Favorite Videos of 2012

2012 was a great year and there are a lot of amazing videos to capture the moments. We do not have any videos compiled of our wedding in British Columbia yet (that's on Arun's to-do list), but here are some from the climbing world:

The Secret Is Out: Jailhouse by Fitz Cahall and Austin Siadak: Lessons In The Ruth: Revival In The Waddington by Graham Zimmerman: Protect What's Holy by Jason Kehl: Gorilla Says Remove Tick Marks by Louder than 11: Hospital Boulders by Brandon Campbell: Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek in the New York Times:

Short video of the Ruth Gorge trip...finally!

This is a long overdue follow up to my original blog post, To the Ruth Gorge and Back. I combed through a couple hours of footage shot by Graham and me to make a 7 minute short of prepping for the trip, the flight in, camp life on the glacier, and our attempts on Mt. Dickey and Mt. Barrill. Alas, I only had Windows Movie Maker to work with, but its my best video yet! Hope you enjoy:

Hi everyone,

It's been some time since a post. The link below is an Access Fund blog post I wrote on the Hueco Rock Ranch acquisition. Hope you enjoy.

http://www.opengate.org/access-fund-blog/2012/07/inside-the-sale-of-the-hueco-rock-ranch.html

Highlights of Zion

"This adventure began with the intention of climbing the hanging left facing corner two thirds of the way up the SE face. The route came close. But we should have brought a bolt kit to reach the dihedral."

- Ironically, I didn't read this guidebook description until the next day. Sometimes the best adventures are those unanticipated and unplanned ones.

Ty lured me into a trip to Zion after his solo road trip to the Southwest in May. Towering sandstone walls greeted him at each bend in the narrow canyon of the Virgin River, yet he left his rack and rope at home in Seattle. Fortunately, Zion offers more than just climbing and one can spend weeks just hiking and canyoneering. He vowed to come back in the Fall and I took the bait.

On November 17, we sped out of Vegas as fast as we arrived with a trunk full of gear. After stocking up on over-priced groceries in St. George, we arrived in Zion with enough time to get a taste of Zion rock. We warmed up on a few Indian Creek style splitters:

Squeeze Play 10a

Ty on Fathedral 10+

On our first full day, we got an early start to make use of the shorter days. Yet, it was a tad too cold, shady, and windy at the Temple of Sinawava to jump on Monkeyfinger. I'd have to test myself on the "Astroman of Zion" another day. Instead, we found a sunny aspect on the Organ below Angel's Landing. To avoid a long hike, we forded the Virgin River. Ty led the first 2 pitches of 10 Percent on rambling terrain. I then broke right on a 5.7R traverse to a perfect hands splitter left facing dihedral - the obvious objective we spotted from the car. I thought it would require wider gear, but turned out it was actually 30 meters of 2.5-3" jamming and I only had 2 No. 2 and 2 No. 3 camalots....I opted to leapfrog and downclimb/backclean, which detracted from the joyous experience just a bit. There were no signs of previous travel on the last two pitches and we wrapped up the day with an unexpected, unplanned adventure that offered the perfect taste of what Zion had to offer: a blend of splitter cracks, sandy holds, loose rock, adventurous route-finding, and beautiful scenery. Turns out, after some further research and verification, our variation was a new route as described by Bryan Bird above. We dubbed it, Thrutch to Clutch, 5.10- (5.7R), sans bolts. Here's a short of the adventure:

Back in camp, we still had high hopes for Monkeyfinger, but our daily morning ritual was to drive to the end of the canyon, check it out once again, and then find sunnier rock. Day 3 brought us to Iron Messiah, the supposed "Epinephrine" of Zion, albeit only 6-7 pitches:

Day 4...well, on day 4 we could hardly lift our arms anymore so we slept in and debated a rest day. Somehow, we opted for a 4 pitch 5.11 finger crack. It was worth it! We highly recommend Smash Mouth. Supertopo is right on in recommending 6 or more 0.5" cams - yozers! The ratings are a little off though. The breakdown was more like 10+, 10+, 11-, and 11.

Now that our arms and bodies were fully obliterated, we racked up that night for Monkeyfinger - no ifs, ands, or buts...however, the 30% chance of rain forecasted all week finally touched down in the night and all morning. Logically, we packed up and headed south to Red Rocks to squeeze in a handful of pitches in Calico Basin, including the Fox, 10d, an ever-expanding crack from thin fingers to 6" offwidth. I used 2 #4s and 2 #5s on the upper section and was sure glad to have 'em. We climbed the classic Caustic at Cannibal Crag and a couple others on the way out before checking into our room at Circus Circus for a wopping $35. With a flight out at 5pm the next day, we opted for a chill half day at the Gallery and Black Corridor. As our 6th day straight, our arms politely told us 5.10 would be the day's limit. Clipping bolts in the sun never felt better.

For those of you who have never ventured to Zion, put it at the top of your list, whether you are a climber, hiker, or canyoneering junkie. I can't wait to get back. Even when the road is visible from above, the climbing feels alpine in nature and there is something for everyone. Feed the rat!

Check out the full gallery here.

Jailhouse gets a makeover

Check out the new AF blog site and our
recent blog post on the
Jailhouse Rock Adopt a Crag

* what's unsafe about the above photo? *

Hard to Say...

What's not hard to say is that we had sunny skies and t-shirt weather in late September at 13,000 feet on Mt. Evans this past weekend. After a weekend with Team Mammut on Mt. Baker in full white out snow storm conditions, Dougald MacDonald and I met up again for some more cooperative alpine conditions in the Rockies.

We printed out MP beta on a few climbs but after a short scout along the base of the Tan Buttresses opposite the Black Wall, we chose a line that led to a beautiful ridgeline between Astro Goat and Musafar's Home Cookin'. We had info on Astro Goat but not Musafar's at the time.

Starting the first pitch, it was hard to say where we were going to end up, hence the name. After negotiating some loose rock at the start, I pulled over a small roof and continued up the shallow corner to another roof. I finagled some small gear below before laybacking up the arete where the crack closed off, stemming and finding just enough gear to motivate upward progression. A short traverse and splitter small hands crack led to a ledge. 5.10. So far so good.
Dougald headed up the second pitch, climbing cracks and flakes towards a steep and attractive arete above. He crossed over the arete to find a beautiful face crack. After contemplating his remaining gear, he climbed up balancy terrain to a small roof. A great find and a stellar pitch! 5.9.
After a short tiered roof of sandy horizontals, a beautiful double crack continued up ridge proper. Moderate climbing over fun flakes reminded me of the North Ridge of Stuart in the Cascades. 5.8 and its no longer hard to say, the ridge eased up and fun climbing continued ahead.

From the 4th pitch onward, we climb previously traveled ground as for Musafar's Home Cookin'. Dougald climbed a short chimney and dagger flake to gain more fun ridge climbing similar to the Flying Buttress on Meeker. Goat Food also meets back up on the ridge crest for the 5th and final low-fifth ridge traverse.

Hard to Say, 5 pitches, 5.10, ground up trad (in blue)

Its 1:45, still sunny, and there is plenty of time to get back to town for a fun evening out. Cary Granite, Road Warrior, and Good Evans looked amazing and I can't wait to take another trip to climb on Mt. Evans.

In fact, Arun and I took a leisurely tour the next day, taking photos of Summit Lake, an 1000+ year old stand of Bristlecone pines, Echo Lake, and aspen stands on the way back down:

New Explorations on the West Side

Remember Jason's post about skiing a likely first descent of Caterpillar Couloir on Mt. Alice? After Jason crushed me on a 24 mile day of carrying skis and skinning deep into the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park, I was psyched to head back up East Inlet and explore its granite faces.

After the massive AK-esq cornices finally melted in the hot summer months, it was time to cash in my backcountry camping permit the weekend of August 12. While I wasn't Jason's best choice for a big ski trip, I needed a climbing partner who was willing to hike more than 8 miles to climb, cross a few log jams, jump on an alpine climb sans topo, and run it out a bit because "honey badger don't give a shit."

So, we opted on the attractive granite tower of Aiguilles de Fleur. We didn't know the name of the peak nor its handful of routes until after the trip, but we selected a corner along the right side of tiered roofs. After 2 60m rope stretchers and a short 3rd pitch of moderate climbing, we were at the base of the corner. Three short and wide roof cracks lined the way. I bypassed the last roof on a hand traverse out right to avoid loose rock. By the time I topped out, I was coated from my toes to ears in a fine layer of lichen and wished I packed goggles.

Nonetheless, we topped out on a grassy summit of wildflowers (hence the name, "Flower Tower") after climbing 4 pitches ground-up onsight trad at 5.9+ with the afternoon to spare. We have reached out to a number of climbers who have explored the western side of the Park in the last few decades to verify route history of the area. Our route is likely an FA, but it was the adventure and lack of beta that drew us there. We will not be giving the route a fancy name or more than one star, but for those keen on an adventure, the massive roofs to the left offer some new potential hard free/aid lines.

Afterwards, we explored another unknown route on the main east face after descending a gulley via a short rap (a sun-bleached cord was in place). A beautiful corner crack on impeccable granite was the main attraction, yet it blanked out 300 ft up the face. A few discontinuous flakes near it gained higher ground but also blanked out far below a roof. We decided to check it out for the hell of it and climbed 2 pitches of flawless rock, yet the cracks were filled in with hard dirt and grass. After we reached the first fixed anchor, we called it quits since it appeared to die out and we did not have a hammer to check the pins or a brush out the cracks.

We headed back, dipped our feet in Lake Verna, and threw a few casts to eager trout. With our main objective complete, neither of us had the motivation to explore another route, so we opted for some fly fishing instead. The trout were plentiful, albeit small.

I highly recommend folks to drive the extra hour to explore the western slopes of RMNP - less crowds, lush vegetation, and solitude. All the camping above Lone Lake are single group sites. The only thief stealing your food while you're out taking care of business will be the resident fox.

The log crossing and "bushwack" up to Aiguilles de Fleur

Impressive view of the tower and its lower slabs

Topo of our route, "Eastern roofs" (5.9+ Grade II) and the unknown and potentially unfinished line on the main east face

The impressive tiers of roofs - our line followed the orange left facing corner

Jason following the first pitch (5.6)

Jason making his own path up the 2nd pitch (5.8)

A short 5.7 pitch brought us to the base of the corner

Joe on the final 5.9+ pitch - solid pro but pretty dirty

Summit panorama from Aiguilles de Fleur

Looking up the corner of pins from our high point on the unknown line - beautiful, steep granite!Fishing rocks don't get better than this!

At the inlet to Lake Verna - alpine sandy beaches at their best
A tree in the sandy isthmus at the inlet of Lake Verna