Moab Ride and Climb

A day of riding on Porcupine followed by a day of climbing in Long Canyon is a great way to say goodbye to the mountain bike and begin the reign of the desert rack. As always, the riding was absolutely amazing (except Jen's super gnarly crash). I didn't get any new pitches in on Sunday, but we repeated some classics. Unfortunately, the road through Long Canyon is in pretty bad shape, and I didn't feel like risking my truck on the very top section, which made our exit from town much longer than it needed to be. If anyone working for the local government agency responsible for maintaining that road is reading, please fix that thing.

Zion

Despite living in Utah for several years each, Andy and I had only two Zion climbing days between the two of us. So, this weekend we doubled (that's right, doubled) out combined number of days on the big sandstone. Unfortunately, it rained like the monsoon on Saturday morning, so our original goal of doing a wall was instantly crushed. Instead, we strolled out of camp at about noon and tried to find some dry rock. Luckily, all three pitches of Headache were bone dry, so we climbed that beautiful hand crack and finished with Ataxia Tower before going back to camp for the Jesse Mattner Memorial Dinner (Jesse isn't actually dead, or even close, but we want to make sure his quality camp cooking lives on) and re-racked for Sunday. We slept in again in hopes of the sun drying the rock, but there was no sun, so it did not matter. Either way, we hiked to the base of Spearhead and started up Iron Messiah. A little bit of soloing, six rope-stretching pitches, and three squeeze chimneys later, we topped out the massive dihedral. Andy did the most impressive trad climbing I've seen him do so far. Good on ya mate! Then we rappelled, which was super sketch due to the many ropes that we found stuffed into the cracks, reminders of easily the descent can go wrong. We joined forced with two French climbers on the way down, so we would not have to pull as many ropes, and Andy, while at a hanging belay, managed to catch a falling shoe that was dropped from over 200 feet above. Anyway, we made it down, saw a fox on the walk out, drove all night, and got back into SLC at about 1:00am. I can't wait to go back to Zion.

Night Ride

Well, it turns out that it's officially too late in the year to bust out an after-work ride on the Crest without finishing in the pitch black. We made it to about the spine right as the sun finished it's journey below the horizon. It turns out that a headlamp ziptied to a helmet doesn't provide the kind of light that a person needs to ride well. Still it was fun like always.

A Swell Weekend

Every fall has to have a first day of desert climbing. Usually it's a serious ass kicking while your body gets used to the unique type of movement, and you come home thrashed and with very few sends. Somehow, this fall was different. Ben and I headed down and actually climbed well for two days. We ticked off a few quality pitches on the Stock Exchange Wall the first day, and on day two we did the Lightbulb and a sweet 11b pitch near Red Corner. There were a lot of people down here this weekend, but we didn't see another climber.

West Slabs

Andy joined me for a quick solo lap on the West Slabs of Mt Olympus today after work. We made the 2600ft lap car to car in 2hr 16min without rushing. I think we can get it in the 1:45 range if we make a real effort. I guess we'll have to see. Either way, I had forgotten how much fun it is to come up here and solo a lap.

American Fork

Yet another day of clipping bolts in American Fork. Today was pretty chill, but fun as always. Great temps, changing leaves, slimy routes that see way too much traffic, and splitter, bluebird skies. I'm stoked for winter to come, but I'll miss days like these.

Dig, Eat, Ride

Arcylon saw it's first full top-to bottom laps today after the crew put in a few hours of digging to clean up a few features and finish the "my little pony" road gap. We found a few things that need a touch of love, so the trail isn't officially open yet, but after a little bit more work it will be the go-to trail for anyone who wants fast, flowy, jumpy fun.