The Desert: A T.R.

[texplorer]

Last week I returned from my 4th trip to Southeast Utah and those splitter cracks. It was a great trip despite a few of the usual roadtrip hiccups.

 

The Short Version:

Zion - Free climbed Organasm, Organ Grinder and aided Prodigal Sun

 

Canyonlands NP - Moses Tower, Primrose Dihedrals

 

Indian Creek - Numberous splitters at Pistol Whipped wall, Resivoir wall, and Tenderloin Wall

 

After much ado Mark and I headed out of Portland for a 9 day trip to my second favorite climbing destination in the world. As we drove my mouth salivated with thoughts of climbing up the sweet red rock with its black desert varnish. The desert and indian creek sometimes get a bad reputation for various reasons but they will forever have a warm place in my heart. It is a great place to test your crack skills. Several friends talk about heading to the University of Indian Creek. For sure, if you think you are a crack climber that place will confirm or embarass you.

 

After some fun freeclimbing and getting up Prodigal Son we headed to Moab where I met another friend, Kris, from previous desert trips. Every year, I meet a small group of friends in the desert. We are from all over the U.S. but for a few weeks every spring we converge on Moab and Indian Creek. Our ages range from mid 20's to mid 50's. Moab and I.C. seem to draw other climbing obsessed climbers like myself. In previous years I have seen many famous and bad ass climbers there. Just this trip I met Lennord Koin (of Koin Crack fame). Right in the Pagan Climbing Shop Parking lot he told me of a new route he had put up calling it the "Astroman" of the area.

 

This trip my main objective was a beautiful tower known as Moses. First climbed by some guy named Beckey (?), it is one of the most identifiable towers anywhere. The Primrose dihedrals route up the south side of the tower is purportedly one of the very best routes in the desert (see supertopo website). It is not one of the mega-popular routes. Most of its pitches are .10+ with a .11d first pitch and a .11 Offwidth high up on the route. Combine hard climbing with the traditional original shitty drilled piton and star drive anchors, a remote location accessible only by 4-wheel drive and you have a classic desert testpiece of skill and juevos.

 

The first pitch is deceptive and hard. The crux comes 20 feet off the ground with an offset nut (and possible loweball) for pro. After my partner went up and down a few times I took the sharp end and actually fell on the loweball. Yikes! After hanging once I was able to fanagle my way up. The next several pitches are super-classic and fun. There is the crazy downclimb traverse and an amazing pitch of dihedrals and a small bulging roof. We moved ok through the next several pitches and sooner than I wanted we arrived at the dreaded "ear" pitch. This .11b offwidth is a huge flake with a 10-12 inch crack behind. It's starts off overhanging and then turns gradually to vertical. Ed Webster, on the first ascent, put in several bolts and aided the line. The bolts end about half way up the ear with the last "bolt" being a drilled angle only half way in and bent downward.

 

It was my pitch since I was the "OW specialist." Hoping that maybe one of the 1977 1/4 inch bolts or scary pins might hold a fall I began to grovel up the 40 ft flake with nothing but quickdraws and a few cams. It was one of the most exhausting pitches I have ever led! Slowly I inched up clipping each bolt and finally the bent piton. Another 15 ft of climbing and it would all be over I told myself. I tried not to think about a 30ft whipper onto that pin and squirmed upward. The supertopo said to go right side in but I stayed left side in and inched up. After averaging about a minute a foot I had made it! I imagine that I laid on the ledge above for 10 minutes or more trying to catch my breath. As I lay there in exhausting triumph over one of the hardest pitches of my life I remembered why I love the desert. She is a hard, stark place that seldom gives her rewards away. When you earn them, though, they are some of the best and finest. A few more easy pitches and we were on the summit. After the usual summit photos we headed down, rapping the original Beckey line. I wondered what it must have been like climbing these spectacular towers for the first time. Beers at the car never felt so deserved. Sitting in swirling sand and drinking gritty lukewarm beer in contentment is something only a rare few enjoy. I was very lucky that day and will have a memory for a lifetime.

 

My trip continued with a short trip back to Moab and then the fabled Indian Creek. There I met some old friends and new. Yet again I was impressed with the Creek. No new routes put up this year but I did get on some really great super long routes.

 

In the next few months a new comprehensive Indian Creek guidebook is coming out. Although the it will be helpful I hope that the spirit of the desert and the Creek are same for years to come. I fear however with a guidebook the masses may follow and the desert I know will be lost. In any event I recommend the desert and her allures to anyone.

 

If I can find someone with a scanner, I'll post some pics.

[thelawgoddess]

f'ing sweet, tex!

[thrutch]

The new guide boook is out, thrumbed through it the other day. Looks like all of Dr. Dave's work has created a wonderful guide book!

 

Just like Texplorer, I recently spent a few magical weeks in the land of red rocks, and again like Texplorer it is and always will be a special place for me.

[Dru]

"with a guidebook the masses may follow"

 

hey tex correct me if i'm missing something here but

1) there have been indian creek guidebooks out for years

2) the area is already crowded by the "masses" and there is ongoing problems with spread out car camping, too many trails, erosion and human waste

 

no?

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

But that's not the point! There's no bolts, get it? It's pure, natural, undespoiled, 100% Grade-A all-American TRAD climbing! So it's OK! OK?!

 

[Dru]

But that's not the point! There's no bolts, get it? It's pure, natural, undespoiled, 100% Grade-A all-American TRAD climbing! So it's OK! OK?!

 

 

you mean like the Ahwahnee Buffet???

[texplorer]

Drew, the only guides to IC I know about are the few pages in the fat falcon guide and a puny little "interim" guide. The interim guide is ok but is a bare bones list of the clmbs there. It has maybe 100 climbs listed in it of the thousands actually out at the creek.

 

Most of the people that go to the Creek go to the supercrack buttress and donnelly canyon area. These cliffs are popular for having a good amount of .10 climbs in a close area. There are many other areas and crags just as good or better but that, up to this point, are not as well known.

 

The access issues and destruction from climbers I believe is overblown. Yes, climbers have made an impact but I think the annual jeep festival in which thousands of off-road vehicles descend and destroy is a much bigger problem. (but brings in a ton of money)

 

The crowds of people up to know have been pretty centered in just one area and the "crowds" are nowhere like what you see at Smith or Squish. I just hope things stay as they are but I guess well just have to wait and see.

[Alpinfox]

 

Freakin' awesome Tex!

 

I'm so jealous. Must get to IC soon...

[sk]

AWSOME I wish you could have brought picks to the lucky lab next time

[jonah]

Sweet TR; good go on primrose. Damn, I miss the Creek. I don't think the guidebook will hurt too much, Tex, but I see your point. At least 50% of the people that go there get so spanked their first time they don't want to climb there anymore, though. Besides, incredible handcrack, et al., will eventually get so eroded inside that they will be offwidths, most people will think the supercrack butress is schwaggy offwidth and that it's all IC has to offer, and stop going. Then it will once again be a land of endless, unclimbed splitter heaven.

[gosolo]

Yes I am bored and reading some very old posts, but this was a cool trip report as it catches the spirit of the Desert. I started climbing there in 1980 with one friend on the rack. Money (for Friends the only cams) and experience got me to Indian Creek in about 1982. No other climbers but "those who went before" and that usually meant Steve Hong. I imagine it is a different place now than it was then. There have been a couple guides out, one is 200 Indian Creek Climbs Select and it did show many of the routes. Back then we hiked a hell of a lot of Talus and said, awe great crack, wrong size, or ohhhhh good crack lets do it. Frequently, we would do a route suspecting a FA only to find a lone machine bolt with the initials SH on a homemade hanger. We usually backed it up and only rarely used the lone bolt to get down.

 

I havent been there in about 15 years and it was changing fast then. Because as wild as the desert is, it is also fragile. The crypogammic (sp?) soil that takes many years to be able to hold the dust down. The cracks that can take a beating. For a while some companies sold colored chalk. for about 1 year it may have been in vogue, too bad someone cant come up with pigments that arent slippery as the chalk seems to be the worst mark that most climbers leave.

 

Moses: good Climb Tex. I climbed (clean aided) the North Face route in 1983 and there was still a summit register there, we did the 37th or 38th ascent. I went back in 88 to do the Primrose dihedrals (about the 100th ascent of the spire) and it was pretty much as you described. No other climbers and getting to the topn of those spires is only halfway, I always thought that it would be a shitty way to go to drop the rapp ropes.....bad thought.....

 

I can't imagine how many times the spire has been climbed now, but it is still a wonderful magic place. Wingate sandstone forces you to learn pure crack climbing technique and the desert seems to draw the best out of you if you have the patience and desire. I am very glad at hearing that the spirit of the desert is still alive and climbers are experienceing what I got 20 years ago. Makes my day.

[texplorer]

Just one week and I'll be headed back down to splitter heaven. I think Fine Jade, Honeymoon Chimney, and the N. Face of Castleton are on the menu.

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

Don't come back until you've fired Pink Flamingoes, you scoundrel!

[gosolo]

You dog! Have fun and check out the "calcite" on the N Face of Castleton. At the top of the first pitch the rock is glazed over by this stuff. It is really cool. Excellent route and not to bad. On the crux I liebacked it and I just saw a pic somewhere on the FFA where he jammed it. I have read on here where you like wide cracks and you get a little taste of that on the third pitch....but nothing like the dreaded EAR, thank god.