Rock Climbing Blog

 With all of that running through my mind, I chalked up, let out a shaky breath and started climbing.  I made the first couple of moves flawlessly,  at the side pull rearranged my feet up high on a ledge and went for the first of three crimpers and cried out in dismay at how small it was.  I went up to the next hold and just as I got to it I realized my mistake: my hands were in the wrong positions.  Knowing that I was going to fall, I yelled take, and my fingers slipped as my Dad quickly yanked in the slack.  I fell six feet, yet it felt like eternity.  After a couple more tries, falls and a lot of nervousness, I managed to get to the sloper.  From the sloper I did the dead-point, and to my relief, I made it.  Knowing that I was really high above my last bolt, I definitely did not want to fall, so I climbed up onto the roof and precariously balanced while making a clip high above my head. 

“Click”.  At 18 feet off the ground the reassuring sound of a clip is always nice.  I told Dad to take and rested out.  I have a tough section ahead of me, and a big fall if I make a mistake, because when you’re lead climbing you climb above your last piece of anchored protection, and if you fall, you fall the distance to your last piece of protection and then the same amount below until the rope catches, oh and then there is the rope stretch.  So, if you fall, you generally fall at least 10 feet, but sometimes you can fall greater then 25.  I know that falling doesn't seem that bad because a rope is going to catch you, but since I have just started leading climbs that are on the verge of my limit, leading is nerve racking every time.

 Yelling take, I let out a huge sigh of relief, because I made it past the crux of the climb.  Anyways, in this next section ahead of me I have to start climbing from this crummy side pull to another side pull, use that side pull to move my feet up and reach for a crimp.  After two more crimps, that you have to hang on to by your fingertips, you move up to a sloper.  From that sloper you have to lock off and and get ready to do a dead-point, a move that you ether make it or you fall, over to a ledge. 

The US has one of the most varied rock climbing in the world.  From big walls at 3100 feet, to fun 12 foot tall boulder problems.  From granite spires, to red rock gorges, the US is the place to go.  On this trip, we have climbed on all sorts of rock, from sandstone to monzogranite and volcanic tuft (ash that has turned into rock).  While we had a sweet climbing afternoon at Cathedral Spires our true climbing adventure started with John Williams at Rodeo Wall near Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  We had a fun couple of climbs, and got pumped up to climb again. ​It was a couple of weeks before we climbed next, and that was a Smith Rock State Park where I did my first lead of the trip as we had lots of fun.

The next time we climbed was couple of weeks after, and it started our climbing streak. We went to Yosemite National Park, then Bishop, where we bouldered at the Buttermilks and Happy Boulders, then Joshua Tree National Park, Red Rocks State Park and Snow Canyon State Park.  After a short time off, we finished our streak at Cochise Stronghold, a mountain range in southern Arizona, yet the place looked like it could be in the middle of the African savanna.

Of all these incredible places, my favorite three places were Joshua Tree, Red Rocks, and Cochise Stronghold.  The three places were so different, yet all of them spoke to me and allowed me to fall deeply in love with climbing.  Joshua Tree was a great spot because we were able to climb all day long, every day.  The monzogranite coarse rock took a lot of getting used to because you had to trust your feet on minuscule holds, but, surprisingly, and through some foot cramps, almost every time your foot was able to grip on the rock.  By far one of may favorite climbs was at Bell Campground.  The rock was in the middle of the campground and had all day sun so in the morning we had a fun couple of climbs, went to the camper, had some lunch, and then went to the other side of the rock, and that is were we found Mom and my favorite climb.  It started in a dihedral with an awesome layback crack. 

At some points I had to fully lay back and other points I had to stem and find ledges above my head.  The next few days at Joshua Tree we had a long hike to get to a secluded wall and the other climbing spot had a couple of fun climbs right next to the car.  Over all, I loved all three spots at Joshua Tree.

Another of my favorite spots was Red Rock State Park.  Red Rocks is INCREDIBLE!!  We had two awesome days where we climbed and climbed.  The first day we did about 7 climbs and all of them between 5.7-5.9 and we also met on of my dad’s colleague’s sister from Baltimore.  Small world, right?  The next day we went to “The Gallery” which had bunch climbs that go from a 5.9, then 5.10 and the hardest one was a 5.13b or something crazy like that.  At “The Gallery” I did my first 5.10a and 5.10b lead.  I was so stoked.  Red Rocks was my favorite place because of its uniqueness and because of all the fun climbs.  
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Last but not least is Cochise Stronghold, Arizona.  Cochise Stronghold is an awesome place to climb because we could climb 10 feet from our camper, and there were lots of fun climbs, in which I did four difficult and exhilarating leads.  The first day we led a 5.9 and Dad tried leading a 5.10d.  Since he led the whole thing cleanly to the crux his arms were too pumped to finish it.  Later on I tried climbing it and made it one more bolt up, but wasn't able to do the last hard and tricky moves.  Then Dad zoomed up it and completed it!  The next day we leap-frogged around, and had an awesome time doing lots of interesting and thrilling climbs.  To top it off we woke up early the next morning, and did this fun climb in the brilliant morning light.  It has been so much fun climbing and I can’t wait to get back on the wall.