Action In Solitude: Red Rock Profile

Thanks to Kevin and Ian with Action In Solitude for working on this great video short.

Featured Routes: 

Offwidth AKA Desert-erata V2 - In Calico Basin beneath Alternative Crag.

Plumbers Crack (South side) 5.10 - In the Kraft boulder field in Calico Basin.

Trophy Crack V2 - In Sandstone Quarry just East of the Trophy Wall.

Chrysler Crack 5.9 - In Sandstone Quarry at the top of the Sandy Corridor.

Also featured by Climbing Magazine here.

Trophy Crack

Click above to watch the video of me on Trophy Crack. 

While paging through the new Southern Nevada Bouldering guidebook recently I couldn't help but notice a photo of an awesome looking splitter crack problem.  With a little investigation I located the climb in the Sandstone Quarry area of Red Rock Canyon.  The crack is about 12-15 feet tall and goes from about 2 1/2 inches to 5 inches in width. The crack is also cut very clean with no face holds to help you along the way.  This splitter crack problem is a great way to practice crack climbing technique and it especially caters to those looking to learn some offwidth techniques.  This problem can be done in several different ways (probably) but the "kick-through" method seemed to be the easiest way for me to climb it.  Enjoy the videos and hope it's not too much beta spray!

Click above to watch my explanation of this climb.

Vedauwoo Madness Part 2

Molly runnin' laps on the classic "Pooh Corner" 5.10a

Here are a few more highlights from the Vedauwoo summer extravaganza! These photos are all from my first two weeks there spent with Pam, Pat and Molly.  Since then I managed to get back for a two day jaunt attempting my project Empty Suit with Pamela.  After two days of inverted whippers and unrelenting heel-toe cams I think I was finally crushed by The Voo.  At the end of the days I found myself crawling around looking for any vertical crack to climb instead.  I reached a point of total exhaustion simply too mentally and physically tired to negotiate a climb while hanging from my feet... I think another day of inverts would have destroyed me entirely!  So here I am looking back one some of the non-invert climbs, beautiful scenery and madness that I encoutered during my trip. Currently my internet access is super limited though, probably due to my "off the map" location in Ward Colarado, so I apologies for the slimmed down post.  I hope everyone can still enjoy this mostly photo post... and if you haven't already formed plans for a trip to the Voo, make sure to put it on yer list of climbing destinations for this year!

Overlooking the beautiful Vedauwoo campground. Can you spot Lucille?
Photo: Molly Chambers

Molly and I prepare for a hard day's climbing.

Me happily sand bagged on "Penetration" 5.9+.
Photo: Patrick Kingsbury

The route Penetration 5.9+ was my warm up for my "offwidth graduation day" when I attempted to prove myself in a three route hat-trick consisting of Penetration 5.9+, Unicorn Externinator 5.10b, and Empty Suit 5.12.  This trio seemed to be the ultimate crush for me, but I approached it with open arm bars.  Everyone present during my graduation agreed that Penetration looked more like 5.10+ or even 5.11, and I can't say I disagreed.  The start was quite flared and sparse on holds and started with delicate and mostly unprotected climbing.  After the first ten feet and after placing a manky #2 camalot the climbing looked right up my alley, although a fall was still out of the question until you get good gear a few pieces up.  The majority of the climb is a one-sided squeeze that wants to spit you off anytime you let your guard down.  It was a pretty tight squeeze that featured a combination of techniques, a low and outside driving heel toe cam, a high inside knee/heel jam, and plenty of arm bars and chest breakers to boot.  The climb also has a random turn-around near the top where you need to switch to the other-side-in.  The pressure was on for me with this one, but I knew once I got into the squeeze I wouldn't allow myself to fall... did I mention the first ascensionist was belaying me?  Nice climb Zach! After a successful send I must agree, that this climb is a perfect 5.9+... aka the most sandbagged grade in Vedauwoo since 5.11b!

Possible FA of an unknown problem "Knives Out" V2ish

Beginning the steepness difficulties on "Burning Man" 5.11
Overhanging knee jams and hand stacks with a secret circus trick in the crux...

River crossings to be expected... Patrick is a true gentleman and offwidther. 

I can't say enough about climbing with Pamela and Patrick, they invited me in to join them in some serious crushing, route development, and bourbon drinking.  They both are super motivating and great folks to go rock climbing with any day of the year.  My Vedauwoo experience certainly wouldn't have been the same without them cheering me on and showing me some ridiculous routes, most of which put me in my place of offwidth doom/heaven.  The opportunity to climb with two people who embrace the wide madness entirely whole-heartledly really reinforeced my feelings of the positivity of the climbing community and made me feel more sane for living out a of van and traveling from state to state looking for all the climbing I can find.  They are most definitely two climbing friends who will continue to progress the sport more than I can ever imagine, and I look forward to their next accomplishments! 

Pamela Shanti Pack on "Forever War" 5.13c/d
Photo: Zach Orenczak

Inversion climbing has it downsides... Pamela shows off her early battle wounds.
I think Pat took this photo while belaying me...

As for me, my time is spent tucked away in the pocket of Ward Colorado where I am teaching youngin's to climb all summer.  Luckily we have an offwidth crack near by that I like to take the kids to and watch them figure out the madness. To my surprise I think some of the kids have a knack for offwidth, even if they hated everything about it. I can only hope that in time they will find the joy in the challenge, and perhaps even find climbing an important and valuable aspect of the great outdoor experience.  Now go climb a crack!

View from my temporary home near Ward, Colorado. 

Vedauwoo Madness Part 1

Attempting the 2nd ascent of "The Empty Suit" 5.12
Photo: Zach Orenczak

Just as quickly as it arrived, my two week stay in Vedauwoo has come to an end. I leave with my muscles sore, pants badly ripped, and skin bruised and cut most everywhere I can see.  During my stay I wore more pairs of tape gloves than clean socks, braved thunderstorms and dodged tornados, slept on floors, lost my wallet at Walmart, found notoriously obscure boulder problems, took my first whipper out of an inversion, and even successfully climbed a few classic routes! (Phew!) The whole experience has been amazingly challenging and inspiring for my climbing momentum and has really helped reinforce and remind me of all the positive experiences I've had through my pursuit of climbing. Vedauwoo has more than lived up to its reputation of being a mysterious and eclectic destination and I am still surprised the climbing hasn't become more popular there.  Even with most of my days spent searching out and attempting the wide "classics" I never encountered another climber looking to climb in the same general area.  I guess it just goes to show that the stories of disappearing people, man eating cracks, mountain lions and forest dwellers just might be true? While roaming around by my lonesome I found countless beer cans older than myself, two random dog leashes, and a plethora of wide cracks seemingly untouched.  Luckily, during my time there I met up with friends Pamela Shanti Pack, Patrick Kingsbury, Zach Orenczak, Rachel Lynn and Molly Chambers for some serial crushing during my stay.  Together we roamed around the hills, jumping from bog to bog looking for the best cracks to test our skills, make our day, or send us packing.  Some of what we found is described below, while a majority still remains hidden in the Vedauwoo hills under layers lichen and moss. 

The crew hangin'
Photo: Patrick Kingsbury

Since my last post I've worked on a few more area classic boulder problems such as Life Without Parole V4, The Warden V8, and Desiderata V5.  Although the problems themselves were quite difficult, I often spent more time attempting to locate the problems than actually climbing them. Once I found the features I would often complete a majority of the problem, only to stop early due to the fear of falling upside-down with no spotter.  My hands down favorite problem was Desiderata V5, which is a long wide roof crack with a tricky revert ending.  The majority of the problem is an inverted offwidth shuffle, which is actually quite comfortable and controlled.  The crux (and total difficulty) of the problem comes from when the crack narrows in and forces your feet out just before you have to revert and turn the lip using an array of handstacks and foot trickery.  One slightly weird fall out of this section tweaked my confidence and sent me reaching for the PBR tallboy a brought along for my days effort.  After a relaxing beverage and doing the inverted shuffle a few more times, I started to notice a storm brewing in the distance.  What started as a few sprinkles quickly turned into a full-on thunderstorm in the same amount of time it took me to pack up my stuff. Before I knew it I was down scrambling wet granite in Chaco's with a crash pad and camera in tow. I did my best to navigate a safe route and realized quickly the obvious and actual danger of being stuck by lightning in Vedauwoo.  Luckily for me I only got completely soaked by the storm and avoided the lightning on my hike back to the parking lot.  I will never forget my eagerness to get back to the solitude and shelter of the van.

The inverted shuffle on Desiderata V5.

Coincidence? I think not! Tall-boys and wide climbing go together.

After that day I was pretty tired of the solo bouldering and very excited to rope up with Pamela, Patrick, and Molly, who were all coming back to Vedauwoo that night.  We all gathered for a dinner and shared a few beverages and stories before calling it a night.  In the morning we were going to go check out Pamela's new project route.  After a short hike we got caught in a rainstorm and were forced to head back to the safety of the cars to wait out the storm.  After an hour or so we were able to get back outside and hike around, continuing the search for great established offwidths and maybe even some more new route potential.  We didn't get to check out the project that day, but soon after I was able to watch the OW guru work her magic on the overhanging inverted monstrosity.  I don't want to reveal too much info about her new route (check out Pamela's blog for the nitty gritty), but I will say that this route is a beast of a thing and requires an inversion shuffle upwards and a pivot and revert to an arm bar! Yeahhhh super tough!  The danger level to lead this route is also high because of the risk of falling out of the inversion and swinging into a ledge that juts out below the wide crack.  I gave the route a laughable attempt on top-rope, but let's just say I didn't make if very far and Pamela will not be stealing my beta.

Pamela Shanti Pack workting the nutso inversion handstand mantel on
"Forever War" 5.13c/d R

Molly Chambers rockin' the tape gloves of peace on the approach to Forever War.

The next day we headed to the Nautilus to attempt some classic wide routes that Pamela and Patrick recommended for me.  I was excited to give my best attempt on some of the Vedauwoo right-of-passage routes, even though my original plan for the day was to rest and photograph instead.  My "warm up" was an overhanging offwidth called "B-G Crack" and is rated at a stiff 5.11-.   The route starts with a high unprotected step across to a flake before gaining a horizontal crack where you get your first piece of gear. After this you traverse right and are stuck below a tight hand crack that runs through a five foot roof.  To me this appeared to be the crux of the route, and after I pulled the difficult roof I was super excited to have just onsighted this section! But unfortunately my efforts were in vain, and just as I entered the offwdith section above the roof Patrick yelled up at me "You do have a #5 right??"  I looked down at my rack and immediately realized I had forgotten all the wide gear on the ground! Opps! I felt quite disappointed realizing that my onsight attempt would go no further, and that I had to lower to the ground and retrieve the gear that I had forgotten.  In the end the mix up was actually more hilarious than anything else, but it did throw off my climbing groove for the day. 

Where is my mind? Working on "B-G Crack" 5.11-
Photo: Pamela Shanti Pack

Another excellent route that we got on at the Nautilus was the old school classic "Right Parallel Space" 5.5 X. This route starts in a deep squeeze chimney before jutting left and entering another large chimney section that gradually expands before topping out on an exposed tower. This route is certainly a "heads up" type of climb that requires placing little gear (3 pieces in 90ish feet) and should not be attempted unless you're a very confident chimney climber, super old school madman/woman, or a confused drunken hillbilly rappeller looking for the nearest set of anchors.  As an example that illustrates this routes traditional nature, the last 30' of this climb is protected by a "bolt" that more closely resembles a rusty nail that has an equally rusty hanger that spins in circles as you climb above it.  So now with all that clear I must admit this was one of my favorite pitches of my trip!  The exposed nature of the climb combined with the lack of protection and chimney style of climbing had me mentally traveling back in time convincing myself that I was an old school madman with leather boots and hemp braided rope tied around my waist. Nowadays most people might get scarred off this route, but to me it was a embrace and homage to the traditional form of climbing that has lead to the modern practice of climbing that most people now know and love.  This route is a must-do climb for the grade and could quite possibly be one of the coolest pitches that I had ever done.

Molly Chambers follows up the old school classic scare chimney.
"Right Parallel Space" 5.5 X
Photo: Pamela Shanti Pack

Standing on top of the Right Parallel Space.
The chimney goes up inside the other side of the tower I am standing on.
Photo: Molly Chambers

The next major highlight of the trip was getting to climb a new route next to Pamela's project area.  Although its not a 5.13 inversion squeeze thing, it is a long sustained offwidth crack that tops out at about 70'. The climb starts in a hand crack corner, and then follows a wide crack system for about 60' more feet to the top.  The crack goes through a couple of bulges and pods, but generally stays pretty consistent in size at about 5"-7" with a little flare to it.  At the very top it starts to widen up (9" Valley Giant) and turns into a tight squeeze chimney just before topping out.  I was super psyched to attempt  this climb and had a ridiculously fun time doing it.  To my surprise I was able to onsight the pitch and subsequently give it the first lead shortly after.   To all of our knowledge the crack has not been previously climbed in it's entirety and after completing it I am pretty confident in claiming the first ascent. Big thanks to Patrick and Pamela for showing me this crack and encouraging me to get on this thing first. You guys rock!  I am hopeful that the route will some day be on the list of high quality moderate offwidths for the area, and perhaps even Zach and Rachel will climb it and give it a gold star in the next book.   If you love consecutive knee jams and arm bars and are looking to get on a fun and challenging moderate offwidth, this pitch is for you!

Placing the 9" Valley Giant on the FA of "Intergalactic Bong Rip" 5.10
Photo: Patrick Kingsbury

I have just barely begun to share stories from my Veduawoo adventure! There is still a lot of photos to be posted and stories to be told.  If you're interested in hearing more make sure you revisit for the "Part 2" post that will talk about the routes "Burning Man" 5.11a(+), Penetration 5.9+, Unicorn Exterminator 5.10c, and my attempt to climb the unrepeated "The Empty Suit" 5.12.  As for now I must return to the beautiful Indian Peak mountains In Colorado where I am currently living and spending my time screeching like an eagle while teaching youngin's how to rock climb, hand stack, and invert unnecessarily.  For more information on Pamela Shanti Pack and Patrick Kingsbury's newest adventures and routes make sure you visit their blog(s)!

Urban squeeze? Or abandoned bunker?
Photo: Patrick Kingsbury

First days in Vedauwoo, Wyoming...

The Nautilus Crag as viewed from my campsite...

As I sit here in a wonderful coffee shop in Laramie Wyoming I realize that this might be my first update from the road... ever?  Once the temps in Las Vegas reached over a hundred degrees I knew that my chances of climbing in Red Rocks had pretty much melted away.  Luckily I anticipated my departure a few months back and arranged for some seasonal work in Ward Colorado for the summer.  So I took a little road trip out to Colorado for a week of job training, and before you knew it I had two weeks off before my summer job started... Sweet! I made some plans to meet up with Pamela Shanti Pack in her stone playground of Vedauwoo Wyoming to attempt some "soul crushing offwidths".  Many of those who follow my blog will know that offwidths have been a recent climbing pursuit of mine and that I've been willingly searching out the wide and weird.  Luckily for me Pamela is an expert and this sorta thing, and she was excited and willing to meet up with me.

Pamela Shanti Pack on Simiantics V9

Driving into Vedauwoo from I-80 East is pretty awesome, the wild bouldery bluffs just appear smack-dab in front of you!  Right away I was able to start spotting iconic routes while still traveling 75 MPH... "There's Horn's Mother, Lucille, and is that one of the Torpedo Tubes?" I said to myself in amazement while trying not to be blown off the road by the gusting winds.  My climbing destination was right in front of me in the most unexpected of places.  Located high on a blustery hill at about 8,500 feet appears the rounded stacks of boulders and wide cracks that "The Voo" is most famous for.  Once I exited the interstate I was only moments away from parking and getting out to begin climbing.  Although it is close to the interstate the area is still very scenic, inspiring, and surprisingly remote.  I've heard the immediate and surrounding area was still pretty saturated with a "cowboy" mentality, but luckily I have only (so far) encountered jolly outdoorsy folk, including a small group of people running around/hiding with paintball guns (I kept driving).  Besides the occasional distant shotgun blast the granite bluffs are entirely void of humans, and it is more likely one would run into a moose or mountain lion than another wide-obsesed climber.

Just a minor difference in foot size... Who's is who's?

Our first day out Pamela, Patrick Kingsbury, and I set out to do some bouldering.  They wanted to introduce me to the area with some shorter climbs that could test my offwidth skills without totally exhausting me and while still giving me a good experience with the unique Vedauwoo stone.  So we walked over to roof invert problem Simiantics V9 as a warm up... I watched Pat and Pamela pretty much cruise right through it, and I did my best to keep up.  Although I gave it a good several attempts, I kept getting stuck (literally) in the same spot... After eventually removing myself from the inverted/stuck position, I soon compared foot size with Pamela.  The difference in our hand and foot size was quite hilarious and it soon became clear that we might not often share the same beta and route technique.  I wasn't deterred by the difference in size and gave it a few more tries, eventually reaching my high point...

My "high point" on Simiantics V9... haha!

 We explored another few problems nearby that I attempted with limited success before the weather took a  turn for the worse.  What I once thought was excess chalk flying through the air really turned out to be snow! We hid away in the nooks and crannies of the boulders and waited for the snowy mix to halt.  Although short lived, the snow put a little damper on our psyche level, and we stuck around for a few more attempts before heading back to the solitude of a near by Laramie restaurant for some dinner.  We met up with Zach and Rachel who are Ved locals and very knowledgeable folk.  There we exchanged stories over beers while I learned about all the wide-antics the area has had over the years. All and all it was a great first day for me climbing in Vedauwoo, and I was excited for the days, routes, and unwritten stories still to come.

Worm Drive 5.11b+

 The next day we wandered over to the classic wide test-peice Worm Drive, which I had heard rumors of being ridiculously hard and frustration-educing.  It was a unanimous decision to top rope the climb for the first attempts to take some of the stress out of the experience.  I was the first to attempt the beast, and it was truly an exhausting experience!  After struggling on the crux, sliding back downwards multiple times, and resting on the rope more times than I'd like to admit, I finally made it to the top! I never really felt tired until I stopped climbing.... and that's when I felt like I just ran backwards through several miles of lichen covered glass shards while dragging a filing cabinet. It took me at least ten minutes to catch my breath.  Now I understand why some people barf on offwidths... Once I finally was able to breath, think, and speak again I came to the conclusion that I actually might be able to do the route cleanly with no falls.  But before I would try again I wanted to watch Pat give it a go and see what I could learn from him.  Although starting the climb slightly different, we both enter and complete the crux in a very similar fashion.  After the crux, the difference was that Pat cruised the rest while I tried not to barf.  But just watching Pat dial in the moves gave me the addition motivation for my second attempt.  I tied back in and started off the ground once more, this time with a "plan".  Unfortunately my plan got the best of me, and anticipating the moves actually set me back slightly more than my onsight attempt... I guess I am better at making it up as I go along. Although I didn't execute the moves flawlessly I did feel significantly less tired the second time around and I'm hopeful that a third attempt will prove successful.

After the crux roof on Worm Drive

After Worm Drive we explored some of the other areas Ved has to offer... we dodged, ducked, dipped, dived and dodged our way around the "mountain lion torpedo tubes" and discovered a wonderfully wide, scary, and sharp route of mysterious nature.  After deciding against bouldering the route we set up a top-rope and gave 'er hell.  The crack ranged from about 6"- 9" inches wide and had a obvious overhanging crux bulge at the top before turning the lip.  We sent Pamela on the route first in hopes she could unlock the beta (and some loose crystals) before the two wider-dudes got on it.  Pamela wanted to tunnel through the center of the crack, but beside being thin and agile wasn't able to fit entirely inside the crack.  She did however manage to half-invert and chicken wing her way up the crack with little hang up.  Although she was quite smooth, controlled, and dressed like a mango colored ninja, she didn't escape unharmed and still managed to hit her face on the crack and bloody her thumb mid-route.

Pamela "Ninja Mango" Pack after hitting her face on the mysterious
"More Crystal Than Meth"

The last inch of progress before I get stuck... again. 

My attempt was quite mysterious to say the least... if Pamela looked like a "mango-ninja", then I looked like an "offwidth-grunge-kid" who was ready for a mosh pit.  I gave my best effort to flash the route in a similar fashion to Pamela, but because of the difference in size I had to resort to many different techniques in attempt to make upward progress.  My first try got me tantalizingly close to pulling the crux by using fist-stacks and foot smears... but I eventually fell with gravity's relentless grip.  My second attempt I tried to get more inside the large crack, but couldn't fit my hips or chest in.  I attempt to pull off a "sidewinder" technique which eventually turned into a full inversion.  Hanging from my feet high above my head allowed me to move a couple more inches...before I inevitably became entirely stuck upside-down requiring a rescue via Pat's belay.  In the end I combined the two methods, entering the crux in fist-stacks and exciting the crux in sidewinder... A very mysterious and exciting combo!

Pat Kingsbury crushing "More Crystal Than Meth"

After waiting patiently, Pat tied in to the rope and prepared himself to ascend the monster crystal-coated crack.  I was excited to watch Pat's beta... I was pretty sure he was NOT gonna attempt my "expressionist dance school dropout" inversion maneuver, but rather something much more stylish and practical.  Pat fist-stacked his way into the crux, and utilized a partial invert foot maneuver and stacks to pull the lip. Like Pamela, he made the route look pretty chill and it was a great learning experience for me just watching him pull the moves first attempt. Nice work Pat!  So today I rest and recover from my first two days of Vedauwoo madness and I wait in anticipation of the wide-days to come... still ridiculously psyched!

One harness and one shirt partially destroyed after two days...

Flagstaff Adventure

Zak takes the whip off a newly established 5.12b/c at the Peaks area.

Last weekend I hooked a ride with Andy Reger to go visit our friend Zak Romuald in Flagstaff Arizona. It was my first time there and when the sun came up in the morning I was really impressed by the great looking stone and beautiful environment.  The rock we ended up climbing on was a volcanic rock called Dacite.  This type of stone had a corse texture, some wild caves and cracks, and great potential to explore endlessly. The climbing we encountered was a lot of creative slab crimping, some technical vertical terrain, and even continuous wandering crack systems.  The areas we went offered a great variety of terrain to climb on, and I found most of it to be pretty engaging.  My only regret is not bringing a rack to get on some of the beautiful mixed crack climbs! Oh well... So the first day we went to a new(ish?) crag up in the Peaks that offend plenty of aesthetic and challenging sport and mixed climbs.  Hear we got a solid day of sport climbing in and we all left feeling very pumped.

Zak on an Unnamed 5.12b/c.  Evidently it is stiff!

A fun .12a corner called Be The Burn. 

The routes that we climbed were all 50-80 feet long and each one seemed to have a split personality.  Our warm route started on easy slabs and gradually became steeper until it was overhanging and pumpy.  A 5.12a I did started in a clean cut water streaked corner and transition into bulgy wandering/sequencey climbing at the top, were the real pump set in!  The climb Zak was working started in a wide chimney and transition abruptly to technical face climbing, which I could only imagine was a difficult transition to make.  Even with their dual personalities, the routes were all quite good and easily provided us with a day worth of fun.  The next day Andy and I woke up late and went thrifting in the afternoon. I was looking for overalls and any sort of cool stuff. I found an orange karate belt I plan to make into a gear sling and an old elbow pad I can use for climbing.  Andy found a whole slew of things and left the store looking like he was about to set up a Rube Goldberg Machine.  After our Flagstaff wandering we headed to an area called Gloria's to do some bouldering.  After walking through the woods for a short while we arrived at the base of a small mountain formation where we spent the rest of the day exploring the boulders and climbing.

Looking out after a few minutes of scrambling at Gloria's.

Zak's favorite warm up, the aesthetic V4 traverse.

Most of the time I wasn't quiet sure the difficulty of many of the climbs I was attempting. Zak was the brains behind the operation and he didn't get off work till later when he planned to meet us.  Luckily he drew us a map of the area, which explained (roughly) were some of the popular boulders were.  We used this as a mini guide and went off exploring.  We started on the slabby routes, which seemed harmless until you reached about halfway up and realized you still had to do some delicate moves higher on the slab to finish.   We transitioned into some of the harder crimpy problems and did our best to unlock some of the moves on these mysterious problems.  In between climbs we would scramble around the boulders and look for the next problem to solve.  Surprised by the abundance of features and many large cracks, I found myself looking for the perfect untouched offwidth problem for me to goof around on... I knew it was out there somewhere! 

Andy's favorite crimp fest V5.

My favorite problem, Unknown (AKA Glutton For Pain) V?

Needless to say I was pretty psyched when I found the wide crack that was formed between two big boulders.  It looked gnarly!  It was way too skinny to acomidate your upper body, too large for doing handstacks, and also coated with a nice layer of spider webs and bugs... perfectly off-sized and off-the-map!  I first looked at the formation and didn't know where to begin.  I sat under the large traversing wide crack and wondered how to even get off the ground to begin climbing the big beast.  Finding no success with arm bars or chicken wings, I new my lower half would be the only effective jamming device.  So I laid down on my back and stuffed my feet into the crack and did a sit up to reach some marginal face holds.  From here (after several attempts) I was able to work my lower body upwards into the crack as I gradually traversed upside-down and to the right working up the crack.   If I was determined enough I could wiggle my body upwards were I could eventually reach a few better face holds and begin the pivot back upright, which I found to be the most difficult part.  If I explored Gloria's for a month I'm sure I'd find a dozen more of these excellent offwidth challenges, only next time I'd wear thick pants with some neoprene knee pads underneath.

Zak sticks the finishing sloper jug as Andy lights the scene. V6/7

As the sun was going down Zak came and met with us after he was off work for the day. We continued to climb into the night with the aid of headlamps and a little beef jerky.  We etched tried a few problems and eventually worked out the moves of a pretty fun V6/7.  Eventually our bodies were worn and tired and that meant is was time for a beer and some grillin'.   Back at Zak's we relaxed, made food, and looked through photos. I reminisced about my first Arizona climbing experience and determined that Flagstaff definitely has a great feel, and is somewhere I could see spending a good amount of time.  The climbing was great and the environment and people can't be beat.  I know there is still a ton of climbing to be done there and I'm looking forward to my next opportunity to head in that direction.  Thanks to Zak and Jeff for the hospitality and Flagstaff for all the cool thrift stores and climbing! Until next time...

Life Inverted

Matt Kuehl enjoying a peaceful rest before pulling the lip.
Leaning Wide Crack V2

There are few climbing techniques as entertaining, mysterious and misunderstood as the full body inversion.  Most climbers have seen at least one photo of the infamous maneuver, but few have actually attempted it or even wrapped their mind around how to use it.  For readers who may be new to the idea, an inversion is a technique used by offwidth climbers to gain vertical progress by using their feet above their heads. The feet can be securely jammed into wide cracks which are usually too wide to accommodate the hands.  Inversions are used primarily on steep terrain where the foot holds are non-existent and your feet can more "easily" be swung upwards above the head and jammed into the crack, which is a relatively secure position to be in.  From this position the climber is able to use their hands (creatively) while they progress their feet higher and higher.... eventually reverting to the upright position.  Like most crack climbing techniques an inversion is quite difficult to describe in text, but once it's understood it can change your perspective on wide cracks. Remember when you realized climbing was easier if you stood on your feet instead of using your arms all the time? Well doing an inversion is this same idea as this, but instead of standing on your feet you're hanging from them upside-down, psychically exhausted, and having a totally rad expeirence. Psyched yet!?

Offwidth guru Pamela Pack on Spacial Relations, Vedauwoo, WY.
Photo: Tom Kingsbury

If you're at all serious about trying an inversion it means you've probably already stepped (or squeezed) into the world of offwidth climbing.  If that is the case you're probably already aware that if you want to be successful on any offwidth climb, you'll most likely have to tolerate a high amount of pain, thrash all your skin into a bloody mess, and wreck pretty much every pair of pants you own.  So if you've ever found yourself trying to bat-hang at the climbing gym, have done a handstand in the shower, or are looking for the next new adventure with some potential of landing on your head, then inversions are for you!  And if none of this sounds appealing but you're still curious to see some inversions, I hope this post inspires and entertains you long enough that you might consider a life of inversions.

My inverted foot jams on Born To Bleed V2

It's hard to say exactly how I got into inversions.  I think it must have been an accidental and gradual process lead by my curiosity to see what was possible while climbing.   I knew a little about the concept of an inversion, but always viewed them as a sort of "party trick" rather than a useful technique.  So over the years I would occasionally do inversions for entertainment's sake, and I've found myself hanging from my feet on everything from juggy sport climbs, multi-pitch trad routes, and vertical hand cracks.  Why? For fun! Although I never viewed any of these shenanigans as a productive exercise at the time, looking back I now believe it begun my process of understanding the legitimate offwidth inversion.  After moving to Red Rocks, my eyes were opened to amazing world of offwidth climbing at large, and before I knew it I found myself in pursuit of anything wide enough to squeeze inside.  The more I did it the more I started to enjoy the experience.  I now find wide cracks to be quite peaceful and meditative despite the fact that they're extremely physically demanding and generally painful.  Offwidth climbing became my excuse to climb a route however I wanted, no matter how goofy, ungraceful, or strange it looked to others.  On all the offwidths I've climbed there has never been a single soul standing at the bottom of the climbing telling me that I'm "doing it wrong" or yelling unwanted advice as I attempt to figure out the climb... hell, there hasn't even been another person wanting to climb the same route as me! I found by letting go of the need to climb a route with "the right beta" I was able to tap into something much greater; freedom of movement.   This freedom of movement also allows me to be creative and expressive with my movements, which challenges my mind and soothes the soul. So if offwidth climbing is my ticket to freedom then I think the offwidth inversion must be my final destination. 

Leaning Wide Crack V2

Pamela on Belly Full of Bad Berries 5.13a Indian Creek, UT.
Photo: Nathan Smith

My pursuit of offwidths is now in full force, and the training has begun in hopes of successfully climbing some classics such as Belly Full of Bad Berries, Lucile, Gabriel, Trench Warfare, and a handful of soul crushing mega-burl-fests that might make me start crying as I puke my pants while still jammed into a human eating crack.  At the moment these climbs still seem crazy hard, but hopefully with a spring/summer training period they will become much more do-able for me and perhaps I'll even get a successful ascent.  They are also a good handful or unpopular offwidths of moderate difficulty here in Red Rocks which I'd like to do.  Pretty much if it's wide and gnarly looking, I'd like to at attempt it! I am certainly not afraid to get dirty, rip my jeans, or occasionally become nauseas upside-down in the pursuit of one of the coolest forms of rock climbing I have ever encountered.   Besides doing countless amounts of inversion sit ups, my training consists of many different boulders spread around Calico Basin.  It all started with the regular "crack circuit" in Kraft, but once this became too monotonous I started trying to make them more difficult by eliminating features, using handstacks, or sending the whole problem feet first.  Although knowingly ridiculous, I've found that this has become a very practical means of building strength, technique, and confidence while also building my endurance for longer climbs.  I've also done a few fun problems near the Moderate Mecca area, my favorite being Born to Bleed which is a great but untraveled offwidth traverse and roof pull.

Jason Molina making progress in the LWC inversion.
Photo: Jake Bourdow

One of the more difficult offwidth problems in Kraft is Leaning Wide Crack behind the classic chimney boulder problem Plumber's Crack.  Jason Molina originally showed me this one a while ago, and on my first attempts I couldn't even finish it!  But since then we've both figured out the moves and successfully climbed it in a dozen different ways, the most difficult way starts in a hand stack and then you climb totally inverted until reaching the top and revert to upright (crux).  Although you would "never" consider climbing the crack this way without some sort of alternative inspiration, doing it upside-down with a crash pad and a friend or two will make your bouldering day a whole new experience.  To make the process more enjoyable I'd recommend you bring lots of tape, pants, long sleeves, and if you don't have high-top climbing shoes, I would recommend tapping your shoes onto your feet.  (It is very unpleasant when your shoe falls off while you're hanging from it!) 

Pamela Pack managing a wide inversion.
The Inquisition 5.12+ Joshua Tree, CA.

If you've already mastered LWC upside-down then you're probably ready for the next big adventure... inverting squeeze chimneys!  You might be asking yourself, "Why didn't I think of that?" Well I'm just not sure... some ideas are just too good to ignore. Although a rare practice, inverting squeeze chimneys is a great way to align your spine, hang solely from a foot stack, and loose a couple climbing partners.   If the chimney starts tight and gradually expands it is also a great way to work on improving your willingness to commit on lead, which will come in handy when you lead Sport Chimney feet first. Besides all the great benefits mentioned above, you will also learn how to best deal with the overwhelming fear when contemplating falling and sliding headfirst back down the base of the crack and being permanently stuck there for the rest of your inverted life.  Alright well, maybe it's not that bad... but I certainly would not recommend going all the way to the top inverted unless you're somehow really good at it, or planning on doing Epinephrine inverted next.

Inversion squeeze chimney? Why not?
Photo: Jake Bourdow

Andy Hansen nearly inverts while using the super high heel hook.
Fisting the Pony, V2.

And last but not least, drag your tattered and sore body just slightly South-West of Plumbers Crack and you will find a little known boulder with a splitter hand crack in it.  Although the boulder is only shoulder height (at best) this little unnamed problem is super fun when done with double fist jams into a foot cutter move to super high heel hook and then go "Au Chevel" and mount the pony.  Just another wonderful Kraft boulder field anti-classic!  

Unfortunately I can't invert everything all the time, and I've been staying busy muttipitching too. So if you're interested in hearing about my climbing outside of offwidth, check out Andy Hansen's Blog for a write up he did about our recent ascent of Challenger. 

Darwin Award V2

On a solo day of bouldering in Kraft I spent some good time doing laps on many of my favorite crack style boulder problems.  Some might be considered instant classics, some maybe completely absurd, but it's agreed that they're all entirely fun.  It's been great to build strength crack climbing here without the commitment of being on a route or the need to hike a long wandering trail to find sustained cracks of varying splitter-ness.  Bouldering is no substitute for roping up of course, but when the day is right it is certainly fun to monkey around on shorter cracks of all shapes and sizes, all with the ground just below your feet (or head). 

I recently focused my attention on an "obscure" problem hidden away in plane sight at the Monkey Bar Boulder, which is one of the most popular boulders in Kraft.  On the weekends the boulder always draws a crowd of crushers and the pile of crash pads under Monkey Bar Direct V9 sometimes seems like a permanent addition.  Little do most know just ten feet away from the chalked-over classics is the soon to be non-classic Darwin Award V2.  This ridiculously fun horizontal traverse encourages some really creative movement that I haven't encountered on many other climbs and is a true walk on the wild side. Beyond a striking vision, this climb requires a lot of core strength, a little bit of courage, and some genuine interest in hanging upside-down from foot jams.  The problem is mentioned in Tom Moulin's Southern Nevada Bouldering guidebook, but is given no difficulty rating and not described in any detail, which makes it slightly more adventurous than a typical boulder problem.  So if you're still interested and this info just wasn't enough to entirely convince you to get on it immediately, you might be psyched to hear that the problem gets it's name from the large rock the sits boldly under the crux.  Feelin' lucky?

Apartment Bouldering

A look back at a video I made while living in Wisconsin a few years ago.  What can I say? When you spot a good line, you've just got to give it a go!  This was a "self portrait" climbing video I filmed using a tripod and many shots all edited together.  The line could pretty easily be done without having to stop at all and I'd rate it around V1 at the hardest. Just a little trip down memory lane. Anyone else do anything like this when they're bored?  The song is "Sweet Road" by Animal Collective.

Keyhole Canyon Bouldering

A beautiful emptiness.

On a rainy day here in Vegas a few friends and I drove south to do some climbing in Keyhole Canyon.  The stone at Keyhole is granite which varies greatly from the sandstone found in Red Rock Canyon.  It was a new destination to explore, and we knew the rock would probably be the most solid out of everything around.  So we filled up Jason's truck with crash pads and cliff bars and bee lined it down south to the granite getaway.  As usual is was a pretty tight squeeze to get everyone inside the truck for the drive, but like off-width climbing sometimes it's fun to squeeze.  After about 40 minutes of driving we had reached our turn out.  This gravel road in the middle of a vast nothingness was easy to miss and the nearest landmark was a field of solar panels a few miles away, anything else was just passing by.

The road that leads to the canyon requires a high clearance vehicle to realistically pass.  The truck made easy work of the drive, but it certainly was bumpy.  After about ten minutes of being tossed around while listening to Bob Dylan we arrived at our destination. Right away we realized that this place was going to be well worth the drive.  The sun was peaking in through the slightly overcast clouds, and the granite stone canyons just called for us to explore.  It didn't take much walking from the truck to find some good boulders, and all of the problems we attempted were within a five minute walk.  The canyon itself had a lot of remains from days or years previous, and it almost seemed as if we had stepped into a time capsule.  It appeared that this area sees little traffic and doesn't get effected by changing weather very much.  If you looked around you could find old fire pits, dead spiders, petrified poop, and most interestingly ancient petroglyphs.   It seems that aside from a few bolts and random remains, not much has changed in Keyhole Canyon for quite some time. 

Tarantulas love bouldering, but not when they're dead.

The first noticeable concentration of problems is located on the Natural Selection, and Fluer de Lis Boulders.  These two boulders are opposite each other on the canyon walls, and offer a selection of climbs ranging from V0-V6.  A few of the problems follow attractive crack systems, and the disappearing crack on Adaptation V5 felt exceptionally hard for the grade.  This area provides a nice warm up with a few harder lines to really get the blood flowing.  After spending some time here we move further into the canyon to check out Lip Traverse, McMillens Egg, and the waterfall (now dry) that at one point in time gradually craved the canyon.  We all considered these next two problems to be a lot of fun, and pretty classic for the area.

Jason Molina slaps his way McMillens Egg V6.

Jason contemplating slopers on McMillens Egg.

As the name implies, McMillen's Egg V6 climbs a rounded egg like boulder that mostly features all rounded holds.  Although being pretty short, and certainly not the easiest way to the top of the boulder, this problem provided us with a good challenge that differed from the crack/face style problems we warmed up on. McMillen's Egg required using several bad sloper corner holds, while bumping and slapping your way up the egg.  The crux seemed to be getting your feet above the first good lip and moving to the finishing holds from the bad slopers and nonexistent feet.

Chris Keller squeezes his way up the dry waterfall.

Chris on Lip Traverse V3.

The Lip Traverse problem was a ton of fun and pretty sustained for a V3.  We all had success on this problem that day, even though it seemed that many approaches and techniques were used.   Everyone had a slightly different technique dialed in on this one.  Some of us tried going heel and toe hooks the whole traverse, while others preferred a low-rider feet down low ball technique.   Anyway you looked at it the crux was mantling up onto the boulder for the finish, and it seemed there were easier and harder variations of the final move as well.  What can be agreed on is that everyone found this problem to be well worth the stop, and every move as good as the last. 

A3 Traverse. 

Another surprise that day was a handful of excellent looking aid "problems" that we found.  Although this type of climbing is pretty much unheard of and is only good for practice, it is neat to spot different aesthetic lines that would otherwise be impossible to climb. Doing this would be unacceptable on already established free climbing routes due to risk of damaging the rock, but otherwise could serve as good aid combing practice. Pictured above is a short 10 foot aid traverse section that could only be done by pulling consecutively moves on progressively smaller hook placements. Rad!  Although most people wouldn't find this stuff that amusing, it is good to know that bouldering can even appeal to the "big-wallers" out there. 

So if it's rainy in Red Rocks, or you're looking for a new granite climbing destination climbing take a trip down to Keyhole Canyon for a day or two.  The scenery, history and climbing all combined make it a unique gem hidden out in the wide open spaces of the southern Nevada desert.  And if you look hard enough you're bound to see a ton of Petroglyths!