First climbing trip of 2012.

Okay, maybe not the "first". The "first" trip I made was to Cody for some bouldering, but the weather, however, had other plans so I did no climbing.

I had been DYING for the feel of rock on my fingers, and was tired of not climbing. I text my friend Ryan saying we should go out. The reply I got was "Ya come to Ten Sleep with me on Tuesday - Thursday!" THANK GOD. Immediately afterwards, I started packing my gear.

When Tuesday rolled around, I couldn't stop thinking about the fun to come. Ryan pulls up in this giant monster of a van, and I threw my stuff in the back. When I went to get in,   all I saw was a butterfly chair behind the driver's seat. No seat belts. And as he first pulled out of the street, I about tipped over. I could tell it was going to be an interesting drive.

After a quick gas up, and a beer run, we departed. The drive was pretty standard. We got into the canyon around 11 p.m. or so. One thing we weren't aware of was that the climber campground was closed for wildlife preservation, so we had to go elsewhere. We checked a little campground in Leigh Creek a little lower in the canyon, but it was full. Luckily for us, a friend has a cabin in the canyon, so we crashed there.

Wednesday comes, and we roll into town before climbing to get somethings at the convenient store. Fast forward: Find friends, park, hike, decide where to climb, hike, climb.

Ryan, Dustin (other guy), and I stopped at this "5.9a" that Ryan said we should warm up on. So I get on and hang the draws. The first few bolts on the climb were pretty casual, then it breaks right a little and got kind of thin. After lowering down, I say to Ryan "Is that really a 5.9??" "No, its an 11.b" he replied giggling. So I warmed up and flashed an 11b. Ryan fell on it. HAH! After we all warmed up, we headed to Valhalla. As we all figured out who was climbing with who and what, Ryan and I were like "Lets get on this."
This was a looooooong 12a called Cocaine Rodeo. But damn, that was a fun route. Its starts with a few small pockets, into a HUGE move into a slopey jug. Once you get past that, you get a few more moves into a beautiful standing rest pretty much. Then its onto the next hard little boulder section. Then another rest! Then another boulder problem... Then you're almost at the top. I was feeling pretty good. Until I got to the second to last bolt. I was soo pumped, and I only had two more bolts to go! But I had to take. Once I figured out some beta and ticked some feet, I got to the anchors. This route is definitely on my project list now. I'll just need a little bit more endurance when I get on it again. Dustin got on after I did, and flashed it. NUTS!! Way to go, D! Fast forward: hike to Slavery, decided not to climb due to a mob of people, hike down, set up camp, town, food, camp, sleep.

The next day, everyone voted on going to The Arc. I was not to stoked however, due to the gnar hike. But we went anyway. We took a back way, that was crazy! First we hiked through this nice meadow, then lost the trail, bush whacked through forest, traversed scree piles, and after like 45 minutes of silliness, we made it. But my motivation wasn't too high. We warmed up on a couple 10's, and I was definitely not feeling the area. I think it was just the rock. It was this dirty brown and weird texture. Ryan kept saying we have to get on a 12something called July Jihad. I looked at it, and wasn't really feeling it. Shane (another part of the group that I forgot to mention) hopped on it first. He got pretty far. Fell at the crux. Same went for Dustin and Ryan. I didn't jump on it. Exciting, I know. The hike out wasn't as bad as the hike in was. At least it didn't seem as bad. When we got back to the cars, we hung out for a bit, then left.

So all in all, it was a pretty decent weekend. I'm glad I finally got to climb. In one of my most favorite places, none the less.