Joe's Valley 5/15/2007

After resting a few hours after doing Moby Dick yesterday, I was ready to climb again. So once the sun had gone down I talked a few people into going up to spot me on Team Effort. It was pretty dark but I remembered my head lamp and gave it a go and sent it first try last night. Felt really good to send it. It is the hardest thing I've done so far.

A photo of me on Team Effort from my April trip here:


And one Josh took last night:


Today, Josh, Ryan (a friend of Josh's from Portland) and myself headed up to New Joe's. It was the first time I'd been there on this trip. I warmed up on a V3 called Get Shorty that wasn't than fun and spent awhile putzing around on stuff I'd done before -- Super Sloper, Snake Bite, etc..

After a bit, though, we headed over to the Self Service boulder to try Self Service - a classic V5. I really should have flashed it. Got up into the top out but then didn't use my feet right and just got too pumped and fell off the thing. Pretty bummed but I sent it two tries later after slipping off the second move on my second try.

Video:


Then, we headed up to the Anarchy boulder to look at Pocket Rocket - a V6 I'd been recommended. It is an amazing looking boulder problem on a sweet rock face. It involves a big dyno off a good 2 finger pocket and a sloping side-pull up to an incut, almost jug quite a few feet up and then an easy top-out. I stuck the dyno second try but didn't get my fingers on it far enough and fell trying to match. Fortunately, I stuck the dyno again two tries later and sent it. Really, really fun.

Pocket Rocket:

Joe's Valley 5/14/2007

I felt pretty good today so after killing a couple hours in Price and attempting to see the Dinosaur Quarry (and failing since it's only open Friday, Sat, and Sun) I decided to go climbing. Didn't see anybody else around so just headed by myself up to try Moby Dick since you don't really need a spotter on it. I had all the beta figured out from the night session a few days ago so hoped to send quickly. On my first go I got to the top-out and fell off. I then proceeded to fall off the top-out on the next 8 or so tries before finally sending the thing. Here's the video:



I also tried Black and Blue for 2 tries but my tips were in way too much pain to do the move on it.

Joe's Valley 5/13/2007

Ok -- today is a rest day finally. I'll also rest most of the day tomorrow and climb tomorrow night I think next.

To pass the time I drove up to Price to confirm what I already knew -- pretty much nothing is open there on Sundays. Eventually I left and headed out to the San Rafael Swell as I heard it had some very nice views. I went to an area called Gulch Overlook and got to see some great views of what is called the Little Grand Canyon. Well worth the 20 mile dirt road trek to get out there.

Joe's Valley 5/12/2007

Today was supposed to be a rest day but instead became day 9 in a row that I climbed (at least of a few moves). I need more self-control! Must take a full rest day.

Josh and I headed up to Price Canyon (about 10 minutes north of Price) and met his friend Allison to check out the boulders there. Really cool place. It is a bit higher in elevation than Joe's and was alot more shady so bouldering was possible. I meant to only go check the place out but ended up trying some of the stuff there. The rock is identical to Joe's sandstone - black and tan. Pretty high concentration of boulders there as well - quite a good destination that I'm sure would get a lot more attention if not overshadowed by Joe's and Triassic. It sounds like it's growing in popularity among the locals, however, as the potential here is huge and it's a solid hour to hour and a half closer to SLC than Joe's or Triassic is.

Here's some pics--
Me doing the middle 2 moves of some crimpy V9 (couldn't do the other moves but seemed like it was close enough to work if I was rested and could stand the pain in my fingers):



Allison on The Turtle:

Joe's Valley 5/11/2007

Yesterday I spent most of the day just hanging out at the Food Ranch and then up in Price trying to rest and stay out of the heat since it's getting hotter and climbing in mid-day is pretty much impossible. At about 8 pm or so though the sun had fallen below the valley rim and the temps were feeling pretty good so we all headed up to the Moby Dick area to try the problems up there - primarily Team Effort.

After warming up on Skins Game (and unexpectedly blowing off one of the high crimps taking my worst fall in Joe's so far-on a warmup) I went to work on Team Effort (V8 in book, probably easier though). I tried this line a bit on my last trip but had new beta now involving a heel hook to make a huge reach move. This actually worked pretty well and although I still had some figuring out to do I am now able to make the huge reach move every time. The topout moves are still quite hard - and scary - so I did not send the problem, however. I am psyched to go back to it fresh one of these days and try again, however. I think I only have to pull one more move and it's over.

After working Team Effort until it got really dark, we all grabbed headlamps and headed up to try Moby Dick - a classic V6. I hadn't been that impressed by this line but after resting a bit I started working on it and it actually climbs really fun. Got all the moves worked out except the top-out again but I see how to do that now so also believe this will go pretty easily when I'm fresh.

By the time we were all done trying Moby Dick it was about 10:30 so everyone headed back. I still felt like I had some energy though and wanted to try a fun looking V1 on the UMWA boulder which is right off the road pretty close to our campsite. I talked Josh into coming with and I climbed it (don't have the name with me). It was really fun - so I least climbed one boulder problem yesterday :) After that I tried Walrus again but only gave it 3 burns before realizing I was again way too tired to do it.

All in all a great evening into night bouldering session last night. Didn't get any good pictures.. Today I'll probably head up with Josh to check out the Price Canyon boulders but I doubt I'll climb on anything. Feeling quite beat today.

Here's one of Josh's pictures of me on Team Effort:

and of of Moby Dick:

Joe's Valley 5/10/2007

Yesterday afternoon Josh and I made the drive out to the Moore Cutoff boulders. We saw the largest, most amazing boulder field I have ever seen. There were probably 100 Peabody sized sandstone boulders stretched along a 2-3 mile cliff band along the road and thousands more smaller boulders. Unfortunately, I would estimate that 90% of the rock here is choss.. Still, 10% of thousands of boulders still is a lot of climbable rock but it would take a lot of work to find them and I think the problems would be quite spread out.. If only :( ... We may head back for one day to do a few lines we saw that did look really fun.

This morning we went to the Riverside area up the Left Fork - across the road from Big Joe by The Angler. We found some shade and climbed on the next boulder over and had a good time. I warmed up by doing several V1 - V3 problems and then started working on Kelly's Arete - a beautiful V5 prow. After about 8 - 10 tries I finally figured it all out and was able to hang on long enough to get the send. It was a really scary topout for me -- really insecure holds pretty high off the ground.

After working this, we walked up and Josh tried Big Joe a bit. I was too tired so just watched.

Me doing Kelly's Arete:


Me on Chi V3:


Me on the bottom of Kelly's Arete:


Me on Kelly's Arete:


Some of the Moore Cutoff boulders:

Joe's Valley 5/9/2007

I left Ft. Collins yesterday morning and made the 8 hour or so drive to Joe's and have arrived safely. I made it with a few hours of light and found a place to camp at the Black and Tan boulders parking area:

After getting camp set up, Josh showed up shortly thereafter. When he finished getting his trailer set up we decided to do some late evening bouldering in the last available light. The UMWA area was just 1/2 mile up the road so we headed there. We climbed a V3 called Reach Around and a V2 called High Ride before it got too dark to see anything. They were both pretty fun ways to start the trip. We also tried Rug Rat, a really nice looking V5 but didn't get it last night.
Here's Reach Around:

And here's Josh on the rail of Rug Rat:


Today we got up and returned to the UMWA area. There were quite a few people on that boulder so we walked across the road to the Small Boulder. Warmed up on a fun V2 and V3 and then tried a V4 called Pee Wee. The first move was really hard for me and I finally stuck the move after about 15 tries and sent the problem. Really fun. After climbing all the easy stuff on the Small Boulder and briefly trying Runt, a V7, we walked back to the UMWA boulder. Today I sent Rug Rat on my first try which felt really good. Josh sent it too. I also tried Walrus, another V5 right next to it and did all the moves but just got too tired to put it all together. I'm pretty tired now having climbed at least a few moves every day since Friday.

This afternoon we'll probably go check out a massive boulder field I found while driving on an 18 mile stretch of dirt road on the way to Orangeville - a "shortcut". I was pretty blown away by the boulders right on the side of the road and am anxious to go check them out. No fences or signs indicating to stay out either.

Joe's Valley April 7-15 2007

I just returned from a great week of bouldering in Joe's Valley, Utah. I flew out there with Eric J, Chad J, and Chad H (Chadly). This was the first outdoor bouldering trip for the Chads and we were all very excited going in.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and after setting up camp at the Joe's Valley Resevoir campground still had a few hours of daylight to start climbing. We began by going to the Mine Cart boulder since it had a number of easy climbs on it that would get us warmed up nice and easy for the trip. Here's Chad on one of them:


There are about 6 or so problems on the boulder from V0 to V3 or so and we all got off to a good start by sending them all.

The second day was rainy so we ended up heading out to an area called Triassic which is about a 20 or 30 minute drive from Joe's. I was pretty amazed with this area. There are boulders stretching out for as far as the eye can see and it appears that only a fraction of the area has been developed by climbers yet. We hung out in what is known as the Main Area and climbed for a few hours. I ended up borrowing a pair of shoes from Chadly (since I thought it was a rained out rest day) and doing a really fun V3 called Wham! and an unnamed arete problem that I estimate to be around V4. The arete problem I barely pulled off as it started to rain as I finally sent it. Eric also sent these two problems. Here's Eric on Wham:


Our third day was our first full day of climbing. We went to the Big Joe area of Left Fork to try the problems there. Today we started climbing with 4 cool folks from Portland -- Josh (whom we met in Bishop), Kendra, Jon, and Jen. We warmed up on a few really nice V0s and soon set to work on the problem Big Joe. This is a pretty powerful roof problem with a crux sequence moving through a small 2-finger pocket. I couldn't quite pull through the sequence but Eric came agonizingly close before pulling something in his arm while hanging on the pocket. Unfortunately, this injury kept him from completing the problem and would cause some problems the rest of the trip. Hopefully it heals quickly! Here's me doing the big reach move into the pocket on Big Joe:

After trying Big Joe, I went up to try Scary Monsters - a crimpy V6 up the hill. After awhile, I figured out a pretty easy way through the bottom part by using some of Kendra's beta and started working on the huge reach move between crimps at the top. Didn't quite make the move today but came close. The Chads did a couple of nearby problems -- Lefty Loosey and Righty Tighty that looked pretty cool. Chad J and myself also got the nearby problem A Bobcat in the Kiparoo which was pretty cool. Here's me on Scary Monsters:


Our next day was our first full rest day which felt really nice after climbing at least parts of three days in a row. We spent it in Price and had a great dinner at El Salto -- a really great Mexican restaurant -- and watched the movie Ghost Rider. On other rest days we would watch Wild Hogs and 300. Here's Eric about to enter El Salto:


The following day was back to climbing. We went to Area 51 at New Joe's. This is a very cool area with four very large boulders all very close together with lots of problems. We got to walk up and look at the classic Black Lung -- a pretty famous V13 put up a couple years ago by Ben Moon. Very impressive to look at that. We started by doing Joe Cool -- a nice and high V3. Chadly ended up getting probably the biggest fall of the trip off this boulder problem when he fell off one of the higher holds -- fortunately he was fine. I worked on Big Boy for awhile - another V7 roof problem. It felt pretty close but I didn't pull this one off either. I ended up just running around and sending just about everything I could find in the area in the V4 and lower range. Highlights were the highball problem - Scary, Super Sloper, and Phoney Baloney. The other guys all sent quite a few problems today as well. Here's Eric on Snakebite:

and me on Scary:


Our next day ended up being snowy in Joe's Valley, so we went back to Triassic:

I did a very reachy V3 called Whoa, Oh, Oh, It's Magic and then went to do an impressive line called Golden. Here's Chad on it:

It started to rain after this so we all packed up but it quickly ended and so I decided to try a V6 called Boogie Nights. Josh, Kendra, and myself started working it. It felt very hard at first -- I struggled to pull off the ground on the starting holds or even make the first move. Fortunately I was eventually able to bear down and make the move and after working the rest of the problem was able to send it after about a half hour of work. I was very pumped -- as this was my first outdoor V6. Here's Josh doing the first move:


The next day was another rest day spent in Price and exploring some bouldering areas we hadn't seen yet.

Our final day was a pretty full day. We started by returning to the Big Joe area. The first thing we all did was the super-classic V2 called The Angler. It's a beautiful line that tops out over the water when the river is high. It wasn't on this trip however. All of us did this line. Here's Chadly on it:

I did it several times it was so fun. Eric then worked on Big Joe some more and I went up to do Scary Monsters. It felt easy today. I fell of the second move on my first go but jumped back on from that point and made it all the way to the lip before downclimbing and jumping off -- the topout looked hard and was very high so I didn't want to risk it on a go that wasn't actually going to be a send. The very next try I did the whole thing, however. I must have been in the zone because on that go I felt no pain on the crimper holds that all previous attempts had hurt so bad. I was excited to have a V6 feel that easy. Makes me believe that alot harder climbing is possible for me. After a bit at this area we went over to the Right Fork to climb at the Moby Dick area. We started out by all doing Skins Game - a nice easy V3. I then tried Black and Blue - a beautiful V6 prow. I almost did it but couldn't quite stick the big move on it and the very sharp holds were starting to really hurt. So after giving up on this I went to join Eric on Team Effort - a sweet looking V8 prow:

We didn't quite do it but I felt close enough that I believe I could do it with a bit more work. After this, we went up to the road to try the classic V4 Frosted Flakes but by this time we were all completely exhausted and none of us had the energy to do this one.

So our trip came to an end. We drove to Price after climbing to stay at a Best Western and enjoyed the pool and hot tub. The next morning we got up and drove back to Salt Lake City and flew on home. It was an amazing trip to a place I'm definitely going back to. Everybody seemed to have a blast and it was great having the chance to see the Chads climb outside for the first time in such an amazing place.