The CragBaby

I have hit a huge crossroad in my life.

On Monday, October 13th I went climbing with a girl who I had met here in the Red River Gorge.

I was her belayer as she top-roped the climb Ro Shampo at the Roadside Crag.

The story is complex and includes errors from both of us.  Regardless, she ended up taking a 60 foot fall from the chains, landing on the below boulders.

It was horrific.

She is doing better and is in the West Virginia hospital.  She has numerous broken bones and needs surgeries, but will definitely live.

I am more emotionally stable today than the last three days, but feel completely lost in life.

Something positive needs to come from this incident so I am going to write about it later, explaining our errors in hopes that lessons of safety can be implemented.  And to remind all readers that climbing is dangerous.

I hope all you readers are well and safe.

After the week in Rifle, the next planned destination was the Red River Gorge.  Rifle was a 6 hour drive from Salt Lake City, and the Red River Gorge was a 21 hours (yes, you read that correctly) drive from Rifle.  Whew.

The drive seriously consisted of a day and a half spent driving the very straight  I-70.  I actually got pulled over in Kansas for speeding (oops!) but was lucky enough to get a warning.  I must admit that the warning did keep my speed in check for the whole rest of the drive.

The first couple hours outside of Rifle were probably the most beautiful and spent winding through these mountains.

I happened to pick the best Colorado rest stop to walk CB as up on the hill were these mountain sheep.

My travel mate.  He he he… check out that tongue!

The beautiful Kansas sunset after the most torrential storm.  The hail hitting my windshield made me really wonder if my windshield was going to break.  To be honest, I called Shaft to see if he had heard of any tornadoes sweeping through Kanas.  Um… there weren’t any… but the storm was amazingly intense. =D

After 1,000 miles on I-70, I saw this sign. I was so ecstatic that I would soon be exiting I-70,  that a quick picture was mandatory. Yet I was so tired of driving, I was very tempted to go to Chicago instead of Slade, Kentucky.

At around midnight on September 25 I finally saw this beloved sign!  I must admit that a new friend already camping at Miguel’s kept me motivated throughout the entire drive, telling me stories of the fantastic Red River Gorge climbing.  To him, I am very grateful as the drive through Kansas truly is LONG!

After my first six weeks of vacation in Utah, I officially hit the road heading to Rifle, Colorado.  I had been to Rifle a couple years back and completely gotten my ass kicked.  At the time I was working on 5.10′s and 5.11′s and Rifle was definitely NOT the place for someone working on such grades.  This year I am a bit stronger and so was excited to see if the climbing felt any better.

Beautiful Rifle canyon.

Screamer on one of the “do-able” 5.10 warmups, which were very few and far between.

Well….. unfortunately…. it was still ridiculously hard.  I am working on low 5.12′s in Salt Lake, which means in Rifle I am working on 5.11′s.  Also, the Rifle ‘word on the street’ is to stay off the polished 5.10′s and 5.11′s…… meaning I was once again scared to death.  Sigh.  I only climbed 4 days but honestly just wasn’t having any fun.  I couldn’t get into the grove of the Rifle climbing technique (basically nothing pulling downwards and the bolts being spread out), I was scared to lead anything, plus, there was some stuff going on at home that was affecting the experience.  I was so discouraged I almost drove home from the road trip and hung up the climbing shoes for good.  Thankfully, I decided to cut my losses short and left for the Red River Gorge, Kentucky.

Scott on the stunning Feline route.

Perhaps I need to go back to Rifle if I ever hit the 5.13 level.  Sigh.

Shaft and I share a birthday weekend (our birthdays being only a day apart) and so have celebrated together the past two years.  Last year a crew of our friends headed down to Joes Valley for a weekend of bouldering with this year being spent striving to complete personally set birthday challenges.

For Shaft’s birthday we completed 41 boulder problems in Price and Joes Valley, split over the 16th and 17th of August.  Our range of problems was from v0 to v4, with an outlier v5 and one v7.

Shaft at the Price Boulders.  I spotted a desert whale here… he, he, he.

Me on the classic Riverside Rail.

Shaft rockin’ the mandatory cowboy hat on the warm-up.

The 18th was my birthday. Even though I had spent the previous two days bouldering I wanted to complete my birthday challenge of 28 routes in a day.  Prior to this birthday, the most routes I had done in a day was 10, so 28 was kind-of a big reach.  I was joined by a local SLC climber, starting the day at 8:30am and finishing at 10:30pm, with only an hour break for lunch.

Real smiley after the completion of all 28 routes!

I must admit I was real fortunate to have a climbing partner psyched to help me with this challenge and who willingly hung all the draws, especially since I was very powered down from the previous two bouldering days.  Our routes ranged from 5.6 (including all 3 pitches of Steort’s ridge) to 5.12b (Right Pile), mostly sport routes with a handful of trad lines.

Yes, this is a CHART of my routes.  I work in finance… what can I say?  I like excel.

By the time the night of the 18th rolled around I barely had enough energy to eat 2 pieces of pizza and take a couple sips of beer.  What a fantastic birthday weekend!

I have been on vacation for six weeks, or perhaps I should say pseudo vacation considering I do work 2 days per week. To be honest, working my job AROUND my climbing schedule is quite heavenly. =)

For the past six weeks I decided to stay in Utah, mostly in SLC, as there were still routes and crags I wanted to explore, I had a wide network of climbing partners, but mostly because I don’t know where my next job will take me.

Yet by the time Sept 1 rolled around, I started to question my Utah decision, fretting that I should have used this time to go somewhere far away. However, if the goals of this pseudo vacation are relaxation, having fun and climbing, perhaps I should stop worrying about my decision as these past weeks allowed me to do the following:

I climbed in the local canyons of Big Cottonwood, Little Cottonwood, American Fork and Ferguson. (Pictured is me at a dawn bouldering session with Severhead, Jun and Trent.)

I made a couple weekend trips to Maple Canyon.  (Pictured is a SLC climber getting ready to attempt Ammo Dump.)

I visited Wild Iris, this being only my second trip. (Pictured is a SLC climber.)

I bouldered some excellent problems in Joes and Triassic. (Pictured is Shaft.)

I was able to climb 31 out of 46 days. (Pictured is me on a very cool, thin problem, with the classic sandy top-out in Triassic.)

I enjoyed the sunrise in Little Cottonwood. (On this day I was climbing Pentapitch with new friend, Tyler.)

I sent another 12a route and my first v7. Yippee!! (Me looking super serious at Joes Valley.)

I spent my birthday weekend with my great friend, while we both completed our birthday challenges. (Pictured are Shaft and I after completion of his 41 boulder problem birthday challenge.)

I checked out the Outdoor Recreation Show and watched the Mammut Bouldering competition.  Fun, fun, fun!

I enjoyed many great nights out on the town. (Pictured are Shaft and I at Brian and Elise’s wedding.  Whew… I was in dire need of a haircut!)

I partied it up at my old house where I watched Shaft get his a$$ kicked by the JamesMonster in guitar hero.

And I saw The Route Slayer extremely happy after climbing. (Check out the pink car in the background!) =)

Yep, I need to stop fretting.  These past six weeks have been great!