City of Rocks & Castle Rocks

Anytime I get more than two days off, I think about climbing at The City. We made the trip over there this past weekend. I am about a pound lighter after shaving my beard. It feels nice now, but I may have to grow it back for skiing.

We set up a toprope on Practice Rock and the kids did some laps on a 5.7. Then we were mobbed by a gang of Utards with more children under the age of 2 than the law should allow. One kid had a diaper poking through a rip in her pants. It looked like the worlds largest hemorrhoid because it was so full that it just dangled out. We pulled our gear and let them have at it. Oh yeah, I also got to see my first public breast feeding!

We normally camp up near the Parking Lot Rock area since you can walk to a lot of cool climbs. This time we tried camping near Practice Rock. The site was pretty cool. It had lots of boulders for the kids to explore. The parking area wasn't level enough to just pop the top on the van, so I jacked her up and leveled her out with some 2x4's I keep in storage for such an occasion. We didn't need to cook since we had eaten at The Outpost in Almo. I have always steered clear of the place since it looked too clean and there was always a full lot of SUVs with shiny wheels. I thought that they may be expensive. But they weren't! $5.50 for an Angus cheeseburger with steak fries. We will still buy a pizza at Rock City when given the choice, but they were at the fair in Burley that weekend and the lady watching the store wasn't cooking pizza. We did stop in there and buy ice and a six pack of beer.

Humming Birds at Rock City

I woke up before the sun. Not because I was so excited about getting on the rock, but because my head hurt so bad. It felt like something was pushing my right eye out of it's socket. I stayed lying down and tried to use accupressure on my head, but it hurt to touch my eye socket so bad that I got sick to my stomach. I ended up seeing the cheeseburger and organic wheat beer a second time. I laid out in a T-shirt on a flat rock until my stomach was settled. I went back to the van a pounded water and asprin. I went back to sleep for awhile and then just laid in bed until about 2 p.m. I finally felt better, and we went down to a climb I have been wanting to do for awhile.

Micro Pillar (11a)

Now I could make excuses and say that I was weak from being sick, but this climb was hard! Bonnie climbed it first and fell quite a few times and finally made it to the first bolt! Then I gave it a shot to let her have a rest. The bottom is a powerful layback with a long throw to a good hold. I wish I had some more power. I fell quite a few times and made it to a rest above the first bolt. It let up on the way to the second bolt, but then there were some balancy moves above it and I fell a couple more times. I hung on the rope to rest, sorry. The upper section is only like 5.9, but this route targeted your left forearm so well that I had a hard time hanging on to the bigger holds. We finally lowered off after working on this thing for over an hour. We then hiked further down to the Humming Bird Corridor.

Get Over It (11a)

There is a long route in the Corridor called Get Over It (11a). It's a Kevin Pogue route so it's bolted very well. It has a large roof (crux) that leads to easier climbing without a death runout between the bolts. Kevin's routes catch flak from people that don't climb at my lower level, but I like them and the easier ones (sub 5.8) he has put up are very popular with people that only climb a couple times a year.

We hiked back up to the van and got some food and went for a hike. The kids enjoy all the weird geological phenomena that time and the elements has created.

Every cave that Kaden sees he MUST check it out. I could spend a lifetime here and still be in awe of the formations. We went back and went to sleep and I woke up early again. This time it was because I was excited to get on the rock. We packed up and drove to Castle Rocks SP. There was nobody in the parking lot and I decided to explore some of the less visited formations. We hiked to True Grit and The Duke. We spent some time finding a climb that the whole family could do and ended up on the NW ridge of The Duke. I think the climb was a 5.6 and had two bolts and then needed gear to the anchors. The rock was pretty bad since it probably hadn't been climbed in a long time. Quite a few holds broke in hand and under foot. The gear placements were less than stellar, as well. I love Metolius cams because they have a larger lobe and different geometry on the axle that make them more secure. We stayed in the cool corridor for awhile.

5.6 Mixed Bolt/Gear

Kaden going for it!

Sierra's good footwork

Easy money.

On the way back to the van we stopped at Lone Rock and Bonnie led Poking Holes in the Firmament (5.6). She did very well. I could get used to swapping leads!

Bonnie Leading.

At the Anchors.

Lone Rock.

Everyone was worn out.

Mores Mountain

We tried to get out of the heat by going up to climb at Mores Mountain. It's a great spot to climb in the summer since it's over 6,000 feet in elevation. When we got there, two guys were already up on "Roadside Rock". I was actually surprised that there weren't more climbers up there.

Roadside (L) The Pincer (R)

We scrambled up a class 3 wash-out since the last time I was up there was years ago and there was a fixed line up an eroded path. The kids made it fine and we stopped to soak up the area. The two guys came over and we talked for awhile and then they packed up and headed down. They told us that there was a trail that is in really great shape. Later, on the way down, we took it and it was in great shape.

We went over to the backside of "Roadside" since it is eternally in the shade. It was still hot. Not as hot as town, but still too hot to climb in the sun. We climbed a route called "Life without Beer". It had evil little knobs and your footwork needed to be dialed in. We didn't have long, since the kids were starting to feud and complain about hunger or something. After I put up the route, Bonnie tied in and proceeded to climb her first 10b! It was amazing! She would start to think about weighting the rope and I would yell encouragement and then she would yell at herself and push on. I was very happy and proud.

Bonnie almost at the anchors!

After she climbed it I had to clean it because I left the draws as directionals (falling on toprope would swing you WAY left!) and rap down. I got to the 4th bolt and was stepping up on a micro Evil Knob and it snapped off! I don't think it will make a difference because it was pretty small and I was in a hurry. Plus, most of the other guys besides me that climb up here probably only need one foothold per 20 feet anyways!

Evil Little Knob

There are A LOT more formations that I would like to explore. The drive from town is only 25 miles and is well worth it.

Potential???

Rainier

We made it to the summit via the DC on Wednesday. It took us about 5 hours from Muir to get up and about 2.5 hours to get down. The conditions were very good and there was a full moon.

When we first arrived at Camp Muir, there was only one other climber there. We actually prepared to stay the night in the shelter. Soon the clouds parted on the Muir snowfield and "The ride of the Valkyries" cued up. There were LOTS of climbers making their way up. I mean LOTS. I didn't know what the hell happened. I planned on a nice relaxing mid-week summit with very few other climbers. After things settled out, the shelter was full. I mean like 30 people full. I left our stove in there and asked Chris if he wanted to stay out on the glacier. I think he was already down there and had the tent out by the time it left my mouth.

We pitched the tent and enjoyed the solitude of the glacier and our nice little piece of real estate. We went up and found a King 5 camera crew milling around the shelter. I talked to one of the guys and found out that there was the commissioner of the NFL and the head coach of the Seahawks doing a United Way charity climb. RMI was the guide company for the cause and we got to meet Ed Viesturs. Then we found out that Camp Patriot was there as well. Camp Patriot is an awesome organization that assists disabled Veterans in getting back into the outdoors. The NFL guys had a giant man-tourage and the Camp Patriot heroes had a couple of guides.

Needless to say, our solitude didn't last on the glacier as a Mountaineering club from the midwest moved in and a couple of other independent groups came down also. I felt like a Native Idahoan being overran by Californians.

I think some of the tents may have been made by Hubble or Corey Barton. On our summit night the tent below us kept yelling to the tent above about having a water bottle. Which is okay since when I went up to the shelter early in the morning to make coffee, it was a steady drone of snoring, coughing and farting.

The route was in really good shape. There was a nice bootpack all the way up. There were about four or five crevasses to cross. Only one required a jump.

I was concerned with rockfall since it was coming down off of the Cleaver and had injured a climber the day before we arrived. We roped in short and moved fast through the more hazardous areas.

There was some pretty good sized blocks coming down off of the Cathedral Gap. A refrigerator sized chunk missed a party by about ten feet.

I think that the summit crater is the longest 1/4 mile a person can walk...

There were about 10 independent parties including us and 5 summited and 5 turned back. Three of the 5 that summited were from Idaho!

The City II.

Rapping off of "Jackson's Thumb"

My wife and I went back to the City for a few days climbing while I rested for my trip to Rainier. It was a very enjoyable trip. The weather was nice until the last night when it ripped our camp up while we were eating pizza at Rock City!

We were able to climb some fun stuff and she led some stuff in Castle Rocks. We did a 5.7 on Jackson's Thumb called "Theater of Shadows" first thing because I've tried to climb it twice and have been shut out because of weather. I love the City!

I'm back from Rainier. We made the summit under a full moon and great conditions! I will put more up here with some pictures soon.

Summit of Rainier

The City.

Chris and I spent a weekend climbing at the City of Rocks.  It was more like dodging weather than climbing.  We took a long hike that started at Window Rock and circled around the inner City and back up Circle Creek.  I got to see some routes that I had been too lazy to check out in the past when the weather was good and climbing could be done!

Mushroom Rock

I wanted to take Chris up a nice moderate multi-pitch.  I hadn't climbed "Theater of Shadows" and wanted to, so we drove to the parking lot at the overlook and started the approach.  The weather seemed to be stabilizing, but it also looked like it could go either way real quick.  

Do you feel lucky?  Well, do you punk?

We got to the base of the climb and started up.  Within about 5 minutes the wind picked up and brought a wave of rain.  I lowered back down and we waited for about 30 minutes.  We had a break in the weather and I started back up.  By the time I was below the first belay, a HUGE bolt of lighting ripped across the valley.  

The Gods handing us our asses.

Then the rain started again, but much harder.  I rapped back down and we bagged it for the afternoon.  We headed into Almo for pizza and Scrabble at Rock City.  After pizza the weather improved a lot.  I took Chris to Castle Rock SP and we climbed a couple of moderates.  After such an exciting day, we soaked at Durfee Hot Springs for about 45 minutes.  We made it back to our camp spot and after a couple doses of fermented malt, I racked out.  I woke up later in the night with an iPod earbud in my nose and my headlamp in my eye socket.  I must have thought that I was going to read before sleeping, but things didn't work out that way...

We were able to accomplish our mission of hiding another Mammut geocache.  The bonus was climbing on Window Rock and seeing the brine tanks at the top.  

Good Times or Pure Pleasure (5.6)(I can never remember)

The hiding spot!

Mammut Shoe Chase.

Too Easy!

I suggested two spots to hide a geocache and have hidden one close to Boise.  If you want to look for it and be a part of the Shoe Chase go to the Mammut Basecamp and go find it!

Smith Rock.

We traveled to Smith Rock to do some climbing last weekend.  I knew that the weather would be suspect, but I figured that we would be able to climb all three days.  We could and we did.  There was rain each day.  Sunday turned out to be the best, unfortunately we were headed back home and could only climb a couple of hours.  We got there on Friday and went straight to Cinnamon Slab (5.6).  It was a cool climb.

Cinnamon Slab (5.6)

Bonnie and Sierra climbed it and then we moved on.  Having people right next to you is different.  At the City you can skitter from crag to crag and never HAVE to climb right next to someone, not here.  

Rapping Cinnamon Slab

You really have to just accept that you will wait in line to do the popular climbs and that people will be right behind you and rapping over you.  One guy next to me said that if the river flowed in a circle around the park it would be Disneyland.

I wish we would have taken more pictures, but we were using our older camera and it's a piece.  I prefer the "duct tape" camera.  Placing gear there was also different.  There are so many little imperfections in the cracks that you really have to make sure of the cams.  I can understand why Metolious created their fatter lobed cams.

5.7 under cover

We climbed a short but sweet 5.7 that was completely under an overhang and while it rained hard we climbed!  It was a great weekend.  Now, on to the City...