Well, I reckon this be me first submittal to the bog.
Last week I went on a climbing trip down to St. George UT with a couple of friends (Mark Hammond and Todd Hammond) from SLC. We spent the first day in an area called Utah Hills (about 15 min. outside Santa Clara) and climbed at a wall called the Soul Asylum. The rock is high quality limestone with pretty grey and orange bands and really crisp, cool features.
We did an unusual climb called
Petrified that starts out of a rounded off elevator-like shaft for about 30 feet and then opens out onto more of a slab to finish. It's a very enjoyable and memorable route.
A little ways down the wall, Mark lead an 11.d/12a called
Soul Train and Todd flashed it soon thereafter. It's fun climbing with Mark and Todd for many reasons, one of which is that they're better and stronger than me, so in climbing with them I get to work on routes that I probably wouldn't otherwise be able to.
We camped out in the Utah Hills area. There were no clouds and a full moon was out that night. It was so bright that flashlights were unnecessary.
The following morning we drove into town and had a five-star dining experience at Denny's. I treated myself to a
Heartland Slam- an exceptional offering of hash browns, sausage links, an egg/potato/cheese scrambling, and pancakes. The Heartland Slam is also an accurate physiological description of the meal's impact on your circulatory system.
After cracking out the defibrillator, we drove to an outstanding area called Welcome Springs. Welcome Springs is the home of some gnarly crags including The Cathedral and The Wailing Wall (Here's a pretty wild shot taken by photographer Keith Ladzinski of climber Andy Raether at the Cathedral-
http://www.ladzinski.com/view.asp?id=923). We spent our time at the Wailing Wall and got on three really good routes. Todd and Mark worked a .13a called
La Hobytla and are very close to sending it if they decide to go back and work it again. I pretty much just dogged up everything that day, but had a great time nonetheless.
On our way out, we were in range to witness a couple of bulls trying to work out their differences through combat. They seemed to be using an unorthodox blend of Muay Thai and Irish head-butting. It was a good battle.
Solid trip. My only regret is not purchasing this dapper spider-man ski mask we saw at the Outdoor Outlet to wear at important events and various bank transactions.
The next day, I got back in the car and drove down to Moab to ride
AmasaBack with a friend named Jud Felt. It was Easter weekend and also happened to be JeepSafari week down there. Needless to say, it was quite a circus (OPEC has got to be a huge fan).
There was a full-on fleet of Jeeps on AmasaBack, so we opted out for the SlickRock Loop instead and had a good ride.
Afterward, we paid tribute to Mr. Dave Thomas (rest in peace) by purchasing one of the finer combo meals available in the world of fast food culinary arts- the Wendy's Spicy Chicken Combo Meal, w/drink substituted for chocolate Frosty. Mmmm-Mmmm.
We swung by the last technical section of
Porcupine Rim on our way out of town. Jud had a couple of good runs at it and we saw a guy from Colorado hit a pretty sizeable drop, which he rode out cleanly.
A great few days.
