ROCK CLIMBING UTAH...
Whenever I tell someone that I'm going to Utah for an extended weekend, I always hear..."What's in Utah?". Well, there's actually quite a lot in Utah - if you're into rock climbing. Particularly so, if you enjoy crack climbing. Indian Creek is probably the premier crack climbing area in the world. Moab offers tons of roadside cragging. And Castle Valley is home to some of the nicest desert towers and spires out there. The sandstone varies in hardness; Cutler sandstone in the Fisher Towers area being the softest, while Indian Creek's Wingate sandstone is the hardest. I've been climbing in Indian Creek a few times and bouldered around Moab as well. I hope that my next journey to the area will, in some way, involve Castle Valley's Castleton Tower.
Indian Creek
Spring and fall seem to be the best time for an Indian Creek roadtrip. This year we went in mid-October and the weather was absolutely perfect. Highs around 70º, and lows in the mid 40's. For Jack and his wife Lisa, Indian Creek was a new experience. The same could be said for for Jacks tired hands at the end of the trip. They've never encountered as much rejection as the perfect splitter parallel cracks seemed to dish out. Suffice it to say that my hands were not exactly thanking me either on the way home. The drive in was very long. We left Fort Collins around 6:30 p.m. after work on a Friday, and finally rolled into the creek around 2:30 a.m. It's quite difficult finding a camping pullout in the dark. Around 3 a.m., we finally pitched our tents and crashed out. But not before turning around a half dozen times to check something out (Jack even threatened to drive us back to Moab to get
a room if I didn't find something fast). The next morning the hot sun rose and promptly forced us out of our tents. O.K. - time to move to a real campsite where we can park our tents in some morning shade. And that we did! - After a short trip to Grandma's Diner in Monticello for some good homecooked breakfast. (nothing like a super fat meal in your belly before you strap on a harness and go climbing!) 
Unnamed 5.9 - Perhaps we would have done better without Grandma's homecooked breakfast. I had enough ham in my omelet to last me 3 days! And my first climb of the day showed it!! I know that it's been a year since my last Indian Creek climb - but this is ridiculous. I could not even get off the ground! A little shove from Jack, and I was on my way. Lisa watched while Jack & I worked this thing (got worked by this thing) until our ego's had finally taken enough. I was pleased to see that the next party had similar difficulties on the route. Actually though, it was beginning to come back to me. The 5.9's are the hardest, the 5.10's are do-able, and the 5.11's are fun! At least it seems that way at Indian Creek. I can do lay-back moves up a 5.11 all day, but stick me on a 5.9 small hands crack, and I'm doomed. With that in mind, we pretty much left the lead climbing gear in the bag for the rest of the day and walked around free-loading on other peoples roped-up 5.11 routes. I love Indian Creek! After a long day of getting acquainted and re-acquainted with the unforgiving cracks, we were ready for some food. Lisa had just the remedy. She whipped quite an interesting concoction. I'm, still not sure what I ate that night, but it was good. We all slept like babies Saturday night.
Sunday - SuperCrack - here I come! I lead it last year with only two rests. This year, I would get it clean! Well, maybe not. A French guy climbed it right before me and left all of his gear in the crack so that his wife could lead climb it later!? I thought I would give it a go anyhow, and just clip into his gear as I went. This turned out to really suck - thanks French dude! His spacing was very odd (maybe set for his wife's reach?), and I struggled trying to get his caribiners out of the cracks. Things did not go well & I lowered before reaching the top. I would simply have to try later when the route was not peppered with someone else's gear.
Another Unnamed 5.9! - you would think that I would have learned the day before to stay off the 5.9's. But no, I found another to damage my ego. I actually fell, for the first time, on my own gear placements. Jack and Lisa are probably still laughing at my indian-war-cry sounding howl. I simply did not expect to fall. Thankfully, the good Lord had me covered. My gear stayed in the wall and I only dropped a few feet. Forget this - we're off to some more easy 5.11's!
All in all, we had a good day. Jack managed to scramble up SuperCrack (a considerable feat for a first-timer), I got my revenge on SuperCrack, and I had a chance to flavor some different routes (Fingers in a Light Socket, Three Strikes and You're Out). I was hoping to have another go at Incredible Hand Crack, but time did not allow. Maybe next trip.
I'd like to send off with a quote from the author of the guide book - Rock Climbing Utah, Stewart M. Green:
I'm certain that at some point in our weekend we had some combination thereof. I'm equally certain though, that we never had a chance of linking it all together as Green did in a single sentence. I highly recommend Indian Creek to anyone with a passion for rock climbing, or even an eye for the beauties that that desert can hold.
