Special Edition Post - Tech Tips (+ weekend update)

In response to popular demand (or more specifically, a comment from our friend Toby on our last post) we have decided to write a post addressing the ins and outs of being crammed in a van.  We'd been meaning to write this for a while, actually, so thanks Toby for giving us some more motivation!

So, how DO we manage to avoid total chaos with two people living in a space the size of your bathroom?

Well, as most of you know, Juan's '98 Ford Windstar has been sporting a large wooden platform in place of the back two bench seats for a few years now.  We sleep on top of the platform, and store most all our gear under it.  The platform was designed and built by Juan's friend Adam, with Juan helping out of course.  It was based on the design he used in his now-wife Amanda's van a while before.  It is a really innovative design, made to suit the road-tripping climber.

The platform looks like this (sketch by Juan):

The leaf can be lifted up and moved or rested on the other side of the platform if a single bed is desired, or for full access to whatever's beneath it.  When in place, it rests on the cooler in front and on the edges of the supports of the rest of the platform.  The flap at the back of the platform folds up to give full access to whatever's beneath it, or to provide a backrest when we're sitting on the bed watching a movie, etc.

Now, as for the organization of the gear.  The pictures below were taken at Todd & Amelia's house back in February, when we stayed with them for a couple days after returning from Mexico and got our stuff ready to hit the road.  So the van doesn't look quite as orderly now, but it is definitely a testament to how well this system works that it's pretty much been unchanged since then!  Read on to learn the secrets.

The van has a sliding door on either side, so we have easy access to underneath the platform, except in the very center of it.  Thus, we put stuff we rarely need to reach under the middle of the platform.  This includes a tent, sleeping pads, and a "mechanic's box" with jumper cables, chains, an extra jack, oil pan, etc.

The left side of the floor space is devoted to climbing gear.  Once again, we have the gear we need less often in the back:  an extra 60m rope, a 70m rope, and a rope bucket filled with guidebooks, extra shoes, and trad gear.  By the door, we keep our packed climbing packs side-by-side, they fit in there perfectly.

Left side:  climbing gear

The right side of the floor space has a few different things:  the cooler, which holds up the platform; a jackstand, which we use to hold up the platform when we're using the cooler; and three Rubbermaid-type drawer boxes - one for my clothes, one for Juan's clothes, and one for towels and an extra sheet.

Right side:  cooler, clothes, towels, misc.

Lastly, the trunk of the van.  This is our "kitchen" - we keep both the Coleman camp grill and the small Snow Peak stove & their fuel canisters back here, along with our condiments box (condiments, utensils, cooking spray, lighter, etc), pot & pan, and so on.  The cardboard box you see is our toiletries box, though we keep toothbrushes, contact/glasses cases, and other stuff we need a couple times a day in the big pocket on the passenger side door.  Somewhere back there is the first aid kit (more of a hodgepodge bag of first aid things we've collected here and there).  We usually have the dirty laundry bag and a couple other miscellaneous items back there too.

Back:  kitchen, toiletries, first aid, etc

As you can see, we do use the top of the platform for storage during the day too.  We keep our two big bouldering crashpads up there - the big blue tri-fold one was generously loaned to us by our friend Josh in Portland for our trip, as he has not been using it much lately, and the black one is Juan's.  We also usually keep our laptops and a mesh sack with extra jackets and sweatshirts up top.  At night, all this stuff gets moved to the front seats so we can sleep!

Lastly, the "command center".  This is the area between the front two seats where we keep a cardboard box with all our electronics, and the two inverters we have (one a gift from Todd) which allow us to charge our electronics through the van's cigarette lighters.  We still have the pizza box (don't worry, it's clean) in which Amelia packed us homemade cookies the night we left Portland, it sits on top and conceals the command center from public view, plus we often keep maps and papers we don't want to lose in it.

The only other real modification we've made to the van is the curtains I made.  Juan was vehemently opposed to the use of velcro on his van, so I rigged strings of orange utility cord between various points on the ceiling of the van (like the "Oh shit! handle" and the top edges of the plastic molding) and threaded it through the curtains. 

Curtains.  This fabric, which we bought at Goodwill in Tucson, was described on the package as "a magnificent paisley".  We think it looks quite gypsy-ish, which is most fitting...

A more recent pic (from Chuckawalla in St. George) showing the back curtain and the slightly messier, but still organized, van.

So that's about it!  That's how we set up our mobile home.  I left "The Eggplant", my purple Plymouth Grand Voyager, back in the care of my good friend Brandy back home, but I hope to outfit it for road living in the future as well.  Since we've been on the road, we've seen all kinds of similar set-ups, in minivans, pick-up trucks, and larger cargo vans, and if you're creative and want to do something like this, you too can totally make it work.  Now get to it!

Marie




I love when you look back and see that some things are just meant to be.  A little over a month ago Marie and I were climbing with Dan Ancog and a whole crew of his Tahoe/Reno friends.  I remember we were climbing in the Dihedrals in the Upper Gorge in Bishop and just before they parted ways, two of Dan's friends, Bird and Mark, mentioned a little climbing spot in southern Idaho called Dierke's Lake.  They mentioned that if we were in the area during our trip, and could get past all the bird poop, that this was a really fun place to climb steep basalt.  At that time, we had no plans on going north to Idaho but we thanked them for the information anyway and left it at that. 

Just over a month later, during our first climbs at the Pipe Dream cave in Maple, we found ourselves talking about Dierke's Lake again with Chuck and Maggie (two Ogden, UT climbers).  They mentioned once again, that if we could get past the bird poop, it was fun place to climb and that they often visited there when the weather was too cold in Maple.  At this point we were still 2 days away from finding out that we had been selected for the Vibram shoot, but once we found out that job was ours, we knew we would be climbing in this mysterious bird poop-covered place after all.  And so after a brief but fun visit with my friend Jeremy, we hit the road north, bound for Twin Falls, ID to climb at Dierke's Lake and break up the 8-hour drive to the rendezvous point for the photo job.

After waking up in an elementary school parking lot Saturday morning, we drove out to Dierke's Lake which also happens to share its space with Shoshone Falls on the Snake River.  We parked the van and walked .5 mile to avoid the parking fee, and within about 20 minutes we found ourselves in a beautiful grassy field surrounded by a horseshoe of basalt.  On the left, a huge band of fragmented and overhung cliffs, on the right, a curious arrangement of boulders meeting up with the roped climbs perfectly in the middle.  Behind us, families were swimming, picnicking, and fishing in the lake.

The Alcove at Dierke's Lake

Marie had printed us a free online topo earlier that morning and so we headed up the very short approach to The Alcove.  There was a group of four climbers there, and after introductions, we came to find out that one of the guys in the group, Dave Bingham, was actually responsible for the majority of the bolting there.  Dave, a.k.a. The Godfather, was recently featured in a climbing magazine for a story about Idaho's secret crags. 

Though there was quite a bit of bird poop on the lower parts of the Alcove and on the occasional big block mid-route, the climbing was pretty spectacular.  The routes were really fun to decipher and though they consisted of big flat holds, there was also plenty of huecos and crescent-shaped sidepulls to get you through some really steep terrain.  It was super interesting to see some of the other shapes that basalt can take on, so different from the columnar variety we are used to seeing at Broughton's Bluff near Portland.

Juan onsighted Pink Slip (12b/c)

That evening, Marie and I treated ourselves to a night out on the town.  The objective:  drink beers and shoot pool.  We got directions to a neighborhood bar called Woody's.  We walked into an eclecticly decorated, dimly lit bar occupied by an equally eclectic variety of patrons.  There was the lesbian in a mohawk and cookie monster shirt, the robust biker in a leather vest and a kilt, girls in jeans and sneaker as well as some in glittery heels and mini-skirts, and a very cool bar band rocking out on the small stage at the end of the bar.  Marie and I had ourlselves a couple pints of New Belgium 1554, a pint of Dead Guy, and two Irish Car Bombs.  A side of chicken wings, an order of greek cheese and apples, and 3 pool games later, we headed off the Walmart parking lot to sleep it off and climb the next day.

"Shooting" Pool

 

Sunday we headed out to Dierke's Lake once again, this time to play on the boulders that made up the right half of the horseshoe.  This was where we got to really see the variety and shapes of basalt.  A lot of the boulders had a dark red color to them that made them look like the rusted-out hulls of shipwrecked boats.  Moderate problems dominate the area, with occasional hard problems sprinkled in for spice.  A great place for a chill day scrambling around ropeless.  My arm was hurting pretty bad from the last couple days of rope climbing and after a few completions, I was happy to follow Marie around and shoot pictures.

 

Dierke's Lake turned out to be a really pleasant addition to our trip.  Though probably not a destination unto itself, if you are passing through the area, or will be spending some time in Twin Falls, it's a fantastic place to come and get some climbing in.  You can sport climb, boulder, swim, fish, and marmot-watch to your heart's content for the price of $3 if you drive in, or free if you walk the .5 miles from the outer parking lot, and of course, if you don't mind the bird poop.
-Juan

Catching up from the Cottonwoods & Maple

We've been all over Utah since we last wrote almost two weeks ago:  from St. George north to Sandy, south to Maple Canyon, and back north to Tooele.  The next week and a half will bring us to Idaho, Oregon (YUP!  the SE corner, read Juan's section below for details), Ohio (me for my bro's college graduation) and Colorado.  So we thought we better squeeze in a blog post quick before we get swept away again!

When we left off in St. George, it was Saturday the 7th.  That morning we slyly slipped into a motel's breakfast bar for some waffles then I dropped Juan off to take a 2-hr shuttle to Vegas for the 30th birthday of one of his best friends, Ryan.  Meanwhile, I went bouldering with our new friend Brent and his buddy John at Moe's Valley in St. George, a pretty valley scattered with boulders and all sorts of wildflowers that we had entirely to ourselves!  We worked some problems on the TeePee Boulder, Device Ignitor Boulder, and a few others until we tired out, then grabbed a bite at Chili's before they headed back to Salt Lake.

Brent on the improvised jump-start (a start hold had broken) to Mantle Man (V6)

John sending a super-hard arete problem at Moe's

 That night I wandered around the Ironman event and saw a bunch of triumphant triathletes cross the finish line after some 15 hours of effort!  I got to speak to a couple of them, and I have to say, they are super hardcore.  Juan stumbled off the shuttle the next morning after a grand 24-hour party, and we grabbed our traditional "leaving-town ice cream" at a delicious frozen yogurt joint called Menchie's (the perfect hangover cure?) before driving up to our next destination, Maple Canyon.

On the way to Maple, however, we spoke to our friend James in Sandy, UT (just S of Salt Lake), who we'd planned on visiting later on, and he invited us to come crash right then and there!  He was going to have time to climb with us that week, if the weather allowed, and if the weather didn't, he offered us some shelter from the storm.  Several hours later, we were greeted by James and his fiance Jaron, and their two dogs Tag and Smoot.

the pups, Tag & Smoot

As it turned out, the weather was not too conducive to climbing, and in fact the rain has been on our backs much of the last couple weeks.  It was a pretty large weather system, so we would've had to drive really far to get consistently dry weather.  We decided to stick it out around Salt Lake and hope for some sunny days.

Monday night, after two days of rain and with two more to come, we made a hard decision - we were going to pull on plastic (for the non-climbers out there, I mean climb indoors) for the first time since we hit the road in January (except for Juan's visit to our home gym Stoneworks while visiting Portland in March).  James took us to Momentum and it turned out to be quite the hub for Utah climbers on a rainy day - we saw about 5 other climbers we'd met around St. George just before!  We led hard for a few hours, then headed back for incredible mole enchiladas made by Juan with the famous mole powder straight from his Abuelita in Mexico City.

Juan and James chow down on mole enchiladas

Tuesday was very wet, so climbing was out.  We decided to visit our friend Jeremy and his family in Tooele, west of Salt Lake.  We hadn't seen him since he visited Portland the summer before, and we finally got to hang out and give him back his forgotten leather jacket we'd been carrying around for months!  He showed us their place and the adorable baby goats belonging to his landlord:

Wednesday the rain was on-and-off enough that we decided to venture out to the quartzite of Big Cottonwood Canyon and search for some dry rock.  On an exploratory hike to the Pile Area, even after successfully crossing a swollen river on a narrow log, I dropped James' Wasatch Range guidebook straight into the water and got quite wet getting it out - not the ideal start to climbing on an already cold day... Not deterred, the three of us headed up to the S-Curve area and got in a couple sport routes, including the classic Black Monday (11a) before it started raining and even snowing a little.

Juan's preferred method for crossing the slippery log.

Me on Black Monday (11a)

On our way out, James pointed out some classic lines in Big before we drove over to Little Cottonwood Canyon to check out Snowbird, where he shreds on his snowboard when not climbing.  We threw back some drinks at the Tram Club and headed home for some of James' delicious BBQ'd sliders with Jaron, back from her usual long day at med school.

The next day the weather was beautiful, for a change - 70 and sunny!  We headed out with James and his friend Trent back to Little to climb.  "Little" did we know, we were about to get a harsh re-introduction into trad climbing on this crag's slabby granite!  James and Trent cruised our first climb, Green Adjective (direct start), 5.10a, and Juan onsighted it too, despite the tenuous, small gear placements and heavy reliance on friction.  I was not friction-y enough, however, and a popped foot left me hanging on a small nut - no biggie, I'd done a ton of trad climbing in New England during my college years, and taken countless falls on gear too...right??  I finished the climb but found the whole thing thoroughly stressful and came down not really wanting to do that again anytime soon.

James slots some thin protection on Green Adjective (10a) with Trent on the belay

 Juan was psyched on the trad though, so he led a climb nearby called Gordon's Hangover (5.9+) with some super-exposed moves out a flake and over a bulge and belayed me up.  He then started working on a stout 12a called All Chalk No Action, and between his goes, I decided to try to redeem myself on a 10a sport slab climb nearby.  To my surprise, even that got me pretty sketched out (it was fairly runout and very dependent on friction) and I finished it feeling equally stressed out.  Juan was on a sending spree though, and after one more try (during which he almost beaned me on belay with a chunk of loose rock) sent All Chalk in style.  We got to see a ton of Rocky Mountain goats on the hillsides and cliffsides on the way out, which was sweet.

Palming and smearing on granite - not my forte, it seems...

Juan on All Chalk No Action (12a) in the Perhaps area, Little Cottonwood Canyon

 The next day, Friday, the nice weather continued, so we were determined to climb even though we usually rest on Fridays before a weekend of climbing.  James took us out to Little for some trad climbing and bouldering.  Up on the Crescent Crack Buttress is one of his favorite routes in the canyon, Mexican Crack (10a), and Juan bravely set out to lead the boulder-y dihedral start and the thin seam to diagonal crack above.  He had a bit of trouble but reached the anchors, and I, still not feeling psyched on trad, TR'd it to clean it.

Juan on Mexican Crack (10a) in Little Cottonwood

By that point I knew I needed to get myself out of the funk I was in, and felt bad for my partners who kept patiently belaying me even though I was being a bit of a Negative Nancy.  So when we headed over to our next climb, I declared to them that I was going to go into the next climb, Coffin, a 5.9 trad crack, with a positive attitude, and that I did.  And what do you know, I actually really enjoyed it, and did it without a hitch!  Juan led it too, then we all decided to hike down to some boulders to finish the day out.

Finally having some fun on gear - me on Coffin (5.9)

We tried a few problems in the Cabbage Patch area, including some fun V1 and V2 aretes and slabs, and a really fun V2 called Double Dyno.  We also tried our hands at a drilled problem that goes at V7 (the LDS church quarried some chunks of granite for their Temple here years ago by drilling holes, filling them with water, and waiting for it to freeze, so some of the rock has two-finger drill holes and grooves.).  We had a lot of fun throwing the huge final move to the lip on that one, but no go for now.  I had a dream that night that I found some secret beta and finished it, though!  Haha, maybe next time.

James on Dean Problem w/o arete, V7

On Saturday, James hit the mountain and we met up with Brent again in Big.  We decided to check out a sport crag called Broad's Fork, but a 15-minute uphill hike brought us to a rock that could've been Niagara Falls.  We hiked back out, having a quick snowball fight on the way, and started to drive down to another area.  On the way, however, it started pouring, so we decided to just get lunch at Red Robin instead.  We all enjoyed burgers and shakes, and it just so happened that it was *my birthday* ahem, so we got an Oreo mud pie to split as well (taking a cue from my little sister, whose birthday it is almost every time she goes out to eat ;) ).  After that, the rain had let up, and we tried one last time to climb, meeting up with some friends of Brent's who were bouldering in Little.  But we were there just long enough to try two problems before the heavens opened again, and we sadly packed our wet crashpads back in the van and called it a day.

Juan's gonna pick up from here, so that's all for now.  Thanks to James & Jaron for being such great hosts and guides that week, we can't wait to return the favor this summer in Portland!

Hasta la pasta,
Marie



That Saturday after getting shut down by the elements twice, we decided to call it a day for climbing.  We parted ways once again with Brent and since I don't get to see my friend Jeremy very often, we headed out to Tooele once more to say goodbye.

Once at Jeremy's, I rounded up the crew which consisted of Jeremy, his brother Jarrod, his two kids, and Jarrod's wife Kymi and we all headed out to wade around in the Great Salt Lake.  It was pretty windy and still pretty cold so our outing didn't last very long before we were once again saying our goodbyes and turning in for the last time at James and Jaron's place.

The Great Salt Lake

The next morning, we were off to a place that I have always really wanted to visit, Maple Canyon.  Stories of super steep caves and overhanging routes made up entirely of cobbles awaited us just 2 hours away near a tiny town called Fountain Green.  The weather looked like it was going to be getting worse as the week went on and we were determined to get at least one day of climbing in Maple.

Once we got situated in the park, we went about figuring out where the famed Pipe Dream Cave was located by reading directions on our unofficial downloaded guidebook.  To our horrible surprise, we took a grueling 2 hour detour because we misinterpreted the directions in the book.  Identifying a wall incorrectly when we got too far up the road sent us on a wild bushwhack completely uphill for about an hour only to find out we were completely lost.  After hiking back down within feet of where we had parked we asked some passer-by climbers for directions.  Turns out we were actually not far from the trailhead to begin with and so one last 40 minute slog uphill had us at the mouth of the cobbled amphitheater that is the Pipe Dream.

Like the rest of the canyon walls, we were looking at a cave made up entirely of cobbles of all sizes.  Everywhere you craned your neck you were surrounded by stones ranging from golf ball size to basketball size, protruding from a tough sandstone matrix.  Except for one other couple, Marie and I were the only other climbers there.  After resting our sore quads and calves from the day's earlier safari, we happily if not tiredly, put on harnesses and flaked rope for our first route of the day...finally.

We warmed up on a short route called Toxic Potatoes (11b), but within about 3 bolts my hands were freezing, and I was getting pumped out of my mind trying to read the hell out of the conglomerate route.  There are just so many choices for holds so with every move, I had to touch about 3 or 4 different holds before selecting the best one to squeeze and move on.  One bolt before the anchors I was calling down for Marie to take in the slack.  I was out of gas and needed a little breather before finishing up the last couple moves on the route.  We climbed about 3 more routes and then headed out for a warm-down on a lower crag called the Minimum.

Marie on Take it for the Team, 11d

 Once at the Minimum, I onsighted a very long and very fun route called 49 (12b). Once again I picked my way through a maze of multi-sized rocks to the anchors and after a creative lower to the ground (you need to clip directionals so you don't swing and hit trees), we moved on a little ways for Marie to warm down on a different wall.  Marie systematically picked her way through the warm down and lowered off almost in the dark, giving us just enough light to find the van.

Tired from the 4 previous days of climbing, on our rest day, I did absolutely nothing.  Not one single thing, besides lay in the back of the van complaining of sore body parts in between naps.  Marie busied herself with the internet, walks, books, and who knows what else but also took it relatively mellow.

Trusting that the weather would hold, we stayed for one more day of climbing.  Back to the Pipe Dream it was.  Almost every single route at the Pipe Dream is equipped with fixed quickdraws, except for maybe the first bolt on some routes here and there.  This made our second trip up to the cave a much lighter one for our backs since we could leave most of the hardware in the van.  Plus, now we knew exactly where the trail was so we made it up in no time and with plenty of energy.

We set out right away to work on fire in the cave's fire pit so we could keep our hands warm in between attempts on our projects.  For Marie, it was Excavation (11d), a pretty stout route near the outside left wall of the cave, and for me, a gymnastic route on the same side but more towards the inside called Rucksack Wanderer (12d/13a).  It's difficult to describe routes in Maple because the description is basically the same for every route:  cobbles of different sizes.  The only thing that changes is the angle of the overhang, ranging from gentle, to full-on roof climbing.  Marie's was more towards the gentle overhanging side, and mine was kind of in-between.  Marie put her project down first try, with super numb fingers, and after 4 gut-tightening, breath-holding, forearm-blasting tries later, my route still remained a project.  Marie had begun work on her bonus route Wake and Bake (11d) and since we both still had unfinished business at the end of the day we agreed to come back one last time, no matter the weather.

Stoking the fire in between burns on the wall. 

On Wednesday, a few hours before we headed back up to the cave, and nearly 2 1/2 weeks after we submitted applications, we got a phone call letting us know that we had been selected for a photoshoot for Vibram FiveFingers shoes to take place on the Oregon/Idaho border.  Yeah, how about that?  Our friend Jackie in Portland saw the ad online and forwarded us the info thinking we might like to apply.  The ad was looking for experienced climbers for a shoot and the agent got the company to use both Marie and I!  That's by far the craziest thing that's ever happened to me on any climbing trip.

After the shock wore off  we remembered that we had projects to do.  It had rained almost the entire night and morning and with the temperature dropping to the mid 30's we found the entire hike up to the Pipe Dream covered in snow.  Once again we went to work on a fire.  Fire blazing, Marie abandoned her project and instead sent the route next to it, Take It for the Team, also 11d.  My project did not go down so easy.  In fact it didn't go down at all, but I did have an awesome time trying to finish it.  Marie caught some great falls, and even though on 3 out of my 4 tries I could almost make out the writing on the carabiners for the anchors, I still couldn't hold on long enough to do that final move.

The snowy trek to the Pipe Dream

We did our last hike back down to the car, and headed back for Tooele where my friend Jeremy lives.  Because I hardly ever get to see Jeremy since he moved from Portland 6 years ago, we stopped in Tooele to see him and his family one more time before heading up North for the Vibram shoot.  I'm not sure exactly what all this gig will entail, but we are both super excited to see what's in store for us.  Our last stop on the trip keeps getting delayed due to current events, but in a little over a week we will be visiting friends and Marie's family, and new crags in Colorado.
-Juan

Free-Solos, and Other Free Things

(Editor's note:  this post was actually written last night, until the authors were rudely interrupted by huge sprinklers going off under the very picnic table where they were sitting!  After mad dashes to the van with wet electronics in tow, and thorough inspections, they are happy to report there was no lasting damage.)

Marie here with the non-climbing news!  In between climbs, we've had a really wonderful, relaxing week...

The weather has been beautiful, if a little hot, topping out at 90 degrees, but with a breeze or in the shade even the hottest days felt really nice.  Our rest days have largely been passed at the big city park here in St. George, where the list of free things to do goes on and on:

• cooking/picnicking
• foraging for pecans
• washing dishes in the bathroom (you gotta get used to a new standard of cleanliness on the road) using the free water (when $0.80 for two gallons is a lot you know you're broke!)
• slacklining and hackey-sacking (dirty hippies)
• laying in the grass, spacing out, talking, or reading
• playing cards - rummy is the game of choice and we also love the card game Ratuki that our friend Glen and his daughter Alyssa gave us before we left
• playing Angry Birds on Juan's ipod - we are obsessed
• using the free wifi and charging our stuff on the many outlets (which i discovered this week - no more buying the cheapest snack just to use a gas station's wifi!)
• watching movies off the hard drive our dear friend Todd put together for us on our "couch" in the van while chowing down on half-price chocolate Easter bunnies
• people-watching, such as for the occasional fundamentalist Mormon family (i'm not gonna assume polygamous, but you know the look) play on the swings
• be tantalized by the ice cream truck that circles the park about 3 times a day blaring off-key music, until we finally dig through our change bin in the van and "nickel and dime" ourselves a popsicle
• throwing around the floppiest frisbee ever made; we are lucky to get two catches in a row
• enjoying the kindness of strangers, like the local family celebrating a daughter's birthday who shared with us some incredible homemade carrot cake

Slacking

 When we haven't been at the park, we've strolled around the quiet streets, gone for a short run, and tried to beat the heat with deals like 2/$1 frozen yogurt at one little nutrition store and free smoothies at another little nutrition store.  Things are a little busier around St. George in the last couple days due to some graduation ceremonies and the Ironman Triathalon going on this weekend.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there - I know that among our followers there are at least two, my sister Kate, and my friend from way back when Heidi.  I hope you all do something sweet for your mums this weekend.  I know mine is watching over me from above and I miss her every day.

Mom & Me

All the best,
Marie




Well, time sure does fly when you're having fun.  I can't believe the adventure is more than halfway over with only about 5 weeks or so left in the trip before we head back, hopefully, to a sunny Portland, Oregon. 

We're bringing to a close a 2-week stay here in St. George, UT and the climbing has still been nothing less than fantastic (almost).  After Marie's day out at Snow Canyon and one rest day later, we met back up with our friend Brent over the weekend to do some climbing in the Utah Hills.  The destination for the weekend?  Cathedral.  We had heard from several locals that if we were looking to do some steep climbing on grade-A limestone then this was the place to go. 

Saturday morning after breakfast, we packed up the van, met up with Brent and cruised 45 minutes out of St. George on old Highway 91 to dirt road turnoffs not meant to be traveled by green minivans.  Soon we were parked at the foot of the Utah hills near a small creek in what is known as The Welcome Springs campground.  As we waited for the dust to settle from our vehicles, we set about readying backpacks and puffy jackets.  Some locals at Chuckawalla had warned us that the elevation was much higher, and with no sun reaching into the Cathedral, it would be wise to wear layers.  There were other cars already parked at the camp with climbers milling about and as we approached the nearest group a familiar face emerged.  It was my friend Scott whom I had climbed with a couple of years ago in Yangshuo, China!  Hands were shaken, groups introduced, and next thing you know we were all battling the heinous uphill approach to Cathedral. 

Once we got to the top, we were greeted by a cavernous section of white limestone that started as slab and swept up and out in a massive overhang filled with flakes, huecos, small tufa rails, sharp crimps, and jugs.  The wall was so steep you had to be careful not to fall over backwards from craning your neck to see the finish holds on the headwall.

The grand Cathedral

A group of climbers with an early start were huddled in layers of fleece, sweatshirts, down jackets, and mitts, so it took me a moment to realize that one of the trio was none other than strongman John Garcia.  A mutual friend of mine and Adam Bove's whom I met and climbed with in Mexico a few years back.  Well it was getting to be quite the reunion festival at Cathedral but before too long, we donned harnesses and set off to send some sick looking lines.  3 bolts into the warm-up, my hands resembled something akin to rigor mortis as I clawed and meat-hooked my way up the last few holds to clip the anchors.  The rock was so cold that it only took a few moves before losing all feeling in both hands.  Such a strange feeling to see yourself grabbing something but no matter how hard you squeeze, you just can't feel if you've actually got a hold of it. 

That pretty much set the tone for the rest of our day at Cathedral.  The lines, impressive as they were, were difficult to really enjoy because climbing with numb extremities is just not that fun.  In fact, I think a high motivator for onsighting routes at Cathedral was just so we didn't have to freeze our butts off trying them more than once.  Marie, who is pretty small to begin with, has a pretty hard time regulating body temps when it's that cold out, so even with her fleece, puffy, and hood all on at once after only a couple routes she opted to take a knee and instead shot pictures of me and Brent as we took on a couple more lines before moving to the sunnier Wailing Wall next door. 

Brent is Worshipping the Limestone Gods (11b)

The Wailing Wall by contrast was a much sharper grey limestone that cut into your fingers like tiny piranha teeth but made for some super sticky rock almost impossible to slip off of.  Though it was still mostly in the shade, it did offer a very sunny ledge to belay off of or just hang out and get the feeling back in your extremities.  By this time the wind had died down quite a bit and made for a pretty enjoyable afternoon.  Tired and a little beaten down from Cathedral, I hung at the top of Pocketline to the Moon to take pictures of Marie onsighting the diagonal maze of sharp and tricky pockets.  Brent got himself a little jumbled mid-sequence but finished the route strong after one hang.

Marie on Pocketline to the Moon (11b/c)

 After a big bonfire in which my friend Scott lost a puffy jacket due to a wind gust (that hurt the wallet), and some really good Easter candy after dinner, we got a great night's sleep and woke up excited to travel a little farther into the Utah Hills in search of Kelly's Rock.  Scott tagged along for the ride with Brent, Marie, and I and soon we were climbing on some of THE SHARPEST limestone we have ever gripped.  Motivation alone for not falling on routes, was the thought of nicely filet-ing open fingers, palms, and knees should you make a mistake and fly.  This stuff was stickier than fresh tar on a hot day but required the gentlest touch lest your fingers end up like lil' pin cushions.  Nonetheless, the routes were far more enjoyable due to much more manageable weather.  We climbed such classics as K8 (named one of the best routes in Utah and renamed Broken Glass Bottle by Brent), Czech Frogs Say Qua, and a very, very fun steep line called The Zealot.  After a great day of climbing, Brent treated to some hot Little Caeser's pizza.

Juan on Zealot (12c)

On Tuesday, we revisited Turtle Wall where there was a line I was interested in free-soloing (forgoing rope, harness, and protective gear), a very fun route I had previously done with Marie called Banana Dance.  The particular formation of the rock at Turtle Wall actually lends itself to a pretty nice top-out, making it unnecessary to downclimb some of the routes.  But as it turned out, Banana Dance had a pretty nasty top-out at the anchors and so instead I soloed the route next to it called Farmer's Market, which had a really fun stem (standing with your feet propped between two walls) in the middle of the two half-arches of Turtle Wall at the top-out.  Because of the obvious risk in soloing, it not something I practice often, but when I get psyched to do it, it is a really fun experience.

Free-soloing Farmer's Market (11-)

Brent again joined us later in the day with his Salt Lake City crew in tow.  And of all the places in the world to run into people, we met a very nice couple who own a bouldering gym in Colombia and as it turns out, I had climbed with friends of theirs in Bogota and Bucaramanga last year.  We were all spread out at the crag sharing beta, and conversing in Spanish and English, when all of a sudden, tired, and a bit uninspired from previous falls, Marie all of a sudden up and sent her 2nd 12a!  A bouldery line called Tortuga that opened up with gently overhanging huecos, to a nasty little finger slot and full on jump to a flat, greasy ledge, and finishing up on vertical side-pulls and edges.  Way to go!  I tried my hand at a equally vicious line called The Actual Parchment 13a, on very overhanging terrain with pretty small edges and pockets on either side of a big rest in the middle.  I worked it down to two cruxes but the route is still a project for the future. 

Thursday was a low motivation day for the both of us, due to 90 degree weather.  It was potentially my last climbing day in St. George because I'm heading to Vegas for the weekend to celebrate my friend Ryan's 30th birthday and Marie and I wanted to see if we could shut down one last project each.  I gave the 13 a few solid goes but the combination of heat and lack of energy shut me down, and after a long walk back out towards Marie's intended project at Chuckawalla (Pilgrimage 12a) we decided to keep walking to a hot spaghetti dinner with Little Caeser's pizza spice instead.

Marie warming up on Director of Humor Affairs (11a)

 -Juan