Home Again

Welcome to Vedauwoo! (Don't look, Mom.)

Hello to all. This post is coming to you from Atlanta, Georgia, to which Thomas and I have safely returned after our month in Wyoming. As you may recall from my last post, our last stop in Wyoming was in Vedauwoo, which is in the Southeast corner of the state. Vedauwoo is made up of a number of what appear to be large granite blobs, with giant boulders stacked in improbable positions. The result is some funky formations and some funky climbing. My conclusion after our first day of climbing there was that it was difficult and humbling. That did not change after four more days of climbing there.

The climbing at Vedauwoo is known for its wide cracks. Wide cracks are difficult to climb. Some people say there is a technique to it. Ha. The only technique I ever came up with was to shove as much of my body in as possible and try not to get spit out. This "technique" may also be referred to as groveling. It results in a lot of scrapes and bruises. It also results in extremely slow progress, or it did for me at least.

Thomas proved to be much better at these things (no surprise there) and so I spent much of our time in Vedauwoo following him.



One of our favorite climbs was a long 5.9 called Coffee Grinder which was essentially a 200 foot-long chimney (Note to my non-climber friends: a chimney is a crack that is wide enough to fit your whole body inside and is climbed by using the opposing pressure of your back against one wall and feet against the other.) to the top of the Reynolds Hill formation.

The Reynolds Hill formation turned out to be our favorite at Vedauwoo and we spent two days doing a number of excellent and long climbs there. One highlight was a small section of the cliff which had three beautiful lines right in a row which got progressively harder (5.9, 5.10c, and 5.11a). Here's Thomas leading the 5.11 line:

Our second day at Reynolds Hill was shortened by rain but one of the climbs we did that day was a unique pitch callled Labyrinth (5.8). The climb is formed by what is essentially a triangular-shaped tunnel up through the rock, and we were not sure whether we would actually fit until we had each worked our way through it.

We spent our last day at Vedauwoo climbing at the Nautilus area. Thomas led a steep and sustained 5.10b called Flying Buttress which offered some unique climbing:

Another great line we did in that area was a 2-pitch climb called Middle Parallel Space (5.9). Much of the first pitch is a hand crack which is also climbed with the aid of chimneying or stemming against another block behind the crack.

The first pitch ends at the top of this block. The second pitch required stepping off from this block back into the crack on the other face, a bit more crack climbing, and then an easy but very exposed move over a small roof and to the top of the formation. This climb was a lot of fun and is highly recommended, and Thomas and I agreed that it was a good one on which to conclude our trip.

The next morning we began the 2-day trip back to Atlanta where we are now. The month passed quickly and we are both big Wyoming fans now. It was definitely a month-long learning experience for me. The process of going to a new place, figuring it out and climbing there is challenging but good.

Now do not despair, dear readers. I am not in Atlanta for long and there will be more tales of coming news (and more importantly, more pictures) in future days. I will be leaving tomorrow morning for Colorado and more climbing with my dear friend, Megan. We are hoping to climb in Eldorado Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Park, and maybe a few other places as well. As always, I will keep you posted! Thanks for reading!