B² Productions | Climbing Blog

It was still raining the next morning. The clouds totally obscured the tops of the mountains. We were glad to be on our way again. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Boulder, but the near constant rain when you want to climb is pretty draining. I was excited for Moab though. The weather forecasts indicated a better outlook for our arrival. We packed up the car in the stare road rain, and headed off on the next leg of our journey. A new state beckoned (our sixth of the trip). We got out of the city quickly, and before long were heading up the winding roads towards the Rockies. I’d done this drive before, the previous year with Snoo. It is pretty stunning. The thick could cover took the edge off a little, but the higher we got, the clearer the views became. Before long, we popped out of the Eisenhower tunnel and started our descent down towards the state line. We crossed into Utah and the landscape totally changed! The lush, snow covered rockies were now far behind us, and stretched out in front was miles of desert. You could be forgiven for thinking that Utah is fairly unimpressive as far as scenery goes (and to begin with, it does have the same dull, southern New Mexico styling) but luckily, we had an ace up our sleeve. Pretty soon after crossing the border, we swung off the I-70 and, ignoring the protests from Tom-Tom joined Highway 128. We briefly pulled over to mount the video camera out of the sun roof in preparation for what was to come. The 128 winds its way slowly down towards Moab. It’s by no means the fastest road, but it definitely is the most scenic. Before long, we were down in the heart of the valley. Massive, red walls and pillars of desert sandstone soared up either side of us, getting more impressive with every bend in the road. I’d been down this way before, but it was all new to Benny. I remembered how I felt when we first drove down this way, and he seemed to be experiencing the same now. It still blew me away however. Like Yosemite, photos and video really don’t seem to do these vast landscapes the justice that actually being there does. We stopped a couple of times to take photos, and we pointed out various landmarks to each other. The silence and sense of space is incredible. I really like this area of America, and the 128 is exactly the sort of classic road trip road you want to be heading down.

The Beast on Highway 128 (Check out the sweet additions!)

We rolled into Moab and headed down the main strip towards our hostel. We’d been recommended this place by Aaron in Boulder, so we thought we’d give it a try. I wasn’t really sure what I was expecting, but it turned out I was expected a bit more than I got. To be fair to the place, it was fine, but it was most definitely a hostel, which comes as a bit of a shock after having been in hotels. What it lacked in quality, it made up for in value – it was dirt cheap! We decided to go with it, and crammed the stuff we needed into the room, stuck the AC on, and decided to make the most of the evening by heading straight out bouldering. The engine of the focus was still warm as we fired it back up and hit the road again. Moab, like many towns in the western United States, basically consists of one long strip of a high street, with a grid of residential streets crossing the main street. It’s a really cool, town and it has a real outdoors-y, bohemian feel to it. One thing that sets Moab apart from a lot of places is the lack of chain outlets. Sure, there are some (McDonalds, Burger Kings, Best Westerns etc) but largely the place seems very independently owned and operated. I think this has something to do with why I feel so welcome and at home there. It’s a little island of chill in a very stiff, starch, up tight state.

The view from Big Bend (Click for a larger version)

We made our way out of town and back down the 128 the way we had come, for about 7 miles. Big Bend is a great little spot. Sat right on the edge of the 128, in the heart of the valley with the river running close by. By the time we arrived the sun was just starting its descent into night time, and the temps were dropping to bareable climbing levels. It felt good to be back there. I had lots of nice memories flooding back of the previous year when Snoo and I had ventured down to see what was there. With no crash pad and no guide book, we just messed around on things that looked do-able. This time we were armed. We had pads and guidebooks, and we were fitter and stronger than the previous year. We began the session warming up with a few V0’s and V1’s on the Black Box Boulder. There’s some really cool problems on there, with all kinds of variations on the perfect, crimps and sidepulls. It felt nice to be moving across the rock with the sun on your back. Unfortunately, getting straight onto fairly heavy duty crimps without warming up is not the wisest of ideas. The middle finger of my left hand started the all to familiar bruised sensation of a strained tendon! Not the start I had hoped for. I tried to warm my fingers up the best I could, while Benny went and sussed out a cool V4 traverse called Trail Traverse on the Trail boulder. Starting from a sit start on good crimps, you make your way right, along a series of ok pockets with very little for your feet. Benny was making pretty short work of the middle section with some deft heel hooks and crafty foot work, while I found the whole thing a lot more difficult. My balance and positioning on the holds was all out of whack, and I soon found myself getting irritated and frustrated with myself. This is never a good situation for me to get myself in, so I decided to step back from it and just spot Benny while he gunned for the ascent. I didn’t take long. After working out an impressive looking, near horizontal reach through move, and some more impeccable footwork, he had linked up the trick moves on the pockets on the rail into the ending. A couple more attempts and he had the entire thing done! Excellent effort – he would do well on the desert sandstone.

Benny on Trail Traverse (V4)

We were both starting to feel pretty tired by this point after the long drive, but not too tired to check out the massive Chaos boulder which sits smack in the middle of the Big Bend area. We were drawn like moths to a flame towards a great looking line on the corner which a guy and his girlfriend were trying. The line turned out to be called ‘Circus Tricks’ (V4). The guidebook informed us that this problem had been “sandbagged” (graded lower than it’s difficulty suggests). Despite the fact we were tried, it certainly felt very tough for a V4! From the sit down start, you have to make a heel hook up next to your hands, before pulling up hard to the next couple of holds on the arete. As the muscles in my legs started it seize up, it was becoming increasingly hard to make the move, and to get my heel to stick in place. We decided to have a quick couple of burns on the moves towards the end. These were super hard too! The problem wasn’t too high, so you could work the ending quite easily. From standing you could get two good, deep crimps, and with your left foot up on a high, large ledge, make a big move up left to (sort of) undercling on the arete. There was very little there to hold, but with enough body tension, you could just about stay in place. I got this move after a couple of tries, but Benny found it a lot harder. The arete was just out of his reach, which meant he had to cut his feet every time. Holding the arete and the one remaining crimper became increasingly difficult here, and he was struggling to stay on. Although I could make the move, I was stuck with what to do next. There was a distinct lack of footholds after the initial good ledge, and I was finding it difficult to hold myself on long enough to move anywhere. It was becoming clear that Circus Tricks would allude us for tonight, and as the sun finally disappeared, we packed up and headed back to town for dinner in the micro-brewery called Eddie McStiffs (which would become our daytime home for the next few days) and some well earned sleep.