The Organic Climber – Blogging about climbing, RAW foods, vegetarianism, running and cycling.

Colorado, is and always will be my favorite place to visit. I still hope to live there one day, but for now the amazing town of Austin, TX will have to do. The final installation of this trip report is long overdue. I’m glad I have finally found the time to pound it out. This report is very photo heavy, so I hope you enjoy it.

The day after we climbed the First Flatiron in Boulder we had planned on climbing Lumpy Ridge in Rocky Mountain National Park the next day, but decided to opt for a rest day instead. We did bring our climbing gear with us though in case we changed our mind. For our rest day, we spent some time in a Starbucks in Estes Park going over our plans for climbing Ellingwood Arete on the Crestone Needle. After enjoying a cup of decent java we decided to drive the famous Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park.

Trail Ridge Road is the highest continuous highway in the United States, more than eight miles of the road stretch between 11,000′ and 12,183′. The road provides spectacular scenic views of the Rocky Mountains, including the Continental Divide! It was a blast driving the gentle grades and broad curves in my Subaru Outback. I love it when I get to drive roads like this because it allows me to take advantage of the fly-wheel shifting.

We had originally planned on only driving to the top of the road and turning back at the gift shops and restaurant at the peak elevation, but we ended up driving the entire length of the highway. It was truly an enjoyable experience though to see such majestic mountain views form a highway that was contracted between 1926 and 1932. I don’t know why exactly, but for some reason I love driving long distances, especially in the mountains. I think it’s because there is some skill involved to it and you always have to be acutely aware of what you are doing.

While on one hand, I was a little bummed we didn’t climb this day. the Trail Ridge road experience was something to remember. I would definitely recommend it to anybody visiting Rocky Mountain National Park or Estes Park. There are also a few pullouts along the way to hike to take pictures, and hike to the top of ridges. We ended up stopping on four different occasions to check out the views. Two of them were forced stops though due to road construction. If you are not familiar with road construction on two-lane roads in the mountains; only one lane at a time gets by. This means one lane is completely stopped while another side of traffic is coming through. It can often result in long waits. It was enjoyable though, as it allowed us to get out of the car, take pictures, and hike around.

Crestone Needle and Ellingwood Arete

The final portion of the trip was climbing Ellingwood Arete on the Crestone Needle in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. In the end, we wished we had planned this climb at the beginning of our trip. To make a long story short, we were tired at the end of the trip and weather was iffy. We got rained on towards the top of the hike in and the weather forecast was calling for up to 50% chance of rain in town, depending on what source you checked. So we ended up deciding to not Summit the fourteener. We did however have an enjoyable hike in to the South Colony Lakes and an overnight stay.

The hike in ended up being easier than expected. We heard the four wheel drive trail was closed and we would have to hike in six miles. But upon arriving we discovered that only two miles of the trail was closed, so we were able to take the Subaru slowly up to the first 4 wheel drive trail parking lot. From there we had to hike (4 miles) because of trail closure, but it was a good thing, because the Subaru would not have made it up that portion of the trail without blowing a tire.

It was a fairly easy four mile hike in to the South Colony lakes at the base of Crestone Needle. Once we reached the upper 4 wheel drive parking lot it was only a 1.5 mile hike in. We ended up getting rained on about a mile into the hike and the clouds continued to hang around until we went to bed that night. Thus the reason why we called off our ascent. I was a little bummed though when we made our hike back to the car the next day, rain free.

It was well worth spending the night at the base of the Crestone Needle though, the views were spectacular, and seeing the peak bathed in morning sunlight was a splendid experience. Even though we did not summit it was just enjoyable to be in the backcountry away from everything. The only part that sucked about the trip was the marmot infestation around our campsite. I think it was largely due to my irresponsible behavior of taking a leak close to our campsite. The marmots hung around digging in the ground for what seemed like eternity. I would keep scaring them off, but they would just return. One of them also tore a hole in my MSR tent while on a short hike and chewed on my backpack. So, lesson learned; ALWAYS remember to use the restroom at least 200 feet away from your campsite.

My partner and I do plan on returning to Ellingwood Arete for an ascent. I have wanted to bag this fourteener since I first heard about it last summer. The peak looked way more daunting from the base than any photo we saw. We plan on climbing as much run out multi pitch we can though to prepare for our return. Hopefully we will be able to go back next summer. I have also wanted to bag more alpine ascents since my first on the North Face of Longs Peak.

Also, don’t forget to become my friend on Facebook.

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
backpacking, Colorado, crestone needle, ellingwood arete, Estes Park, mountains, Rocky Mountain National Park, sangre de cristo, trail ridge road
No comments

---

Note: I apologize for the long delay in getting this post up. I have had it half way written for about three weeks now. Due to the length of this post I also decided to break up the trip report into three parts, so this will now be part two of three.

Also, I am pleased to announce I am now an engaged man. If you want to know more about the wonderful lady, read this post that I wrote a couple months ago. Anyway, enjoy the trip report.

Climbing Fandango (5.5 II) last year was perhaps the highlight of my climbing career. It was 7 pitches of enjoyable run-out climbing. So, it would only make sense that I would be psyched about climbing the Direct East Face (5.6 III). The climb pretty much goes directly up the middle of the First Flatiron (in Boulder, CO) and then traverses the ridge, west, to the summit block. It’s 10 pitches of pure enjoyment on easy terrain.  The climb this year did not disappoint.

We woke up at 5 a.m. with the goal of being at the base of the climb at 6 a.m., but due to a slow start leaving the Hostel in Boulder and making a wrong turn off the trail we didn’t make it to the base until about 7:15 a.m. There was also another couple getting started at the base of the climb, so after waiting on them we probably got started close to 7:45 a.m.

Naren lead the first 5.6 pitch, which actually ended up being two pitches rolled into one. Naren ran out a full rope length to a good ledge. I actually had to take him off belay and stop down from my belay ledge to give him enough rope to put me on belay from above. The first pitch was the hardest pitch of the day, and I was thankful Naren had taken the lead. The first pich had two bolts on it due to the inability to place protection, but that was very surprising considering the only other bolt on the entire 1,000ft face was at the top of the second pitch for an anchor.

After arriving at the belay ledge with Naren I took a short rest, took the rack and began the second pitch. My first piece of protection was about 10-15 feet from the belay ledge. After that I didn’t get another piece in for at least 20 feet. At this point I began to wander off route towards what I thought was the path of least resistance. As it turns out, I was getting myself into 5.9 terrain, and Caleb doesn’t do well in run-out terrain like that. After much contemplating about continuing on my path of destruction, down-climbing, and then climbing back up again, I decided to completely down climb all the way down to my last piece of protection and then traverse left to meet back up with the route I was supposed to be on. I gave Naren a good scare too, he thought we ware going to have to bail off the route and call it a day, but I managed to collect my cool and proceed with the route.

Naren then lead the third pitch without any problems, other than passing a good belay stance, which required a bit of down climbing to return to the proper belay. I was up for the fourth pitch, which turned out to be a really run out 5.4 – 5.5, and was the headwall pitch. I didn’t find any gear right off the bealy, and was a good 30-40 feet above the belay before slinging a large horn. My second protection point was another slung horn – my only two places of protection on the entire pitch. The top of the fourth pitch had a nice large ledge that we decided to rest on. At this point a guide and his two clients caught up to us. They were moving very fast. The guide would solo the pitch, just hauling up twin ropes and would bring both clients up at the same time. What an efficient way to lead a part up 1,000+ feet of rock.

Naren lead pitch five, but ended up far right of the correct belay, thus adding an extra short pitch for us, which ended up being a short traverse that I lead. I contemplated connecting the entire pitch, but the guide that ended up passing as at this point had conjured up some mental blocks in my head my telling me a certain way was easier than going up the obvious gulley. I wavered back and forth for about ten minutes then decided to break up the pitches and bring Naren over. The anchor here was also pretty sketchy, so upon Naren arriving at the belay I made sure he didn’t put any weight on it. Since we had created an extra pitch here, Naren took the lead what became the seventh pitch. Since we ended up combining the first two, this put us at the correct number of pitches to reach the summit ridge.

From here we had several ridge line pitches until we reached the summit block. Since I had lead all but one pitch on this ridge I let Naren lead most of them. They were all very easy, with one 5.5 crux section, which was really the only place we needed to be roped up.  The exposure on the ridge was quite nice, but the terrain was so easy it never became an issue.

After reaching the summit we made the rappel down the backside of the Flatiron, that took almost a full 30 meters.  Other than having to pull the rope off a ledge on the way down, the rappel went perfectly smooth. Upon riving back at the car we had spent close to a full 12 hours. Not too bad considering we got slightly lost on the way in and ended up having to wait on two different parties during our climb; not to mention my wayward route finding skills.  The journey was a blast, and I look forward to doing more Flatiron routes in the future. Hopefully one of them will be with my wife to be!

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
Boulder, Colorado, Direct East Face, Direct Route, First Flatiron, Flatirons, rock climbing, trad
No comments

---

After driving about 11 hours straight, we arrived in the Garden of the God’s Visitor’s Center parking lot. After taking a quick restroom break and picking up our climbing permits we drove into the park and headed straight for Red and White Spire. It’s been my tradition for the last three years now to climb Potholes (5.7 PG13) upon arriving to Colorado. Usually, it stops here and he head on into camp, but we had plenty of daylight left so we wandered around a bit and found ourselves at the base of Cowboy Boot Crack (5.7), a climb I had been told numerous times I should do. However somebody had already occupied the climb. We stuck around a bit and talked to the guy that was belaying his daughter up the climb. He worked high angle rescue in the park and gave us some beta about the place. His beta was basically, don’t place cams and don’t trust the old pins. That wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear, but he told us of people placing cams behind flakes and falling. The falls generate enough force to explode the flake, sending the person falling, and the flake on top of them.

After that bit of information we headed over to The Drug Wall to climb Mighty Thor, a 5.10b that didn’t look too bad, but the first piton was pretty run out so I opted to lead Crescent Corner instead, a 5.9+/5.10a. This one was fairly run out too, but I managed to make it to the first piton with one piece of sketchy gear placed before that. The next move was pretty committing and the feet were horrible, nothing but flat, downward sloping dirty sandstone. I ended up hanging on the piton to rest, along with several others along the route. From a distance the climb looked like an amazing crack with deep jams, but there was nothing but laybacks on a thin seam, just large enough for fingers. After much grunting and hang dogging I made it up the 80-90ft route. Naren seconded and finished the route with only one take that I recall. After this we decided to call it a day and headed to camp in the National Forest just above Woodland Park. To our dismay we were far from solitude. While setting up camp at least four cars drove past our camp and set up nearby and played loud music late into the night. We apparently chose a campsite, probably the one they actually wanted, that the local kids in Woodland Park come up to party at.

The next morning, after a surprisingly good sleep (ear plugs work wonders). We headed back to Garden of the God’s to climb Cowboy Boot Crack and Montezuma’s Tower. But, once again Cowboy Boot Crack was occupied by other climbers. We contemplated waiting for the climb to free up, but I was antsy to climb and they didn’t look like they would finish anytime soon, so we headed over to Montezuma’s Tower, a two pitch classic 5.7 climb. This ended up being one of the most fun climbs I have ever done.

Naren lead the first 5.7 crux pitch without much of a problem. Committing to the first bolt was the hardest part, but placing a large number five Black Diamond cam a few feet below the bolt gave him the confidence needed to make the move. After the first of four bolts on the entire climb, things eased out a bit (in terms of grade), but was very mentally committing. The moves were easy, but protection on the climb was sparse. It made for a challenging climb as the second too. After moving above the crux you start traversing out right and then up a narrow spine. Moving up the spine was the scariest part, even going up as the second, a fall would result in a huge and dangerous swing. While making this move, your only protection is a sling running through a sandstone pot hole.  But, I moved up the spine with confidence despite the potential fall factor. I find it pretty amazing when I actually collect myself and move through the hardest part of climbs with the greatest of ease! It’s when I start freaking out that I slow down, begin doubting myself, and risk injury.

Upon reaching the belay perch I took a quick rest before starting the short second pitch. It was about 40 feet straight up, slightly overhanging and only protected by 1 piton about 12 feet from the belay. I did manage to place a couple more piece of gear up higher though before reaching the rappel anchors. One of the funnest parts of the climb was just sitting on the belay perch while bringing up Naren and watching the tourists take pictures of us from the sidewalks. Anytime a climber gets on the rock out there it draws a crowd. I’m pretty sure there were people that watched us climb the entire thing, from start to rappel.

After finishing up this classic fin, we headed across the street to Red Rocks Canyon open space, a city owned open space. We brought the guidebook with us, but pretty much settled for the first climb we found. I don’t remember the name of the wall we were on since we didn’t even open the guide book, but the pair that had just climbed it before us let us know it was a 5.7+. It was a fun slab climb with the crux occurring before you even reached the first bolt about 20 feet up. The rest of the climb was fairly easy and toped out above a hand-sized crack. The area is fairly popular and easily accessible so a lot of the climbs end up with polished rock, especially at the base. I recall working on one 5.8 climb a couple years ago that was likely more like a 5.10 now because of a super polished foot hold that was key to completing the crux.

After we finished this route we decided to go ahead and call it a day so we could make the drive into boulder and get settled into our room at the Boulder International Hostel. The stay there ended up being somewhat unpleasant due to not having any AC, and being stuck on the third floor in the far outside corner. This left us having to sleep with windows open and having to deal with all sorts of rowdiness outside, from firecrackers to gun shots. It was quite an experience.

The next day we climbed the Direct East Face of the First Flatiron, but you will just have to stay tuned for that portion of the trip report. I will be posting that sometime within the next week. Also, and a side note I have started working on a business plan to start selling my raw energy bars and other snacks I have made. I will be based out of Austin and will likely start locally with online orders available, so be sure to keep checking back for more information about that as well.

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
crack climbing, crack potholes, crescent corner, Garden of the Gods, gear, montezuma's tower, piton, rock climbing, trad
2 comments

---

In a couple weeks I will find myself back in colorful Colorado. This will be actually be my fourth time in the state in the past year. That is a new record for me. Prior to that I believe the most trips I have made in one year was two. This could potentially be my last trip for a while as I will likely be starting up my own business soon and possibly even be getting married in the next year. I will also be moving to Austin soon, thus putting me even further away from this great state, so I figured I should get a trip in while I can.

The big goal for this trip is to summit Crestone Needle via the Ellingwod Ledges route (5.7 III) in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness. This has been named among 50 classic climbs in North America. The summit is 14,197 feet tall. This will also only be my second 14er to Summit. My first was Longs Peak via the Cables Route (trip report here). This will also be my second technical alpine ascent. I am really looking forward to this one, all of the photos and trip reports I have been looking up have been getting my psyched about this awesome climb.

For our warm up climbs the few days before; we plan on climbing in Garden of the God’s, Red Rocks Canyon Open Space, Lumpy Ridge, and climbing the Direct Route (5.6 R II) on the First Flatiron in Boulder, Co. I am also really looking forward to the climb on the first Flatiron. Last years climb was one of my favorite all time climbs. I’m sure the Direct Route will not disappoint either.

I also have a different climbing partner for this trip as well, one that is far more experienced than the last climbing partner I had. This will mean faster climbing, more climbing, safer climbing and lead swapping which I am really looking forward to. Last year when I climbed with John I had to lead all the pitches since he was inexperienced. This trip will definitely be more enjoyable.

We still don’t know what we will be climbing at Lumpy Ridge yet, but hopefully it will be more enjoyable than the epic experience John and I had last year. It’s a lot harder to make dumb mistakes when climbing with somebody more experienced. You are essentially able to keep each other in check and question decisions. Had experience been on my side last year I likely would not have had to leave a $250 rope on the wall. Whoever ended up finding that received a nice present.

Be sure to check back later this summer for trip reports, and follow me on Twitter, as I will sure to be tweeting about it throughout the trip.

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
Colorado, ellingwood arete, mountains, rock climbing, sangre de cristo, wilderness
No comments

---

This past Saturday provided us with an amazing day of climbing along the Brazos River. The weather was perfect! The sun was shining, the temperatures were in the low to mid sixties all day and there was almost always a small breeze blowing. This is another one of my “secret” climbing areas. Not that the location of this particular stash is not known, it has just closed to the general public for several years (and still is).

The climbs here are all very short, the tallest climb is around 40ft high, most range from 25-35 feet in height. Some routes only require clipping two bolts. About six quick draws is the most you will need, unless you are a hard-man and can handle the 110ft, 5.12b traverse. All the climbs are also easily accessible and allow you to easily tick off 15+ climbs in a long day. By the end of the day I had climbed 15 routes, at least half of them, if not more were on lead. Others in our group ticked off even more climbs than that, all of which were on lead.

This place is also sort of special to me, as it was the crag were I bagged my first outdoor sport climbing lead. The climb was Corrins Corner (5.6) a short dihedral climb ending with a short traverse over to the anchors. To celebrate being back at the crag after four years of being closed out I warmed up on this route. My impression after finishing was that it was the hardest 5.6 I had climbed in a long time, but it was my warm up route too, so I couldn’t let that intimidate me for the rest of the day.

After finishing that climb I moved on over a few routes and lead a 5.8 that gave me a few problems, after that I moved on and lead a 5.10a that I had previously never been able to climb; all was going well until I was making the moves up from the last bolt and took a fall. I found out after being lowered down that I had actually broken off a foot hold. So, I didn’t feel as bad after that. After climbing several other routes I was already starting to feel tired and it wasn’t even lunch yet, so I decided to take a break and drank some water and fueled up on fruit. It was about this time that Mark was gearing up to lead Alamo Arête (5.11b). I have previously photographed this climb but wanted to shoot it again with a wider angle and ended up with the shot you see above. The previous photo I took of the climb looked much better in terms of background. The light must have been hitting the water just right to make it look blue. I didn’t have any such luck today.

By the time I returned to the ground Bill was getting ready to lead the climb. I assumed he would only top rope it, otherwise I would have stayed up top to shoot him as well; he was wearing a bright yellow shirt and was wearing a red helmet. It would have made for an awesome shot. But since I was down there I figured I would watch Bill climb it to see if I might possibly be able to climb it as well. After seeing Bill ease his way up the route followed by a stellar 50 year old climber named Gary I figured I would give the route a try on lead.

Even though the route was rated a 5.11b I somehow managed to send the route, even though my hardest lead prior to that was a 5.10d and I didn’t even climb it cleanly. It turns out the crux moves were just a couple bouldery moves at the start of the route and were well protected. After making the two hard moves you move up to a ledge and then clip another bolt, from there you make a couple other moves requiring a heel hook to clip the next bolt just a few feet above the other bolt. From here you make the second crux move which is rated at 5.10b. It took me a while to figure out the sequence but after making those moves you were up on another good ledge. From there you make a couple more easy moves up to clip the last bolt then move around on the face to easier terrain and then move up to the anchors. Even though it wasn’t a clean ascent, I feel confident I could go back and lead it clean. I still don’t think there are even a lot of hard 5.10 climbs I could lead, some how this climb just suited my style fairly well.

After climbing Alamo Arête my forearms were even more pumped, yet I continued to climb. I attempted a 5.10d on top rope, but failed, I climbed a 5.9 dihedral after that on top rope to clean the anchors for some other people in our group. After finishing up that Naren and I ticked off several easier climbs on lead. At this point I had climbed and/or attempted 13 routes. We finished off the day by climbing a 5.8 and then getting shut down on a 5.10b. Although I worked the crux move I was too tired to finish out the rest of the route, so rather than leading one last route I decided to call it a day. I ended up walking further down the wall, only to find Mark, Gary and Bill hang dogging their last route of the day. After seeing those guys flail around it was evident our day was coming to a close.

It was also a sad day of sorts as this was possibly my last time to ever climb out there. I’m just excited that I was able to return to the place I learned to sport climb one last time before moving off to Colorado. That of course is still pending several factors, but it looks like everything is lining up quite nicely.

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
brazos river, rock climbing, sport climbing, texas
No comments

---

A blog post has long been overdue here, so here we go…

Life has been pretty hectic and busy lately. Since I ran the Big D Half Marathon (the recap was my last blog post nearly a month ago) back in April I haven’t even had to many opportunities to get in a run or even go climbing. It’s one of those things where you are so busy you can’t even really point to what you have been doing that has made you so busy, but I can say some big changes are coming in the next month. More to come on that. I have actually been procrastinating a blog post because I thought I was going to be able to announce the big news, but that keeps getting delayed.

Anyway, this past weekend I was finally able to make it out to the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma, probably my last visit for a long time. Overall, the trip was pretty awesome. On Saturday we had a lot of rain, but hiked to Voodoo Wall, a climbing area we have never been to – one that is rarely visited, and the condition of the bolts in the rock reflected that. The vista seen from the climbing area was gorgeous; it was like none I have ever seen in the wildlife refuge. The hike in was also amazing. We crossed mounds of granite slabs, stunning rock formations, canyons, and beautiful vistas.

Due to the rain we didn’t get a whole lot of climbing in, but we did manage to get a few top rope ascents in after the rain died down. The sun even peeked out a few times. I have to say though, I didn’t have my best day of climbing ever, but at the same time I felt some of my climbing skills are improving – such as crack climbing. We set up a top rope on what was probably a 5.10 dihedral that involved lots of hand jamming and lay backs. After top roping four routes we decided to call it a day and hiked back to the cars. The hike back itself was an adventure because there is no established trail to the crag we climbed at. I always enjoy these adventures.

On Saturday we set out to climb Shake Your Grove Thing , a 5.6 climb that is very exposed and ends with an open air rappel back down to the ground. But due to recent rains the creek was very high and there was about a foot of water under the climb, so we opted to climb Unfinished Piece, a route that is mostly 5.6 with a couple of 5.8 moves towards the top. The crux moves are fairly tough and are very exposed. I have lead the route at least three times, this time I was the third climber up the route, so I was essentially on top rope. While working through the crux moves I kept wondering how I ever made them on lead. I often do that though. I find I am more gathered mentally when making hard moves on the sharp end, although I do have moments where I totally freak out and back down from the climb.

After what seemed like hours because of a newbie trad leader leading the route for us, we finished and moved on to climb Captain Crunch, a 5.7 with an airy overhanging exposed crux on the second pitch. I was going to lead the first pitch and leave the second pitch to the group’s hardman Gary who climbs 5.10 trad. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the start of the climb, so we opted to climb Aerosmith, a 5.6-5.8 slab inside a leaning dihedral.

Aerosmith was another climb I have lead numerous times, but this time it gave me fits. I had a hard time just starting the climb, and as I continued on up the climb I sewed it up like a little baby, plugging gear in every possible crack. It has been a long time since I was that sketched out on a climb, let alone one I have climbed multiple times. My plan was to lead it in one continuous pitch, but after getting to the first ledge I decided to break it up into two pitches since I had run out of slings.

Once my second, Bill, arrived at the top (our newbie trad leader) I “offered” to let him lead the second pitch. There were two different variations to take. I usually opt for the harder route with better protection, but Bill decided to go for the original line with poor protection. After nearly falling asleep at the belay multiple times Bill finally reached the top. Upon coming up behind him I found the protection to be worse than I thought. On top of that Bill had two pieces of gear placed that would not have held a fall, and to make things even worse he had a huge run out above a very poorly placed cam. Had he fallen above that things would not have been good, but thankfully Bill is actually a very good climber and can apparently maintain his composure better than I can.

While climbing the route Gary had set up a top rope on Lycra Sheath, a 5.10c he had established on lead in 1988. He hadn’t climbed the route in 22 years and wanted to see if he still had it in him. We raped down into the climb on a second rope and belayed from the top just in case we couldn’t make it up the route we had an easier climb to the left to top out from. First up was Gary who climbed the route without failing. Twenty-two years later and the old man still has it.

Bill and I were not as successful. Bill eventually made it up, but once it was my turn things didn’t go so well. The trend of a crappy climbing day continued. I ended up having to climb out on Leaning Tower Direct, a 5.9 blocky dihedral that required a lot of very awkward and strenuous moves.

After our Lycra Sheath experience we decided to call it a day, as it was around 5pm at this point. The journey back (as well as the way in) was quite an experience. We made our way around and over lots of down trees that had recently fallen over or broken off during a recent ice storm. The Narrows as the area is called was pretty devastated. It looked like a bomb had gone off. There is a trail clean up planned the first weekend in June, but I will no longer be around to help out with it, but that isn’t a bad thing! Again, more to come on that.

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
Climbing, oklahoma, trip report, Wichita Mountains
2 comments

---

I was itching to get back out on the rock. Even though I had already been climbing outside three times this year before this trip, I was still antsy to get some lead climbing in on long run-out slab. Enchanted Rock is well known for its quality bouldering, stellar crack climbs and long slab climbs on the backside of the dome. E-Rock as climbers often call it is by far my favorite place to climb in Texas. Located just west of Austin in the Texas Hill Country, this giant mound of granite sort of pops out of nowhere and begs to be climbed.

As the weekend got closer I became inspired to register for another half-marathon, so getting a long run in that weekend was going to be important. I had worked in long runs on climbing trips before, last one I had done was about 10 miles, requiring me to wake up at 6 a.m. so that I could run, eat breakfast and still meet the group in time to head out to the climbing area. I really didn’t like waking up that early on the camping trip and I figured this time was going to be even harder since the weather was calling for temperatures in the low thirties. But on the way there, I got a bright idea – why not run that night. There was going to be a clear sky, which meant a night run would be really enjoyable.

So, upon arriving I quickly threw up my tent, grabbed my bag got into my tent, threw on my running cloths and grabbed my headlamp and iPhone. I thought about running the trails, but figured running along the road outside the park might be safer. As I began my run, I realized it was going to be a tougher run than I thought. There were hills – lots of them. I didn’t remember it being quite as bad driving in.

But, not to long into the run I stopped noticing the hills and I even decided to turn off my headphones. I thought to myself, why in the world am I listening to music when I’m out in nature under a gorgeous star lit sky? After turning off the music I could hear the sounds of animals moving in the woods on both sides of me, I could hear the crickets chirping, the bullfrogs groaning and the sound of my feet against the pavement.

My goal was to run about nine miles with a pace of at least 8:30, so I was still paying pretty close attention to my RunKeeper app, but around mile four the data all went to zeros except for the distance. I briefly stopped, hoping the data would return so I could force myself to run a good pace, but nothing was returning. This was a blessing though – I shoved the iPhone into my pocket and just kept running, enjoying it for all that it was.

I found myself staring up into the night sky for most of the run after that. I actually had a sore neck the next morning from it. The sky was also so bright I ran almost the entire run with my headlamp turned off. The only time I turned it on was to alert oncoming cars of my presence. Before I hit the 4.5 mile mark I was probably passed by a total of five or six cars, but on the return trip, I was all alone; just me, the road, nature and the sound of my breathing. It was euphoric! A couple times I even teared up just because I was so in love with the moment God was allowing me to enjoy; it was beautiful.

Once I arrived back into the campground all the data in my RunKeeper had returned. I didn’t run the 8:30 minute mile I had hoped, but I knew I hadn’t. I didn’t care either I had just experienced the most enjoyable run yet. I’m sure there will be more, but this one has been the best thus far.

The Climbs

The next morning I was really thankful I had decided to run that evening. As I began waking up I could just feel the cold air outside and was glad I could just lay there in my sleeping bag and wait until I heard other people outside the tent getting ready to head out to the climbs.

After waking up it took everybody a couple hours to get their stuff together, eat, warm up by the fire and be ready to go. Everybody took their time, which often irritates my because I am always so anxious to get as much climbing in as possible, but it wasn’t bothering me at all that day. Myself and my climbing partner for the day along with a group that was bouldering were there first to leave camp.  Thai and I arrived at Turkey Peak and had the climbing all to ourselves.

The first climb of the day as Butterball, a 5.8 sport climb on the far end of a granite slope. The first moves getting onto the climb are the scariest, because if you fall you are likely to slide down the granite slope if your belayer isn’t doing a really good job. I took the lead on the climb and was about half way up the route when the rest of the group showed up. By the time I had finished Stan had scrambled up an easy 5.4 ramp to set up the other two climbs on top-rope. After lowering off Thai went up the route next and then we enjoyed watching others climb on top-rope for a while. We waited until about half of the group had a chance to climb before we jumped on the routes. After finishing Turkey Hooks (5.8) and Butter Fingers (5.9) we decided to head to the Backside Cheap Wine Wall for some multi-pitch slab climbing.

Once at the bottom of the climb Thai and I inspected a couple of different lines. I was excited to climb 5.7 Boston, but the run out to the first piece of protection was pretty far so I thought about doing another climb just to the right that had a bolt half way up the slab before an overhanging lip you have to surmount to obtain the upper portion of the slab. Seeing as how the upper portion of the second pitch contained a long run out I might as well stick to the route I had planned on climbing.

After moving past my first piece of protection I put in a couple piece of gear in a notch on an overhang and pulled up onto the upper slab. Once here I found myself in an interesting situation. I knew the line I was supposed to be climbing was protected with a couple of bolts, but I couldn’t find the line at all, so rather than wander off into the unknown I stepped right and joined up with Kracken, another 5.7 climb that joins the same belay as Boston. From this point on up to the belay station was fairly easy. I only placed one supplemental piece of protection between bolts to reduce the run out.

Once I had my anchor set up I belayed Thai up to the belay station known as Beer Can Alley. Appropriately named too, as there was an empty Lone Star beer can lying next to a boulder. This seems to be the typical beer choice of Austin climbers that frequent Enchanted Rock.  The second pitch of the climb followed a large flake up and right to meet up with easy 5.6 slab that runs to the top anchors. Once here I thought I would easily romp up to the top, but I lost my nerve. Just one year ago I was one climb over and made the long run out romp to the top, but this time I wasn’t feeling it. At first I ignored that voice in my head and just told myself I need to get it done. I began slowly making my way up the slab but stopped about 10-15 feet from the top of the flake.

It was then that caution kicked in and I began down climbing back to the top of the flake and then back down to the belay station.  At this point we decided to just return to the base of the climb and move on to the next climb. However, we had one small problem. Thai had forgot to bring the second rope up with him. So not knowing if our rope was going to reach the ground we began making our decent, Thai going first. Soon after leaving the perch I hear Thai yell, “off rappel”.  Our rope just barely reached the base of the climb; thankfully Thai’s rope was a 70-meter rather than the typical 60-meter rop most climbers carry.

After this we decided to move on to a swooshing crack climb called Sweat (5.7). Upon reaching the climb we found another group of climbers already on the route, so we decided to wait it out and fuel up on some food. After eating and chatting with the other climbers, they suggested we top out on the backside of the dome and walk off the front instead of walking the long way around. Thai and I both thought this was a good idea, so we packed up our bags, leaving out only the necessary gear to climb.

After we were geared up and ready to go I started making the first moves on the climb, reached up to place my first piece of gear and slipped back to the base of the climb. It was going to be impossible for me to climb this crack in a full pack, so we opted to move one climb over to an easier climb to finish out the day. The other group of climbers we had talked to was finishing up on the climb, so we had to wait a few more minutes.

We didn’t have to wait long though and quickly found ourselves at the top of the climb. We had to make one more short pitch to level ground before we could walk off the backside. It was easy going though and we both made it to the top well before the sun had set. As we walked off the top of the dome, we saw a group of people with sleeping bags that appeared to be making camp for the night. I guess they didn’t know that camping was not allowed on top of the dome, but they could have just ignored it as well. Either way, they were going to be in for a cold windy night.

So, all together it was a great day of climbing. After everybody made it back to camp we all pilled into cars and headed into town to grab some dinner. Now, I am not really one to like going into town to eat; to me it takes a way from the whole experience. I would much prefer to stay in camp and eat dinner, but when the entire group heads to town I go as well so I’m not the only one in camp, because the flip side of this is that part of the climbing experience is bonding with fellow climbers, and that is something I don’t want to miss out on.

The second day of climbing was really pretty chill. I set up a top rope on Texas Tree Treesent a 5.8 crack climb that completely shut me down a year ago. I struggled through it a bit this time too, but finished it on lead. After that I hung out with Ryan and Jackie and helped them practice their trad climbing and watched them build an anchor to double check the set-up. The second day of climbing is usually always relaxing and laid back, but they can get a bit epic as well, this trip was for the most part epic free. I don’t consider backing down off a route epic. Now, had I made my way half way up and chickened out having to be rescued… that would be epic.

Climbing, Running, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
bouldering, Climbing, e-rock, Enchanted Rock, rock climbing, Running, slab, sport climbing, trad
1 comment

---

Crab Eyes as seen from Lost Dome in the Wichita Mountains.

All week long the weather forecast called for partly cloudy skies with a high of 65 degrees in the Wichita Mountains. The plan was to go explore a rarely climbed area called Treasure Cove. I had wanted to explore this area some time, and I had finally found other climbers willing to make the journey, but things took a sudden turn Saturday morning before leaving. The forecast now was calling for rain through 10 a.m., but this was no big deal, as we would be arriving in the parking lot shortly after this, but what concerned me was the chance of thunderstorms at 2 p.m.

We still had a solid four hour window to get some climbs in, but since the beta I read about Treasure Cove indicated it was very difficult to get to we opted to head to Crab Eyes to climb Come Get Your Love, a 5.10a that I have had my heart set on for several months now. I was tempted to just give up on this too though and climb on Upper Mount Scott, which only requires a short 3-5 minute hike to the base of the climbs, but thankfully my climbing partners for the day were psyched to check out a new area.

So, about 10:30 a.m. we began making our trek to the well recognized rock formation known as Crab Eyes. As we made our journey down the trail I was surprised to see us arrive at the base of another formation called Echo Dome. I had been here before and Crab Eyes could even be seen off in the distance. So, we thought we must have been on the wrong trail and decided to just start blazing our own path towards the formation.

After climbing down about 75 yards or so we stumbled back upon a trail and figured we must be back on the right path, but was we journeyed further down the path we quickly realized it was taking us away from our destination, so being the smart climbers we are we decided to blaze our own train again and just start walking toward the tall formation. It was about this time I asked Naren if he brought a headlamp, he replied by saying, “I always bring a head lamp when I climb with you” ; followed up by accusations of being epic prone. Sure, I have had epics before, but I have way more successful climbing days than I do epics. He only remembers the epics.

After several minutes of hiking other rock formations began blocking our view of Crab Eyes, but after continuing on in the same direction we spotted the tops of the eyes just beyond another rock formation. We also saw another trail, so figured we were on the right path, but as we continued we noticed the trail becoming fainter, but saw karnes that seemed to be pointing us in the direction of Crab Eyes. We aimlessly followed these karnes into a field of boulders covered my thorns, so we back tracked a bit and once again began blazing our own trail, which once again brought us back on to a main trail and not soon after Crab Eyes were bigger than ever and the base of the climbs was well in our sight, but there was one problem – our climb was on Lost Dome, not Crab Eyes!

After viewing beta in two different guidebooks I got confused about where the actual climb was. Photos I saw made it appear that this climb was just a few hundred feet to the west of the formation, the guide book even referred to Lost Dome as “Crab Eyes Area”. So in my mind Lost Dome and Crab Eyes were one in the same, but boy was I wrong.

So after some hairy down scrambling off the west side of Crab Eyes we found the main trail again and referenced our guide book again and used the compass on my iPhone to get our bearings and discovered we were only a few feet from the trail split to Lost Dome. We didn’t realize this though until we started down the trail again. After a few paces I just happened to look left and see the train branching off. Shortly after that we found ourselves at the base of Lost Dome; and this time we where exactly were we needed to be.

Normally when stuff like this happens I get to the base of the climb and lose it, but this time I was still psyched. I was harnessed up and ready to go, gear and all, before my other partners. As I sat down and slipped on my shoes a smile came to my face and I muttered under my breath, “I’m so psyched!” This was they key indicator to me that I was ready to climb – I was ready to, “Get My Love On!”

The route looked easier than expected from the base, but as I began climbing my tune changed pretty quickly. The starting moves off the ground were pretty tricky and it required placing gear, but after a couple minutes of fooling around I was up on the rock placing a #1 red Black Diamond cam into a horizontal crack and making my way up to the first bolt, but not without some hesitance.

After clipping the first bolt I felt safer, but saw the run out to the next bolt was a little above my comfort level for such vertical terrain and the more difficult grade, although this section was no harder than 5.9. After standing there for a while I eventually made the moves to the second bolt and had my belayer hold me there while I evaluated the next moves. After analyzing the route I cooled my head a bit and placed a piece of supplemental protection that was purely a “mental piece”, and I was off again and made it to the third bolt without much of a problem, the next bolt was a little closer than the previous, so I continued up on thin edges and balancy moves, after clipping my quick draw I hung there again gearing up for the next moves.

From here I had one more bolt to clip and then the crux moves to another bolt. I was slightly hesitant here, but once again managed to calm my nerves, made the moves and clipped into the bolt, I was now at the crux section of the route. I was in a pretty good stance so was able to stand there a while and evaluate the route. It was going to be dicey: so after a couple of meager attempts I had my belayer hold me once again.

After evaluating the route a bit more and making several attempts I finally made one of the two crux moves and was now at waist level with the bolt. From here I was going to have to make another sketchy move up to a downward sloping ledge with some sharp edges to hold on to and nothing but smearing for foot placements. I hesitated a number of times and finally decided to just go for it, but I freaked out again, taking a 10-12 foot fall past the first crux move. Since I had already made the move I allowed myself to pull back up to where I was and give it another go.

This time I saw something I hadn’t seen the first time. I large slot that I could use as an under cling for my left hand. This ended up being key to pulling up onto the sloping ledge and standing up to clip the last bolt. After hanging the a bit and catching my breath I decided to go for it again and was back to where I was when I fell, this time with a cooler head, yet still with a sense of desperation, then suddenly I remembered the huge slot I could use as an undercling. I fired my left hand into the slot, smeared up the wall and then stood on the ledge. After this I was able to comfortably clip the bolt.

The route at this point was pretty much done. You could see the chains off to the right, but they were just out of reach. I was going to have to make one more move  to reach them. After evaluating the route I saw what I needed to do and began making the moves, but my rope wasn’t moving my belayer was keeping me tight an I yelled “ROPE” but it only got tighter, he had thought I wanted him to take in rope, I could feel myself being pulled off the wall, so I yelled, “SLACK”, and finally I was given the slack needed to comfortably clip into the anchor. For a moment I thought I was going to be taking another fall, but held on tight and avoided the effects of gravity.

After we all finished this climb I climbed the route again and then decided we should climb the interesting looking dihedral just to the right of Come Get Your Love. It wasn’t in the guidebook, but it looked fun. We doubt it was an FA, but for all we know it could have been. The start of the climb was very tricky, but after those initial moves the route eased up a bit and was a blast to climb.

After finishing this climb it was already 4 p.m. so we decided to head back to the car since it would be getting dark soon. We had cloud cover all day, but didn’t get one drop of rain until the hike back. We also discovered on the hike back we missed a key turn in our journey to Crab Eyes. After crossing a creek we should have taken a right, following a trail along the creek bed, but we continued on the trail straight. Had we followed the right path we would have easily gotten to Crab Eyes and still had time to correct our mistake and get in other climbs, but on the bright side we now know two different ways to get to Crab Eyes (not that we will ever climb there, the ratings on those routes are sick).

Some people might consider us crazy for driving the 2.5 hours for just two climbs, but to me it was well worth the journey. Especially since I had wanted to do this climb for a long time. Even if I didn’t climb it clean, I had fun and I got to take a nice fall, something I hadn’t done in a long time. I think taking small falls like that every now and then helps you become better. It reminds you that not much is going to happen if you fall. Falling really isn’t that bad, just so long as the gear holding you is solid.

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
5.10, come get your love, crab eyes, lost dome, rock climbing, Wichita Mountains
2 comments

---

Whenever people think of ice climbing Arkansas is probably one of the last that would come to mind, but that is exactly where we went this past weekend. Gary, who headed up the trip had been watching the temperatures over the past couple weeks and noticed there had been several day with temperatures below freezing and would continue to stay that way through the weekend we would be there. Despite knowing this I was still skeptical, after doing numerous Google searches for Arkansas ice climbing and turning up nothing I really began to wonder if our weekend adventure would allow us to dig an ice axe into a frozen waterfall.

Our adventure started at 6 a.m. on Saturday with a temperature of 6 degrees. After gearing up and eating breakfast we headed out to High Bank Falls near Cass Arkansas. This was the prime location we hoped to find ice to climb, but as we neared the falls it was very evident we where not going to be climbing ice here. There was plenty of ice at the base and the top of the falls, but it hadn’t been cold long enough for them ice formations to connect. So we did some more exploring in the area but didn’t find much of anything other than small ice flows across the Mulberry River.

But not wanting to give up we started back down the road we headed in on to check out some of the ice flows we saw on our way to Twin Banks. We ended up finding what looked like a good line heading up a dihedral. The ice was solid and connected all the way to the top of the cliff line, but would likely require just a little bit of dry tooling. Somehow I was suckered into being the one to go set up a top rope along with two other guys from the group. The task was not easy, the top of the cliff line was very steep, requiring three of us to rope up and simulclimb along the ridge to reach the top of the climb.

The process of setting up the rope took way longer than it should have. Two hours after we began making our way up the cliff line we reached the base of the climb by rappelling down a fixed line just right of our climb. By this time, the climb had already been baking in the sun for some time.

Despite the climb spending so much time baking we all had a chance to climb on the ice, but after each person climbed the more dry tooling was required. Each climber pulled off sections of ice. Had the climb not been in direct sun the ice would have been pretty awesome all the way to the top.

After finishing up on that climb we decided to inspect another area near by that Gary knew about close to the Ozark Highlands Trail. To our surprise we found quite a few ice flows, ranging from 20-60ft tall. So, we decided to head back the next day and climb the routes we found.

This time we decided to wake up earlier since we where going to be heading home that afternoon. After eating breakfast at the Waffle House the employees began warning us of sasquatch, aliens, white panthers and bears. Apparently all of them shared a home in the Ozark National Forest. But the folklore didn’t scare us away, we trotted off into the forest to climb the ice we found the previous day. The start of the morning was gorgeous, we were at a higher elevation, so there was snow covering a lot of the ground, I have found I really love the sound of snow crunching under my hiking boots as I walk over it.

This time setting up ropes was a bit easier, we were able to walk right up to the cliff line and set up anchors off trees. One of them was hard to set up, but still didn’t take as long as the day before, and we put up three climbs. After all of us rapped in we began climbing a line with a really hard and thick sheet of ice straight up a dihedral. The climb was dead vertical, likely a WI4+, but that is coming from the guy who had never climbed ice before that weekend.

After watching Gary climb and taking photos I decided to throw on the crampons and climb the route I had set up around the corner. At this point it had been baking in the sun for a while. At first glance the climb looked good, so I roped up grabbed the axes and threw in the pick only to see a large sheet of ice move, so I pulled my axe out and the sheet of ice moved away from the wall. An ascent on this route wasn’t going to happen, too bad too the upper section of ice was super thick and very solid. It’s a shame, because the day before after it had been in the shade half a day the ice was very solid. An afternoon trip that day might have been better.

So, after the other climb was free again I got on rope and began my ascent. I had a lot harder time than the previous day. My crampons wouldn’t stick quite right and my axes kept pulling out of the ice. The ice in this particular section was mostly clear, and from what I read later on clear ice isn’t exactly good ice. But after numerous tries I made my way past that section and up onto a ledge that began the dead vertical ice pillar inside a dihedral.

At first I really felt like I was getting the hang of it and began moving up the pillar, but then stared having the same problem of my axes not sticking. This time my crampons seemed solid though, but every time I would stand up and the slightest bit of pressure was taken off the axe I would go flying away from the pillar. Eventually I gained some more height by using the side of the dihedral, turning it into a mixed climb.

After gaining some more height I moved back into the pillar and gained some more height without the help of the rock face off to the side, but eventually I got to a place where I couldn’t find a good place for my axes up high and kept falling off the ice when I stood up. So after numerous tries I finally gave up and lowered off the route. I did get to experiment with placing an ice screw before lowering off though. It was actually easier than I thought it would be, but of course I wasn’t doing the placement on lead.

After everybody else finished climbing this route Naren, the only person in the group who had any real experience ice climbing decided to attempt to climb the largest ice flow we found, the only bad part was the bottom was very thin. After moving up a few feet and inspecting the thin curtain of ice more closely Naren decided to back down. Even though the ice past the curtain was extremely solid the risk of having a curtain of icicles fall on his head was far to great.

My first ice climbing experience was actually quite enjoyable, despite not doing very well at it aside from the first day. The climb we did wasn’t exactly a good beginner ice climbing route, but I enjoyed it enough to plan a trip to Ouray in late February, so if you will be around let me know and we can meet up.

We discovered that Arkansas DOES have ice, not just rock climbing. You just have to know where to find it. Other large ice flows were spotted from the road; we just didn’t have time to go check them out. I also discovered from online forums that the Buffalo National River offers some ice climbing. There is even a book called Sothern Fried Ice that features Arkansas ice climbs. But conditions have to be perfect for it. Some of the flows we found would have easily been climbable given more time to form in freezing temperatures. Now weather I will venture back to Arkansas for ice climbing is yet to be determined. I guess it will all depend on how addicted I get after visiting Ouray.

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
arkansas, crampons, High Bank Twins, ice, ice axe, ice climbing, rock climbing, southern, tools
2 comments

---

I’m usually not much for “teaser” blog posts, but I was too excited not to share this. Although our ice climbing trip to Arkansas was not was eventful as we hoped, I did get to slap on a pair of crampons for the first time and dig some ice tools into an a couple of ice flows. I liked it so much, I plan on going to Ouray in February.

Look for the trip report later this week.

Climbing, Trip Reports by OrganicClimber
arkansas, Climbing, crampons, ice axe, ice climbing, ice tool, ouray
1 comment

---