Reflections Along the Way

Finally the weatherman got the order right – an absolutely gorgeous weekend followed by a dreary, cold, and rainy Monday morning! This was the first weekend out of several that hasn’t been a washout, and Steve and I were not about to let it go by without taking advantage of it! We invited our friend Huck to go with us – one of the new folks we had climbed with at the Red a few weeks ago. Huck is somewhat of a new climber, and was eager to try out some new crags he’d never been to. Also, he’d never done any multi-pitch climbing, which was our goal for Sunday, so we figured it would be fun to give him the opportunity for that.

Steve lacing up for our first climb of the day.

We left our house bright and early (actually so early it was dark rather than bright) on Saturday morning and headed to Boone, NC, where we climbed at the Warpin Endorphine Wall, sometimes affectionately known as “The Dump”. This is a very small, not very well-known area off of Hwy 221. The cliff is about 2 minutes from the road pull-off, but its not very tall and covered up by the trees, so you could drive past it a hundred times without ever thinking anything was there. Here’s what we did on Day 1…

Steve on Vermin, 5.10b

Slimen Hymen (5.10a) – classy names, I know…
Vermin (5.10b)
Voodoo Child (5.11a)
Homegrown (5.9+)
Chromagnon (5.11a) – this was the first time we’d ever seen this route and the next route dry, and Huck was psyched to lead them, so it was fun to get on something new!  As typical with the routes here, the start was kinda bouldery, and got thin and technical up near the top
Boyz n’ Berry Dickcheese (5.10d) – very similar to Chromagnon, but not as reachy.  Huck took some decent whippers putting this route up, and I was able to get a couple on video (though unfortunately not the best one…)
Warpin Endorphine (5.11b) – my favorite climb at the crag, we do it every time we go there. I didn’t get it clean, since I had completely forgotten my beta for one particular section, and wasted a lot of energy hanging on bad holds trying to figure out what to do. At first I was slightly disappointed that I had to hang, but all in all I felt really strong on it, and I figured I’d give myself some 14 week pregnancy grace. I’d better get used to the fact that as my belly gets bigger and bigger, my balance will get worse and worse!

Me on Voodoo Child, 5.11a

We finished up just before dark, and drove back in to Blowing Rock to eat at The Mellow Mushroom, a post climbing favorite of ours. The wait was long, but the outside seating was first come, first serve, and there was no one out there. We went back to the car and grabbed some more comfy layers, and set ourselves up on the porch. I noticed a few folks on the inside giving us funny glances, but hey – we were done eating before they got started!

After dinner, we drove just under an hour up the winding, gravel, mountain roads towards the Table Rock parking area, which is the starting point for lots of climbing throughout the gorge. Our favorite campsite seemed ridiculously crowded, so we kept driving til we found another pulloff that Steve and I had camped at once before. We went to bed as soon as we set our tents up, and once again, got up just before dawn the next morning.

Steve, me, and Huck moments before we set off for The Daddy

We were surprised at how windy it was all day. I think we all ended up keeping on more layers than we originally thought we’d need, but the temps were quite pleasant, and the clouds kept the sun from beating on us. Our goal for the day was the classic 5 pitch route called “The Daddy”, located deep in a remote area of the gorge. Steve and I had done it twice before, first with our friend Emil not long after we started climbing, and once by ourselves last summer in preparation for our trip to Squamish, BC. The views are absolutely spectacular, especially at this time of the year, but the main reason we wanted to head into the gorge this weekend is because it would probably be the last time in a really long time we’d have the chance. When climbing in the Linville Gorge, the “crux” of the day is often the approach hike. The first part is fantastic – about 30 minutes or so of casual hiking on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the ridgeline with breathtaking views and unusual rock formations on either side.

Steve hiking along the ridge towards the gorge.

Next, you look for the “big white rock” along the side of the trail that marks a narrow, overgrown spur trail that heads down towards the gorge at a fairly steep angle. But the last part is where I had concern – after about 15 minutes on the spur trail, you hit a giant rock (where we stashed some water for the hike back), and from there, start the harrowing descent down a steep, rocky, and often wet gully down into the gorge, towards the river. My friend Christine did this when she was 5 months pregnant, and said she was scared because her center of gravity was off and she felt unstable and insecure. Considering that I’m in my 4th month, and that an approach of this magnitude would not be first on our list of comeback trips w/a baby, we decided that it was now or never.

Steve being sweet to me before a hard part in the gully

I’ve already noticed that strapping anything on my back makes me out of breath, but I felt fine on the hike. The gully proved to be challenging, but its strenuous enough non-pregnant, so I don’t think I can use that as an excuse! After around 45 minutes of scrambling and sliding our way through the briars and rocks, we finally got to the reward of the day – casual, easy climbing on beautiful rock for about 500 feet!

***Non-climber note – a “pitch” goes from one belay spot to the next, usually about 100 feet or so. A “multi-pitch” route is where the climbers keep going up after the first pitch, putting them more than one rope length off the ground, such as our Day 2 route. “Single-pitch” climbing would be what we did the day before, where we head to the ground after climbing, rather than continuing up.***

Steve starting up Pitch 2.

The Daddy (5.6) -
Pitch 1 – a casual romp past a couple of ledges with trees to a slightly steep finish on a big ledge
Pitch 2 and Pitch 3 – P2 starts up a flake system, then traverses right to a ledge. P3 is very short, and we always link the two together as one. Huck and I both took advantage of a top anchor, and decided to do the steep and completely gearless 5.8 variation to get to the belay ledge, where we all stopped for a lunch break.

Me and the Jellybean following up Pitch 2.

Pitch 4 – trends right across the face past a chimney up to a belay nook that takes some finagling to fit everyone in comfortably.
Pitch 5 – this is by far the money pitch, even though its short! A beautiful crack system to a finish that is very steep for the grade leads to a fantastic view on the summit!

Huck waiting his turn to start Pitch 4.

After taking a few pictures and minutes to rest at the summit, we proceeded bushwhack our way through the overgrown trail along the very exposed rim of the gorge to get back to the rock where we had stashed our water. Then we trucked it back up the spur trail until we were back on the Mountains-to-Sea Trail along the ridge. We took our time hiking back, and ended up running into several backpackers who were hiking from Shortoff Mountain to Little Table Rock over the course of the weekend. Our car to car time was about 7.5 hours, even though the actual climbing only took around 4, which we were pleased with considering we had a party of 3 and one of them was pregnant.

Huck topping out with a surreal view!

After burgers and Frosty’s at Wendy’s we found ourselves back before 9, and in bed shortly after. As a side note, I almost panicked when I changed out of my nasty climbing clothes and caught a glimpse of a 2 inch long, purply-reddish mark on the back of my left hip. My first thought was, “OH $#%^, if I have a stretch mark already, I may as well paint my entire waist in purple stripes by the time April rolls around!” Turns out it was a scratch from a briar that had happened at some point on the hike…just another flesh wound.

On the summit!

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.

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.

The Anguish of Captain Bligh 5.11c Ship Rock, Boone, NC

Steve topping out on The Daddy 5.6, Linville Gorge, NC

 

Overhanging Hangover, 5.11b, Pilot Mountain

 

 

 

More from Jan's Promo Shoot at Pilot

Jan Balster's Promo Shoot, Pilot Mountain

Steve on Big Erector 5.9, Sauratown (Chris Sproul belaying)

Steve on My Route 5.5, Table Rock

Steve on Warpin Endorphine 5.11b, The Dump, Boone, NC

Steve and I at the summit of Table Rock

Steve drying off after getting stuck on the Table Rock Summit in a downpour.

Rapping off of Skip to My Lou, 5.6, Table Rock

Lieback and Enjoy It 5.10d, Sandstonia, NRG

Getting the gear ready for Jan Balster’s promo shoot in May

Trip Report – Aug 2-10, 2008

Getting there –
So we ran into some problems getting there…we found out the day before we left that a huge rockslide was completely blocking HWY 99 about 10 miles away from Squamish. Other than by air or water, the only way to get from Vancouver to Squamish was to drive the looooong way around, turning what should have been a 45 minute meandering from the airport up the highway into a 6 hour re-route on curvy mountain roads. We stopped at a greasy little motel at the halfway point Saturday night around midnight (3:00 AM our time), and arrived in Cheakamus Canyon just before lunch on Sunday.

Accommodations –
We camped all week at the Klahanie Campground, about 5 minutes from The Chief. It was a little more expensive than staying at the public campground at the base of The Chief, but we were happy with our decision – our campsite was a quaint little out of the way spot with very few neighbors, right next to a creek. The creek blocked out ALL the hwy noise, and we even had a picnic table to enjoy breakfast right along the water. But most unusual of all however, was the BUNNIES!!! I don’t mean wild rabbits, I mean big giant pet bunnies, running rampant everywhere! Apparently, they are all descendants from a pair of bunnies that were pets there about 20 years ago – they went missing, did what bunnies do, and now there are hundreds of fat furry bunnies roaming around, blissfully safe from predators by the Howe Sound on one side, and HWY 99 on the other!

Weather –
It was PERFECT!!! We couldn’t have arranged it better ourselves! The mornings were a bit chilly, but highs in the afternoon were mid-70’s, low 80’s. There was not a cloud in the sky until the day we left Squamish to head back to Vancouver (but it’s always better taking DOWN your tent in the rain than putting UP your tent in the rain!). There also always seemed to be a constant breeze no matter what area we climbed in.

The Climbing –
Day 1 – Cheakamus Canyon


Charlotte’s Web – 2 pitches (5.9, 5.7) Sport
A little more exciting than what we expected for a warm-up…it appeared that a bolt was missing, which made for a fairly significant runout towards the top of the 1^st pitch. We had great views of the white-capped Tantalus range at the top!
Small is Beautiful – 5.8 Sport
Bullet the Blue Car – 5.10d Sport
Amazing climb, well-protected and really fun moves! There was a weird mantle move at the start, then mostly smears and laybacks to featured slopers and sidepulls. Very technical cruxes at bolts 2 and 3. The moves were very sequency and took some time to figure out, but the route was not pumpy, so it was easy to find restful stances to work out the moves in my head first. I was really excited b/c it was my highest onsight to date!
Clear Cut – 5.10a Sport

Day 2 – Bulletheads (South side of the Chief)



Slot Machine – 2 pitches (5.9, 5.6) Trad

Our first taste of The Chief – and crack/friction climbing! WAY different than what we’re used to!
P1 – Hard moves off the deck to get established in a parallel crack system – pretty much had to hug your way up until one of the cracks ended, then jam your way to the ledge, running it out at the top through the slithery roots from the anchor tree growing down and through the crack.
P2 – significantly easier, I changed up the finish a bit, which ended up being really cool. Instead of belaying on the tree ledge left of the crack at the top, I stayed with the crack til it ran out, and then slabbed my way up to the anchors of the neighboring route.
Dora’s Delight – 5.8 Mixed
SCARY SLAB CLIMB!!!
Klahanie Crack – 5.7 Trad

Hand crack for 130 feet in an amazing setting – right beside a waterfall 6 times higher than Niagara Falls. The sound of the water was so loud it was actually difficult to communicate! A big thanks to Norbert and Manuela, and John Wilson for letting us borrow some of their gear (.5 – 1 inch camalots). This was our first pure crack climb with zero face holds, and it was crazy how physically draining this 5.7 was for both of us!

Day 3 – The Little Smoke Bluffs
We had intended for this to be an active rest day, but ironically we ended up doing more pitches today than any of the previous days! However, our day consisted for the most part of toproping easy-ish routes that weren’t very physically demanding, so it did turn out to be a relaxing day both physically and mentally.

The next 4 routes were in an area known as the Jug Slab, one of the places where Steve and I first climbed outdoors, with a guide, back in 2006. We wanted to go back and do these routes again. Ironically, we still get a little freaked on slab…I led one of them, decided my brain didn’t want to deal with slab on lead today, so we toproped the rest.
David’s – 5.6
StepLadder – 5.7
Moominland – 5.8
Hamish’s – 5.7
Laughing Crack – 5.7 Trad

This route deserves all 5 stars the guidebook gives it! It was so much fun! The crack was smaller than Klahanie (fingers instead of hand), and was angled so that a lot of it could be laybacked. Both of us decided it was our favorite climb of the day!

The Locker – 5.7 Trad
Weiner in the Bun – 5.11a Top Rope
Pixie Corner – 5.8 Top Rope

Day 4 – The Apron on the Chief
Diedre – 6 pitches (5.7, 5.6, 5.8, 5.8, 5.6, 5.8) 850 feet Trad
We hiked in and scouted out what we could from the base of this route the day before, just b/c we wanted to make sure it looked like something we could handle, considering the lack of available gear we knew I would have on the first two pitches.
P1 – Swim up a sea of granite for about 50 feet to a tree, then continue up some really polished slab past another tree (I decided the tree was on to a scoop, then easy 5^th class climbing to the bolt anchors. The initial slab was not as scary as I thought it would be, but the slight down step to the scoop took some commitment. I was both inspired and humbled by the way the parties on the next route over ran up the friction slab gorilla style a hundred feet at a time!
P2 – The infamous unprotected traverse…it’s amazing how you can just nonchalantly read over words like “unprotected,” and “50 ft traverse”, in the guidebook back home – then when we got to Squamish, it hit me – “Wait, that means NO gear on the entire pitch…” We decided if we didn’t both feel solid after the first pitch, we bail and rap off from there. But the traverse actually was really easy. Slab paddle up 10 feet, traverse on really low angle friction for 30 feet to a step down to a foot rail (the only committing move on the pitch). Then it was an easy ride along the footrail to giant slopey flakes.
P3 – The start of the corner that makes Diedre a classic! Layback crack on smeared feet (it kind of reminded me of a much steeper and mirrored version of “No Alternative” at Stone Mountain) Great mid-sized gear options, for most of the pitch I was able to keep my L hand on top of the corner while my R hand was in the crack.
P4 – The cracked thinned from hands to fingers as I worked my way up. For the first part of the pitch I had nice flakes up top for my L hand, but pretty shortly it rounded out and both hands went into the crack. Gear was good but smaller – mostly TCU’s and small stoppers. Gear stances were really awkward and I’m not used to smearing so much – I was physically very tired at the end of this pitch.
P5 – By this point the crack had thinned down to basically just seams with the occasional fingerlock just when you really needed it. I freaked a little bit about 25 feet into this pitch – the rack was cumbersome and my slings were getting wrapped around my gear…I also somehow managed to get my arm stuck in the strap of the gear sling…I was able to pull it together and keep on chugging to a small but heroic tree, which I happily slung and found a somewhat restful stance at. This pitch ended with a slight traverse out of the corner and onto the slab at the top to get to the anchors (VERY uncomfortable belay!)
P6 – The route went back left into the corner and was basically slab with very little gear. I felt like I was finally able to get the hang of the “slab paddle”, and moved really quickly up to the exit move at the roof. Right before I was able to get gear at the roof, I felt my foot slide a bit, which definitely sketched me out, but I’m realizing that one foot popping on slab usually doesn’t warrant panic mode. I got in a blue stopper and a #1 camalot at the roof (and for kicks clipped the rusty manky piton below my own gear) and did the exit move up and onto the forest floor – a very awkward move involving really high feet, pulling on a big slopey crack, and squirming and slithering my body up and into the forest above. Felt amazing at the top! I was so proud of us! We felt totally inspired in that physically and mentally exhausted kind of way
We had decided to play it by ear and see how we were feeling after Diedre – and then consider whether we wanted to keep going to The Ultimate Everything or not. After having lunch at the top of Diedre, picturing 11 more pitches and a looooong moonlit hike off 9 hours later wasn’t sounding that appealing. So we opted for the (too exposed for our taste) hike down the slab, scrambled along the trail, and navigated our way through the boulderfield til we finally made it down to the parking lot an hour and a half later. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out by Brohm Lake and taking pictures of the Tantalus Range.

Day 5 – Cheakamus Canyon

With all this low angle slab and crack climbing, our forearms weren’t getting their fair share of pump, so we decided to get steep again and went back to Chek!
Unknown – 5.6 Sport

Flaming Arete – 5.7 Sport

Master of My Domain – 2 pitches (5.7, 5.9) Sport
Steve led the 1^st pitch, which was a funky pitch with kind of rolling, slopey terrain. I took the 2^nd pitch, which was loads of steep fun – big move to jugs, with lots of smears. The crux was pulling the roof at the start. Nice hand/finger crack towards the top.
Giddy-Up – 5.10c Sport
Hard boulder start, felt a little stiff for 10c. I don’t remember a ton about this climb, but I know the start took me two tries, and I ended up hanging at least one other time towards the top.
Return to Sender – 5.11d Top Rope
Currently Coagulating – 5.11a Sport
I was a little disappointed that I let myself get sucked in and off route, and ended up clipping to a bolt on a neighboring route. It was very difficult to get back on track, and I even ended up placing and hanging on some gear (on a well-bolted sport route…). When I finally worked back left and got my feet up, I realized the move wasn’t that bad at all – had I stayed on route and not let my fear get the better of me I possibly could have held on to finish clean.
Creepy Crawlers – 5.11a Sport
Hard and sequency up to the crux bolt, which was a very tenuous and DESPERATE clip – I managed to get the draw in, but couldn’t get the rope in, so I had to downclimb and hang for a bit. The crux was super committing and a bit touch and go, but finally it backed off towards the top. I felt much more solid and in a much better mental space on this climb than the last one. This was Steve’s favorite route of the day.
Low Impact – 5.10b Sport

Day 6 – Murrin Park

We spent the morning toproping in an area known as Up Among the Firs, then after lunch we went down to gawk at the Petrifying Wall, a very intimidating and aptly named wall that is home to some of the hardest sport routes in North America.
Road Rash – 5.10d
Collet a Day – 5.8
Zeasi – 5.7
Nostalgia Ain’t What it Used to Be – 5.8
Chokin’ a Grogan – 5.7
Pleasant Pheasant – 5.11a Sport
This route was one of the highlights of our trip! Considered a classic at the grade, my best flash to date also happens to be the “warm-up” for the Petrifying Wall… J I was glad I got some beta from the folks that were finishing up as we showed up – otherwise I might have gotten sucked in off route or at the very least, way more pumped trying to figure stuff out. Even with their beta – the route was sustained and pumpy! It was definitely a test in focus! It felt really good to get this one completely clean, after some of the issues I’d had at Chek the other day! (See Video)
Elastic Man – 5.11c Top Rope
Since the anchors were the same as Pleasant Pheasant, I decided I may as well toprope this one. It consisted of huge power moves off of delicate crimpy rails – relentlessly tiring!

Conclusions –
What a great trip! It was really fun going back to the area where we first were exposed to outdoor climbing (on the rest day from a ski trip!). It was nice to reflect on all the things we’ve learned and been blessed to have experienced since then. We were a great team, and worked hard and gave it all we had. It was amazing to be able to explore the different types of climbing that we are not exposed to back in the southeast – I think it will only help us improve by adding different techniques into our arsenal.
So we weren’t able to climb to the top of The Chief – and it doesn’t seem to matter! We came there not even sure we could make it to the halfway point. I think physically we could have continued on to The Ultimate Everything the day we did Diedre, but we would have been racing against the sun to complete the climb, and hiking down in the dark. It’s crazy how much more it takes out of you, both physically and mentally, climbing on terrain that is unfamiliar. Had it been another 1000 feet of bolted face climbing, the route would have gone no problem. I think we probably could have made it if we would have forced it, but I don’t think we would have been able to relax and enjoy it – and after all, we were on VACATION!!! We did manage to make it to the top of the Chief – after finishing up at Murrin Park on the last day, we decided to hike up the trail to the First Peak before dinner. It made both of us a little jealous to see several climbers topping out while we were up at the summit, but it didn’t make us regret our decision. We both knew that we couldn’t have asked anything more of each other, that we had pushed ourselves to our limits all week without pushing them too far.
We both feel very blessed to have been able to do our favorite activity 6 days in a row in an environment that is filled with such beauty and wonder! It was like we were living in a wilderness playground all week! We worked hard, learned a lot, had loads of fun, and have a hundred snapshots of memories in our head we can conjure up over the next few months whenever we’re stressed – what more could you want out of a trip?!?

If you haven’t had enough pictures yet, click here.