Old Rockers - USA Roady.

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1 Old Rockers - USA Roady. In September this year 5 aging rock climbers plus a couple of youngsters in their 30 s set out on a 1 month road trip around the western USA to climb classic trad and splitter cracks. The went out around Christmas Who wants to do a road trip around the USA? A week passed then a few one and two word s started to trickle in Yep, Maybe What crags? Little did I know that this would pretty much set the tone for all future attempts at organising this group. After much prompting a crags list started to materialise, which basically consisted of every crag anyone had ever heard about. Other details such as dates, who, when and how remained very vague. So when I sent an out in May stating I had booked flights for September I was more than a little concerned that I would be travelling around the States by myself. Thankfully my inbox filled up within days with confirmation that others had booked flights. It looks like we had ourselves a roady. Kevin Cliff Jess Jan Stephen So after a long wet winter, the mother of all excel spreadsheets was developed outlining our itinerary. This consisted of 7000 plus km of driving through 5 states and visiting 11 crags. How hard could it be? They crags all looked so close on Google maps. So in late August the team assembled for the 1 st time at the San Francisco Airport Kevin, Stephen, Jan, Jess and I would travel as a group while Bryce, Wendy, Dave and Carol would travel along on a slightly different route and hopefully meet up at crags along the way. Right from the get go the trip then fell into a steady routine of an epic all day and late night drive with the odd heated discussions about, which way to go, what time to set off, where and when to stop for breakfast, who s music we would listen to, how many days food we need to buy and where to camp. This would then be followed by a couple of fantastic days climbing at world class crags with stunning scenery, sunny skies, and all enjoyed with good mates. Castleton Utah Devils Tower Wyoming Smiths Oregon

2 So by the end of 4 weeks we had visited 11 world class crags, collectively climbed 68 classic lines consisting of 137 pitches and over 4300m of climbing. So many highlights hare are a selected few... Lovers Leap South Lake Tahoe California The Travellers Buttress is a 4 pitch 140m line up the prominent central buttress of the Leap and has a bit of everything, jamming, face climbing run out dyke hiking and the obligatory off width. As I chicken winged my way up this smooth sided off width all I could think was If this was at home I would back off this. What am I doing? But it was soon over and our reward was a beautiful hand crack follow by 2 pitches of face climbing on granite dykes. Photo 1 Cliff leading 1st Pitch of The Travellers Buttress Photo 2 Cliff pushing through the 2nd Pitch off width, The Travellers Photo 3 Jess leading 3rd Pitch of The Travellers Smiths Rock - Oregon After a whole days sports climbing on Smith s famous conglomerate nubbins, the call was made to get this trad climbing trip back on track. A little known secret about Smiths is that this sport climbing Mecca actually has some first rate trad lines. So employing a early start to beat the hot midday sun Kevin, Jan, Jess and I led a 2 team assault of the 3 star classic Zebra Zion. The 1 st and 2 nd pitch where good but were nothing compared to the 3 rd and final pitch. A finger to hand crack on an exposed head wall made for a pitch of true classic trad. Photo 1 Cliff leading Moons of Pluto Photo 2 Jan on 3rd Pitch of Zebra Zion,

3 City Rock Idaho Arriving at City of Rock, Idaho, on a long weekend we found all the campsites full so it was good bye to the Idyllic campsite and hello to the rough camping BLM style. (Bureau of Land Management). Thankfully the climbing at the City made up for the sub optimum campsite and we soon ticked off a tonne of classic crack lines including Road Rage, Animal Cracker, Brown Flake, No Satisfaction and Crack of Doom, once considered the hardest crack climb in North America. Camping at City rocks BLM style. Hanging out at City of Rocks Kevin and Cliff on Brown Flake Stephen on Crack of Doom Trip Learning s, The best crag is the one that the person you are talking to hasn t been to. Crack gloves are the business If it is not on the excel spread sheet it doesn t exist Park brakes in the USA don t do anything except beep at you. If you order a Biscuit with your breakfast you ll get a scone. After a month in the States you ll still have no idea who and when to tip. A Ford Expedition = Bloody Big SUV that fits 5 climbers plus trad and camping gear. All stops, who knows how they work? Free right turns, if in doubt just wait unit someone behind you toots. Climbers adorned with in nylon and metal trad gear make excellent Lightning conductors The best campsite will always be full If you have low standards and are a true climbing bum you can always find somewhere to camp on BLM land. Bureau of Land Management Make sure when you are debating the pro and cons of what crag to visit next don t let on that you have never been there before.

4 After 2 days of driving and a stop off at Yellowstone we arrived at our most Northern and Eastern destination, Devils Tower. An iconic rock monument Devils tower is a continuous cylinder of cracks, arêtes and groves. In 2 days the team climbed a number of classic lines including Solar & El Matador. Solar is a pleasant 3 pitch line and was ticked off with little fuss. El Matador on the other hand was nothing short of a bull fight. In the climbers thesaurus if you look up sustained it will quote El Matador. The 2 nd crux pitch is a 45m high un-ergonomically designed groove. The key seems to be to try and jam the finger crack for as long as you can, not because jamming is easier, far from it, jamming makes the climb a lot harder but it delays the inevitable commitment to the stem. What starts as a pleasant bridge (what is all the fuss about) ends with yours eye s watering and calves screaming as you start to play the game of time taken to place gear vs. running it out to the top. As crack climbers say All painful things must come to an end and eventually you reach a very comfortable belay ledge. From here 3 more pitch s get s you to the top and rounds off what can only be described as a classic days climbing. Photo 1 Selfie at bottom of El Matador Photo 2 Climbers bridging up the 2 nd Pitch of El Matador Photo 3 Jess putting her Gymnastic training to the test on the wide Bridge on the 2 nd Pitch of El Matador. Photo 1 Cliff Leading Solar Photo 2 Stephen on the 2 nd Pitch of McCarthy West Face. Photo 3 Kevin, showing of scar and broken helmet after air time in the El Matador bull ring.

5 Next stop was Boulder Colorado and after a couple of days climbing at Eldorado and Boulder Canyon we dropped Jan off at the Airport and headed back West. Our destination the outdoor capital of the world Moab, Utah. Having spent a day acclimatising to the 30C plus temperature we decided that early morning starts were the way to go. So come dawn we set off to climb the area s most famous desert tower, Castleton. Jess, Stephen and Kevin would climb the North chimney while Dave and I would head up the Kor Ingals route. Both routes were 1 st class and the climbing all went to plan, it was only the summit photo that proved problematic. Having started the day under clear blue skies we arrived at the summit just as the clouds started to roll in. I quickly took a summit photo of Dave, then handed him my phone. I adopted the standard summit pose of hand above head then Shit I got a wasp in my helmet, I rip it off and take a look, must have flown off, so I put my helmet back on. Did you get the photo Dave? No OK let s try that again, arms up shit that bloody wasp again, then it dawned on us, we are standing on the world s biggest lighting rod, with a thunder storm rolling in and all our gear is buzzing, Shit!!!. We hit the deck, crawled over to the abseil station throw our ropes over the edge and descend to safety. Photo 1 Jess Taping up for North Chimney of Castleton. Desert Towers as far as the eye can see. Photo 2 Stephen on North chimney Castleton Photo 3 Castleton From climbing under blue sky s to being lightening conductors, just a normal day s climbing on desert towers.

6 1. Photo 1 & 3 Indian Creek Moab Utah Cliff on, Crack Attack 2. Photo 2 Indian Creek Moab Utah Stephen topped out on Generic Crack, After a day at Indian Creek it was time for another Desert Tower. So the next morning Jess and I set off on the 2 hour walk in to Jah Man on Sister Superior tower. The Sister is the tallest of a cluster of towers and seems to defy logic about what should be standing vertically and should topple over. The climb up the face is a 3 pitch trad test piece, with a squeeze chimney, finger crack traverse, fist and hand jam then a boulder problem finish. Photo 1 Cliff on early morning approach to. Sister Superior is the right most tower on ridge. Photo 2 Cliff and Jess, Selfie at the base of Sister Superior. The line of Jah Man climbs the centre of the wide face Photo 3 Cliff 3 rd crux finger crack of Jah Man. Just to prove we were now hardened rock roadies the next day we set off on a 1000km plus 13 hour drive across, Utah, Nevada and California to the Sierra Nevada and the Needles. Sometime after 11.00pm on a dark moonless night we pulled into our BLM camp ground, put up our tents and crawled into our sleeping bags. We awoke to a sunny day and after getting our bearings headed off on the 1 hour walk in to the Needles. Once there it was hard to spot a bad line, every climb seemed to be a stunning crack line up a white granite walls, oh well, at least the views were stunning. In the next few days, the Team ticked off Igor Unchained, Airy interlude, Thin Ice and Fancy Free. Photo 1 & 2 Stephen and Kevin on Thin Ice Needles Photo3 Jess on 2 nd pitch of Fancy free. From here we headed to the Yosemite and climbed at Tuolumne before we drove back to San Francisco and once again found ourselves arriving at a full campsite well after dark. By then we were accustomed to the drill and just crashed in other people campsites, bloody foreigners. And so there you have it, the USA roady, I d would do it all again tomorrow.