A first trip to Indian Creek
Ed Hartouni
April 26, 2015


Preface

In 1970 Chuck Pratt wrote the memorable article The View From Deadhorse Point from which we learn of the early climbing focus on towers. What would Pratt have thought of the crack climbs that populate the miles, or tens of miles, or maybe even hundreds of miles of cliffs. Cliffs made of fine Wingate Sandstone, dating back to the Triassic 200-250 million years ago, forming strata of 250-450 feet in height

"Wingate Sandstone reddish-brown, massive, cross-bedded fine-grained, well-sorted sandstone. Forms a prominent cliff."
see Foos

Pratt was a crack climber par excellent yet I don't recall if he took up the challenges all around him in Moab, it seems he somehow missed the reason of my journey.

Indian Creek, a crack climbing destination, covers an area unimaginably long, an outside gymnasium in which a climber can practice the art of climbing crack, any size, and often unbelievably constant; 1" width for ever, enough to make you cry in the pain of using the same jams on the same gobbies over and over again, until you run out of red camelots or you bail and have your more diminutive partner take over.

Bela and Linda hatched a plan to return, and asked if I'd like to go too, and I said yes.

The southwest venues have long been a lacuna in my climbing life list... and this year I thought I'd try to fill it in a bit.



How we got there

with three we needed a plan, which we kicked around a bit... part of the kicking was to estimate our total cargo space requirement: 50 cubic feet. Looking at small SUV rentals was discouraging, both for the cost and for the additional fuel expenses of, at best, a 20 mpg vehicle.

At some point I thought that maybe my Jetta Sportswagen (JSW) could do it, at about 38 cuft a roof bag adding 12 cuft gets to the required space. And with highway speeds of 60 to 70 mph a 10 to 20% reduction in fuel economy would still have us in the mid 30 mpg range. REI was having a sale and I snagged a Thule rooftop bag for 20% off, and used my dividend... that was about my share of the rental.



After 2 hours we were ready to leave.


Our destination was Mike Friedrich's house in Salt Lake City, we're we'd bivvy in his front room and take off in the morning. He and Kendra and Anne Yeagle were going down for the Sushi Fest and for climbing too.

[In the end we traveled 2519 miles and used 72 gal of Diesel, for an average of 35 mpg, about 17% less than my usual average... total cost $208.51, about $0.08/mile]

The Next Day... Friday

The next day we end up in Moab, texting Jaybro continuously and end up at his current place of employ, Moab Desert Adventures, and he eventually appears with Chasbro, his older brother... there is a third "bro" but they're actually searching the internet for the elevator boy, who may or may not be a part of the family.


Friday being the first night of the Sushi Fest, we make our wet way over to that venue and meet up with more old and new friends...


an exciting escape on very muddy roads in the JSW, with one stream crossing had us back at our camp and ready for the next day's climbing.


Sushi-Fest Saturday and the before...

Mike, Kendra, Anne and now Steve Roach are planning to go over to Cat Wall, and are rushing to beat the presumed hoard of Colorado climbers they are sure are headed there... we leave later, along with Grug and the sweet Elizabeth, and are the second and third cars in at the crag. (Of course, Grug has a CO plate...)

Anne belays Steve on More Than One Way 5.11- which is overhanging and somewhat wide (fists), Grug arriving at the scene.


This ends up being my first Indian Creek top-rope and I didn't have any problem with it... seems that the size of the crack is more an indication of the difficulty than the grade, which is not only irrelevant, but an inhibition to getting on climbs.

Linda TR's Trip to the Vet 5.10,

Anne being lowered off of Catmandu 5.10+ after her lead

Mike enjoys Bachelor Party 5.11+

From the base of Cat Wall we can look down towards the Sushi-Fest venue, and also see the thunderstorms tracking towards us.

The storms make it through quickly and leave beautiful light at sunset easing us into the magic of nature's bounty.


We become the hoards... but we're mostly Californians so that's ok...

Sunday in Donnelly Canyon we have the arrival of Mo and Steve from the Bay Area and Nate and Evelyn. We end up doing Chocolate Corner 5.9 and Elephant Man (p1) 5.10-, I lead both of these.

Me leading Elephant Man (Bela Logan image)

Evelyn does a very difficult direct start (5.13?) to Mr. Peanut 5.11+ which is fingery but with a lot of other ways to do it involving near by corners and edges.

Mo at the roof of Mr. Peanut

We're all trying to lead the routes as well as top rope some of the more difficult ones... so our "productivity" isn't great, but we're having fun.


Now we're on vacation!

On Monday many have departed and we're on our own. A discussion at breakfast has us going out to Broken Tooth to check out a couple of climbs.

The first, Rock Lobster has a team on it as we arrive:

and we dally too long regarding Incisor, another team jumps on it...

as we wander about the locals regard us with disdain

And after being absolutely spanked and shutdown on Midnight Oil 5.10+ 1" thin hand crack we have had a rope hung for us by yet another party, on Gold Crown 5.10+, a perfect hand sized crack on an overhanging wall.

Steve runs a lap on Gold Crown

Bela floats it and hatches a plan to return for the lead. A good workout has us enjoying the first moon of the month dancing with Venus

while Linda creates another of her delicious dinners.


The late and not entirely long enough rest day, and it's aftermath

On Tuesday we decide to take a rest day and go to Moab to resupply and eat... Wednesday has us back out to Donnelly Canyon to do Generic Crack 5.9+

Linda in the first pod...

Bela above the pod...

and me high on the oh-so-good hand section above

Linda fires Cave Route 5.10d, which is thin hands and torturous feet (for me) she floats it... but it is a rather dark route suited for warm days... and also a nice private place to change into Lycra.

Nate belays Evelyn on a climb I can't recall, but it was much harder than I wanted to try right then.
I opted for a lap on The Last Battle, 5.11 and finished with a lap on Our Piece of Real Estate 5.11a

A really good day. We got back to camp and found Jaybro's tents, in flagrante delicto, who knew!

But after we got that sorted out, we settled into yet another beautiful sunset.


on the not so pente glissante, crushing

On Thursday it was up to Reservoir Wall first doing an unnamed 5.10 big hand crack:

and Linda does a spectacular job leading Pente 5.11, Bela takes a lap on TR as do I and Jaybro.


We go out and look at another route Will-mento but the entry moves seemed to sketch for the moment.


Jaybro took us on a ride into Canyonlands to see some roof bouldering... but there were these landscapes to wonder in, also.




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A crowning achievement

On the last day, Bela went back to Gold Crown and nearly lead it clean... fantastic job. Jaybro took a lap, and Linda a half, but I didn't have anything left

The ritual hand taping

Cruising through the lower half and starting the second overhang



Winding down in Moab

Later, we attended a pizza party at Ferretlegger and SCgoat's compound in Moab... including showers. Staying the night there, we left Moab wet for the Bay Area via Las Vegas.

A big thanks to all of you I got to climb with and have fun with this last week, but a special thanks to Bela, Linda and Jaybro