June 2013

June was a pretty good month of climbing.  I was able to get out several times and was also able to finally make it up to Lone Peak Cirque for some climbing for the first time which has been on my tick list forever.

San Rafael Swell

The first climbing we did in the month was on our way to visit one of my best friends, Danny, who lives in Grand Junction, CO.  We decided to camp in the San Rafael Swell on our way there so that we could do some climbing as well.  For the climbing we just decided to climb on the Scenic Byway wall in Buckhorn Wash since it is right off the road and has a few good routes on it.

Emily scrambling around

We started by climbing the first pitch of a 5.10a called Scenic Byway.  The first pitch is an awesome 5.9 hand-crack that traverses left for around 90 feet.  It was a surprisingly good route for how it looked from the ground.  I onsighted the route and Amy TR'd it.

Danny Working on Scenic Byway

Next we did a 5.8 called Scenic Highway.  the route was a lot of fun and started out in a hand-crack in a right leaning flake, then joined a dihedral crack about halfway up the route and followed it to the anchors.  I lead the route onsight, then Amy TR'd it.

Finally, I wanted to try a 5.12a called Lonesome Scenery that was just to the left of Scenic Highway.  The route looked really cool following a thin crack for 75 feet to the anchors.  The crux was down low and bolt protected, then it looked like the crack opened up to good fingers.  Unfortunately, when I got up past the bolt I realized that the crack was a lot thinner than it appeared from the ground.  I worked the crux and got past it, but I didn't bring any gear small enough to protect the thin crack above the crux so I ended up bailing.  I certainly want to give it a go some other time though.

That was it for our climbing in the Swell on this trip, but we did have a great time visiting with my friend in CO.

City of Rocks

The next week we we took a trip to City of Rocks Idaho.  My boss Eric and his family were going so we decided to join them.  The first day in the City we started out on Decadent Wall.  I started out by setting up a 5.6 called Twilight so that the kids would have something to play on (We had our three kids, Eric had his two, and Eric had a couple of friends there as well who also had a few more kids).

After I got the 5.6 set up I decided to do something a bit harder and jumped on a 5.11a called Flesh for Fantasy.  It ended up being a pretty fun route that took all of a 70 meter rope to get up and down, but it was kind of a one move wonder, but at least that made it so I got the onsight easily;)

After we finished with those two routes, the adults all took turns toproping both routes, we headed back to the campsites for lunch.  After lunch and naps for the kids we decided to head to the practice rock so the kids would have a bunch of easy stuff to climb.  At practice rocks we set up three easy routes, a 5.7 called Far Left, another 5.7 called Original Left, and a 5.4 called beginners slab.

After practice rock we headed back to camp again for dinner, then after dinner I wanted to run up Bath Rock since it was right across from our campsites, so I sent over and free solo'd a 5.4 called Easy Way Up.

The next morning, we didn't have a lot of time, but I wanted to jump on a couple of hard routes before we left, so I jumped on Euro Beast (5.12a) again to try and nab the redpoint.  Unfortunately, I had a really hard time making the clip in the crux and ended up pumping out while trying to clip and fell off,  but at least I am now down to 1 hang.  I'm sure it will go next try.

Euro Beast - 5.12a

After falling off

After that we headed to the other side of Bath rock to do something easier for Amy, so we did a 5.9 called Rollercoaster.  I got the onsight, then Amy TR'd the route.

Rollercoaster - 5.9

Amy on TR

After that I wanted to do one more hard route so I jumped o another 5.12a called Gemini.  Gemini had some really fun thin technical crimping on it, but unfortunately, I was still pumped from Euro Beast and ended up bailing from the bolt at the crux since I couldn't stick the crux dyno.  The route was really cool though and I'll definitely have to get on it again when I am more fresh.

Gemini - 5.12a

9th Street

The next weekend we just made a quick trip up to 9th street in Ogden for a couple of quick routes.  We started out on a 5.9 called Shino.  I got the route cleanly, then Amy went up it on TR.

For our second and final route of the day we got on a 5.10d called Midnight Cowboy.  Unfortunately, I screwed up the beta in the crux and fell off, but it's kind of a weird route anyway, I'll have to get the redpoint later.  Amy ran up the route on TR and that ended our day of climbing.

Lone Peak

For my final climbing trip in the month of June I headed up to Lone Peak with a coworker, but that was cool enough that I'm going to do a separate post.  Check back later.