Arizona and Priest Draw

Grand Canyon B&W

Matthew, Cassie, Yolanda, Zsa

We had a great visit to the Grand Canyon with Matt's mom and friend Yolanda. We walked along the rim, went to a number of great overlook points, watched the sunset and had a great time catching up with Zsa. We enjoyed the comforts of a hotel room, hot showers, and someone else doing the cooking, all of which Zsa was kind enough to put us up in. Thank you, thank you!!

Matthew and Zsa overlooking the canyon

Always good to know the park service will try to keep us from our own stupidity

After a quick visit, we made our way down to Flagstaff and the bouldering at Priest's Draw. We arrived on a Saturday and thought it might be pretty busy since we'd heard so much about the climbing here. We were a little worried about if we'd be able to find climbs we were interested in since we didn't have a guidebook, but met some people who gave us the general overview, then as we were climbing, we kept meeting people who were incredibly helpful in showing us what was what and giving beta and just generally really friendly nice people who we enjoyed talking to. We found the bat roof our first day which has one of the most amazing roof V3 climbs you will ever see. Completely horizontal, with holds where you can use your feet in ways you didn't know were possible, hooks, cams, etc. Very fun unique climbing.

The Fin

The next day we found the roof which has Anorexic V6 and Carnivore V8, both classic roof climbs we'd heard about before we arrived. We both worked Anorexic which at first seemed completely impossible with small painful pockets and big throws. Jim, a local who we'd met the previous day was there again and was happy to share some key beta with us, which made all the difference. We would likely never have thought to use our feet in some of the ways he suggested, such as the move pulling the lip where you have to do a heel toe cam above your head then reach way out around the roof. Somewhat scary, but worked very well.  We were both too tired to finish it that day, but came back after a rest day to complete it. Matt finished it with ease on his first try. It took me a few more attempts, but was able to finish it before we needed to leave.

The crazy top out of anorexic

Anorexic

We left mid-day in order to drive to Cornville where my Aunt Darlene and Uncle Henry live and we were going to see them and meet up with my parents as well. We're there now enjoying their company and beautiful sunny house. It feels great to be in a warm desert environment in the springtime.

We're leaving here tomorrow for what for us will be a marathon two day drive to see Matthew's step-dad Don in Arkansas. We don't frequently cover some many miles in so short a time but after our visit with Don, we have two weeks to get to Ohio where we're planning on hitting a few of the prime SE bouldering areas. We're pretty excited to see some new parts of the country and getting quite excited to go abroad again!!

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

Moe's Valley and our return to Utah

Moes Valley

Well we've been on the road for 9 months now. After all this time traveling and meeting new people we were starting to feel a bit homesick for our old friends in Salt Lake City. With that in mind we left Red Rocks over a week ago and headed to Moe's Valley in St George, Utah to do some bouldering before making the push up I-15 back to SLC.

extendo chalkbag

Nikki on a sweet arete

We had a good week at Moe's with Cassie sending two v6 projects pretty easily. I focused on two projects that I never really thought I would be strong enough to climb. I got really close, but did what is called a "dab" which means as you are climbing a foot touches what is essentially the ground. Given that this provides assistance it's not a clean send and can't really be counted. That being said I'm still quite happy to get so close on another v8 and v9. We met two really cool people from New York who are on an extended road trip and are moving to Portland in the next year or so. Ian and Nikki are both really strong climbers and are fun people to hang out with. We all enjoyed having smores over the campfire and falling off of projects. Hopefully we will see them again someday. It's always so great to make new friends, and then sad when you have to part ways.

Settlers of Katan

We left Moe's and headed to SLC. Our friend's Mark and Suzi let us crash at their place for a few nights and it was great to have a house,bed shower and excellent meals! We had our crew of friends over for a Friday night slideshow and video. The Bishop video was premiered and I think it was a success. It was a blast to catch up with them and see faces we recognized. Makes us think SLC is definitely on the short list of places to come back to. We all made plans that evening to head to Triassic the following weekend.

Dinner with Louise

After that we took care of some stuff in town and headed to our friend Louise's house in Spanish Fork. We ended up staying a bit longer than expected because of bad weather which was fine with all of us. It gave us a good excuse to bake lasagna, bread, and drink a couple of bottles of excellent wine. Good conversation and good company. Surprising how much you crave these things after many months on the road.