B² Productions | Climbing Blog

The sun was creeping in round the side of the blinds as we woke up on our third day in Moab. The more we were settling into life on the road, and life in the US time zones, the later we were starting to wake up too! We finally managed to get ourselves sorted and out of the hotel around 10:30 though. Our plan for the (late) morning was to head to Arches National Park. We loaded up on intensely sugary breakfasty type things from the gas station a couple of doors down, and made the short trip out of town to the park. We wound our way up the steep road that leads up to the start of the amazing, epic landscapes and rock forms. I had visited Arches the previous year, and it is certainly one of the most striking National Parks I’d been to. Although not as lush, green or classically “beautiful” as Yosemite, for example, the sheer vastness, scale and impossibility of some of the arches and rock forms there make for a very different and unusual form of beauty. For a climbing obsessive it’s a paradise as well.

A panorama from Arches National Park (taking in The Three Gossips and Sheep Rock)

As we drove between spots and shot photos, I would find myself staring up at Balanced Rock and imagine myself trying to get round the underside and to the top of this huge, precariously balanced boulder. We drove near enough the length of the main round which runs length ways up the middle of the 76,359 Acres of the park, stopping intermittently to look and various vistas. Towards the end of the road, we stopped at Devil’s Garden Trailhead and got out for a walk. We strolled through the parking lot and spotted all the different license plates from around the country. There were people here from New York, Michigan and even as far afield as Vancouver! Such is the pull of this incredible beauty spot, tagged onto the edge of a little town in the middle of the Utah desert. The path lead us away from the car park, and then split off in a variety of different directions. We took the trail off to our right and went and looked at Tunnel Arch, which was more of a giant hole than an Arch. We then doubled back on ourselves and headed towards the end of the trail, and to Pine Tree Arch. Although tucked away at the end of the trail, Pine Tree Arch offered a really nice, beautifully framed view of the park to the North. By now, the clouds were starting to appear again, and was turning the weather quite humid and uncomfortable. We decided to call it a day for Arches, and we made the slow drive back through the park and back into Moab.

Our destination was a pretty easy choice: McStiff’s it was for lunch and another three hours worth of pool practice! It was nice having the loft at McStiffs to ourselves. We more or less had the whole place to ourselves. We strung out our lunch and games of pool, and generally felt incredibly chilled. I felt grateful to be on the trip, and felt the most relaxed I had for a long while. At around about 3:30, we decided it was time to get motivated, and get back out to the rocks. We swung into the hotel on the way back to Big Bend, gathered up our stuff and hit the Hwy 128 out of town. Big Bend was deserted when we arrived. It was a lot cooler in the valley, and we still had a good five hours of daylight left. We headed to the Black Box Boulder again, and began a short warm up. After the successes for the previous night, we decided to try out some other new problems. We wandered down towards the road, and sussed out a few simple problems on the Flat Top boulder. Flat Top is around ten or twelve feet high with a great long face of tiny pockets and crimps. We tried a couple of problems: The Pregnancy Arete and Leftover Lover.

Benny on the Flat Top Boulder

Continuing our extended warm up, we got a few tricky problems on the Hueco Boulder. As the name suggests, the boulder maninly consists of a row of long Huecos, under a large, slabby face. Benny was keen to try Ranger Bob (V1), which, from a standing start began with a mantel up onto a large ledge, before following a thin crack up the slab. Benny managed the mantel easily, but struggled with the slab. He was having a hard time getting his feet established on the awkwardly angled edges, while still maintaining a decent grip on the crack. Also, the large shelf which he mantled on t begin with went from being a big help to a massive psychological hinderance! It was pretty off putting to commit to the sketchy moves on the highball slab with the knowledge that you’d have a nasty fall onto the ledge! He decided that it wasn’t worth the risk, and after watching Benny on the problem for a good five minutes trying to figure out the sequence, I decided the same. We decided instead to have a stab at Upwardly Mobile (V0) just next door. It started with a sit start on good huecos, before making a massive, off balance move (for me at least) to a side pull. With a lot of heaving and liberal use of the arete, I managed to get up right, and then it was a case of keeping my head in the game long enough to get up the easy but high slab. Benny managed the problem with relative ease as well, albeit with a different sequence at the bottom.

After the warm up, we were feeling good. And, although we’d been enjoying the new problems, the pull of Circus Tricks, which was still close by was too strong. We had to give another try – it was our last night after all. I wasn’t especially confident that I’d get any further along, but I had to give it a while none the less. We chucked the matts down underneath and started working the top section again. At least it was easy to work the crux from the ground. I managed the first couple of moves to get established again on the, by now, all too familiar, bad undercling side pull. I tried more elaborate foot sequences, trying to established as high as possible, before my my fingers finally gave out and I’d drop off. Benny was managing to stick the undercling move now as well. He had to cut loose, but summoning up a phenomenal amount of body tension, he managed to keep himself on! He was now facing the same problem as me, in that he had to work out where to put his feet. We took a break, and spent some time brushing and examining nearly invisible edges in search of something. Benny pointed out an edge for my right foot, slightly higher and longer than what I had been previously using. I’d previously dismissed it as being too small and in the wrong place, but Benny insisted that that was the foothold that he’d seen another guy use to stick the move to the top. I decided to take his work for it, and gave it a try. And you know what, he was right! I jacked my foot up to the hold, and by turning it sideways it sat quite nicely in place. I only had a second or two to make the move, but with my legs now more bent up, I found I could spring off it toward the lip. On the first couple of tries I came incredibly close, getting my fingers well over the lip, but just not being able to hold it! After a couple more attempts I nailed it! I hung there, wondering how to solve the next little problem – The awkward, mantelly top out. I got into this position a couple of times, and just couldn’t bring myself to throw my leg up and over to top out! I felt a lot more confident and excited about it now though, but unfortunately very tired at the same time. I just wished we had another evening to try it. Gah! We had to pack up and leave the next morning. It looked like Circus Tricks would have to wait until another time. I have no idea when though…

Benny on Circus Tricks

We decided to end on a high, so we packed up and headed back into town for dinner. Moab had been great again, and I hope to get back there one day. But now, it was off to somewhere new for both of us! The next day we were heading off across Utah to Joe’s Valley! And we had no idea what to expect…