A Diamond in the Rough
I find myself every now and again Flipping through Todd Goss's, "Rock Climbs of Southwest Utah". Gawking and drooling at all the amazing Crags (Crags are climbing slang for places to climb) we have in our neck of the woods. I've visited everything in town a few times and find myself bored. No, I haven't done every route and mastered every move but just going to the same place again can get old. The thought of seeing other people or knowing there is a wal-mart just 2 blocks that way also makes it loose its appeal to me. That's why I always find myself wanting or craving to go some place new, some place new and some place off the radar... I am a modern day Lewis or Clark from whatever they called themselves. Since I have always been up for exploring the more difficult and remote areas, the other night I stumbled upon a Crag that looked too far away from town, required a long hike/crawl up a rather steep mountain, and is pretty much as far away from Utah you can be and still be in Utah. Yes, exactly.
Technology is Great. Google is Great. Speaking of Google, I love Google and pretty much anything and everything the sell, offer or make, I own in some form or another. My guide book doesn't have a lot of pictures of the area. Just a few ugly pictures of the wall with lines and numbers showing the routes. I Googled around and after awhile I found a few solid pictures of the area. I was Sold.
I Posted a picture of the area and tagged a few people to see if they have ever been out there and if they were interested. Tigg Responded immediately and said "let's get out there asap!" The weekend was coming so we made plans to make plans to have plans to go out there.
The weekend came and we headed out in my little Samurai to get us as close as possible to the crag (I love that little jeep, I hope I never sell it. Best $700 I ever spent). We got up Utah hill and took a few dirt roads and dry washes till we made it to the bottom of a huge chunk of Limestone jetting out of the hillside.
Truly awesome! Most people park and walk up the very steep old mining road but we didn't...We drove right to the end. Which I became more and more weary since it was so narrow and steep that I was going to have to drive back down backwards. Luckily the top offered a 5 point turnaround spot. Forget about a full size truck, just park at the bottom.
The road led up to an old Mine which is still rarely in use. They didn't even have it gated off. This sparked Tiggs interest and to my better judement we explored the mine with one headlamp and two cell phone lights. Hey there is an App for that.
This is about 50 yards into the Mine. It goes straight into the mountain only turning left and right enough to block out the daylight and make it pitch black. Then runs into this larger room before heading down and further into the mountain. I patiently waited here while Tigg continued down into the abyss. Something about just relying on my cell phone for light wasn't sitting right with me so I drew a line in the sand and waited. Tigg returned a minute later and we headed out. He said it kept going but I think I was holding him back. Note: Bring a headlamp next time. Two for that matter.
We headed out and were welcomed by sunshine, Burned trees and Desert.
I recently got a new Lens. I just sold my Canon 55-250mm for their sexy white "L" Tele-photo lens. A 70-200 IS USM. Bitchin. This was one of the first pictures with it. Pretty stoked about the quality that comes out. Didn't even notice any chromatic aberration cropped to 100% on high contrast areas. My 50mm 1.8 gets red peaking around pretty good in full daylight.
If you look you can see one of the finger holds that are abundant on this crag.
Technology is Great. Google is Great. Speaking of Google, I love Google and pretty much anything and everything the sell, offer or make, I own in some form or another. My guide book doesn't have a lot of pictures of the area. Just a few ugly pictures of the wall with lines and numbers showing the routes. I Googled around and after awhile I found a few solid pictures of the area. I was Sold.
I Posted a picture of the area and tagged a few people to see if they have ever been out there and if they were interested. Tigg Responded immediately and said "let's get out there asap!" The weekend was coming so we made plans to make plans to have plans to go out there.
The weekend came and we headed out in my little Samurai to get us as close as possible to the crag (I love that little jeep, I hope I never sell it. Best $700 I ever spent). We got up Utah hill and took a few dirt roads and dry washes till we made it to the bottom of a huge chunk of Limestone jetting out of the hillside.
Truly awesome! Most people park and walk up the very steep old mining road but we didn't...We drove right to the end. Which I became more and more weary since it was so narrow and steep that I was going to have to drive back down backwards. Luckily the top offered a 5 point turnaround spot. Forget about a full size truck, just park at the bottom.
The road led up to an old Mine which is still rarely in use. They didn't even have it gated off. This sparked Tiggs interest and to my better judement we explored the mine with one headlamp and two cell phone lights. Hey there is an App for that.
This is about 50 yards into the Mine. It goes straight into the mountain only turning left and right enough to block out the daylight and make it pitch black. Then runs into this larger room before heading down and further into the mountain. I patiently waited here while Tigg continued down into the abyss. Something about just relying on my cell phone for light wasn't sitting right with me so I drew a line in the sand and waited. Tigg returned a minute later and we headed out. He said it kept going but I think I was holding him back. Note: Bring a headlamp next time. Two for that matter.
We headed out and were welcomed by sunshine, Burned trees and Desert.
The Highest peak out there is Utah hill or more correctly named Jarvis Peak. It's the one with the radio towers west of town. Halfway between the Jarvis Peak and us is Old Highway 91. Its a tiny spec and with no traffic it pretty much doesn't exsist.
We hiked up a ways, loaded down by climbing gear, ropes and camera equipment for your enjoying pleasure and a few slips and falls later we were welcomed by vertigo.
We hiked up a ways, loaded down by climbing gear, ropes and camera equipment for your enjoying pleasure and a few slips and falls later we were welcomed by vertigo.
Most climbs are single pitch but if you're willing and able there are a couple double pitches and if I brought binoculars I think there is plenty of room for a 3rd pitch. All of which are full length. Both climbs we did left little to no extra rope on our 60m line.
I looked around at a few of the routes and slowly retreated to my happy place. There are some steep bare walls up there that are bolted up. Tigg and I looked at each other and said, "Um, lets find something do-able." I got the guidebook out and found the easiest route on the wall. A route called "Pack Man." for our warm up. Tigg offered to lead it, we got our gear on and checked each others knot tying skills out and tied in. Here it is in color. Tigg looks so small that in sepia he doesn't exist.
I looked around at a few of the routes and slowly retreated to my happy place. There are some steep bare walls up there that are bolted up. Tigg and I looked at each other and said, "Um, lets find something do-able." I got the guidebook out and found the easiest route on the wall. A route called "Pack Man." for our warm up. Tigg offered to lead it, we got our gear on and checked each others knot tying skills out and tied in. Here it is in color. Tigg looks so small that in sepia he doesn't exist.
Save your neck, lay down and belay. If you look up you can see a overhang which I can only assume is wear pac-man came from because you have to traverse left underneath it. The whole route is rather easy except for a couple moves that require traversing over to your left. Once there its a quick 3 bolts to the anchors. Most routes on the right side of the wall are slightly positive climbing but all are 5.10's. This is due to the small holds required to get up but are super grippy. I love Limestone.
Climbed a few routes and took some shots. I had Tigg tie into the wall and I tied up a back up of the rope to a tree while I scrambled around to find places to take pics.
I recently got a new Lens. I just sold my Canon 55-250mm for their sexy white "L" Tele-photo lens. A 70-200 IS USM. Bitchin. This was one of the first pictures with it. Pretty stoked about the quality that comes out. Didn't even notice any chromatic aberration cropped to 100% on high contrast areas. My 50mm 1.8 gets red peaking around pretty good in full daylight.
If you look you can see one of the finger holds that are abundant on this crag.
Tigg about halfway up "Diamonds are forever" 5.11d
Another... This really shows how exposed and high up you are.
Another... This really shows how exposed and high up you are.
I also did a 360° panoramo if you want to check out.
Thanks for reading.
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