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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Unaweep Canyon : Main Canyon: Unaweep Granit... : The Access Fund Trailhead : ... : Photo
By: Alexander Nees When: Dec 6, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Sure looks like Satisfaction Guaranteed to me....
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Escalante Canyon : Cabin Wall : Three Blocks (5.11-)
By: Alexander Nees When: Dec 3, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Fun route! The bottom is easier than it looks, the top is harder than it looks. (The middle is exactly how it looks.)
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Unaweep Canyon : Main Canyon: Unaweep Granit... : The Access Fund Trailhead : ... : People are Poodles Too. (5.10-)
By: Alexander Nees When: Dec 2, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: This route has some easy crack climbing at the top and bottom, with about 3 feet of horrendous, greasy, shallow, flared, awkward climbing in the middle. Ugh.
It's not actually as bad as all that, but I found it very awkward and won't hurry back to do it again. Top-roping the face to the left is fun though; good slabby face and seam climbing. Better than this route, I thought!
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Colorado National Monument : Tiara Rado : Short, Cupped Hands (5.9+)
By: Alexander Nees When: Nov 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: ... if you climb it barefoot?
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Moab Rim Area : Looking Glass Rock
By: Alexander Nees When: Nov 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Easy access even with a low-rider Civic. There's a good gravel road that gets you within 100 feet of the formation.
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Island In The Sky
By: Alexander Nees When: Oct 28, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Depends on what part of the White Rim you are trying to get to. In general the road is in good shape... it's been a dry fall. Clearance is way more important than 4wd if the road is dry; a 2wd truck is a better choice than a Subaru or the like. 2wd truck will probably get you down Shaffer and as far as Chip and Dale, Airport, and Washer Woman/Monster Towers, or down the Mineral Bottom Road to Moses and Taylor Canyon. If you're trying to get to Monument Basin, I wouldn't go without ... more >>
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Tusher Canyon : Echo Pinnacle : Free Window Route (5.10+)
By: Alexander Nees When: Oct 17, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Wow! This route is the whole desert tower experience rolled up in 3 pitches. Splitter, chossy, sublime, and funky all at once. Pitch 1 is some prime desert choss, with flaky rock but good pro and fun jams. Pitch 2 is an awesome beautiful splitter with a couple good rest stances. Pitch 3 is incredibly exposed, with wide funky climbing, sketchy pro, and incredible geometry. I would highly recommend this to strong visiting climbers who only have time for one tower and want the full spectrum o... more >>
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Colorado National Monument : Monument Canyon : Carter Route (5.9+)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 23, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: MUCH better than it looks from the ground. The bottom 20 feet is soft but not too bad, and the rest is on fine rock with fun climbing. The anchor is bomber, the cacti are gone... maybe this has cleaned up since the original, fairly negative description was written, but it's now quite a nice climb. Looks wide but doesn't actually need anything larger than a #1 C4.
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Colorado National Monument : Monument Canyon : Luhr's Route aka Right Dihe... (5.9)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 23, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Good climbing, with excellent rock. Don't know if it's cleaned up since the original description was written, but this is a really nice climb now.
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Colorado National Monument : Liberty Cap : Steppin' On it (5.9+)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 20, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Great crack! It's actually #3 Friends the whole way. If you have those, bring them, since they will fit the best. I would recommend bringing a single finger-sized cam to protect the bottom (I used a 0.4 C4). Without it, you're probably 30 feet off the ground in blocky terrain before getting gear.
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Unaweep Canyon : Main Canyon: Unaweep Granit... : The Access Fund Trailhead : ... : Sweet Sunday Serenade (5.9)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 19, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Very nice, moderate, granite multi-pitch climb... a rare bird! Worth it for the second pitch alone, which would be a standout even in Yosemite. The route-finding on the third pitch is weird: I had trouble finding a direct line from the Sundeck to the "correct" 5.9 crack left of the main Sun Dancer dihedral, and wandered back and forth a lot. Also, there's an optional short thin finger crack at the top of the 3rd pitch, just right of the main crack, that offers the best 10 feet of climbing on ... more >>
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Bullet Hole Boulder Area : Bullet Hole Cliff Band : OW (V2)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Ouch! There's calcite or something inside the crack that can really tear you up if you're not taped or very careful. Great practice for hand/fist stack and levitation technique... it's both in a corner and short, so it's not too hard at the size.
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Bullet Hole Boulder Area : Bullet Hole Cliff Band : Dihedral (5.8)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: This can be easily and naturally jammed as well as laybacked. I jammed it, since I was bouldering with no pad and wanted the security of jams instead of laybacking. It's basically all wide-hands to fists, super solid, good practice for that size.
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Bullet Hole Boulder Area : Bullet Hole Cliff Band : Chimney (5.7)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: I guess you could call this an "incipient chimney". I.e. it'll be a chimney once the pillar that currently plugs it falls out. There's a crack system on either side of the plug. You can climb either crack independently at around 5.7/5.8.
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Bullet Hole Boulder Area : Bullet Hole Cliff Band
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Some fun, short cracks here. I don't think it's necessary to bring a rope up to this cliff. The climbs are no more than about 15-20 feet tall, so they are easily boulder-able. Maybe if you were coming here to learn crack climbing skills, a rope would be useful... but it's not a great venue for that anyway.
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Location: CO : Grand Junction area : Bullet Hole Boulder Area : Bullet Hole Cliff Band : Fingers (5.7+)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: New, solid modern bolts and hangers have been installed. Not by me, though, but good on ya to whoever took the time.
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Potash Road : Long Canyon : Maverick Buttress : Round-Up (5.11a)
By: Alexander Nees When: Sep 7, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Great climb; I'd say it has a single hard move that's 5.10+. The rest is much easier, and there's good gear the whole way.
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Island In The Sky : Moses : Primrose Dihedrals (5.11+)
By: Alexander Nees When: Jun 3, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: This climb is amazing. For the whole experience, it's definitely one of the best towers I've done, maybe the best. Castleton's North Face or Fine Jade still win for actual quality of climbing though, I think.
Every single guidebook and topo tells you to bring 2 60M ropes, but I don't know why, it's completely unnecessary. To reinforce Monty's comment from 2009, you can easily rap Pale Fire in 4 single-rope rappels starting from the shoulder. This is an awesome descent... more >>
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Indian Creek : The Bridger Jacks : Vision Quest (5.10d PG13)
By: Alexander Nees When: May 31, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: This is a great climb... but unfortunately I can't recommend it to anyone. There are simply too many loose, dangerous blocks on this route, most of which also threaten the belayer. I really enjoyed it, and it has a lot of good interesting climbing, but it felt too much like russian roulette. I won't do it again.
As of late May 2012, the deathblock tally is as follows:
(A) The refrigerator-sized rocker block at the top of Pitch 1, which is actually the most solid of the collection. It sounds... more >>
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Indian Creek : Supercrack Buttress : Unknown, left of Keyhole Fl... (5.10-)
By: Alexander Nees When: Apr 3, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: A #6 C4 works to protect the offwidth (I'm sure a #6 Friend would work too). It's not big enough for the very top of the offwidth, but it can be set high enough to prevent a groundfall when traversing right into the finger crack. I'd recommend the big piece for this route, especially if it's your first time on it. The traverse move is a bit funky and a fall from there could be ugly. Great climb though!
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Indian Creek : 2nd Meat Wall : Meat Machine (5.11-)
By: Alexander Nees When: Feb 20, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Great climb! Tough to figure the top out on lead; you kinda need to choose between focusing on the gear or the climb. #2 and 2.5 Friends work great, plus a single 1" piece.
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Indian Creek : Donnelly Canyon
By: Alexander Nees When: Feb 6, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Can anyone provide information about the good-looking tight-hands (?) crack that is a bit left of Binou's Crack? It's in the back of a tight flare and ends under a roof. Maybe 80', with a modern-looking chain anchor?
EDIT: thanks for the info Devin. Maybe I'll get a chance to do this one soon; I'll post it up here if I do.
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Indian Creek : Cat Wall : Trip to the Vet (5.10)
By: Alexander Nees When: Jan 11, 2012 | view comment >> |
Comments: Great climb! Definitely 10+ for the tricky moves off the deck. Maybe 10+ for big hands up in the tight section of the crack too. I felt comfortable and safe with a green #0 C3 protecting the opening moves; good rock and a nice constriction to keep it in there.
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Hell Roaring Canyon : The Cauldrons : Eye of the Newt (5.10)
By: Alexander Nees When: Dec 20, 2011 | view comment >> |
Comments: Outstanding route! Why this one is not in at least one of the various "Classics" guidebooks is a mystery to me. Beautiful setting, nice line, mostly good rock, great climbing. Its not as remote as many other climbs that people do all the time (it takes longer to get to Jah Man!) Rack: double set with 3x 1C4 and 3x 2C4, and one each 3 and 4 C4s. Nuts not needed.
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Location: UT : Moab Area : Indian Creek : 2nd Meat Wall : Cube Steaks (5.10)
By: Alexander Nees When: Nov 16, 2011 | view comment >> |
Comments: The pillar does look and feel sketchy... but it's been there just like that since at least 2005. This route gets plenty of traffic; you're probably not the person the block will pull on. Fun climb, good warmup since it's not pumpy.
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