Most of the info posted here is from the book "A Bouldering Guide to Utah" by Baldwin, Beck, Russo. This is mostly a bouldering area with a few mixed gear, trad and sport routes. This place is epically eerie and seated at the end of a dry desert lake out in the middle of the desert in southern Utah. The boulders are monstrous red quartzite behemoths and since it all sits next to a dead lake it magnifies the feeling of how beautifully desolate and remote this area is. Besides the dead lake the rocks themselves give you an eerie feeling. Some of them are even hollow, completely solid, but they still ring like a bass drum when you bang on them. This is a five star bouldering area if you like to go high.
Getting There
The easiest way to get there is from Hwy 50. The exit off of the highway is on the right heading east, or on the left heading west, around mile marker 38 or 39, just passed the Ibex Well sign if your heading east. You will know it is the right road because there are two posts at the entrance where you can tell there used to be a sign. follow that dirt road for about 2.1 miles where you will come to a couple stacks of rocks marking the next turn. turn right at the rock piles heading back west. cross the dry lake bed and you pull straight up to the crag.
P1. Classic. super fun, atypical Ibex. Really steep with a cool vein to pinch at the start, a dynamic toss up high, after that rely on slab skills to bring you to the 2 bolt anchor. 5.12- Even if you just are looking for single pitch sport routes consider hiking here and doing this pitch.P2. From nice stance climb up the wild wind scoops placing a TCU or two to a really nice ledge and 2 bolt belay, long slings helpful. 5.10aP3. From luxurious led...[more]
By Ryan Brough From: between SLC and DEN Apr 11, 2007
James Garrett published a guidebook titled “Ibex” that contains fantastic background on the area. Not only does this guide provide route information for Ibex and some other west desert climbs, it includes history, ethical considerations for the area, and a descriptive geology lesson that is unmatched by other guidebooks.
James Garrett IBEX guide book is really the best IBEX guide book out there. It's unfortunate that James will be in Africa in the near future and not here putting up great routes.
This place is a nightmare!! Probably the single worst place to spend time on the entire planet!
Poisonous everything imaginable. . . even the rocks, which are chock-full of asbestos and other naturally occurring carcinogens. Furthermore, this is one of two places where I was nearly abducted by aliens (the other was on our southern border).
The quartzarenite rock is pitiful and slimy - akin to climbing a stalagmite, but without the good friction. The weather is truly a heartache. The sheepherders are the orneriest bunch of foul cusses you could ever come across, and they travel the area in packs. Its location is in the heart of Nowhereville, and their emergency services suck! I've witnessed grown, educated men running naked across the hardpan, screaming and beating their chest, filled to the brim with "desert madness".
If you dare venture to this gem, I mean hell-hole, keep in mind the following: James Garretts, IBEX guidebook: Read it and bring it - a superb guide with excellent ethics, history and side-notes (don't know James, but have used his guidebook, and it is a dandy!). Stay on designated trails/roads; pack out all of your trash; do not drive across the "dead lakebed". May the Gawds be with you.
By Spinalflow From: Salt Lake City , Utah Sep 14, 2007
Not as bad as some may make it sound that is if you love to get crazy.
Aliens, 60mph sand storms and FREAKS.
Hell is merely a perception my friends!
Don't miss the sand dune jumping behind the mining operation SW across the pan!
By the way if anyone finds my Icarus Kiteboarding hat. I seemed to have lost it in a Discovering Morals Training session. Damn aliens.....
Spring / Fall are the best times not just a bouldering location.
While hiking around looking for possible new lines I noticed a lot of new bolts and anchors, especially south of the syringe. I would like to contribute to the progress but don't want to step on any toes. Is there somebody who knows the current (Nov. 07) happenings? Looks like loads of unclimbed rock.
Love to do some of your routes D Durrant....just let me know where they are or posting them here would be cool....you are correct, lots of unclimbed rock, and 7 years after the guidebook hasn't even made an effect....though probably double the amount of routes in that area these days....so much for the secret area credo held by some?
By TP in SLC From: Cottonwood Heights, UT Jan 6, 2008
Can a place be considered "secret" if there is a published guide with more than enough routes for a day trip?
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