Thugged out since cub scouts
Alright, I am going to try and actually 'blog', that is to say writing + pictures. I decided attempting to write (in a creative sense) would probably be good for me. It's something I don't do that much anymore, and I would like to get better at it. This 'revelation' came to me in the middle of the night as I was nearing Salt Lake on the way from Indian Creek, Utah to Missoula. My friends Elliot and Ben were fast asleep as I charged the Subaru through to 100+ miles of Provo-Salt Lake giant highway bullshit. We were headed back to the last 3 weeks of the semester, and my undergraduate career. This was the last thing any of us wanted to do having just spent 8 days climbing some of the most stunning rocks I've been on.
We left Missoula around 7:30pm on the previous Saturday. Elliot was fresh off working a catering gig at the Griz-Cat game and was eager to punch the first 5 hours of the 12 hour drive to Moab. I did my time driving after him, but was pretty useless trying to stay and awake and co-pilot for Ben in the early hours. We arrive in Moab around 8:30 and quickly got some coffee and breakfast burritos.
The rack
2 hours later we dropped into Indian Creek. There is seemingly endless sandstone cracks in this place. We cruised to a campground in hopes of snagging a spot before we went climbing. We desperately needed to get some of the gear out of the car (mainly water and wood) cause she was bottoming out on big dips. Once established we began our climbing escapades, which lasted for 7 days with one rest day in between.
It's chill
We planned to climb as much as physically possible over the next week. As it turns out, this equates to about 4 climbs a day. Climbing these splitter cracks is a full body workout, your hands and feet get completely trashed. It didn't help that I initially wasted tons of energy climbing really slow. My first lead was 40 feet tall and took me something like 13 minutes. Ha. I eventually started picking up techniques and realized that the gear is really good and easy to place. We got on 3 climbs in out first half day.
Photo courtesy of Elliot (smelly) Natz
We climbed as a trio for the next couple days. We had perfect weather, even reaching into the 70's during the day. Never thought we would be looking for shade. We climbed 5.9's to 5.12's, trying to pick out the sweetest looking cracks. Our fingers and hands and feet swelled as did out stoke. That's the beauty of climbing trips to me. The stoke just keeps growing throughout. We eventually hooked up with some Bozeman bros who were looking to get rad. Brain got just a little bit too rad when he hit the deck from something like 15 feet, ripping out 2 cams in the process. Luckily he landed gracefully (not at all) and sustained minimal injury. We continued to climb with Brian and Tyler for the rest of our trip. Mahalo bros. I hope to go climbing with them again.
Bro
Bra
Our Thanksgiving dinner was top notch! The 5 of us feasted on elk steak, mashed potatoes stuffing, curry couscous, pie, beer, and whiskey. After we had sufficiently stuffed ourselves we made our way over to the party that everyone had been talking about in the days prior. We were quickly roped into a 100 person 'thankful circle', followed by a mustache competition, followed by a dance off. Then everyone danced (more like jumped around like fools), holding christmas lights over heads and singing-party people in the house tonight. It was a pretty fun time. They call it Creeksgiving and this was the 9th year. They also hold a half marathon that involves jugging fixed line up and tower and rappelling down mid run.
Elliot giving thanks for the hangover
We tried hard to push through the constant wear on my body, but eventually we had to take a rest day. We decided we would try and bop over to a Thanksgiving highline festival that Hobbs was at. It took us 2+ hours of driving and a 40min hike, but we found David. The scene that we stumbled upon consisted of 9 highlines stretched across a 300ft deep canyon, 100 or so people, and probably the most relaxed vibe I have ever felt. We hung out all afternoon with Hobbs taking pictures and relaxing in the sun. Eventually we had to leave knowing we had a ways back to the creek. As we hiked out the sun began to set, casting a magnificent orange glow on everything.
We got back to climbing the next day. I didn't realize until later how tired my body actually was though. The stoke was so high that I never noticed until my technique started to fall apart. We went back to try and get the clean send of Anunaki, but failed. I'm stoked though, something to go back to.
Anunaki
Dirtbagging
We drove home through the night on Sunday aided by the light of the moon. We were bummed to leave, but real life was beckoning us back. Working on my senior project this week was nearly impossible. All I could think about was climbing. It was a super fun trip and I look forward to going back down sometime.
On another note, here is the edit I made from several weeks back when I was lucky enough to go out to one of the highlines that Hobbs has established. Enjoy.
The Plank
