
Log Canyon is located 8 miles to the North of Maple Canyon,
so it is right on the way, and even offers some very easy climbing that I
figured would be great for the kids. We
drove up Log Canyon Sunday evening, and ended up getting to a great camping
spot just before it started getting dark outside. We quickly set up camp, got the kids ready
for bed, then hit the sack so that we would be well rested for the following
day.
The next morning at 0dark30 we figured out what I believe to
be the reason that Log Canyon isn’t a more popular camping spot as there was
four wheeler after four wheeler that slowly made their way up the very well
graded road through the canyon. What
they were doing at that time in the morning is completely mind boggling to me,
but you would just start to fall back asleep when the next four wheeler would
pass waking you up again. Eventually I
decided to just get up and start making breakfast once it started getting light
outside. I heated up some water and we
had a nice breakfast of oatmeal and hot chocolate before packing up camp and
heading over to Schoolhouse Rock to do some climbing.
Schoolhouse Rock is pretty much the only developed area in
Log Canyon, although it appears that there is still quite a bit of virgin rock
up there to put routes up on (I’ll have to bring the drill on a future
trip). This area consists of a low
angled piece of rock right off the road that starts out really low angled on
the right and gets progressively steeper as you head up canyon. There are currently 5 bolted routes on the
rock, one 5.0, two 5.7’s, one 5.10a and one 5.10b, and one unfinished project
between the 5.7’s and the 5.10’s. Since
we wanted to let the kids climb, we decided to start with the 5.0 a route
called Sea Monkeys.
As can be imagined, the 5.0 was quite easy. To make it interesting though, there was a
big loose flake about half way up the route, so I had Amy and the kids clear
out of the way while I pulled the loose flake off so that the route would be
safer for anyone else. I lead the route
and set up a TR so that Danny and Emily could each take turns climbing the
route, then Amy lead the route to clean the anchors.
Next we decided to do the next route to the left of Sea
Monkeys, a 5.7 called Log Jam. Again, this
route was very easy, but the rock was good, and it was a fun route
overall. I lead, then Danny TR’d the
lower portion of the route, then Amy lead the route again to clean it.
We decided to do the other 5.7 (Horton Hears a Whowah) as
well before heading to Maple Canyon.
This time Danny didn’t feel like climbing, so Amy and I each took turns
climbing the route. I didn’t find this
route to be as fun as Log Jam, but I think it had to do with how closely bolted
it was. I felt like the whole route was
make one move, clip a bolt, make another move, clip another bolt, but it would
be a great route for someone to learn to lead on.
We then made the 10 minute drive over to Maple Canyon to get
on some harder stuff. As we expected,
Maple was crowded. I had initially been
thinking of climbing at the Pipeline, but there was no parking anywhere until
we got up to the parking lot for the right hand fork. I figured that the Low Standard Cave was
right there, so we could go do a few routes there. It was lunch time, so we got some food for
the kids, gathered up the gear, than made the long 30 second hike over to the
Low Standard Cave. I have to say that I
think it’s kind of funny how little attention this cave gets. There is basically no approach, lots of good
routes, but I never see anyone else there.
This was no exception; we were the only people there even though it was
Labor Day.
I wandered around the cave a little bit looking for
something to climb, and at the back of the cave was a route that caught my eye
(Low Standards). It ascended up the
right side of the back of the cave and ended right at the apex of the cave, so
the route looked cool, but to top it all off, it was only rated 5.11c. Thanks to the overhanging nature of the cave,
coupled with the fact that the route was only four bolts long, I was able to
hang all the draws with a stick clip, so I hung the draws, then roped up to try
the climb. The first three bolts were a
cakewalk and I didn’t have any problems, but then at the fourth bolt the holds
get much smaller, and I ended up falling off as I was about to clip the fourth
bolt. I ended up hanging on the third
bolt to clip the fourth so that I could work the moves, but then between the
fourth bolt and the anchors there was just nothing. I was able to do a big reach out to what
looked like it should have been the clipping hold for the anchors, but once
there, the hold was just terrible and there was no way I could let go to clip
the anchors. Again, I ended up just
hanging on the fourth bolt to reach up and clip the anchors. I really don’t know if I was just reading the
route wrong and missing holds, or if something has broken off the route, but
the section from the fourth bolt to the anchors certainly felt a lot harder
than 5.11c.
Amy said that she was done climbing for the day, so I just
cleaned the route and decided to try out a 5.11b called Nipple Stud. Nipple Stud ended up being a really fun
route, it started out with very thin technical climbing on slightly overhanging
rock and ended up with some easy jug hauling to the anchors. Unfortunately, I blew the onsight right where
the holds get big. I made it through the
hard technical portion of the route, but then I went for what I thought looked
like the big jug I needed next only to find out that it wasn’t what I thought
it was and I came off. From hanging on
the bolt I could easily see that I only needed to go like two inches higher to
get the actual big hold that I thought I was going for and I finished the route
easily.
At this point, Danny and Emily wanted to swing, so we let
them have turns doing a big swing off the anchors of Nipple Stud while I rested
a bit. After that, Amy wanted to go
since she was done climbing, but I wanted to try one more route before we
left.
I decided to just move one route to the right and give
Sodomizing Satan (5.11d) a go.
Sodomizing Satan ended up being a great route. It was just slightly overhung the whole time,
and mostly consisted of big moves through good holds with a few crappier holds
thrown in here and there. I did have to
hang a couple of times because I was tired, but overall the route went well and
I didn’t have any problems. I definitely
want to go back and redpoint this route because it was way fun.
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