The Desert!

Greeting, loyal readers (a.k.a. Mom and Dad). I know that it has been over a month since my last post and I apologize for my laziness in blogging. Last time I posted, I was out in Bishop, California with my dog, Brandy. At the end of March, Brandy and I headed back to Atlanta where I dropped Brandy off, picked up Thomas, re-loaded the clown car and turned it right back around to head west again. Thomas was on Spring Break and we decided to head for the Utah desert; particularly, a place that I had never been but was at the very top of my list of places to visit--Indian Creek!

We made the drive straight through from Atlanta, taking turns driving, which took about 30 hours total. We arrived at Indian Creek late Saturday afternoon and rolled straight to one of the crags, Broken Tooth, to sample a few climbs. To give you an idea of how good the climbing is there (if you like perfect cracks, that is), we started on this climb which was just an unnamed beautiful, splitter crack.



We also got to try Rock Lobster, a more well-known classic that goes from wide hands all the way down to rattly fingers. (For my non-climbing friends, we refer to the size of the crack by how much of your hand you can shove into it, anything from fingertips to fists. More about the even wider cracks later.)

After a couple of pitches to whet our appetites, we headed to the Creek Pasture campground and set up camp.

The next day we opted to visit the Fin Wall after discovering that two of the areas we had planned to spend a good deal of time at were closed for raptor nesting. Fortunately, there is no shortage of worthy climbs throughout Indian Creek and the Fin Wall had an abundance of beautiful crack lines to keep us busy for the day. Most of the climbing at Indian Creek starts at 5.10 in difficulty so I spent the first few days there following Thomas.

A fun 5.10 hand crack warm-up

Thomas on Nagasaki (5.10+, sandbag alert!)

On our third day, we attempted to visit the Rambo Wall but were turned back by a not insignificant creek crossing. The clown car just didn't have the clearance for it, so we visited the 4x4 Wall instead. And I'll give you three guesses what that was like. Yes, indeed, dear readers, even more perfect crack climbs!

Near the end of the day we climbed 4x4, the route from which the entire wall is named. This is a sustained WIDE hands to fists crack that ends in a body-length roof split by a fist crack. Thomas led the route with no problem. After several unsuccessful attempts at the roof, I followed the route with no problem, thanks to the convenience of grabbing and pulling up on the top-rope. By the end of that day, I was tired! It was time for a rest day.

Walking out from the 4x4 Wall after another stellar day

For our rest day we drove up to the nearby town of Moab, and then into Arches National Park for a quick visit, where Thomas snapped some nice photos:

After our day of rest, it was time for, you guessed it, more crack climbing!

One thing that comes in handy for climbing in the desert, especially after you've been at it for a couple days, tape for the hands! Another thing that comes in handy for climbing in the desert, lots of cams! Because many of the cracks tend to be long and consistently sized, you need a lot of the same-size gear. Fortunately, Thomas and I were able to come up with enough to climb most everything that we wanted to by pooling what we had and borrowing from a few friends. The picture above doesn't even include most of our larger cams, which were left in the car on this particular day.

The day of rest did us good. Thomas and I were both able, over the next 2 days of climbing to on-sight our hardest trad leads to date.

Generic Crack at Donnelly Canyon, a 120' splitter hand crack that simply could not have been more fun!

Thomas on Annunaki at the Optimator Wall, an awesome, steep zig-zag splitter that narrows from wide hands all the way down to fingerlocks



On Thursday afternoon, we said goodbye to Indian Creek and drove northwest to Castle Valley to climb Castleton tower.

Thomas has climbed Castleton before but he was willing to do so again so that I could lead the Kor-Ingalls route. Now I was feeling reasonably confident about my ability to get us up the route after having several good days of desert training in Indian Creek. I should have paid more attention to the introductory note in the guidebook which states "Only climb this route if you have solid 5.9 offwidth technique."

All was going fine until the third pitch when I arrived at this 5.9 offwidth section, the crux of the route.

For my non-climbing readers, back to a note on crack sizes. An offwidth is a crack that is too wide for your fists but not wide enough to be able to shove most of your body into the crack. Translation: heinous. Climbing offwidth cracks requires a variety of techniques that I now realize I do not possess. After trying multiple "techniques" (using that term very loosely) and falling, I finally found the one that would get me up this route. It went something like this:

Julie: "Thomas, I want to come down. Will you lead this pitch?"

Thomas: "Ok."

Aha. Success. After Thomas hauled me up to the top of this pitch, we continued on to the summit without further incident.

From there, we also had great views of the Rectory and Sister Superior formations in the valley.

That evening, we loaded up the clown car again and headed for the Fisher Towers, where we planned to climb Ancient Art in the morning before making the long drive home. Ancient Art is the funky-looking corkscrew summit in the middle of the photo below.

Although the climbing was fairly mellow for the most part, the Fisher Towers are not known for having stellar rock quality, so I was happy to follow Thomas up the climb. After a couple of pitches of fun and interesting stemming, we arrived at the summit pitch. This involves walking across a sidewalk-width path of rock, with approximately 350 feet of nothing but air on either side of you. From there you have to mantle up onto a funky "eagle's head" of rock and then follow the corkscrew around to the summit.

Thomas scrambled right on up and embraced the exposure!

I was just proud of myself for walking and not crawling across the sidewalk and then standing on the summit!

Definitely the most unique summit I have ever experienced, and a fantastic way to end our visit to the desert. From there, we got back into the car and made the long trip back to Atlanta. I was totally blown away by the climbing at Indian Creek and simply don't have the words to describe how good it was. Any superlative I can come up with is insufficient. I'll definitely be back for more!

Red Rocks!

Hello, friends! I am back in Bishop after meeting my friend, Derek, in Red Rocks for a week of fun! Red Rocks is beautiful and is literally right outside of Vegas. The glow from the city at night makes the campground there considerably brighter than the full moon that is currently lighting up the night at the campground here in Bishop. Just drive a few miles and you are into the sprawl of Vegas. But, fortunately, you forget about all that while climbing in the canyons of Red Rocks!

Derek was new to multi-pitch climbing so we chose Dark Shadows, a four pitch 5.8, for our first day in Red Rocks. The route was stellar and follows a big and intimidating dihedral between slick, varnished walls to the base of a big roof.


The climbing was great and after belaying me up the last pitch Derek had a minute to relax in the middle of the brown, varnished walls, several hundred feet off the deck!

The last pitch is the technical crux when you leave the dihedral for a widening crack in the right wall to anchors out at the base of the big roof. Derek climbed the pitch with ease and took his first big exposure on a route in stride.

A great first day in Red Rocks! We awoke the next morning to something we hadn't been expecting when we planned this trip out to the desert: snow!

It made climbing difficult but the scenery was beautiful!

So we opted for a few hours of bouldering instead. The next day was clear and the snow had largely disappeared so it was time for another multi-pitch adventure, Cat in the Hat, a 5 pitch 5.7. Derek led most of the route including this pitch where I accidentally sandbagged him.

The route goes up the crack between the roofs to the right of where Derek is climbing. At the belay Derek expressed his intention to lead up the crack. I pulled out the topo and pointed to the "steep brown wall" designation on the topo, indicating that I thought this was where the route went. Derek looked at me with relief and said "good thing you're here, I was going to go up that crack, it's probably 5.9 or something" and he proceeded to lead the pitch up the "steep brown wall." As I followed the pitch and the climbing became more difficult and the gear became sparse, I realized that we were definitely not on the 5.5 terrain that the topo had indicated this pitch to be. Sorry, Derek! It did prove to be the best climbing on the route, in my opinion, and Derek was justifiably exhilerated by his accomplishment, AFTER the pitch was over. Way to go, Derek! The party behind us also followed us up our "variation." Thankfully, they did not fall either.

We had more weather issues the following days and spent two more days cragging between snow flurries. Gotta love that desert weather!

Above, Derek follows the first pitch of the Misunderstanding (5.9) at the Black Velvet Canyon. The next pitch was a beautiful corner that the guidebook indicated was a fist crack, something we did not have the gear for. We decided to climb up and have a look for ourselves because it really did look like a hand-size crack from the ground. But what do you know, the guidebook was right and we had to bail for lack of the larger sized gear we would have needed to adequately protect the second pitch.

The single best pitch of climbing we did there was a short, single pitch finger crack called Straight Shooter (5.9+) on the Brass Wall. It was a beautiful line and great fun. Here's a picture of me leading it, courtesy of Justin, a fellow Southeasterner who met up with us and camped with us in Red Rocks for a couple of days.

For our final day of climbing at Red Rocks we chose a big objective, Johnny Vegas followed by Soler Slab. The climbing would not be difficult (5.6) but involved over 2000 feet of climbing, likely the most either of us had ever climbed in a single day.

Derek following the second pitch of Johnny Vegas and leading the first pitch of Soler Slab:

The climbing went well and we were able to move quickly and cover a lot of ground as we needed to do.

We made it to the top with plenty of daylight and a good appreciation for the amount of ground we had covered.

BUT, we still had to get down, which proved to be our crux. After a couple hours of searching we managed to find the rappel anchors and finish the rappels just before dark. But we still had quite a bit of third class slab down-climbing to complete in the dark. This ended in what the guidebook described as a 20 foot "slither" into a creekbed, which we would then follow back to the base of our route. Here, Derek prepares to make the slide:

We eventually did make it back to our packs and back to the car without incident. It was just slow going in the dark. Thank goodness for headlamps! We were both exhausted but I also felt proud that we had pulled it off. Although the climbing was not difficult, the sheer amount of it made it a big objective for us. Once back in Bishop I rested for TWO days before heading out for more climbing!

The Range of Light

It's easy to see how the Sierra earned this characterization. The Sierra are to the west of the town of Bishop and offer a beautiful backdrop. The mountains actually seem to change throughout the day as the light on them changes, and it is fun to watch. The Southeast is beautiful, to be sure. But we just don't have the mountains and open sky like they do out here.

Even Brandy has to stop sometimes and appreciate their beauty!

They also provide a beautiful and inspiring setting for bouldering. Even if the climbing's not going so well, you can always sit back and enjoy the views! I've spent several days over the past week at the Buttermilks, which are big granite boulders at the foot of the mountains a few miles west of Bishop. The granite can feel polished and slick but at the same time it bites into your skin and leaves you with sore fingertips much sooner than would seem likely.

Many of the boulders are tall! Much bigger than they look in this picture. Fortunately, at such a popular area, it's easy to find people to climb with. Or, when I'm climbing alone, there's always the Ironman Traverse, a classic v4 that is low to the ground and with a flat, sandy landing.

Every move traversing the rail of this boulder feels completely doable, and at the same time, linking all the moves seems incredibly difficult. A beautiful line in a beautiful setting and a good combination of power and endurance to try to complete before I leave Bishop!


The Buttermilks are great, but they have can also take a toll on the fingertips, the muscles and the mind. Brandy and I were both ready for a rest day today.

Overall, we are settling into a routine here, and I'm enjoying the lifestyle. The first few days out here on my own felt lonely, and I almost felt that I'd made a mistake coming out here on my own. But I'm learning to appreciate the simplicity of the day--getting up in the morning when the sun hits the tent and wakes me up (or, more accurately, wakes Brandy up who then wakes me up), firing up the stove and making the morning cup of coffee, eating my banana and bagel, packing up the gear for the day of climbing and then enjoying the climbing itself. The evenings are a little trickier because it gets dark and cold early and this makes me want to crawl into my tent at a very early hour. I try to make it until 8 and then stay up until 9. I am catching up on a lot of reading, podcasts, and sleep!

On Saturday it will be time for a change of pace. I will head to Vegas to meet my good buddy, Derek, for a week of climbing at Red Rocks, which is just outside the city. I have never been and am looking forward to checking out another new area. Stay tuned!

Back to work!

On the blog that is! Not to worry, dear readers, I do not intend to rejoin the ranks of the gainfully employed for several more months. Now, let me apologize for my extended absence from the world of blogging. (Although I would just like to note that in the months since my last post the blog has managed to acquire 4 new "followers." I am trying not to dwell on what this suggests about the quality of my posts and am instead attributing it to the "afterglow" of a brilliant last post.) But please don't think that my silence indicates that I have not been busying myself on important tasks like climbing rocks. In fact, I have engaged in quite a bit of close-to-home climbing over the past few months and have managed visits to areas throughout the Southeast in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and West Virginia. After spending the previous few months traveling out West, I came back with a renewed appreciation for the good things we have in our own backyard. Many of the folks I met in my travels further afield had not heard of some of our gems and I was torn between feeling a need to vindicate Southern climbing and a secret glee and feeling of smugness at their lack of awareness (just being honest).

However, after several months enjoying fall in the Southeast, spending time with Thomas and Higgs and the holidays with my family, I am once again back on the road. This post is coming to you from the Black Sheep coffee shop in Bishop, California. Brandy is traveling with me this time and she and I made the long drive from Atlanta with stops in Nashville and Flagstaff to visit friends. It's nice to have Brandy along but she definitely wasn't doing her part to help keep me awake on some of the long stretches:

This is probably an appropriate place to pause and warn you, faithful readers, that this and future blog posts are going to contain a significant number of photos of Brandy. Since she is my only traveling companion at present, is not very good at operating a camera, and is much more photogenic than me, well, you can see how that is going to shake out.

Brandy and I rolled into Bishop late Monday evening and pulled into the climbers' campground here (which is called "the Pit" and only costs $2 per night but is much nicer than the name and price suggest). In the morning we awoke to a glorious sight...we were surrounded by mountains!!!

It was a little cloudy, but you get the idea. Bishop has a unique landscape in that the town and surrounding areas appear dry and desert-like but are surrounded by impressive snow-capped mountains.

I have spent the past two days bouldering at the Happy boulders, which are close to the campground. (I am anxious to see the Buttermilks but the forecast called for a possibility of rain and the Happy boulders typically stay dry.) The boulders are large blocks of volcanic tuff spread throughout the center and rims of a canyon. Again, the canyon has a definite desert feel and the rock itself which is a dark brown color adds to this, but over the rims of the canyons you can see snow-covered peaks.

Walking out of the canyon is even more interesting because in addition to the mountains and desert, there are also grasslands spread out beneath beyond the mouth of the canyon. Here, Brandy keeps watch.

The boulders are primarily steep, although there are a good number of slabs thrown in as well.

Oh, and there are a few pockets here and there.

After two days of bouldering on this rock, I was feeling the effects on my skin and in the soreness in my shoulders. So, I took the opportunity today to spend some time getting acquainted with the small town of Bishop and am looking forward to visiting the Buttermilks tomorrow. Stay tuned!