Nightcrawling!

Today's climbing was pre-empted by a little excitement on the loop road. As we drove around to get to our trailhead, there was some commotion at the side of the road. We thought it was just a couple of bike riders fixing a flat, but then we saw someone laying on the road. We pulled over to see if we could help. A woman who was out running the loop road with her dog had fallen somehow and conked herself on the back of the head. Two bikers had stopped to help, but had left her dog stapped to her waist, and the dog was lurching against the leash yanking her around. She was pretty out of it, and kept saying she was going to get sick. Dr. Greg and Dr. Bill figured dehydration and maybe a concussion from hitting the asphalt. We unhooked the dog to give her some relief from that. The first lady in a SUV that stopped in front of us had sattellite On-Star, so she called 911 to get an ambulance launched. We just tried to help her out and calm the puppy while we waited.

It took a long time for the paramedics to show, but they finally got there. The ranger took the dog off to his truck and they collared and loaded the lady up in the ambulance. The collar and strapping her to the backboard had the lady yelling at them to let her up. She was in pain an feeling pretty sick from what we could tell. It got kind of tense before they were able to calm her down and get the doors closed so they could head to the hospital. By the time it was all over, we had an hour and a half down. Hope she was okay!




Bill headed up the Pine Creek Canyon trail with Mescalito far down at the end of the canyon.












The route for the day was Nightcrawler (5.10c) up on Brownstone Wall. This is way back up on the north side of Juniper Canyon across from the Rainbow Wall. It's a bit of a hike. Took us 1.5 hours to get to the base of the route.














After yesterday's slab crawl, we had more slabs to scramble today. My feet may never forgive me.
















Nightcrawler is kind of an old-school Urioste route with a somewhat hefty reputation. People throw out ratings from 10b to 10d online. The upper two pitches head up the big corner in the photo here. Steep and desperate!














The first pitch is 5.7 and heads up just below the big chimney that starts the corner system.


































Coming up the first pitch.













The second pitch was this super-classic funky 5.9 chimney. It was an awesome pitch! I kept moving out of the chimney and climbing face holds on the outside, so I was accused of being a sport climber.














Bill in chimney mode on pitch two.

















Corner system is quite steep and VERY cool!

















Topping out on pitch two.













Time to get down to business. This is Bill working the first bit of the third (crux) pitch. Big fatty crack on the left, tips crack on the right (if you have the reach!).















It just keeps getting steeper and more interesting.















Going, going, gone...















Holy crap! Where'd the holds go?













Nope... no holds here... maybe higher...













Last pitch... more of the same. Steep and tricky! Stemming, the occasional finger lock and some laybacking gets you up the thing.















Bill up near the top of the last pitch.


















On the way down...
















And more slabs on the way back down canyon.


What a super classic route!!!

Dancing with the Eagles!

Day two of my spring vacation...I went for a giant hike, and a semi-giant climb. Today's route selection was Eagle Dance (5.10 A0), a classic route on the Eagle Wall high up on the north side of Oak Creek Canyon. We left the Oak Creek Parking lot at 7:10am and got back at 4:27pm. What a great route!






Hiking up Oak Creek Canyon is always a joy... once you get into the drainage of the canyon, it's all about skirting, climbing over, and hopping from one big boulder to the next. Strenuous, and time consuming. Once you get far enough into the canyon, you head up huge slabs to get the base of the route, 2500 feet of elevation gain above the parking lot. It took us two hours to get there.







Looking up at the Eagle Wall from the approach. The general line of Eagle Dance is marked. The super classic Levitation 29 route is just to the right on this same wall.








Just about shagged from humping up the huge slabs to get to the base of the route.












When we got to the base of the route, there was one party on something with another party waiting. We could have been hosed, but it turned out they were all headed up Levitation 29. Cool for us! Another group of three showed up a few minutes later... Rainbow Buttress (another route out to the right), then another pair showed up while we were on the first pitch... also Levitation. Nobody but us on Eagle Dance all day! Sweet!

This is Bill starting up the first pitch.








Bill halfway up the first pitch. We (he) brought a pretty pared down rack of only five cam. When he got to the first belay stance... no bolts, only one cam left. We knew you could link the next pitch at only 5.7, but another 80 feet, so he just continued up, getting a couple of inventive sling threads for pro.












Headed up the first pitch.













Couple pictures of Bill on pitch two...




































Hey! Where's the holds up here?












Too much work trying to work out which pitch is which here, so a couple more pics of Bill leading. These were nice, classic Red Rocks face pitches. Excellent!!


































This is pitch six, a short one that takes you up below the headwall aid pitch seven. There was a tricky bit where Bill is in this shot.















The top of pitch six. Lotta air back there behind!













Speaking of air... check out this dude hanging at one of the belays on Levitation 29. Steep world over there too.
















Bill working his way on aid up the bolt ladder to clear the headwall on the seventh pitch.
















Following the aid bolts on the seventh pitch. Took me a minute to get into the rhythm. The most interesting bolt is the one that turns the small roof bulge at the bottom. It had to be hanging at least an inch and a half out of the rock (and it's a recently replaced bolt!).







The steep pitch after the aid pitch (the eighth) is rated 10b, but it's harder than anything before it on the route. Slippery stemming on sandy white rock. Doesn't get any better than that! Luckily, it's only about 45 feet long.









At the top of the eighth pitch. Once again, no holds.












Bill leads the ninth pitch. Above this, you have to continue to the top of the wall via a couple more sandy and supposedly poor quality pitches. We rappelled instead. This was the crux pitch of the day at 10d, according to Bill. I had had enough by the top of pitch eight, and decided my fingers had had enough for one day, and I didn't want to blow anything, so he led the pitch and I lowered him back to the belay to start the raps.

All in all, an excellent day!

Frigidaire Buttress (5.9), Icebox Canyon

Today's route was Frigidaire Buttress (5.9). Seems like it used to have sort of burly old-school rep to it, but I think it's gotten pretty popular over the last few years. In fact, we found a pair of climbers starting up the route when we got there. They were nice guys and we just tagged along. This is Bill hiking into Icebox Canyon.






Bill starts up the first pitch. Fun 5.6 climbing.

















The second pitch starts up this sort of slippery face past a couple of finger locks, skirts left around a corner and finishes up a slab to a belay off a tree.















Bill on pitch three. Up through the trees, then up the left-facing corner.
















Bill approaching the top of the left-facing corner on pitch three.

















So then I led pitch four... we were essentially just following the guys in front of us, with a glance at Bruce's topo occasionally to see if it looked like we were in the right place. Unfortunately, the guys in front of us veered off course here...








Bill heads up our fifth pitch. At this point, we don't know we're headed off route. We still seem to be on track with the guys in front of us. Bad idea, as it turns out.















So after Bill led this monster pitch to the top of the buttress he's standing on below, we figured out we were in no man's land. We had to do a little course correction here, so I went up and then did some traversing to the left to get back onto the real route. Dammit.








Bill doing the last part of the traverse that put us back on the route. Quick detour.
















I got the next pitch as well, to take us up to the base of the last (crux) pitch. Had me some serious rope drag at the top. Ugly.












Bill led the crux/hero pitch. This fantastic finger crack up a bullet-hard headwall. Excellent pitch!
















Bill floating the crux moves past the finger crack. After this, we did a short easy pitch to the top of the wall, then started the somewhat involved descent.















This semi long down climb under the chockstones behind the route started the descent.












Hike, scramble around to the south and eventually you get there. Bill is closing in on the first rappel tree here.










One short rappel, one FULL 60m rap, one 100 foot rap, then this last 150 footer to get down. This is Bill on the last rappel.











With 9 pitches behind us, clearly we needed more! So we climbed the 140 foot pitch, Sunny (5.7) just right of Frigidaire route. Was fun. Climb up, rap off.