Reflections Along the Way

Monkey Nuts, our first climb at Maple

The climbing at Maple Canyon is probably the most unique climbing area I’ve ever been to.  The rock is a conglomerate embedded with pebbles and rocks of various sizes.  The routes are difficult to read from the ground, and require a lot of endurance to onsight, since you never know what kind of hold a cobble is going to be until you grab it, so you end up spending a lot of energy trying to find the right cobbles to use.  However, b/c of all the  cobbles, we discovered that Maple is also a place that rewards good footwork.  No matter how hard it might be to hang on searching for good cobbles, you always had really good, obvious feet.  I for one thoroughly enjoyed the climbing there, and felt like it agreed with me. 

Steve - Raindrops on Lichen, Manuela - Your Little Sister

Day 1 Routes ~
Monkey Nuts – 5.9 – Good intro to the cobbles.  Felt really soft for the grade, which was not surprising based on what we had heard going in to the trip.
Your Little Sister – 5.10a - I can only imagine how much fun the first ascensionists had thinking about all the inuendos folks would come up with when they chose the name for this climb…fun route though, got a bit pumpy towards the top searching for cobbles.
EIS – 5.10b – Straightforward at the bottom, got pumpy and a bit thin up towards the top.
Raindrops on Lichen – 5.9+ – pretty fun route, crux was moving up over a bulge about halfway up.

Fighting for the onsight on Taking the Bullet

Taking the Bullet – 5.11a - I can see why this route is a classic!   The technical crux was down low, and was pretty difficult, but then around the 4th bolt, things back off a little.  From that point on there were no individually hard moves, but it was l-o-n-g and sustained at what felt like low 10 range.  I left the ground with every intention of hanging if it got hard, but the farther up I got, the more confident I felt.  Towards the top things got pretty steep again, but I decided that I had come too far to blow the onsight with a hang, so I kept climbing and just when I thought I was getting too pumped, I found a sinker jug, stood up, and saw the chains.  I was really pleased that I stayed with it.  This was my first 11a onsight since the shoulder injury.  : )

Steve laying it back on the Unknown 10-

Unknown – 5.10- – We originally thought this route was Crime Scene, but decided it felt WAY easier than 11a.  We later found out that there are a couple extra bolted lines than what are listed in the guide we had.  Our consensus is that it was 5.10-.  Whatever it was, it was fun – big moves to big holds on an overhanging face.

The stickclip gives some peace of mind on the start of Hit Man.

Hit Man – 5.11b – so I didn’t finish this one…was really excited that I pulled thru the low roof at the start, but then ran into some trouble at the 4th bolt.  I could get to the bolt, but for the life of me couldn’t get the bolt clipped.  I took a 12 foot fall after dropping the quickdraw into the creek (not one of my more graceful moments…) and got my head together.  I figured that after I shook my arms out a bit I’d be able to get the bolt clipped using the same sequence…unfortunately I was wrong (I think 5 days in a row of climbing was catching up w/me), and I took a 15 footer that would have been routine except that when I came back into the rock I bashed my right knee into one of the sharp cobbles above the 2nd bolt.  It obviously hurt, but didn’t feel like I did anything “bad” to it, except that the area we were in was quickly looking like something from the set of CSI b/c of all the blood.  I left a bailer carabiner for only the second time in my life and lowered off the third bolt.  We cleaned it best we could, wrapped it, and since we had already decided that was going to be the last climb of the day, headed back to the campsite. 

Originally we thought all would be well, just a flesh wound, until I bent my knee getting out of the shower 30 minutes later and it was as if you turned a bloody faucet on.  We decided a couple of stitches might be in order, so Steve drove me 20 miles north to the podunk town of Nephi (while I felt sorry for myself and ate an entire bag of Skittles).  We were THRILLED to find out that attached to the hospital was a Medical Clinic that was open late ONLY on Thursday nights so we didn’t have to do the whole ER thing.  The verdict was that while I thankfully didn’t do any ligament/tendon/bone damage, the cut was really deep -  into some nerves, and all the way into the bursa (like when you get bursitis…).  So after a local anesthetic and 5 syringes worth of irrigating, I exited the clinic with 4 stitches on the inside, 4 stitches on the outside, a drainage tube in the middle, a splint (which appeared to have been given to me in direct response to my question, “Does this mean I can’t climb tomorrow?), bandages, some antibiotics, some painkillers, and a blue pen that says “Nephi Medical Center” on it.  To say it was more than we had anticipated would be an understatement. 

"It's just a flesh wound..." - Monty Python

We stopped for our second Frosty of the week on the way back to camp, where we gave Manuela and Norbert the play by play (and Steve showed them all the gory pictures.)  I then crawled into my sleeping bag where I melted into a sea of vicodin and sleep for many, many peaceful hours until I woke up at 7…unable to move my leg more than a couple of inches b/c of the pain from the inflammation and stiffness.  It was a major ordeal to get me out of the tent, but once I got up and moving (and took more vicodin) it wasn’t that bad.  With it being Day 6 and all, I think everyone was feeling pretty lazy…we didn’t head up to the canyon until around 10 or so, and everyone climbed the easy stuff in the Schoolroom Area while I alternated between taking pictures and taking naps.  Here’s the climbs everyone else did…

Manuela on Moss Pocket

Drowing Baby Fish – 5.7
Extra Credit – 5.7
Moss Pocket – 5.6 – kudos to Manuela for leading this one : )
The Redemption of Madonna – 5.8
Bob’s Bolts – 5.4 - I think everyone’s highlight of the day was seeing Norbert getting on the sharp end and leading this one!
The Big Kahounah – 5.10b – I think Steve would have onsighted this earlier in the week

Norbert onsighting Bob's Bolts

So…closing thoughts – What can I say – It was a fantastic trip, full of adventure and excitement!  We were truly blessed to do an activity we love in such a spectacular setting with friendly people we enjoy being with. Of course I wish I didn’t hurt my knee, but compared to all the reasons that could land you in the hospital on a climbing trip, my reason is really rather trivial.  I didn’t make a questionable mental error, my equipment didn’t fail, my belayer was paying attention - nothing out of the ordinary happened other than my knee being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  I could have just as easily gotten the same or worse injury hiking along the trail earlier in the week, or in a car wreck on the way down to SLC.    When it comes down to it, its nothing more than a deep flesh wound, which I am very thankful for.  I am also grateful that God allowed it to happen on Day 5 and not Day 1.  Our bodies get scuffed up sometimes, and if I have to get hurt, I’d rather have it happen while I’m out there living life than doing something dorky at home like falling down the stairs.  And who knows, I may even get a pretty bad-ass scar out of it…

My hero

Home sweet home (for 2 days anyway)

Day 1 ~ Outside Corner, w/North Face variation, 5.7
Pitch 1 – Steve led the first pitch, a fun wandering crack system that wandered up and out to an arete, and up to a ledge.  We saw Norbert and Manuela driving up as we were just getting started.  They spent the day at the Salt Lake Slips, where our line was in clear view all day.  They were thoughtful enough to check on us throughout the day, and document our progress via photos

Steve leading off pitch 1 of Outside Corner

Moving up the arete on the first pitch

Pitch 2 - Short, but sweet.  I scrambled up a series of broken crack systems til I got to a giant ledge.  After Steve came up, we decided to take in the views with a snack break, since the ledge was so big.

Steve stopping to pose on pitch 2

Pitch 3 - I was really proud of Steve for leading this pitch.  The crux was 15 foot hand crack right off the belay.  It felt pretty stout, but he stuck with it.  On a weird note, as I was cleaning the lower anchor and getting ready to follow Steve up, a strange man appeared on our ledge…he was free soloing his way up our line, and asked if I minded if he passed.  He kind of sneered at me as he said, “I’ll be out of your way in a minute.”  I worked my way up and was happy to find out that Steve had asked the soloer about the descent as he passed him, but was slightly confused b/c his directions conflicted what the guidebook had said.  We figured that when in doubt, trust the climber, not the guidebook that was written 10 years ago…

Getting past by someone w/o a rope is humbling.

Pitch 4 – I took this pitch, and decided to go for the exposure on the N. Face variation, rather than heading left to stay on the East Face.  As it turns out, Steve stopped to belay a little early on the last pitch, which I noticed when I had climbed about 30 feet and saw a bunch of slings in the obvious “cave belay” spot.  It was then that I realized that Steve had forgotten to hand off a lot of my slings, and I had forgotten to give him back his nut tool (since mine was stuffed in the car after our sport days in Logan).  I kept going a bit, and when I realized how much farther I needed to go and how many nuts I was placing, I figured I better stop and bring Steve up so we could make the switch.  I built a semi-hanging belay near an alcove of sorts, and Steve followed up.

Feeling exposed on the North Face!

Pitch 5 – WOW, was this pitch exposed!!!  The climbing was fun, and pretty sustained.  There was more loose rock than I thought I would find, but it was easily avoided.  I found the gear to be a little more sparse than I would have preferred, but the gear I had was really solid.  I kept moving up to what I thought would be a good gear stance, only to find a flare or a seam.  I managed to get some really good gear in before moving out over the exit roof sequence.

Descent - Now little did we know that this would be the real crux of the day.  I would hate to think that the soloist gave us bogus directions.  Its hard to believe that anyone would knowingly put other people in a potentially dangerous situation like that.  But, whatever happened, we found not even a trace of a trail.  We looked both all around the summit in every direction.  After about 30 minutes, we decided that the best option was to take the path of least resistance – the low angle dihedrals that we could butt scum down relatively safely, that led to over an hour of slowly scrambling and sliding down steep scree.  One rock that I stepped on rattled LOUDLY…Steve and I practically teleported 10 feet to the left.  We never saw the snake, but are assuming based on the size of the rock that it was pretty small

Can you find us? I'm near the top, Steve's about 3/4 of the way up. Check out our "descent" to the left...

We FINALLY got down, and on the way back to camp stopped off at the Cottonwood Heights Rec Center to wash off 4 days worth of dirt.  What I didn’t realize until I walked in was that the shower area was obviously used 99.9% of the time for rinsing off in your bathingsuit before hitting the pool, as opposed to nude, dirty, sunburnt climbers scrubbing themselves after many days of playing outside.  But what else could I do?  There had been two 10 or so year old girls playing in the shower area, running from one shower head to the next, over into the locker room area, then back.  After a couple minutes of hard work scrubbing my bod, one of the girls came careening around the corner.  She took one look at me, almost fell down trying to turn around as fast as she could, and I never saw them again.  They probably went to tell the lifeguard about the homeless woman in the bathroom…

Unfortunately Steve's pants did not survive the Outside Corner descent.

After feeling much cleaner (even though according to the mirror I still had dirt in that hard to reach spot on my back), we finally made it into our campsite around 700.  What a wonderful sight it was to see Norbert and Manuela already there, with a hot grill, loads of meat, fish, and veggies ready to throw on, and chips and salsa – who could ask for better friends!  We had a lovely evening comparing climbing notes, sharing pictures, and discovering that we all had similar shower stories. 

Day 2 ~ Lieback Crack, 5.5
Pitch 1 - What a nice relaxing day we had!  The crux on this pitch was the first 30 feet, and it felt pretty stout for 5.5, but from then on, it was an easy, straight shot to the belay ledge.  Manuela didn’t want to lead it, so Steve trailed a rope up.  Not sure why it was called “lieback”, b/c none of us really did any layback moves – it was all face climbing with a jam here and there.

First pitch of Lieback Crack

Pitches 2 and 3 – Steve didn’t feel like leading today, so I stayed on the sharp end and linked the last two pitches together.  Nice, casual romp to the summit with great gear.  The summit was beautiful, and gave us a great view across the road of our line from yesterday, but best of all, the walk off was both obvious and easy  

Manuela looking confident at the second pitch belay as Norbert follows

We were all feeling a little tired and sore, so we decided to go ahead and break down camp, and get going down to Maple Canyon, rather than hanging around in SLC and getting up early the next morning.  We stopped to eat way too many garlic parmesan fries at the Red Robin in Provo, and made it to our campground just in time for a beautiful sunset which we unfortunately had to share with loads of bugs.

Wood Camp campground in Logan Canyon

We left the Idaho Falls airport on Saturday around lunchtime, and drove 2 hours thru southern Idaho to the city of Logan, just over the border in Utah.  Our original plan was to drive east to the High Uinta Wilderness outside of Kamas, but apparently there was a lot of snow this year, and the melt off wasn’t quite as far along as it usually is this time of year, so most of the routes were running with water, with 10 foot snow drifts at the base.  So, one  could say that our Logan Canyon plans were sloppy seconds, but several of the routes there ended up being highlights of the week! 

Steve gettin' it done on Community Effort

We rolled into the Wood Camp campsite in the pouring rain, and set up our tent in a mudpit by the (wildly flowing) river.  Things were not looking good for climbing the next day.  Norbert and Manuela were a little late in meeting us, thanks to United leaving one of Manuela’s bags back in RDU.  The next morning dawned cloudy, but not rainy.  The boulders at our campsite were dry, so we decided to go exploring.  We started at the Kentucky Fried Penguin Wall, since the two climbs there seemed like good warm-ups, and they were right off the road.  While there, we were met by two Koreans (that did not speak ANY English except the word “climb”) who apparently were climbers back home, but were on vacation here. 

Me on Community Effort

They were especially interested in our guidebook, and wrote down directions to the store we had bought it at the day before.  It started raining on us a bit, so we got back in the car and hit up Fucoidal Quartzite (careful how you say that…), since a few of those routes would be protected from the rain by a big roof.  It cleared up about 30 minutes later, and turned into a beautiful day! 

Manuela cleaning Kentucky Fried Chicken

We didn’t run into any other climbers – we even joked to Manbert that we had rented out the canyon for them.  We did run into two good ole boys from SC that were in Logan on business.  They saw us on the rocks from the road, parked, and hiked up to see “what sort of craziness was going on.” 

Day 1 Routes ~
Kentucky Fried Chicken – 5.8
Kentucky Fried Penguin – 5.9
Illusions – 5.10a – a tricky, sharp, sequence down low led to really fun layback climbing.  Steve’s first 10a flash!
Community Effort – 5.10a – everyone liked this route until it got weird and a little contrived up near the top
Cushions – 5.10c – cracks, crimps, burly moves…a little bit of everything on this beautiful arete high up in the canyon.  Fantastic climb!
Drilling in the Dark – 5.7 – really fun face climbing on incut jugs…the kinda climbing you wish would go on for hundreds of feet at a time!

Steve belaying me on Cushions

Filled with pizza, milkshakes, and contentment

Instead of driving back into Logan for dinner, we decided to drive to the end of the canyon, which spit us out at Bear Lake, a gorgeous turquoise lake in the middle of nowhere!  We enjoyed the views and local culture at Bear Lake Pizza – but the best part of the evening were the Raspberry Milkshakes!!!  I swear its one of the best tastes that have ever entered my mouth…we split one four ways, but ended up staying longer in the restaurant due to a passing thunderstorm, and by the time it stopped, we were ready for Milkshake Round 2  

Norbert on Alphanumeric

Monday morning dawned a beautiful day, without a cloud in the sky!  Our destination today was the Betagraph Wall, a smaller wall that sits high up in the canyon, with several really high quality lines.  We had the wall to ourselves all morning, and were joined by a nice band of Mormon brothers later in the afternoon.  Both the views and the climbing seemed even better than the day before!

Steve having a blast on Holy Toledo

Day 2 Routes ~
Alphanumeric – 5.8 - Norbert accidentally pulled off a BIG rock about 2/3 of the way up.
Holy Toledo – 5.10b - crux down low, backed off towards the top.  Steve’s highest onsight to date!  We had some fun taking videos/pics from above by setting up at the top of Alphanumeric.  Its nice to have some pictures that aren’t just butt shots!
Babalishes – 5.10d - the guidebook says this route was the best 10 in the canyon, and none of us can disagree.  Big, bouldery moves to giant flakes, thinned out a bit at the top.  I blew the onsight by aiming too low on a dynamic move to a flake, but after everyone else had gone thru, I pulled the rope and got the redpoint, and one of our new Mormon friends wanted to clean the route for me.
The Fairy – 5.9 – we all thought this route was a little weird.  The route wandered a good bit, and was pretty tricky/pumpy for the grade.

Hiking up to the Betagraph Wall

Me on Holy Toledo

On to Salt Lake City!  We headed south for about an hour and a half to our campsite in Little Cottonwood Canyon, but not before stopping at Wendy’s for a Frosty!

Me on Babalishes

Our house in Montana

What a week!  This section of cyberspace is not nearly adequate enough to share my experiences from the week, but I’ll try to provide a worthwhile synopsis.  Our trip started out on Saturday, June 13th, at 3:40 am with a call from Orbitz alerting us that our 6:30 flight was on time.  (thanks, orbitz…)  We flew to SLC, where we met up with Steve’s parents (Joe and Beth), then flew on to Idaho Falls, where we rented a big blue van and drove a couple of hours north to our house about 30 miles east of West Yellowstone, near the town of Ennis, Montana.  Meanwhile, Brent and Megan flew into Bozeman, where they were picked up by David and Allyssa who were driving in from Missoula.  Amazingly, we all arrived within 20 minutes of each other, but not before a small fiasco with finding the keys to the house…our first night we were all tired and drove into town (which ended up  being an hour away) for some buffalo burgers from a place called Bullwinkle’s.  On the way back to our house, along the 6 mile gravel road thru our “neighborhood”, we saw a herd of elk, several pronghorn sheep, 2 beautiful owls, and a giant rainbow.  This was only the start of all the wildlife we would see throughout the week!

The view in our backyard!

Sunday, June 14th ~
We hiked the 8600 foot Bunsen Peak today, which had spectacular views, and a little bit of every kind of terrain – starting with smooth switchbacks, some snowfields, a little bit of scree at the summit, with a burned forest area, grassy meadows, and ending with a jeep road down the backside of the mountain.  The round trip was 7 miles.  Brent, Megan, and I opted to extend the route a little bit along the way and switchbacked our way down into the Sheepeater Canyon for a view of the 150 foot Osprey Falls, bringing our total up to 10 miles on the day.  On the way back, we even saw a black bear poking around in the meadow down by the river!  It was a fantastic day out in Creation, and ended up being one of my favorite days!  And what better way to end the day than with fresh, hot, pizza!

Monday, June 15th ~
Today was a drive-a-thon…since dusk appeared to be our best chance for wildlife viewing, we decided it would be better to sleep in a little, have a nice lunch at the house, then bring a picnic dinner to enjoy in the park.  We drove through almost the entire northern section of the park, stopping at various pullouts with the binoculars to check out the wildlife.  We saw a bald eagle being pestered by a hawk (which gave great perspective on just how BIG the eagle was), a black wolf, two more black bears, and some baby buffalo running out on the plain!

Snowfields on the Bunsen Peak Trail

Tuesday, June 16th~
Today was a visit to Geyser Country.  The most exciting part of our day happened when a big black bear ran out in front of our car across the road!  We hiked a mile to the viewpoint of Grand Prismatic Spring, which was spectacular with all the different colors.  We arrived at Old Faithful about 30 minutes before the next eruption, so we sat around poised and ready with our cameras.  To be honest, compared to the other geysers we saw later on in the day, Old Faithul was kind of a let down.  (Apparently, O.F is neither the tallest NOR the most predictable, but rather is the tallest of the more predictable ones.)  After the eruption, we ate lunch at the Old Faithful Inn, which had been on Beth’s “bucket list” since she was a little girl.  Once that got checked off, we hiked around the boardwalk trails looking at all the geysers.  We were lucky enough to see several more geysers erupting, including the Castle Geyser, and the Grand geyser, which are on the “must see” list of geysers in the park. 

View from the Bunsen Peak Summit

Wednesday, June 17th~
We decided to take a break from the long drive into the park today, and everyone kind of went their separate ways.  Joe and David had to drive Allyssa back to Missoula, and went fishing around that area in the afternoon.  Steve and Brent went fishing at the Three Dollar Bridge area, right near our house, and Beth, Megan, and I spied on the boys for a bit, then went for a beautiful hike in the Beaver Ponds area.  On the way there, we saw some fantastic bighorn sheep crossing the road!  They seemed more concerned with headbutting each other than with worrying about the cars, and we sat and watched them for a long time.  We had our system worked out – I went first on bear watch, Megan went second, also on bear watch, with plans to go for the pepper spray in my backpack if need be, and Beth was on wildflower identification watch.    We were a good team and hiked a good bit of the afternoon, seeing tons of beautiful flowers, and every sign of a grizzly bear except for the actual bear itself.  (scratchings on trees, tracks, poo…)  On our way out, we noticed that some bad weather seemed to hanging out near our house, even though we had had clear skies the whole afternoon (you can see for miles and miles and MILES around out there, hence the nickname, “Big Sky.”)  The closer we got to our turnoff, the more apparent it became that Steve and Brent had gotten DELUGED at the bridge…when they weren’t waiting for us at the bridge, we hoped that meant they had found a ride back to the house, but we ran into them a couple of miles up from the bridge on the way back…we felt a little guilty about all the fun we had had while they were soaked and shivering in the HAIL by the river most of the afternoon, but the bright spot was that at least Brent caught a brown trout, and Steve caught a  big whitefish (which evidently I learned is not a “cool” fish to catch, but I was proud of Steve anyway!)

Steve's whitefish!

Thursday, June 18th~
We drove thru Yellowstone Lake today, and hiked the Pelican Valley Trail, which apparently is prime grizzly as well as moose habitat, but it was a no show for both.  In fact, we didn’t see very many animals at all today, which was surprising.  My highlight for the day was hiking to Sublime Point in the Canyon area.  Absolutely gorgeous views, casual hiking, peaceful setting – just amazing!  Afterwards we stopped for a better view of the Lower Falls on the Red Rock Trail. 

Friday, June 19th~
Today was a fishing day.  We all split up and found a spot on the river.  Some of us were more successful than others.  As for me, I caught a large stick as well as a clump of moss.  I only fell down once.    But I had a blast, and the best part was tromping thru the river with the waders on! 

In front of the Grand Geyser

Overall, it was a fabulous trip!  Seeing so much of God’s handiwork so up close and personal was amazing!  So many awesome memories and experiences.  Steve and I feel truly blessed to have been able to go there!  Thanks so much to Joe and Beth for bringing everyone out there!!! 

On Saturday morning, the time had come for everyone to leave and go their separate ways, and for Steve and me, our journey was only halfway thru!  We rented a Dodge journey and headed south to Utah! 

Last summer Steve and I won a day of private guiding at Seneca in a raffle during the “Playing for the Payoff” comp at the Triangle Rock Club, a fundraising effort to help buy the property of Laurel Knob in Western North Carolina.  This past weekend we decided to cash in on our prize.  What a great introduction to a new area!  Our guide was Arthur Kearns, affectionately known as “ACK”, whom we had met last year at the New River Rendezvous.  He gave us the grand tour, and put us on a variety of climbs to help us get a feel for the rock and style of climbing there. 

Steve cruising up the first half of Pollux

Day 1 Climbs ~
Triple S – 5.8+
The Prune – 5.7 (first 2 pitches only)
Back to the Front – 5.9
Pollux – 5.10a

Day 2 ~We kept the grades low today, but the exposure high! Today was a fabulous example of how easy climbing can still be really fun. We enjoyed spectacular scenery all day, and got to sign the summit register for the second day in a row!

Steve at the start of Gunsight to S. Peak Direct (EXPOSURE!!!!)

Working up the south side of the Gunsight Notch

Day 3 ~ Since we had a long drive ahead of us, we had only one route on our tick list for the morning – a mega classic that always has a line.  We got up really early to break down camp, and found ourselves first at the base of the route – another party showed up when I was about 15 feet off the deck, so we were glad we had gotten up so early!
Ecstasy – 5.7 (3 pitches)
This route was SPECTACULAR!  I’m so thankful that everyone at the Gendarme encouraged us to get on it.  I will say that although there were no moves harder than 5.7, it was very steep and sustained for the grade – add in all the exposure and the traverse, and it made for a very heady lead.  If 5.7 was my limit, I probably would have been pretty sketched on this route!

This trip did wonders for my confidence on gear.  I didn’t have any trouble finding placements or building anchors, even though the routefinding got a little tricky at some points.  I’m at the point now where getting a solid piece in feels ALMOST as secure as clipping into a bolt.