Three Days in the Dez

A week or so ago we got the crew motivated and headed down to the Creek. Derek and I were able to get out of town early Friday morning, and I suggested we climb Ancient Art on our way down, as he had never been up a desert tower before. We made it to Castle Valley in the late morning and found few cars in the lot. Even though it was a Friday, I was sure there would be others on the route. The first time I did it we encountered thirteen other folks over the course of the climb, a steady train going up and down.

This day we arrived at the base to find ourselves all alone. Fantastic. The sun was warm and the sky was blue, with only the slightest breeze from time to time, a perfect day to be in the desert. A couple of fun pitches later, we arrived at the sidewalk, and Derek got his first taste of the exposure that hits you when you first see the corkscrew summit up close. He was mid sentence when it caught his eye, and he was like “Oh my….” Hilarious. He quickly dispatched the pitch and was standing on top. After he got back to the belay, I followed, thoroughly enjoying my third time on the route. The exposure is great, with some interesting moves to finish things off. Last time I tried to stand on one leg, but my mind refused. I didn’t even give it a thought this time, just enjoyed this airy perch in the sky for all it was worth.

We were back on the ground after two raps, and headed back to the parking lot. We figured if we boogied we might be able to make it the Creek in time to get a couple of pitches in, but opted instead to climb Lizard Rock, the little tower that sits right next to the parking area. We did both routes, which I thought were good fun, and then continued on down to the Creek. We got a nice sunset on the drive between Moab and the Creek, and set up camp to wait for the others to arrive.

Bob Cornez gets after it on Slice and Dice at Way Rambo.

The next two days we spent cragging at Way Rambo and Scarface. Way Rambo was busy as usual, but we still got in some good climbs and had fun. Bob put in a great effort on Slice & Dice, the man is an animal! Saturday night we had a feast of epic proportions thanks to Mike Schneiter and his magical grill. I passed out in a lawn chair to the sounds of a guitar, what a great end to the day. Sunday we gained an hour with daylight savings, which is good because we were super slow at getting out of camp. We figured there’s probably a mathematical formula for how many people you have in a group versus the amount of time it takes to do things.

Anyhow, we finally got out of camp and hit up the right side of Scarface, which holds some great climbs. Wavy Gravy was cool, Mantel Illness is hard, and Twitch is just rad, a dead horizontal roof start followed by an awesome corner above. The sun was warm in our little alcove, and it didn’t feel like early November. We finally sent the last couple of pitches, pulled the ropes, and reluctantly made the drive back to Colorado. Every time I leave the Creek, it just feels wrong. We saw the beginnings of a typically awesome sunset, and then headed for home.

Coming Soon: Team Splitter Choss goes big walling in Zion….sort of…..