B² Productions | Climbing Blog

The next day we were straight online in search of info about the gate! After a few minutes Benny produced the goods! There was some info about the gate, but more importantly that it was only there to stop car access to the car park and the pump. It seems that the pump had been the victim of some vandalism, so the gate had been put in place as a deterrent. Crucially though, the rocks were still accessible to climbers – you just had to leave your car at the gate and hike in. Sweet! Excited by the prospect of seeing New Joe’s, we headed downstairs to get fuelled up. Unfortunately, we were greeted by the most meagre selection of breakfast thus far on the trip. Granted we were a bit late, but even so – it didn’t look like you’d have had a massive selection of stuff had you been the first in line. We settled for a quick cup of tea each (which was one welcome addition after endless coffee – we are English after all), got checked out and headed down to Walmart to get some supplies for breakfast, and the rest of the day. Food, water and a box of the most hideous sweets (the multi coloured atrocities called ‘Dots’) known to man in hand, it was back out to the valley with us!

Benny on 'Warm Me Up Scotty' (V1)

The sun was out with a vengeance. As we arrived back at the gate we were greeted by a cloudless blue sky, and crisp temperatures (helped by the high altitude) – basically perfect climbing temps. We loaded ourselves up and headed off up the track towards the now defunct car park. The high altitude may have been helping the temps, but it certainly wasn’t doing much for our lungs. I’m ashamed to admit it, but we did have to stop half way along and catch our breath! The walk in wasn’t actually as far as we’d thought and soon we were stood below the Ben Moon test piece ‘Black Lung’ (V13). Before any one gets too excited, we had no intention of trying that – but like any famous problem it’s impressive to stand and look at and get a sense of just how hard it actually is. We’d chosen Area 51 as it had a good mix of problems. We decided to start at the bottom and work up. There was one boulder just next to Black Lung which had four problems on, which helpfully went from V1 – V4. Perfect. First up was ‘Warm Me Up Scotty (V1), which started under a small roof on good holds. There was a couple of moves back to the lip before pulling over on to a fairly high, but easy slab. A great little warm up. The V2 was called ‘Getting Warmer Traverse’ and started from the same sit start as ‘Warm Me Up Scotty’, but instead of going straight back to the lip, you went left along the lip of the roof to the left hand side arete and then up. There were a few tricky moves as you went across the lip (especially for the taller gentleman), but again the slab over the top had plenty of good holds. One thing we did notice at New Joe’s was that the friction was incredible! Even on this fairly warm sunny day our feet were just sticking to anything. It took a little while to get our heads into it, but once we realised we could happily use the tiniest little smears we really started to get into it. The rock at New Joe’s also reminded me a lot of Fontainebleau – with the welcome addition of a lot more crimpy holds. I really liked it here! After a couple of attempts each, we both sent ‘Getting Warmer Traverse’ and moved onto the last problem on the face – A nice V3 arete problem called ‘Get Shorty’. It followed a similar pattern to the V1 (a couple of moves to a lip and a mantle up onto a slab). According to the guide book it’s “Easier if you have a beard” – which was lucky for the pair of us. Benny managed to flash the problem, but I struggled with the high tension sit start, which involved cramming yourself into a rather awkward space on bad feet. It was a cool problem though, and I did manage it after about three or four attempts. We were both enjoying working our way up through the grades, so we decided to have a look at he V4 around the back of where we’d just been. ‘Sun In My Eye’ is a short (basically one move) intense, and very fun problem. From a sit start you pull up on a good rail, place one foot in a really bad foot hold and make a long throw to a good pocket just over the lip. From there it’s a relatively simple top out. It sounds easy enough, but it took both Benny and me a good while to get into the right body position to to actually get and leverage to get up to the lip. It was fun though, and we both settled in to work the problem for a while. While we were on the problem, for the first time in the two days we’d bee at Joe’s we actually had some company! Another couple of climbers came hiking up the path looking for Area 51. They turned out to be called John and Lucy, and they originally hailed from New York. John was on a mammoth road trip from the East Coast heading west – a trip which made ours look quite timid in comparison. Lucy had recently moved to Salt Lake City for uni, and John had stopped by to see her as part of the trip. We chatted for a while, and then they headed round the back of the boulder to start on the same problems we had. Benny and I continued to work ‘SIME’ and although I came close a couple of times, I still couldn’t quite make the move. After a while, John came back round to see what we were up to. It was becoming increasingly apparent that he was a pretty handy climber – A theory that was shortly proven when, after asking if he could jump on, systematically flashed the problem with ease. He used some really effective beta, where by he had his legs spread really far apart and basically straddled the rock. His left foot was in the bad foot hold, and his right foot was flagged right out. This seemed to give him just enough spring to get up to the lip. It seemed like a plan, and once he was done, I got back on and gave it a go. My first attempt with the new beta was very close – I had my fingers in the hold but couldn’t quite hold it. I sat on the pad and psyched myself up. The second time I latched the pocket with ease! I managed to hold the swing, but then messed up my foot work for the top out and was forced to bail out! The third time was the charm though – I stuck the hold again and topped out with ease, up over the lip and into the sunshine! The day was going well. Benny wasn’t far behind, and he managed to nail the problem to after a few more attempts! This working-up-through-the-grades technique seemed to be paying off, so we decided to try and find  V5 to work on and hopefully continue our successful streak. Benny had a quick look through the guide book and found an interesting looking V4/V5 called ‘Self Service’. It was a different boulder, and a bit of a hike through the under growth. We bis our goodbyes to John and Lucy and headed through the trees to the new boulder.

Benny on 'Sun In My Eye' (V4)

The guide book was a little unclear as to how ‘Self Service’ actually worked. It was pretty short again, and with good holds. However, the ambiguous description of the problem left it a little up in the air as to whether the good side pulls out to the left of the problem were actually in. There was a V2 which ran up that part of the face, and we just assumed that they were part of that. So, we set to work trying to figure it out. From what we could see, you started on a good jug, and utilising a pretty intense drop knee move, you got established on a bad undercling (or in my case a really, wide, and actually quite painful pinch which was pretty much at the extent of my grip). You matched your left hand onto a bad sloper just next to the underclingy-pinch-type-thing, bumped you right foot up and made a crazy throw over to a good (if you came at it from the right way) crimpy rail. Unfortunately, we were coming at it from the wrong way and the decent part of the rail was just out of reach. We both managed to link up to this point (with a fair amount of work), and we were pretty convinced it was the way to go. We did spend a bit of time weighing up the possibility  that the decent side pulls were part of the problem, but we came to conclusion that using them would have made the problem easier than V5. In hindsight, we probably should have put our theory to the test, but instead we we just carried on working our way (which ironically felt harder than V5). Unfortunately, we didn’t really get any further than this point, despite many huge throws, loud screams and heavy deck outs on to the pad.

Ben on 'Self Service' (V4/5)

We carried on working the moves until both fatigue and time got the better of us. It was getting to around 4pm by this point and we were booked into a hotel at the stop over place of Cedar City en route to Las Vegas, which we quite fancied getting to before it was dark. We conceded defeat, packed up the gear and hiked back out to the car. Benny was determined to try and put the mystery of the side up holds to bed though, and vowed to do some research when we next had an internet connection.

As we got back to the car, and started packing up the gear, a truck pulled up alongside us by the metal gate and a rather stern looking man jumped out. We started looking sheepish like school boys who have been caught doing something wrong, and they know it. We muttered a timid hello to the guy, and in an instant the gruff exterior melted away to one of the biggest, most welcoming smiles I’ve ever encountered. The smile was accompanied by one of the thickest Arkanas accents I’ve ever encounted – It was amazing. He said hello back and asked us how our day’s climbing had gone (he worked for the company that maintains the pumps up in the car park and obviously regularly came across climbers in this spot). We asked about the gate an whether it was a new addition. It turns out that it had been put there in the last few years as there had been a lot of vandalism to the pump, so the gate had been put in as a deterrent. That was one mystery solved at least, and to anyone in the same situation we had been a few days before and have been frantically searching Google for an answer, I hope this post has helped. You can thank me later. We thanked the guy for clearing things up for us and he headed up the track to the car park . We finished packing up the car and hit the road, aiming for Cedar City 150 miles or so south.

It was still a beautiful evening as we drove down through the valley and back onto the interstate. The beautiful sunshine was a bit misleading however. As we stopped at a Gas Station about 50 miles in, we got out of the car only to be greeted by gale force, freezing cold winds! Neither of us had sweatshirts on, and a we stood shivering as we filled up on fuel and made a vain attempt to get some of the filthy and miscellaneous dead insects off the windscreen. We still had a fair way to go, and we were both feeling a little tired from the days climb. It was time to bring out the big guns – The Arizona Raspberry Ice Tea! All fuelled up, we swapped drivers so I was behind the wheel and pushed on. I cracked the can on as we left and it wasn’t long before the caffeine was causing through my veins and I was getting my second wind. It wasn’t long before Cedar City was in range. I was feeling pretty much fully energised now, and neither really wanted to stop so we made the executive decision to push straight on to Vegas. I still don’t quite know how I managed it, but I ended up driving the full 200+ miles from the Gas station down through Utah, clipping the corner of Arizona and into Nevada. We were treated to a very spectacular sunset across the plains as we head across the desert – this for me was probably one of the best and most exciting drives of the trip. This is what I’d hoped for before we left and it was just as good as I imagined it. Before long, we pulled over the brow of the hill and the we were greeted by the hugest sprawl of lights I’ve ever seen emerging from the darkness. It had been a long drive, and we were happy to have arrived in Vegas finally and get checked into our room. That probably was the only time we were happy in Vegas. At least until we left…