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| Elevation: | 5,752 ft |
| GPS: | 38.026, -109.54 Google Map · Climbing Area Map |
| Page Views: | 1,790,249 total · 8,897/month |
| Shared By: | Ben F on May 12, 2002 |
| Admins: | slim, Andrew Gram, Nathan Fisher, Perin Blanchard, grk10vq |
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Access Issue: RAIN, WET ROCK and RAPTOR CLOSURES: The sandstone around Moab is fragile and is very easily damaged when it is wet. Also please ask and be aware of Raptor Closures in areas such as CAT WALL and RESERVOIR WALL in Indian Creek
Details
WET ROCK: Holds rip off and climbs have been and will continue to be permanently damaged due to climbers not respecting this phenomenon. After a heavy storm the rock will remain wet, sometimes for several days. PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB IN MOAB during or after rain.
RAPTOR CLOSURES: Please be aware of seasonal raptor closures at the Cat wall and Reservoir wall. They occur annually from March 31st until August 31st. *Due to the federal hiring freeze in agencies such as the BLM of Monticello, no official closure for 2017 has been issued and the laws which have been put in place in previous years are not being enforced. Please, for the sake of fragile desert ecology, DO NOT CLIMB at stated walls. These raptors return to the same nesting sites every year to raise their nestlings.
RAPTOR CLOSURES: Please be aware of seasonal raptor closures at the Cat wall and Reservoir wall. They occur annually from March 31st until August 31st. *Due to the federal hiring freeze in agencies such as the BLM of Monticello, no official closure for 2017 has been issued and the laws which have been put in place in previous years are not being enforced. Please, for the sake of fragile desert ecology, DO NOT CLIMB at stated walls. These raptors return to the same nesting sites every year to raise their nestlings.
Description
There are lots of cracks here on the Wingate sandstone. Lots of people now, too. Tread lightly.
Getting There
To get to the Creek from Moab, go south on US 191 toward Monticello and look for SH 211, which includes a Canyonlands sign, and go right (west). Watch for the Utah State Patrol on 191 and Mule Deer on 211. After the road winds and goes downhill, you will pass Newspaper Rock on your right. In a few miles you have pretty much entered Indian Creek Canyon.
Classic Climbing Routes at Indian Creek
Mountain Project's determination of the classic, most popular, highest rated climbing routes in this area.
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Photos
43 Comments
More About Indian Creek
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Guidebooks (10)
There's a route on Battle of the Bulge, between Crack Attack and the Big Baby (closer to Crack Attack) that's not in my guidebook. It's about 50-60' long it's a black left facing corner/open book (wider than 90 degrees) It starts thin fingers, then gets tighter and tighter until you have to stem and use some pods. I'm pretty certain it's in the 5.12-12+ range. Does anyone know what this is? Thanks Mar 25, 2003
2. The Super Bowl camping area is located on the left, just before thesignposted turn-off for Davis Canyon (access for the Six-shooters). This is about 11 miles from Newspaper Rock, on the left. I've not seen this area for a couple years. It had a portable toilet, and was easy to access back then. Should still be the same.
3. Other camping areas include:Newspaper Rock, which is often busy, but is nice and shady, and has pittoilets. The Hamburger Rock area is a mile or so past the Davis Canyon turn-off (maybe15 miles from Newspaper Rock) and is on the right. Look for a large wooded BLM sign, with directions. This is an easy 2WD mile or so off of the main road, and is usually frequented by hikers, and is usually ignored by climbers (kind of a long commute from the climbing). There are pit toilets here.There is also undeveloped camping within Cottonwood Canyon beyond the Dugout Ranch area to the southwest (near Pistol Whipped Wall). Also along Davis Canyon Road, but this road becomes very rough, very quickly.
4. There are two areas which are currently designated as No Camping: a. The inner canyon area between Newspaper Rock and the Dugout Ranch/Reservoir.This includes the side-canyons. b. The Lavender Canyon area. This is the pristine area beyond the BridgerJacks, extending along the west side of the Bridger Jack Mesa.**************** An add-on by H.R. Barnard
- ***************I was at the super bowl about 3 weeks ago. It is very accessible to lowclearance vehicles. Another tip on finding it to add to Crusher's. Rightbefore the turn there is a short but very noticeable, slightly curving distinct downhill section of the road. The gate to the superbowl isimmediately after that. There was also a small nature conservancy/BLM IndianCreek brochure box located at the gate to help identify it. Don't be detered byall the RV-type vehicles you see initially. Stay to the left of where theypark and you'll find the climber camping.****************
May 8, 2003Maui Postma Jul 12, 2003
the left hand route went up the right side of a flake on great hands and then burrows into a sweet squeeze chimney. the squeeze is capped by a hand crack that quickly tapers to a lieback to get to the anchors. (5.9 until layback topout, maybe 10b, approx 80 feet).
the right hand route (about 15 feet to the right) was pretty low angle. it started with a finger lieback to get onto a small pedestal. then it was low angled ringlocks and tight hands for a ways. finally, there is kind of an angled slot/recess with tight hands (this part is steeper). (maybe 10b or so, approx 60 feet?)
thanks for the info. both routes were excellent. Oct 14, 2003
Boulder, Colorado
Some guidelines to consider for new anchors:
1. Use deep half inch bolts when possible (a power drill drills a better hole, and even though it is heavy on the hike, it can drop in a 4 1/2 X 1/2 inch hole in about 15 seconds).
2.Three eighths is your second choice.
3. Leave the baby angles at home. I have cleaned these antiquated things with embarrassingly little effort. They are difficult to place, anyway, even by experienced drillers (hence the ones sticking out an inch from the wall). Besides, they are more expensive than expansion bolts.
4. Use steel anchors. Webbing is visually gross and wears out quickly becoming unsafe. There are many cheap options at your local hardware store.
5. Camo the anchors. Every hardware store carries a brown primer that is exactly the color of windgate.
5. Make the link to the rope replaceable without having to replace the entire setup (ie: screwlinks or old biners).
A major complaint against climbers in indian creek and across the country is the visual impact of bolts and anchors, so this is an access issue and a safety issue.
Finally, those of you who carry a bolt kit for beefing up anchors, consider carrying enough gear to replace the entire thing with steel hardware and good bolts. This will avoid creating those confusing rats nest anchors that we always see out there. If one out of every one hundred parties replaced one anchor, the place would be cleaned up in no time.
Thanks
Chris Kalous
Climbing Magazine ARI volunteer.
PS: If you put up routes with single bolt anchors, you're cheap and lazy. Nov 8, 2006
Salt Lake City, UT
Whitefish, MT
...As you know, one of our dogs is missing from the Dugout Ranch (aka Indian Creek area). Please forward this email to anyone who may be able to help.
"Jack" is a female Kelpie/Boxer cross, with distinctive black and white markings and a couple brown spots on her cheek. (pictures attached) She is a very sweet, affectionate and friendly dog who went missing shortly before Thanksgiving. Jack's brother was picked up by a female rock climber on 11/23 and was TAKEN to Moab. This climber kept our dog for a week before reporting it to the Humane Society, where I finally tracked him down on 12/3.
Jack is unfortunately still missing. She was wearing a brown leather collar with a brass nameplate riveted to it that clearly stated she lives at Dugout Ranch, along with all our contact information.
If anyone has any information at all, or someone in town has s dog matching her description, please contact us at this email or leave a message at 435-459-0018 . Feel free to email if you have any questions or need more information.
Also, I thought you should know this is not the first time this has happened. Perhaps if we can get the word out, this type of thing will happen less frequently. I am planning to post flyers at the kiosks down here as well.
Please advise people: If you see a "stray" dog at Indian Creek, bring it to the ranch to ask before you make any assumptions. The bottom line: you are climbing and camping on private and leased property, where these dogs live and work daily. Please have some common sense. Our dogs are very friendly and will not forgo attention! Because they let you pet them (or feed them!) does not mean they are strays.
Thank you,
Melinda & Adam Redd
melindaredd@yahoo.com Dec 7, 2008
USA
Imagine showing up at Supercrack Buttress mid day on a saturday and having your pick of any climb!?! Yeah, that's how it was. Sep 8, 2009
This offer has since expired (3/9/16). Mar 26, 2010
Tucson
Lander, WY
Curious to see if anybody has any heartburn about it, if not i will try to get started on some of the smaller walls first. this will probably take some trial and error, so if i muff one up feel free to criticize/slander accordingly.
also, i am going to try to go through and merge duplicate entries. this might take a while.
thanks. Dec 13, 2013
Seattle, Wa.
I am only looking at BD Camalots to keep it simple.
I used to think it was the transition from old to new Camalots, but I find that even with the newer books there are discrepancies.
Supertopo 2013 Optimal C4 range sizes:
.3 - 3/4"
.4- 1"
.5 - 1 1/4"
.75- 1 1/2- 1 3/4"
#1 - 1 3/4 -2"
#2 - 2- 2 1/2"
#3- 3- 3 1/2"
#4 - 3 1/2- 4 1/2"
#5 - 4 1/2- 5 1/2"
#6 - 5 1/2 -7"
Actual Optimal C4 range sizes:
.3 - 5/8"
.4 - 3/4"
.5 - 1"
.75 - 1 1/4"
#1 -1 9/16'
#2 - 1 15/16"
#3 - 2 11/16"
#4 - 3 7/16"
#5 - 4 5/8'
#6 - 6"
Some might object that I am including 1/16", but you will see that even without the 1/16" the numbers are way off. I measured the cams working range too, but am just including the sweet spot, best position placement. I usually try to figure out for myself what cams are needed for any given pitch, but since Supertopo suggests rack sizes for routes this might confuse a few newer leaders.
I add this here because the Bloom books have the sizes sometimes off too. Jan 12, 2014
Pequannock, New Jersey
- in case anyone else needs this beta the nearest climbing shop is in Moab. Aprox. one hour drive from climbing areas. If your looking for partners supercrack butress is always full of people and there are also a number of message boards at the different campsites you can leave a note at for other singles. Oct 6, 2014
Las Vegas, NV
Bullhead City, AZ
Thanks! Nov 12, 2015
Springdale / Zion UT / Moab
Berkeley, CA
New Mexico
San Francisco, CA
As the guidebook outlines, spring and fall are the best-bet weather times in general, although the high dessert climate can be fickle at any point in those seasons - for example, in two trips during the same March week 2 years in a row, I experienced low-70s F highs one year and low-40s F highs the next year. Check and monitor climbingweather.com/Utah/In… to be prepared, and give the rock at least 24 hours to dry after any rainfall.
A great tactic for a first visit is to borrow up multiple racks of cams (literally up to 8-10 sets of #.5-#4 cams is ideal to cover all climbs), and come with friends who've been here before and can do all or most of the leading, as the learning curve can be steep and you can easily spend a whole first trip flailing and frustrated. Instead, consider just starting with a top roping spree and working on different hand sizes and jam sequences ("swimming", "karate chopping", thumbs-down and thumbs-up jams, "fat hands" and fists) until you've cultivated the ability to trust your jams, rest on your toes, and cleanly toprope most of the climbs you can get on through 5.10/5.10+. Obviously, the usual caveats about sharing climbs thoughtfully and only top-roping off your draws/biners should apply.
Then go home and digest the outstanding Crack Climber's Technique Manual:
fixedpin.com/products/the-c…
and come back the next trip to try and lead what you top-roped the first trip.
For the third trip, maybe start dipping into crack sizes that aren't good fits for your hands (#1 cracks if you're big-handed, or #2-#3 cracks if you're small-handed), and so on.
I definitely had a lot more fun on 2nd and 3rd trips than I did the first, so approach this place with patience and you'll definitely be rewarded. Apr 10, 2017
Snowmass, CO
Middletown, CT
The author is also donating 100% of his royalties to the Access and Sharp End is adding $1.00/book, as well.
A Limited Edition Bears Ears cover is available for pre-order.
stores.sharpendbooks.com/cr… Jul 2, 2018
Bend, OR