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Cuckawalla

Trad climber

Grand Junction, CO

Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 27, 2008 - 12:47am PT

So last weekend, after another week of Tammy Removal, Matt and I headed to Moab to see some friends of ours to the OTHER HALF half marathon. Though we saw them, we went and climbed rather than supported. It's an addiction...

I drove in late afternoon on Thursday and stopped in Cisco for some fading light.

When in Moab I have a haven in Castle Valley where a friend of mine lives in her Beautiful House. Friday Morning I am up before Matt to go solo the Hindu since he was going to busy doing the hiking thing with his wife. Everything went smoothly and I felt I made good time. It gave me hope of a more extensive soloing career, and if matt does any more hiking, I may have to.
After Combining and rapping the first two pitches.
The Second Pitch of mostly Free Climbing
Summit Shot

Saturday we took the marathoners to wall street and did that humbling slab thing. I remember doing Steal Your Face in the beginning of my climbing career and it having reasonable edges. Wallstreet and its hoards force you to do the harder climbs to find what is left of the unworn rock.

Sunday the Marathoners leave so early we dont say goodbye. What bastard friends we are. We go for the 9:00 am wake up and drive to Arches, passing the Touron F*#k going on at the river road for the marathon. Arches is just waking up, and the traffic is light. And we Rack up to some Melodic Viking Metal.
Sheep Rock
Matt Walked up the first pitch
The Easy Hand sized traverse on pitch two gives you instant exposure.
Matt Cleaning pitch 2
Pitch three is the classic Ewetopian crack that eats nuts and likes it. A nice long pitch.
At the Belay Ledge on Pitch Three, we see people just summiting on the Gossips
Matt Starts off on pitch 4 into the awkward roof
He does some Circus Star Reach Arounds to extend a draw.
I reach the top to see him set against the sky and surrounding red rocks, perched upon the cap rock munching.
The more towers you do, the more comfort you obtain from the top. Perhaps you loose the satisfaction, but gain the drive to be up there again. I appreciated the people on the gossips for not yelling at us, and we kindly returned the favor, both sitting and owning our castles before we rap and find another one to borrow.

So we drive back and in the morning meet up for the daily commute to Debeque where our boss talks of Palin, the Economy, and no work. Tuesday finds us driving back to Moab instead of finding new jobs. We arrive late and find Moab Burning. We see the smoke nearly from I-70. As you enter town on the right where all the classy RV parks and massive amounts of Tammys are is afire. We head out to Arches thinking we would just fix a few pitches of Zenyatta Entrada on the Tower Of Babel. We fix all but the last two pitches and pleasantly surprise ourselves at our efficiency. In the morning we take a lap around Arches looking at new prospects while the sun slows its way to bask the route in light. We jug the ropes quickly, warming ourselves up. I start up the crux pitch and Matt Cruises the last one. We sit again smelling the burnt wind and owning something for some time.
At the car a friendly Touron has left his email address with some pictures:

There never is much time or ever enough money, but I force priority and allow myself to be encompassed by passion. It is scary how single-minded you can become. I hear constantly that climbers are a selfish bunch. I know that climbing is my replacement and supplement, frighteningly so. No career goals, a girlfriend could mean giving up the weekends, and social life ends when I leave the crag/campfire. It just amazes me that I can be so mediocre at it and still allow it to give me life and definition. I can't imagine the people who are the pro's because it seems the mania would be to great.
Blah.
-Jesse

FeelioBabar

climber

Sneaking up behind you...

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:59am PT

Sweet TR...with some good words in there also. Cheers Jesse!.

Zander

Trad climber

Berkeley

Oct 27, 2008 - 01:02am PT

Nice Jesse,
Enjoy your climbing bro. Real life will get in the way soon enough.
Thanks for posting.
Zander

MisterE

Trad climber

My Inner Nut

Oct 27, 2008 - 01:24am PT

Bump for the aid reach-around!

Toker Villain

Big Wall climber

Toquerville, Utah

Oct 27, 2008 - 01:30am PT

Mediocre my ass.

Cheers com padre.

Mungeclimber

Trad climber

sorry, just posting out loud.

Oct 27, 2008 - 01:41am PT

no doubt. f*#k that noise mediocre.

fo realz us granite cluckers are the chickens.

nice on ya

survival

Big Wall climber

A Token of My Extreme

Oct 27, 2008 - 03:01am PT

Cool!
What beautiful rock.
Thanks for making this political season better with
some damn climbing!!

paganmonkeyboy

climber

mars...it's near nevada...

Oct 27, 2008 - 11:10am PT

desert bump...nice TR dude ;-)

Rhodo-Router

Gym climber

Otto, NC

Oct 27, 2008 - 11:44am PT

Looks like a good trip...any pictures of that fire?

Kill Tammies!

Scared Silly

Trad climber

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:01pm PT

About time we saw some more TR. Thanks. Glad you had fun around Mob [sic] .

cowpoke

climber

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:08pm PT

outstanding! I love how you started with the Cisco shots; they brought me along for the drive with the anticipation building as you get closer and closer to the desert. miss it. bad.

TKingsbury

Trad climber

Oct 27, 2008 - 12:22pm PT

great shots! Thanks for posting up. Getting me excited for heading down there!

Cuckawalla

Trad climber

Grand Junction, CO

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 27, 2008 - 06:26pm PT

The fire:
http://theoasisofmysoul.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/windowslivewriterurbancampinginmoabutah-a435fire-1-thumb.jpg

piquaclimber

Trad climber

Durango

Oct 27, 2008 - 11:33pm PT

Great job Jesse, both on the climbing and the writeup!

You're pretty understated though. There are some hard and scary pitches in that report.

Good Stuff!