Mill Creek: First 3 Days

Ben and I arrived in Moab the night of the 10th. In the morning the weather looked bad, humid with large storm clouds over the mountains. We went back to a large arete we had scoped out during our last trip in March. We were very excited about the potential of the line. It was almost 200 ft tall and it looked like there were just enough holds for it to go. However, upon further inspection this time, we decided it probably wasn't possible. There is one 15ft section that has literally no holds. Drywall. That and one of the key holds for the top section flexed a lot and would probably break in such a way as to leave no hold at all and another impossible section. Definitely a bummer. After hiking back from the arete we went to Big Bend for a quick bouldering session. We repeated a bunch of moderate boulders and then put in some work on Hell Belly (V11), a hard compression line out a sandstone refrigerator block. Since it was over 80 degrees out neither of us was expecting anything. Surprisingly I was able to put my lanky frame to work and link a lot of the moves. If there is time I'd like to go back in the morning or evening sometime when it is cooler and try to send. For the rest of the day we worked on a silly traverse eliminate just to get pumped and wear-off some fingertip skin.

The arete that doesn't go.

The next day the clouds still looked ominous and the humidity was unreasonable high. For those who are living in caves and haven't heard, Colorado and eastern Utah are getting HAMMERED with rain right now, lots of flooding and damage. So I guess we are pretty lucky to have the lesser amount of rain  we have been getting. Still though, the heat and humidity are making it nearly impossible to put together the main objective of this leg of the trip, The Bleeding (5.14b). I worked on The Bleeding a few months ago, in March, and was able to do all the moves, but couldn't link the sections or do the crux consistently. Fortunately, training works and I feel much stronger this time. I can do the crux move almost every time, and I can link the route in 2 sections. I just need to build up some more endurance and have a few days of dry air. Fortunately, time is still on my side.

The Bleeding. So pretty!

Today we had some more goes on our projects, but with the intermittent rain, high temperatures, and high humidity, thing haven't been going too well. I think maybe I brought the east coast with me :( I feel good on the route, but I am definitely struggling. I settled on some new beta for the crux that is even more consistent than before and I pushed my high point to within 6 moves from the top. Which sounds great, except those 6 moves are a V9 boulder problem after climbing 40ft of consistent cranking on powerful underclings and sidepulls with no rest. Needless to say, I'll probably be falling from the top for quite a while. If I don't send this thing, it certainly won't be for lack of trying!

The weather...

Next up is a rest day! hopefully the weather will begin to clear up soon.