Last route - The Prince of Darkness 5.10c

Prince of Darkness ascends the Black velvet wall on the left of the photo.

In many ways this route was typical for me. Certainly the climbing wasn't typical. It was super hard - more of that later - but the way in which it was organised was typical. I had just done three days climbing in a row, two of the days had been multipitch and the last (a twelve hour day) had been especially tiring. I'd covered a lot of ground approaching the routes, climbed many vertical metres and was well due a rest day.

However, when you've one day left, a rest day is the last thing on your mind. I headed into Vegas the evening before to go to the Internet Cafe and saw an email from Joe (Joe from "A days sport climbing in Red Rocks"). We'd thought about doing Prince of Darkness and he said that he managed to get the day off on Friday and we should do it. Great, I thought, let's. But then the problems started. It was never the best idea. I had to be at the airport at 11am on Saturday, the problem being that it was Salt Lake City airport and not Las Vegas. The second problem was that Joe didn't have much equipment. The Prince of Darkness is fundamentally a sports climb, there are short sections of trad, but the protection is mostly bolts - and plenty of them (up to 15 in a pitch). I had 9 quickdraws, but was confident that I could make more out of spare carabiners, slings, prussic cord and even my gear sling. Anni had taken one of the half ropes with her (Two 60m half ropes would have been perfect for this route) and we were left with my 70m single for climbing, with the second carrying the 60m half rope in a rucsack (we needed two ropes to abseil the route). This system wasn't ideal but was workable. Most importantly, Joe didn't have a belay device; this problem we had to solve. You might be wondering what Joe was doing without such basic kit, but he was on a work trip and planned only to go to the climbing gym if time was available. He ended up checking out Red Rocks, and then, as is pretty understandable, deciding that he simply had to negotiate time off and climb. Red Rocks would do that to anyone. It did it to him, but for the want of a belay plate it looked like the plans were going to hell. You can climb without a belay plate. You can tie a munter hitch knot which does the same thing. The Germans do it all the time. I didn't like the idea because it kinks your ropes up something chronic, and on a 6 pitch 5.10c that is something you can do without. I'm not sure if you can abseil without a belay device. OK, I know that you can. I'm not sure if you can abseil safely without one, and that is why we were on a mission to find one.

After a gentle start, the route ascends the middle of the apparently featureless face

The gear shop didn't open until 10.00. No good. I wanted to be approaching the route at 7.00. Besides, I still had to get to Salt Lake City after climbing and therefore wanted (needed) to be back at the car before dark. It was late, I was tired and I wanted to go to bed. Joe, however, managed to persuade Bill from the climbing gym to lend him a belay plate. I just had to find the gym, pick up the plate, and give it to him tomorrow. I was tired (yes this is going to be a reoccurring theme of this post) and would have been quite happy to have thought "no belay plate, no climb" and gone to bed, but Joe had done his bit, and despite wanting to curl into my tent and sleep I managed to do mine. Finding the climbing gym in Vegas is not easy. Well not easy if you're a foreigner unfamiliar with the road numbering, unfamiliar with driving round large cities (I never felt comfortable driving in Vegas) and all the time are muttering to yourself, "why the hell didn't he bring a belay plate, I would have if I planned to go to the gym". I'm sorry Joe, but I would have.

Joe on the other hand, had to drive 3h to get to Red Rocks and that meant leaving at 4.00. Which in reality made my driving round Vegas at 22.00 seem like very little, and my whinging seem pretty pathetic. But I like to whinge when I'm tired. Besides, I really wanted to climb this route, and I really wanted to climb it with Joe. Firstly, Joe was a great guy (and I hope that we meet and climb together again). Secondly, we were sports climbing at a similar level. Well, he was climbing a shade better. Climbing with someone of the same level means that you can share the route more. The moves that you found hard, they would have found hard. You both can cruise the easier stuff and share the awkwardness of the harder stuff. Thirdly, although this route was close to my limit (and Joe's) I had confidence that both of us could pull it off. I'd spoken about climbing this route with Tacos and was less confident climbing with her. I wanted to share the leading, I would have had to do all the 5.10 pitches if I'd climbed with Tacos and mentally I'm not sure if I would have been focused enough after 3 days of hard climbing. Joe and I had climbed up to 5.10d. But it was hard. 6 pitches of up to 5.10c was going to be a stern test.

Before starting, damn I look tired

All the belays were equipped with abseil anchors and the protection was plentiful. This was about as safe as multipitch routes come, and a perfect way to experience harder climbing. The first pitch wasn't really anything, about 100ft of 5.6 trad. It felt easy and I put only a few runners in it. The second and third pitches were supposed to be the crux. Both involved long, delicate face climbing with small crimps and high steps. They were graded 5.10b and 5.10a respectively (although the latter was supposed to be sandbagged). The movement was identical through both of these pitches (crimp, crimp, high step). Sometimes odd sections were a little trickier (the crimps smaller, or the footholds poorer) but by and large the move was the same, every move was hard and I couldn't seperate the two pitches in terms of difficulty. We took one of these each. We both climbed better on lead and struggled on second (I suspect because of the bag). The climbing was sustained on perfect incut edges. I've heard the route critised because of the repetetive climbing, but I liked pulling on small edges and rocking onto small footholds and every move was quality and for me a challenge. A slight variation came on the second pitch when the route met a crack. This offered a brief phase of traditional climbing requiring the placement of natural protection, but for me, more importantly, the opportunity to jam one of my hands in the crack and shake the other one. It might look bizare but by shaking your hand around below your waist you give the chance for the lactic acid which builds up through climbing to disperse.

The fourth and fith pitches again offered similar climbing but it felt slightly easier. Perhaps the holds were bigger, the angle slightly reduced or perhaps we were just used to it. The last pitch had the 5.10c moves on it. The moves were short and sweet. We'd heard that after these moves the rest of the pitch was fairly easy, we both disagreed.

Looking down from the fourth pitch

We abseiled down and were back at the car for 18.00. We said our brief goodbyes and I set off on my long drive for Salt Lake City. I managed the 700 km (400+ mile) drive in good time. It involved driving for 2h and then pulling at a rest stop, resting (in the British sense of the word) in my sleeping bag for a couple of hours and repeating. This way I felt awake enough to drive. I was shattered when arriving at the airport and even worse when arriving in Finland. For many days my lower back ached which I think is a symptom of spending two days in semi-hanging belays. It was, however, worth it. The route and the company were fantastic.

The first of several abseils

Crimson Chrysalis 5.8+/5.9

This is a popular and classic line. It actually features in the top 25 routes of North America http://lamountaineers.org/NAC/browserf/other/climlist/clindex.htm. This is the top 25 climbing routes not only the top lowland rock routes. The list also features alpine rock, alpine mixed and snow and ice climbs. It's also the easiest climb in the 25 list and accessible. This probably makes it one of the 25 most crowded climbs in North America and it was with this in mind that we left the campsite at 06.30. It's not uncommon for the route to have 4 parties on it. Whilst, this might not sound too bad the descent is to abseil the route and the thought of having people climbing below you, people climbing above you and people abseiling through you is unappealing.
The route goes straight up the Cloud Tower in 9 pitches. The climbing is consistently 5.8 for almost all every move. It is sometimes slabby, sometimes overhanging but most of the time dead plum vertical. It looks improbable for mostly 5.8 climbing and would be but for the jugs. British climbers call large holds jugs, Finnish climbers call them handles, whatever you call these - make no mistake they are big and easy to grasp. The climb mostly follows cracks which are used for protection and links these with bolt protected face climbing. I rarely used the cracks for climbing and only employed my Indian Creek techniques when not faced with a climbing wall sized hold. The climbing felt continous and fluid. The route was sometimes run out but the climbing was so intuitive that these were dealt with almost without noticing.

I did this with Tacos. After the previous days exploits we felt confident for something bigger. After only minor bush whacking to find the route, we were delighted to see that nobody else was there. I took the first pitch (which the guidebook claimed was run out), I disagree. I found the gear perfectly adequate for the 5.8 climbing. I think this was a sign of things to come as I was to power up the steep walls placing about 10 pieces in a pitch and feeling totally safe and in full control. I'd been sports climbing at .10d and on this route I could focus my full attention on enjoying the moves, the exposure and the fact that I was on the longest steep climb that I'd been on. We mostly switched pitches, but in such a way that I got the 3 ones with the hardest ratings. This suited me perfectly.

As we got higher the exposure started to kick in. I enjoyed watching my rucksac, which I left at the bottom of the route, get smaller and smaller until eventually (I didn't have my glasses) it became to small. Perhaps it's visible in the photo (I again don't have my glasses). To my delight, more so than watching the shrinking rucksac was that nobody else started the route. All day. As we got higher I was relieved to think that it would be us abseiling over other people, and not the other way round. I wondered what the procedure was. Surely, four on one of the hanging belays would be too crowded. Luckily, the situation never arose.

Tacos on the fifth pitch. On the abseil we got the rope stuck only once, which was no small achievement based on the plentitude of what I no longer saw as jugs but now as rope snaring objects. We started the hike out as the sun set and were almost 12 hours car to car.

Nearly home and the destruction of something beautiful

I arrived in the United States to a full moon and as the next full moon dawns I feel a lunar call that it’s time for my journey to end.

This image was taken whilst the forests of California were burning. The loss of such ancient forests is deeply upsetting and regrettable. But the forests were splendid once more in the skies of Nevada. There was a beautiful colour inversion caused by the airbourne particulate matter. I had seen this before at Lappeenranta whilst the Russian forests were ablaze. Whilst this feels eerie to the mind, the soul can’t help but enjoy the colours.

Sin in Vegas

Vegas advertises itself with sin, tourists buy T-shirts with the logo "I sinned in Vegas" and the reputation of the city equals this. After spending an almost puritan time in the desert I wasn't ready for the bright lights, packed casinos and hustle of the city. In the desert we cooked and went to bed soon after it got dark, and only occasionally did we drink a beer (and then only one). We were simply too tired.

I felt at home in the desert. Of course the conditions were tougher than every day life but so were the rewards. Every night the sky shone with a plethora of stars and we could pick out and name individual stars (even Vega). I loved this remoteness and the freedom from light pollution. In Indian Creek we only had what we carried in. Water was a scarce resource and this suited life in the desert. Elsewhere water was rationed, in Zion we had 8 mins showering water per day and to me this felt both frivolous and luxurious. I only used my full 8 mins once; how can one justify wasting water in the desert. Edward Abbey (author) commented that "water isn't short in the desert, there is in exactly the right amount" and his words felt true. One doesn't need much water, the usage seemed in tow with the resource... up until I set foot in Vegas.

Vegas is to me, a city, where a city shouldn't be. I understand that living in a city is different to living in the wilderness and that the citizens demand energy and water. Vegas is however a city blessed with being surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery that I have seen. But the city doesn't respond by adapting itself to its surroundings but opposing them. Water isn't a scarce resource in Vegas. It's everywhere. Every casino seems to have its own waterfall. They use water to keep flamingos and to sink pirate ships in. They burn electricity to power a million lights, each trying to be brighter than the next. In Red Rocks you can't see the stars, but you can see a beam of light projected from the Luxor. The water and power to fuel this comes largely because of the damns which have destroyed the countryside of Utah and Arizona. They not only mock the very essence of the desert by scandalous wastage of water and light but destroy the desert in the process. To me, this is the biggest sin in Vegas.

Superior Ethics or Environmental Recklessness

My friend Toby has a blog and this topic has been dealt with there http://lightfromthenorth.blogspot.com/2007/07/superior-ethics-or-littering.html (albeit in a different context). I wanted to raise the question again as this is read by different people.

This is the first of three rappel stations from the top of Lotta Balls buttress.


The American Safe Climbing association has done a fantastic job replacing bolts at Red Rocks. They haven't retro-bolted routes (as far as I'm aware) but replaced old dodgey bolts with modern safe ones. The bolts on Lotta Balls are new and I would assume placed by them. Someone has gone to the trouble of equiping the rap stations with slings and rings. I wonder is it acceptable to bolt descent routes when no bolts were previously placed? Do we have to wait until the tree dies of semi-natural causes before bolts can ethically be placed? I for one, would happily see two expansion bolts here and the holly given a fairer chance for life.

Lotta Balls

On Wednesday morning I met a Japanese lady named Tacos and we decided to do a multipitch route. Although I had some longer lines in mind, as it was already quite late and as we hadn’t climbed together before we decided to do something shorter. The Lotta Balls buttress seemed to house routes which would fit this bill.

We hiked in with the plan to do either Lotta Balls itself (5.8 four pitches) or Black Magic which was a similar grade and a similar proposition. When we got there, we found that both routes were taken by various groups of old timers. Later, I discovered Joanne Urioste was among them. In the old days, Red Rocks was never considered a world class climbing destination, long approaches, loose rock and poor protection made Red Rock climbing something esoteric. With the spread of Vegas, the inevitable development of new roads, cleaned up rock by increased traffic of climbers, the advent and widespread use of camming devices and the placement of bolts, the popularity of Red Rocks grew. But compared with other climbing places where the routes were done by a huge number of people, Red Rocks is unique in that very few people did most of the first accents. Jorge and Joanne Urioste’s routes are perhaps the most popular, they believed in safe climbing and as such placed many bolts on their climbs. This was a huge achievement as all the holes were hand drilled by Jorge and most of the time on lead. Don’t think that the Urioste’s made sports climbs. We climbed Olive Oil and Cat in the Hat (which were both theirs) and there was not one protection bolt on either of the routes, but when needed they were prepared to bolt and many of their face climbs have plenty of bolts. One of the other pioneers was Joe Herbst, he favoured clean climbing and most of his routes are bold and adventurous (even today with modern protection). Certainly there was controversy between the two styles, but they seem to co-exist perhaps most likely because of the huge quantity of good rock in Red Rocks.

I only had the Select Climbs and it didn’t show many other choices but Joanne suggested that we climbed Trihedral, which was one of Joe Herbst’s routes. I later noticed that the Select Climbs mark this as “ugly loose corner” in their topo. It wasn’t ugly and loose, it was aesthetically pleasing and loose. Joanne did say that she didn’t remember the route very well (it was 25 years ago when she climbed it). I remember it well, it was hard, the crux felt like very sandbagged 5.8 and was poorly protected. I had an excellent cam 7m below me and managed to get a so-so microwire and an appalling cam to protect the crux. This involved cutting on to the face and making thin face moves for about 3m. The moves felt shakey, and I was very nervous on them.

Trihedral is marked in red. Lotta Balls is marked in blue. Subsequently, when I saw the definitive guide I noticed that about as much information is given in this picture as in the guide, and now readers of this blog will know more than those blessed with owning the guide. It's not a bad route, but very testy at the grade.

We then did Lotta Balls. It was again done by Joe Herbst but this time with his wife and had two very important protection bolts (I don’t know if the bolts were her influence). This felt excellent, the protection was secure (albeit spaced) and the climbing felt intuitive (perhaps having a guide book helped). There was a fantastic and memorable section of the second pitch where you leave a crack system and start face climbing on bizarre looking nipples of rock. This wasn’t difficult but required extreme care. When you placed your foot on one of these, you had to keep it very still as the slightest movement could twist it off. The only handholds were the nipples which you had to pinch in a strangely sexual way. I had previously thought the buttress was so named because you had to have a lot of courage to climb on it, but after this pitch it was obvious how it got its name. The face climbing was protected by two bolts, it felt run out and strange but contrary to the previous route I felt in control and confident at all times.

See I wasn't telling lies about the nipples.


And the same for feet.

A days sport climbing in Red Rocks

It was the multipitch routes which drove me to Red Rocks, however I also really enjoyed the sports climbing. Although I had left notes on message boards, I found the best way to meet people was to turn up at the popular crags and start chatting with people. In the morning I went to the Gallery area of the Calico Hills and met Johnathon and Phil. I climbed with them in the morning and then in the afternoon with a guy named Joe, with whom I also hatched plans for some multi-pitch later in the week. I'd hoped that the day wouldn't be too strenuous but in the end I climbed 9 routes, 8 of which were on lead, and 7 of which were tens. I climbed 10c on-sight clean and very nearly 10d (one small fall due to poor reading of the route). All of the routes were overhanging and crimpy. I like crimps but as soon as the terrain gets steep I find the climbing really challenging. That being said I loved the sport at Red Rocks, and now can really imagine myself going on a Sports climbing holiday and getting really into it. Actually, my parents live close to Portland so if anyone is interested in some English Limestone let me know.

Johnathon climbing the insanely overhanging "Fear and Loathing" 5.12. I always enjoy watching good climbers in action, his footwark was really precise and he had a technique where he twisted his foot into the holds and edged with the outside. I often read Neil Gresham's Masterclass column which gives tips for high preformance climbing; Johnathon probably hadn't read Neil Gresham but if he did he'd paid great attention as he climbed exactly the way Neil describes. I'd like to climb like this, but balance and careful footwork aren't easy things to learn.

Phil top-roping a 5.10c. The consistently slightly overhanging angle was typical of the day. I actually on-sighted this route and felt pretty pleased with myself as it felt very touch and go with perhaps more touch than go. As I said previously, crimps and overhangs aren't a good combination for me. However, the whole exprerience has whetted my appetite for overhangs and I can see myself training this aspect of my climbing this winter. More importantly, I am proving to myself that the tendons in my elbows are stronger and can cope with more rigourous climbing.

Joe checking out the guidebook under a 5.10d route. It wasn't any steeper than the others but the holds seemed smaller and further in between.

Root Beer

Anakaisa, a colleague at work who had lived in the US asked me if I'd tried root beer. I hadn't. She had said that it was strange and tasted like the mouthwash you get at the dentist. I was sceptical, either the Americans have very odd soda or more likely the Finnish dentists give very odd mouthwash. Well there's only one way to test this, and so I tried the Root Beer. The photo says it all. I tried to tell myself to swallow, but something inside my mind told me to swill it around and spit it out. The verdict: America has vile and strange sodas.

Olive Oil 5.7R

UThis was Anni's second multi-pitch climb. It was a grade harder and every one of the six pitches was 5.7. Sounds like a tough challenge? You bet it was. The first challenge, which we didn't even consider was finding the route. We followed the description in the guide book and as is so often the way ended up bashing our way through vegetation and scrambling up loose rock slopes. Eventually we found the route and when we did were amazed at how good the path was and how quickly we could have got to the route.

The line follows the obvious crack system, traverses across the face on huge jugs and finishes up the corner to the right.

The first pitch was the crux, it wasn't hard but it was awkward. It involved climbing a chimney and then pulling on to the face to make some initially difficult lay back moves before gaining comparitvely easy terrain. I had found it quite tricky but not hard and Anni raced up in no time. There was a pair climbing ahead of us, I had anticipated that we would be fairly slow, but Anni dispatched the pitch so quickly we were soon behind the pair ahead. Normally it isn't nice to have people climbing so close behind you, but as another pair started behind us we realised we had to do it. We were much quicker than the pair in front, bearing in mind it wasn't either of their second multipitch climbs and that one of them had done the route before it was a huge testiment to our climbing abilities. On multipitch routes climbing quickly can be a vitally important skill as it could mean finishing the route in the day light or not.


One thing that could have acounted for slowing things down was that all of the bolts (only for belays) had been removed. This is the belay at the top of the fourth pitch. The wire is fantastic and the tied off flake felt solid. However, this isn't an ideal belay and it would have been awful to have shared it with two other parties. Bolts are a big debate in Red Rocks, whilst I'm generally against bolts where they are not required, I wouldn't have minded some nice belay bolts here.

Anni looking happier after we had warmed up. We got surprisingly cold waiting for the others, we started the route in T-shirts and finished with fleeces and waterproofs on. It was windy and shady, and in combination with the slow moving party meant that we got quite cool waiting.

Tourism in Canyonlands - Needles district

English (Anni): Canyonlands is something different, again. This time I wont go into geological details. The amount of rock in this place is something I have never seen before. The whole time you're visiting just two places: either the edge of a canyon, or a bottom of a canyon. In the canyons, which can be so eroded, that you don't realize that you're actually in one, the sheer cliff faces loom over you, half buried in red gravel. On top of the tables you only see the zig zag of canyons splitting the earth to isolated islands. Standing on the edge it is impossible to see, where the canyons actually go. The eye cannot follow the twists and turns.


Finnish (Anni): Canyonlands on alueena taas hiukan erilainen kuin aiemmat paikat, joissa olemme vierailleet. Täällä tuntuu siltä, että seisot joko kanjonin reunalla, tai sellaisen pohjalla. Pohjalla ollessa et tosin aina hoksaa käveleväsi kanjonissa, sillä ne saattavat olla niin laveiksi kuluneita. Minkä kyllä huomaa, ovat valtavat kivseinät, jotka kohoavat joka puolella, niin kauas kuin näkyvyyttä riittää, perustat hautautuneita punaiseen soraan. Missään en ole nähnyt näin paljon pystysuoraa kiviseinää. Kanjonin reunalla seistessä silä ei kykene seuraamaan, minne kanjonit kulkevat. Koko maa on rakoillut ja uurteinen, jakaen maan jalkojen alla saarekkeisiin.


English: Wildlife in Canyonlands is perhaps a little 'wilder' than it is elsewhere we've visited. First of all, the reliable tourist-indicator chipmunk is essentially missing. Instead, I was woken up on two mornings by a pair of coyotes. I assume they were a pair. Someone who knows these animals could tell you differently. To me, it sounded like Mr. Coyote started the early morning show, and after a moment, Mrs. Coyote joined in. The song did not last too long, but it surely woke me up enough so I could mumble: "Shut up, you two."

Finnish: Luonto Canyonlandsissa on ehkä hiukan villimpää, kuin mitä se on ollut aiemmissa paikoissa. Ensinnäkin, aina luotettava turismin ystävä ja opportunisti chipmunk loisti poissaolollaan. Ilmeisesti pohjoisemmalla alueella on vilkkaampaa ja pähkinäpusseja tiheämmässä. Lisäksi kahtena aamuna minut sai hereille kojoottipari, ainakin kuvittelisin että kyseessä oli pariskunta. Asiasta paremmin perillä olevat voisivat valaista. Aikaisin aamulla, ennen auringonnousua, herra Kojootti aloitti konsertin, johon rouva Kojootti liittyi hetkeä myöhemmin. Esitys ei kumpanakaan aamuna ollut turhan pitkä, mutta sai minut kuitenkin sen verran hereille, että kirosin ääneen mokomia kukkujia.

Nervous in Suburbia

I’ve been pretty happy with the way that I’ve been climbing recently but almost all of the routes that I’ve climbed have been on cracks. As a climber there are many skills that are required, and despite how this blog may sound, crack climbing is but one of them. I was keen to test myself on a face climb, and I was keen to try Nervous in Suburbia which I had done on top rope near the beginning of the trip. The route requires a cool head, I didn’t think that the route was dangerous, but it would be a bad one to fall off. It’s 5.10a, and consistently difficult for its entire length. In comparison to the security of the cracks, the moves are delicate and balancey, and required neat footwork on small holds. It is only 65 feet long and protection consists of one bolt and three drilled pitons. I stood at the bottom of the route and looked out at the dark clouds, I knew that it was going to rain, but I thought that I could do the short route and then feel content for the rest of the day. As I started towards the first drilled piton, I felt the inevitable pit pat of rain and saw small drops appearing on the rock. One shouldn’t climb sandstone in the rain. Really climbing in the rain generally isn’t good as the friction is reduced. This is as true for sandstone as it is for any other rock but in addition sandstone becomes brittle when wet and holds can break off. I had one more difficult move to make before I could clip the piton which involved a step around a pillar on to a good foothold but with virtually nothing for the hands. I decided to downclimb. Downclimbing is never easy and despite the fact that I hadn’t yet reached the first piton I was still quite a way off the ground. With Anni’s guidance, I made it to the ground and the rain ceased. I was ready to call it a day and use the excuse that rain had stopped play. Anni pointed out the blue clouds and suggested that I gave it another go. Her faith in me felt really significant. I think she knew that I really wanted to do the route; I also think she believed that I could do it, and more importantly I think that she trusted my judgement that I could do the route. Like I said earlier, I didn’t consider the route dangerous in the sense that I would seriously harm myself, but I was aware that if I fell before clipping the first protection then twisted/broken ankles would be the likely result. Also the protection on the route was such that if I fell at the wrong time, whilst I wouldn’t hit the ground I would probably fall a reasonable distance. I knew that I could climb it, I just needed to keep a clear head. Despite being nervous, the actual climb went uneventfully, which is probably the best way for such a climb to go. I felt really pleased to have done it but even more touched by the support and encouragement that Anni had given me. I think that climbing essentially is a safe sport, or more accurately, could be a safe sport if you carefully chose what and how you climbed. But the things that draw people to climbing - the trust in one’s ability, the beauty and simplicity of commitment and the aesthetics of clean featureless lines up a rockface - don’t always draw one to the safest routes. Of course this inevitably means taking risks, and calculated risks form a great part of climbing. Many climbers will solo (climb without a rope) routes that they know are well within their comfort zones, others will place less protection on routes that they think are easy, knowing that if they fall they will get injured but having the confidence in their own abilities that they won’t. Well, for me Nervous in Suburbia was a calculated risk. I wasn’t playing with odds as high as the prementioned examples, but I could easily have chosen safer better protected routes. It must be difficult to have a partner who is prepared to (albeit occasionally) test himself on hard suboptimally protected climbs but Anni responded in the perfect way with faith and encouragement. With the complete security of a top rope she was able to try the climb herself but unfortunately rain really did stop play just short of the first drilled piton (which did I mention was quite high off the ground)


I have never seen drilled pitons anywhere except Utah. I can’t see that they would work on anything other than soft sandstone. Basically, the first ascentionist drills a 1/3” hole and hammers a 1/2” piton into it.

Resting in the USA

In Britain we rest when we're fatigued. And I would've imagined a restroom to be with nice comfy arm chairs. But it seems in the USA there's another meaning - a restroom is to be used for excreting. We've also seen Restops on the highway, and it would appear that these aren't tended to weary drivers, who'd like to close their eyes for a few moments, but again they tended to be for excreting.

My interpretation is that to rest must have a different meaning. The question to the American readers is, is it OK to say "Excuse me, I'm just going to go for a rest. I'll be back in few minutes." Is 'restroom' used by those who see no logic in naming a room that does not have a bath in it a 'bathroom'? Is it considered vulgar to use the word 'toilet'? My main reason for writing this post is that I didn't want the American audience to misunderstand, when I said earlier: "The route was so strenuous, I had to rest on the rope."

Aamiaisesta - About breakfast

In English: Our second day in Arches ended with nasty dust storm, and we decided not to camp, but seek the comforts of a hotel. The hotel advertised a 'continental breakfast'. We did not ask, which continent this would be. The continent in question was clearly inhabited by people with sweet teeth. The coffee was fine, although there was no option for milk, but only cream, or the wonderful half-n-half. They also had, what would at first glance look like orange juice, except orange juice does not fluoress, or taste like sweetened mixture of E-numbers. The food was a choice of muffins and sugared pastries.

Whilst camping, we've been partially successfull in finding real grain containing cereals without too much sugar in them. It takes some effort, and in smaller shops search is plainly hopeless.



Suomeksi: Toinen päivämme Archesissa päättyi ikävään hiekkamyrskyyn ja päätimme jättää telttailun yhdeksi yöksi ja etsiytyä hotellin suojiin. Kyseinen hotelli mainosti 'mannermaista' aamiaista, emmekä me kyselleet, mistä mantereesta mahtoi olla puhe. Tämä manner on selvästi sokeripeikkojen asuttama. Kahvi oli ihan juotavaa, mutta maitoa ei ollut, ainoa vaihtoehto oli kerma tai paikallinen half-n-half, kerman sekainen maito. Appelsiinimehu lähemmin tarkasteltuna osoittautui sokeroiduksi lisäaineiden ja keinotekoisten aromien paraatiksi. Varsinaisena 'ruokana' oli muffinsseja ja sokerikuorrutettuja viinereitä. Nam.

Telttaillessa aamisvaihtoehdot ovat olleet paremmat. Tiukalla etsinnällä supermarketin hyllyiltä löytyy ihan oikeaa viljaa sisältäviä aamiaismuroja, joihin ei ole lisätty liiaksi sokeria tai väriaineita. Pienissä putiikeissa etsintä on toivotonta.

Photography

Perhaps you've noticed the somewhat variable nature of the photography in this blog. I bought a digital SLR (Cannon Rebel XTI) from Amazon USA before I left and had it delivered to the company who ran the Splitter Camp. From after the Splitter Camp most of the images have been taken with it (with exceptions such as canyoneering). This camera is similar to Caroline's and I wanted to direct you to some of my favourites images.



In the post "New Friends" http://desert-climbing.blogspot.com/2007/10/new-friends.html I have kept the apeture size large and used the very fast autofocus function directed with a single spot to focus on the Chipmunk's head. This has kept the focal plane narrow, such that whilst the head is in sharp focus, the rest of the body has less detail and the ground is blurred out. The partial automation of this camera has made this possible and as the creature was moving pretty fast I couldn't have set up my old 35mm in time.



In the post "Zion Narrows - Part Two" http://desert-climbing.blogspot.com/2007/10/zion-narrows-part-two.html there are a couple of images where I have used long shutter speeds. These have two purposes, one is to capture the dynamic nature of the water showing the path rather than the object itself. The image of Big Springs for example has the shutter open for 2 seconds. Despite the darkness, the apeture is set to F32 to compensate. In another example, you can see the walls of the canyon and even see colours. This simply wouldn't be possible without long exposure times because there was simply too little light. In both these examples my father's tripod was used.

Also, there is another image (on Anni's hard disk) which I particularly like. It isn't framed well but the focal planes are spot on. I photographed Anni in front of Delicate Arch. Contrary to the usual images of people standing by landmarks, I wanted Anni rather than the arch to be the principle object of the photograph. The shape of Delicate Arch is so destinctive that even when blurred it is easily recognisable. By setting the camera to a short focal plane and positioning myself extremely close to Anni, I was able to focus (manually) so that she was in sharp focus and the arch in soft focus, such that its shape is recognisable only and that the viewer is drawn to Anni's face.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with the flash and I had to send the camera back. If the situation resolves itself I should be able to buy a new one and then hopefully the quality of images will go up, but in the meantime, I'm back to point and shoot.

Wildlife in The Arches

My efforts in crack climbing

Well, I did not become a crack climber overnight. I was very keen to try, believe me. Tony picked a route called The Naked and The Dead, which wasn't actually a real Indian Creek crack, but a little varied corner. I could not get off the ground. Tony claimed that technically I seemed to be doing everything right, but I had a splitting pain in my feet, when I tried to step up. I first thought that I had injured my toes in the Narrows trip (I had a little incident involving a small rockslide), and actually, when I took my shoes off, I could find the sore spot by poking. It didn't hinder my walking, and I had a nagging feeling, that it would be something more complicated than just an incidental injury.

The next day we decided to first do some touristing in the Canyonlands, and climb the afternoon. This time Tony picked a 5.9 wide twin crack, called The Twin Crack, and I started going. It felt better. My feet felt definitely a lot better in the wide crack, although this crack meandered quite a lot, and almost provided steps at times. But the wide crack was not OK for my hands... The relatively narrow start was good. I got half way up, and the crack opened more. I just couldn't find a position, where my hands would stick. Bugger. Anyway, it was promising, and I thought, well, let's try something narrow again.

Tony did something interesting looking on top-rope - courtesy of our neighbor climbers, there were queues forming here and there - and we continued after that to our next target. It was again 5.9, but looked fierce. And it was, judging by the way Tony had to fight to top off. But the start looked inviting, so I took position and was ready to go. Knee down left, foot in crack, twist knee back up.

Again, a bone splitting, teeth rattling pain in my foot. I could have cried for frustration. I knew I had it right, but still somehow, I didn't. It was getting dark, and we had to give up. Tony noted a few times about me being incredibly silent in the car on our way back. I felt cheated. Others could do it, without tears running down their faces, why couldn't I?

After an overnight sleep, I have come up with a few ideas to try, when I get the next opportunity to try cracks. Let's see, if they are the correct ideas.

Arches - tourism day one

Arches Kansallispuisto ja Canyonlands ovat Colorado ja Green jokien alueen geologisia kummajaisia. Tässä lyhyesti, mitä Archesissa on tapahtunut, viime aikoina:

Arches, kuten muukin Colorado tasanko, on vanhaa merenpohjaa. Meri vetäytyi, ja jätti kerroksen suolaa jälkeensä. Alue aavikoitui, ja hiekkadyynit pakkaantuivat ja kivettyivät kerroksittain, muodostaen alueelle tyypillisen hiekkakivikerrostuman. Alla oleva suolakerros vajosi, liukeni tai muuten vain katosi hiekkakiven alta (en ole ihan varma kuinka) ja koko tasanko romahti alaspäin. Romahdus aiheutti samansuuntaisia halkeamia hiekkakivessä. Seuraavaksi koko tasanko nousi ylöspäin, maankuoren liikkeiden seurauksena, ja olemassaolevat kivihalkeamat 'aukesivat', synnyttäen 'lapoja', pitkulaisia samansuuntaisia kiviharjanteita, joiden reunat vesi ja eroosio söi pyöreiksi ja syviksi.


Alueelle nimen antaneet kivikaaret ovat näistä 'lavoista' kulumalla syntyneitä. Sama vesi, joka hioo lapojen reunoja, syö pehmeää kiveä niiden keskeltä, ja romahduttaa lapaa sisältä ja altapäin. Näin lavan yläosa jää kaarena pystyyn, kun taas kivilavan sisäosa häviää pikkuhiljaa. Ylläoleva Landscape Arch itse asiassa on viimeksi pudottanut kiviainesta vuonna 1995, säikäyttäen ryhmän alla istuneita, lounastavia turisteja. Onneksi kiven pauke ja narina hälytti jengin ajoissa juoksuun, kukaan ei jäänyt alle. Kaari on nyt siis olennaisesti ohuempi kuin 15 vuotta sitten, ja alle ei saa enää mennä. Muihin kaariin vastaavaa kieltoa ei ollut.


Kaaria on kaikenkokoisia ja näköisiä joka paikassa, pienen kävelumatkan päässä puiston päätieltä. Näitä kuvia riittää.


Näillä kaarilla on helppo pelleillä maisemakuvia suunnitellessa. Takaa voi näkyä vaikka mitä.


Yllä näkyy hyvin kivilapojen samansuuntainen muodostelma. Lapojen ja kaarien välistä sadevesi kuluttaa irtonaista ainesta pois, ja talvella jäätyvä vesi murtaa kiveä pikkuhiljaa hiekaksi.




Osa kaarille vievistä poluista oli merkattu 'primitiivisiksi'. Toisin sanoen, polku ei ollut päällystetty ja ojitettu. Tällaiset varoitukset saattavat aiheuttaa inflaatiota varoituksien tehossa :)


Ja viimein, Delicate Arch, Utahin osavaltion epävirallinen symboli. Paras valokuvaushetki kuulemma juuri auringonlaskun aikaan. Tästä jouduimme hiukan luistamaan, sillä taivas oli melkoisen pilvessä. Jätimme joukon toiveikkaita turisteja kameroineen odottamaan auringon viimeistä pilkahdusta, toivottavasti ei turhaan. Kaari on valtavan (jalkapallokentän kokoisen) hiidenkirnun kupeessa. Todellinen maamerkki, joka harvoin pääsee itse kuvaan.

Retkeilyn järjestäminen - Arranging your treks

In English: It is incredibly easy to hike, bike, raft, or canyoneer around in Zion, Canyonlands, and elsewhere in the recreational areas. Springdale in Zion and Moab at Colorado river both offer a range of transportations to the trail heads. You need to part from 20-30 dollars for this luxury, but it saves a lot of hassle. Our Narrows hike started actually 6.30 am at the parking lot of a Springdale adventure company. A little bus took us to the ranch and the trail head; a journey otherwise very difficult to arrange by ourselves.

Many routes and trails are one way - they don't loop - so locals sometimes arrange the transportation with two cars. One is parked to the end of the trail, then the whole bunch crams into the remaining car and drives to the trailhead. A system which for us Europeans sounds very extravagant and unecological, but is necessity in here, not only because of distances, but because of scarcity of developed areas and public transportation. It at first looked unbelievable, but the local RVs are actually towing little 4-wheel drives with them, to be used where ever the monstrously big RV is parked. These things don't look very mobile...

In Moab I've seen lots of different vehicles towing or carrying rafts, bikes, and such like. Many Colorado river and National Parks trailheads are an hour or less drive away, and you can book a place for you, your rucksack, and/or bike fairly easily and at convenient times.


Suomeksi: Retkien järjestäminen Zionissa ja muualla Utahin retkeilyalueilla on yllättävän helppoa. Springdale Zionissa ja Moab Colorado jone rannalla tarjoavat nipun yrittäjiä, jotka järjestävät kuljetuksia eri retkiä varten eri puolille Kansallispuistoja tai ympäröiville retkeilyalueille. Moabissa vastaan tulee isoja autoja jotka hinaavat tai kantavat jokilauttoja, kanootteja, pyöriä ja muuta vastaavaa, sekä tietysti lastin retkeläisiä. Lysti maksaa 20-30 taalaa, mutta pelastaa paljolta puljaamiselta. Melkein joka retkeilytavalle löytyy kuljetus. Olen nähnyt jopa jeeppejä rahdattavan paikalliselle maastoajoalueelle.

Oma Zion Narrows reissumme alkoi itse asiassa 6.30 aamulla paikallisen retkienjärjestäjän pihasta, josta pieni nelivetobussi vei meidät Chamberlain ranchille ja reitin alkuun - reissu, joka olisi oluut todella hankala järjestää itse.

Koska suurin osa reiteistä on vain yhteen suuntaan, ja paluu voi olla hankalaa, paikalliset usein järkkäävät retken kahdella autolla. Toinen auto ajetaan reitin loppupäähän, koko porukka ahdetaan toiseen autoon, joka sitten ajetaan reitin alkuun. Minusta tämä tuntui aluksi tuhlauksen huipulta, mutta paikalliset välimatkat ja harva asutus (Utah on Saksan kokoinen, mutta asukkaita on vain 3 miljoonaa) pakottavat bensan polttamiseen.

Aivan uskomattomalta tuntui nähdä valtava asuntoauto hinaamassa perässään pienempää (mutta silti isompaa kuin meidän auto) nelivetoista. 'Pikkuauto' on tarkoitettu käytettäväksi siellä, missä hirviömäinen asuntoauto parkkeerataan. Myöhemmin tästä on tullut vastaan kaikenlaista variaatiota. Kesyin on tietysti rivi maastopyöriä pakattuna asuntoauton vetokoukkuun, hauskin hinattava oli varmasti maastoauto, johon oli vielä pakattu kaksi mopedia. Noh, bensa maksaa 3 taalaa gallonalta (noin 4 litraa).

Zion Narrows - Part Two

Well, in the spirit of the trip as a two day trek, the blog post will also be a two part afair. The photos shown on the previous post were all from the first day. Now we have the photos from the second day.

Anni sets off in the morning. We carried all our water and our packs were noticably lighter.

We soon came to Big Spring which was, well big and a spring. It marked the point where the Narrows were their narrowest. After this there was a sustained period of inescapable narrow terrain where flash floods could prove disasterous. The trip was designed so we entered this section in the morning when the chance of thunderstorms were the lowest.

We obviously wanted to negociate this section fairly quickly, but not so fast that we couldn't take photos!

The canyon sides towered up and the water ran rapidly. From this point on most of the trekking was in the river. The rocks were loose and at points the current quite strong. But with care these didn't hinder us.

It was fairly cool and dark in the canyon despite the fact that it was clearly baking in the rest of the park. We spent most of the day wearing fleeces.

This view typifies what we saw. The sun shone tantilisingly close but rarely were we able to bask in its rays. The backdrops were illuminated spectacularly but the foreground remained dark, this made photography somewhat challenging.

A thief in the night

No matter where you go and how beautiful it is, there always has to be someone who ruins it. This was true of our trip to The Narrows. We hadn't seen anyone all day and when we camped we imagined that our castle extended several kms. Can you imagine our surprise when we discovered that we were robbed whilst we slept?

It is of course ones natural instinct to sleep closely to ones belongings but, on advice from the National Park, we didn't hoard our food in the tent but left it suspended unattended from a tree. In the morning when we went to retrieve our breakfast the evidence of a dirty thief was staring us in our face. The thief had gained access to the suspended bag by chewing through it and had taken every single one of our King Henry's hot and spicy nuts. It hadn't taken our blueberry bagels (which was fortunate as we had intended that they would be our breakfast), it hadn't taken our cereal bars, our fruit or our canyon mix. No, the thief clearly had a liking for hot and spicy nuts. We quickly blamed a cheeky chipmunk, but i was surprised that it had a taste for the nuts as they were in fact quite spicy. Anni confirms, "Yes, I thought that they were hot too, I even had to have a sip of water after eating a small handfull". We half expected to see the creature by the side of the river, clasping its belly regretting eating so many spicy nuts. But no, it had vanished like the rotten thief that it was.

The evidence. I believe this counts as forced entry and would be punished quite harshly if the courts were ever to catch the villain!