Trip Report
A Slice of Indian Creek's Humble Pie
Sunday September 1, 2013 8:35pm
Or see: http://hellbentravis.blogspot.com/

Embraced with the long weekend Chesy and I figured we could sneak away from work/med school related material for at least a day and head down to Indian Creek, or the creek as the locals say. We departed early on Saturday morning to hopefully greener pastures and sunny skies. Unfortunately, sandstone is known for two things; crushing the souls of helpless hang-doggers like myself (I’ll get to this point later) and being unclimbable when wet. Well the unclimbable part is always a hassle as the Utah state forecast ranges from “30% to 40% chance of thunderstorms” from about……June to September.

Needless to say, we had a good run of bad luck and pulled into an empty but sunny Supercrack Parking Lot. After speaking to some other climbers from Arizona we learned that it indeed did rain the night prior (even some flash flooding) causing a great deal of apprehension to proceed with our original plan (I guess that 30 was more like 100).
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Credit: Travis Haussener
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Given the circumstances we began the go thorugh the motions check the soil (just a little wet), flip over rocks (a little wet) feel the inside of the crack (not too wet) but is it worth it? Long story short…we waited.........

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A semi-unclimbable Generic Crack
A semi-unclimbable Generic Crack
Credit: Travis Haussener
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And bouldered

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Credit: Travis Haussener
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V1?
V1?
Credit: Travis Haussener
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"Man this bouldering is awesome" said no one ever (actually if the creek boulders were anywhere else they'd be world class.

Finally, after about 4 hours of pissing around we observed a number of individuals climbing and spoke to some who gave us the ok. Just the sort of pack following mentality we needed.

We had joked in the car that we were gonna warm up on Scarface (5.11-)...well as it turned out given the remaining daylight we did just that and I was humbled completely, hangdogging on almost every possible cam...it's a solid C1.

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Don't worry I'm not that good...I took about 50 cams out when I got lo...
Don't worry I'm not that good...I took about 50 cams out when I got lowered
Credit: Travis Haussener
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Chesy on TR
Chesy on TR
Credit: Travis Haussener
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The universal sign for rock and roll
The universal sign for rock and roll
Credit: Travis Haussener
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Credit: Travis Haussener
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Credit: Travis Haussener
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Credit: Travis Haussener
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Obstructing a great view with common d#@&%ebaggery
Obstructing a great view with common d#@&%ebaggery
Credit: Travis Haussener
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Before we knew it we'd run out of daylight and water and it was to camp for the night.

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Credit: Travis Haussener
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Before we left on Sunday we headed up to the Optimater Wall...and ended up walking a green C4 about 12 inches into the crack (don't ask me how...but it's free to a good home).

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MERICA!!!
MERICA!!!
Credit: Travis Haussener
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Chesy on Casey's Route? 5.11-
Chesy on Casey's Route? 5.11-
Credit: Travis Haussener
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We'll be back to the humbling again before we know it (actually it happens daily).

The end


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Travis Haussener
About the Author
Travis Haussener is a trad climber from Salt Lake City.

Comments
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
  Sep 1, 2013 - 11:01pm PT
Kinda fun....huh, maybe I'll run into you there. Nice TR!
Rhodo-Router

Gym climber
sawatch choss
  Sep 2, 2013 - 12:15am PT
Lotta water in that creek. August? Y'all are pretty dedicated.
Mungeclimber

Trad climber
Nothing creative to say
  Sep 2, 2013 - 02:17am PT
mud and cracks

looks good to me
Ezra Ellis

Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
  Sep 2, 2013 - 01:53pm PT
Nice travis, thanks for the pics!!!!
I have only climbed there once in march, and that seemed warm. :)
NutAgain!

Trad climber
https://nutagain.org
  Sep 2, 2013 - 02:06pm PT
Nice pics, worth the clicks :)
crunch

Social climber
CO
  Sep 2, 2013 - 02:54pm PT
Nice story, great photos. Thanks!

Late summer can be monsoon season, with, occasionally, violent deluges. Watch for flash floods (looks like you're learning about them!) and (if you summit any towers) fast moving lightning storms.
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