Showing posts with label Climbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Climbing. Show all posts
Abajo Mountain means "the low mountain." Appropriately named as the low storm clouds cloaked the mountains throughout the weekend. We made our way along the mountain east rim exploring rock bands for new climbs. Overcasting clouds, cool temperatures, escaping setting sun rays, and the smell sage and pine made for an idyllic night walk.
Full Set | Rim Walk
The holidays are always the best. Good company of family and friends, awesome food, and most importantly crazy kids. Thanksgiving this year we spent down in Nephi at Dustin's sister's place, we were well entertained by Jada shaking her booty to Lady Gaga...among other things! With all the family and food Dustin and I needed to get out, conveniently there's a bouldering area about 20 minutes west of town we've wanted to check out. Basically you drive out of town towards Delta, the landscape is all pretty flat and barren. Then, after you drive over a pass bam you're surrounded by boulders the locals have (literally) tagged they're "Joe's Valley." Not only home to bouldering but a paintballer's paradise.
The climbing was stout, the rock super sticky, and definitely well worth the afternoon trip.
.JPG)
The best adventures are the ones in your backyard. We've recently moved to the Millcreek area and there's a little peak aspect that has always been of interest to Dustin. We pass it everyday to and from work, driving on the freeway, and if you walk down our street there's a pretty good view. From the looks of it Dustin thought it might be worth a climb, so we headed off for a afternoon exploration. We hiked up the ridge, the rock ended up being too chossy so there was no climbing but we enjoyed chilling with some hot cider at the top under a bosai-looking tree.
We needed a break from the city, so we called on Devin and headed south to finish up some more routes. Introducing Okie Okie. The name comes from a word banter we have with Becca (Dustin's niece):
D: yes, yes, yesHere's to Becca!
B: no, no, no
D: yes, yes, yes
B: no, no, no
D: Okie Dokie
B: Okie Okie
The swiss must have brought the weather with them, because that was the first day we experienced hail and rain during the mid-day. The hut made the weather bearable, it had a clear roof so we could watch the stormy skies and see the clouds rolling through while enjoying the shelter and hot cocoa.
Turns out the East and Southeast areas of Iceland have the best weather. We enjoyed two days of clear sunny skies. The weather is like clockwork: 06:00 clear sunny skies, 12:00 light sprinkle, 14:00 reach the high (48F) of the day, 20:00/21:00 some clouds start rolling in and the sun starts dropping, 01:00 high winds pick up, 03:00 storm rolls in and rain starts dumping.
With the high winds, rain, and morning sheep call nights aren't always the most peaceful.
It was hard climbing. Everything is basalt rock that rips at your hands, not to mention the strong seaside winds. The F.A. climbers are mainly 6 ft+ Scandinavians who are super strong and powerful. They're used to bouldering and it is evident in their routes. All the routes are under graded, a 5'6=5'7b, 5'9a=5'10c and so forth. It took a few leads to get warmed up, especially since we'd been in a car for so long, but once we got a feel for the rock the climbing was RAD.
We've been home from Iceland for a few weeks now and are enjoying the sun and WARMTH! Dustin decided it was time to get back out and work on our climbing list, next up was the Sun Dial.
It's just beyond a popular hike to Lake Blanche on the Southeast side of the lake. Once we arrived at the base there was already one group on rock, and another waiting to ascend. The was moving, and pretty soon we were in the shade of the dial with the dropping temperatures and increasing wind the one group bailed. We waiting a until the group ahead of us was a couple pitches up and then we started up. The rock above must have been chossy because the group above us started dropping rocks. We started zig-zagging to avoid the drops, but it got pretty sketchy so we ended up bailing as well. The area was beautiful, so hopefully we can make it back and finish the climb.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)