A gold standard for "hard as shit", this route is short, sweet, and to the point. Weighing in at a hefty 5.13d, it is quite tough for that grade, in a lesser area it would most likely retain a 5.14 rating. Though short, the climb packs a serious punch in little less than 30 feet. Each move relentlessly hard, requiring long pulls off of very small holds (one of which is a mono, a pocket that only accepts one finger) the climb is truly merciless. Enter team Gasch. Upon hanging the draws, we set off to just feel out the holds, the moves, really just see if we could link any two holds together in an efficient fashion. It was hot, it was sunny, and not a good day for projecting the route but we gave it our best and feel like we really made serious progress. Lindsay figured out 80% of the climb including the first crux which for her, is a huge deadpoint to the mono. I was able to link all the way up to the highest crux which we were eager to dive into, but the blinding sun did not allow. Holy Crap Batman, where'd this 'try hard' come from?! Needless to say we're super excited... Lindsay called me from work today to explain how psyched she was on climbing and how strong she's feeling, this is a good thing!
We've also been spending a fair amount of time at a new cave in the west Utah desert on the edge of the salt flats. Now I know your thinking "did he just try and tell me there's climbing in the salt flats?" The answer is yes. At present there are some concerns with the volume of people at the crag, trash, and of course some climbing politics. As much as I'd love to bring every one of my friends to this place and have the sickest climbing day ever, now isn't the time. I'll leave it by saying it's not a bad little crag to have in the "backyard" and hopefully we can all take care of it and ensure all who want to check it out can. Until then, don't ask, I can't tell. Enjoy the pictures and then get off your ass and go CLIMB!
1 comment:
Good to see you are both feeling good about your climbing - - another great piece of writing! We'll have to go to Hell when we come out in September/October - - by then you both should have mastered everything there! Keep feeling the power!!!!
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