"Slack?" "No! F%?k!, not Slack!" I yelled down to Jim, who was belaying me 100ft below. I had just realized that I couldn't make the next move up the wide crack line, and had exchanged a few words with the abyss beneath my toes. The newly vaulted sky wouldn't lend me another fingertips worth of vertical gain, and that was a problem. I had to make a decision quick! so I resolved in that instant to down-climb the crack to my last cam, 10ft below me, and rest my shaking limbs. I thought to myself, I almost took a nice 20ft fall there...This is the story of my trip to Indian Creek, UT this Spring -almost.
Indian Creek is home to the purest crack climbing on the planet. When Jim told me about this place last summer in the Tetons, I knew i had to go see what he was talking about asap. I flew into Montrose, Colorado near Jim's home in Ouray, and we drove straight to Indian Creek. By day, we climbed megalithic rock formations in the desert all day, Interspersed with retrospectively funny moments like the one above. By night, Jim and I shared a campfire with 2 of THE most amazing girls, Adrien and Hanna, from Bozeman, Montana, that I have ever met. They camped right next to us. Around the flames we sat listening to the coyotes howl, telling our stories, and talking trash like we'd known each other from childhood. The physical exertion of the day, and the primordial flames of the night, seemed to rid me of all societal precautions and inhibitions that I'm so easily prone to in the civilized world. The mutual kinship I felt those nights is something I think few people have experienced, and the feeling is something I'll take to the grave.
After 4 days of vertical antics at Indian Creek, Jim and I drove North, to Castle valley. There we climbed a 350ft Desert sandstone tower aptly named Castleton Tower. The sensation of exposure achieved after leaving the ground, at the base of the tower, engendered a feeling of calm and satisfaction I'd formerly known only in sleep. In four rope lengths of excellent climbing, we reached the top! From the summit I looked out into the vast expanse of desert merging with sky, and almost wondered which was bigger. The wild wild west! what an adventure!
check out my pictures and see for yourself what I'm talking about!:
http://picasaweb.google.com/6footnglassy/IndianCreek2009#
Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap. Ecc 11:4
About Me
- Mark
- (Still here I carry my old delicious burdens; I carry them, men and women—I carry them with me wherever I go; I swear it is impossible for me to get rid of them; I am fill’d with them, and I will fill them in return.) ...Allons! be not detain’d! Let the paper remain on the desk unwritten, and the book on the shelf unopen’d! Let the tools remain in the workshop! let the money remain unearn’d! Let the school stand! mind not the cry of the teacher! Let the preacher preach in his pulpit! let the lawyer plead in the court, and the judge expound the law. Mon enfant! I give you my hand! I give you my love, more precious than money, I give you myself, before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself? will you come travel with me? Shall we stick by each other as long as we live? _Walt Whitman
Later Amigo
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