back on the road

Triassic moon

 We left the comforts of nice warm houses for climbing at Triassic on Friday March 2nd. Mark, Pace, Chris, Renee and Torrey joined us for a great weekend of camping and climbing with friends. It was great to be back in one of our favorite places, spending the days in the boulders and nights around the campfire. We had a great time getting back on a few of our favorite problems including "Golden", a beautiful, tall V1, and trying a few new ones. We tried a few things that weren't in the book as well. Matt found a cool prow that he thinks hadn't been climbed before since he broke a hold off on his first try, and probably if it had been done before, the hold would have already been gone. He's calling it "no problem" V3. FA = First Ascent

Matt's first FA?

mini-golden

After two great days, it was time for everyone else to head back to SLC while we stayed for one more night. It was harder than expected to say goodbye this time. You'd think we'd be getting used to it by now. With our friends leaving and us staying there, it felt like when the boat dropped us off in Alaska for our remote kayak trip. Just a strong feeling of we are on our own again, watching the connections we have to the familiar drive away.

climbing = joy

self service V4 at Joe's

The next day, we had plans to climb at Joe's valley where I had a bunch of problems that I was close to before leaving. I did one and got close on a second, but after a few hours, realized that we were just tired from 3 days of straight climbing. So, we decided to start making our way to the Grand Canyon (that seems logical right?)

monument valley through the dust storm

We drove through the San Rafael Swell which we hadn't done for quite a while. It made us remember just how amazing of a place it is and how many great canyons there are to explore there. One more plus for why Utah is a good place for us to come back to. We were planning on taking our time to get to the Grand Canyon, maybe bouldering in Flagstaff for a day, but snow was predicted for today and tomorrow, so we decided to get here before the snow came rather then risk driving through it. This meant driving in one of the craziest windstorms we have ever been in, which made the views of Monument Valley quite fuzzy and blasted us with sand the entire way, while we fought to hold the wheel in what should have been a right turn to keep it going straight. But we made it to the grand canyon where it is now snowing. Matt's cooking up pancakes and then we'll be going to check out the views of the canyon.

mexican hat

Golden V1

Smores

Cassie trying Seven Deadly Crimps v8

Camping