The Black

The Black Canyon has a reputation for brutal gullies, blood-sucking ticks, poison ivy, loose rock, hard route finding, and some of the best long climbs in the country. Jesse called me a few days ago and asked if I wanted to meet him down there for three days of fun, and I immediately jumped at the opportunity. This place lived up to most of the hype, and the climbs we did were far cleaner than I expected. On Friday we hopped on Comic Relief (III 5.10). Well, actually we started about 200-feet too far to the right and didn't join up with the route until the top of the third pitch. Once we were on route, the climbing was amazing and very clean. We finished it with the 5.11 variation which I highly recommend. On Saturday we sat out constant rain, and on Sunday we woke up at 5:00 am to a starry sky and hiked down the canyon to get on the mega-classic Scenic Cruise (V 5.10+). This route is definitely as good as everyone says it is. There's hardly a loose rock on the thing, and the peg traverse is not nearly as sketch as people make it out to be. Jesse and I busted it out in a little under 9 hours despite a couple misshaps on route which used up some time. And the best thing... when you finish the climb, you only have about 100-feet to walk along flat ground until you can crack a beer.