B² Productions | Climbing Blog

Sorry, that interruption perhaps wasn’t as brief as I’d intended. So erm, anyway, where was I?…

I slept surprisingly well in the Hostel. However, we were both very keen to get checked out and checked into somewhere a bit better equipped. We were also beginning to take on the appearance of the road weary travellers, and it was time to smarten up. We decided to forego the shower (which did look like the sort of utility which seemed to do the opposite of what it was designed for – in this case, making you dirtier than when you went in). We checked out and headed down Moab’s main drag to get breakfast at the frightfully continental sounding Pancake Haus. Das ist gut. After getting all carbed up, we checked into the Super 8 at the opposite end of the strip, dropped off our stuff and immediately headed back out to get smartened up. We found a tiny little barbers shop just off one of the side roads, and while Norm worked his hair based magic, the three of us put the world to rights. Norm told us all about the state of Utah (read into that what you will) and we thanked our lucky stars that in this hugely religious, largely republican state we were currently nestled in a little corner of left wing happiness. After our shearing (which is what it had become after a good six weeks or so) we went back to the hotel to get showered and from there, feeling human once again, we ventured out into the midday heat. We trawled the various bike and climbing stores looking for trainers and things before retiring to our local for more games of pool and lunch. We must have been in McStiffs for a good few hours waiting for the clouds to disappear and the humidity to subside enough for us to head back to Big Bend.

Benny breaking off one of our many games of Pool at McStiffs...

As late afternoon rolled around, we made our way out towards Big Bend, stopping by the hotel on the way to grab our stuff. It was turning into a beautiful evening. Where as in the midday sun, the exposed Big Bend area would have been a little sun trap, with the run starting to dip behind the mountains the conditions were perfect. Once again, when we arrived the place was deserted (with the exception of some campers over the road). We dropped our stuff down in front of the Black Box Boulder and began warming up on some of the crimpy little problems on the BBB. All was going well until I started to feel a pain in my finger. It felt like it was bruised at the base where it meets the palm of the hand. Nothing terrible, enough to make crimping down on tiny holds uncomfortable. It slowly dawned on me. This had happened before. I’d strained the tendon. It’s a pesky little affliction which is still plaguing even as I write this, months later. D’oh. I rested for a while, while Benny worked some ridiculously crimpy, barely there problem called BBB-5. I did have a cursor attempt on it, but sore fingers aside, I couldn’t even get off the ground on it anyway. The starting holds were the tiniest of sloping crimps, and for me they were situated a little over waist height. Although there were good starting footholds, I couldn’t take any weight on my hands, and therefore couldn’t get balanced which resulted in me stumbling backwards every time. I decided it was a lost cause for me and sat back with the camera and watch Benny work his magic. Being shorter than me, he could drop down onto the starting hand holds more, get established and then move off them. From there things got bigger (both the holds and the moves between them), but Benny soon worked the whole thing out and was at the top in no time. He was happy he’d sent the problem – I was equally happy too. Whilst he’d been trying the impossible start, I’d gotten perhaps one of my favourite shots of the trip. Happy days…

Benny on the Black Box Boulder. One of my favourite shots from the trip.

Now the pain my finger had subsided, I was keen to get climbing again. I’d been flicking through the guidebook, and I’d noticed that there was a V3 variation to the traverse problem Benny had done the night before. The variation was only one move different (possibly even less than that) – instead of sticking religiously to the break running just below the top of the boulder, there was a large sloper on the lower lip which was in the V3 version, but not the V4. This made such a massive difference to me. I could now hold on long enough on the sloper to move my feet and left hand around, and to get established for the next crux moves. Feeling very psyched by my new discovery, I laid the matts down and went for a full attempt. It took me a couple of goes to get the footwork right, but once that sequences was sorted out, I sailed through the moves and topped out with ease! Hurrah! It was starting to feel like the previous nights demons had been laid to rest. It was exciting!

After the initial victory on the Trail Traverse, I was up for finding something else on the same boulder to attack! Another problem topped out in the same place as Trail Traverse which I liked the look of. It was a nice, short V2 called Middle Man. The crux came down to essentially one long between two massive holds – perfect for me! The guidebook’s definition of the problem was intriguingly cryptic about the problem too. The book hinted at there being a crafty, techniquey way around it. After a little discussion we pretty much had it sussed. The move was too big, with too scrunchy a start to dyno for the ledge, but, the foot and hand holds there were good enough to drop in a serious drop knee move to pull up to the lip with relative ease – Especially for a freak like ape boy like me. On the first attempt, I had my balance all wrong and just missed the lip. Second time though, I stuck it

with ease! Then it was just a case of a simple, smeary top out and it was all over! An awesome problem! However, where Benny had the advantage on the tiny, crimpy problem on the Black Box Boulder I had the advantage here. He still got agonisingly close to it though With a while longer working it, I reckon the problem would have gone…

Feeling sufficiently warmed up, we decided to attack Circus Tricks again. Unfortunately, it hadn’t gotten any easier over night as I’d hoped. The fgoot holds were still small, and we were still struggling. Benny was still trying to suss the move to the bad undercling, and although getting closer all the time, still not managing to stick it. He was landing the hold a lot more solidly now though which was encouraging, and actually getting to the stage where he could move his feet around. I still couldn’t find a decent enough placement to make the big last move to the lip. We worked the problem unsuccessfully for a few hours before deciding to call it a night. We went back into town and found a nice little Pizza place, we ate our fill and sunk a few beers before retiring for the now seemingly luxurious Super 8 for the night…