Moab, UT

Nov. 5^th: Drove towards Indian Creek

Pat did some bouldering at “The Happies” while I took it easy resting my ankle in town. We left Bishop after dinner and drove a few hours along the remote and deserted Hwy #6 towards Moab, Utah. We were keeping our fingers crossed that Chico, our van, wouldn’t break down on us here! There were long stretches without any sign of civilisation!

Nov. 6^th: Made it to Indian Creek!

Drove the rest of the way along Hwy 6 and finally arrived in Moab for dinner. We then drove to Indian Creek and parked along an entrance for the night.

Nov. 7^th: Change of plans

The entrance we spent last night in ended up being for a ranch. We woke up to the sound of cows surrounding the van in the morning. As we started the short drive to the “Pastures campground” in Indian Creek we crossed some friends whom we had met earlier on the climbing trip at Trout Creek. They invited us to come along with them to a yurt that a friend of theirs owned and had offered them to stay in while they were gone. I found out later on that the yurt was owned by a well known climber named Jack Tackle. The weather wasn’t very appealing to climb today. It had snowed a little overnight and was still cloudy. We did want to take a look at what Indian Creek looked like. They gave us directions on how to get there in case we decided to leave. We made it to the “Pastures campground” and met Tye, a friend we knew from climbing in Bishop. After eating breakfast we chose to leave the cold and damp weather in Indian Creek to meet up with our friends at the Yurt outside the town of Moab.  

  

A cloudy morning in Indian Creek.





Nov. 8^th: Moab bike and climb

We arrived late in the morning and spent the earlier part of the afternoon mountain biking at the world renowned Slick Rock. We were glad to have brought our mountain bikes on the trip. It was a fun ride! Later in the afternoon we drove up to Potash rd and climbed a classic 5.8 right next to the road. It was surprising to see so many climbs so close to the road. We literally crossed a person who was belaying on the pavement of the road. You could easily belay from the driver’s seat if you wanted! Our climbing needed to take some adjusting to the rock which is sandstone. The texture is quite different from some of the granite we have been climbing on lately.

Nov. 9^th: Castleton Tower; North Chimney (5.9)

We said goodbye to our friends and the comfort of the yurt and headed up to the nearby Castleton Tower just a 10 minute drive away. After 50 minutes of approach we made it to the base of the tower. We approached the Castleton Tower with hopes to climb one of the fifty classics named Kor-Ingalls (5.9+) on the sunny and warmer south face. We arrived bellow it with a party just starting the first pitch and they seemed slow. Instead of waiting a while and being caught behind them we chose to climb the first pitch of the North Chimney. It was a cold climb! This shaded north facing chimney wasn’t our first choice but ended up being a great climb. After warming up our cold hands on top of the first pitch we got motivated to climb the remaining three pitches to the top. The rock could not have been much warmer than 0-5C. The ground was still frozen in the shaded areas as we approached. The following pitches were really fun with an off-width section (5.9) on the second pitch being the crux.

The approach to Castleton Tower.

The shaded and cold North Chimney.

Taking in the last warm rays of the sun!

Nov. 10^th: Castleton Tower, Kor-Ingalls (5.9+) & Anciant Art, Stolen Chimney (5.10-)

Another fun day of climbing on desert towers. Today we planned to climb two towers in a day. We arrived earlier today to climb the Kor-Ingalls on Castleton Tower. It was a good route to work on wide crack climbing skills since every pitch had an off-width of varying lengths. We rappelled down the north side on a single rope without any issues this time. We then wanted to climb Fine Jade (5.11a) on a neighbouring tower.  There was a party on almost every pitch and one at the base waiting to climb. We chose to go back to the van and head towards another tower climb we had on the list. We drove about 30 minutes down the road to the parking lot of the Fisher Towers. We approached to the base of a climb named Stolen Chimney on the Ancient Art tower. It was starting to get late in the afternoon (about 2:30pm) and the days have been getting shorter with the sun setting around 5:15pm. The climbing was “interesting”. The rock was more like a mix of pebbles surrounded by hardened mud that had dried into a sometimes brittle consistency. This made placing protection a spicy affair in some sections of the climb. This didn’t make the climb dangerous but it did take some extra care in placing the pieces of protections. The last pitch brought us onto the most airy summit I’ve ever been on. There wasn’t even enough room for a second person to stand on top!

The corkscrew summit of Anciant Art.

On top of the corkscrew summit!



A long exposure at night while we prepared dinner.



Nov. 11^th: Roadside cragging along Potash rd. (5.9 - 5.10c)

We rested the legs today and climbed along the Potash rd. It was good to climb on harder single pitch routes and work on crack climbing skills. This should help us prepare for the splitter cracks of Indian Creek.

Nov. 12^th: Rest day. Visited Arches National Park and relaxed in Moab.

The weather forecast called for rain and we were due for a rest day. We settled down in Indian Creek for the night.