We headed down to Maple Canyon which is about 90 miles south of SLC.
We drove down late on Friday night and found a campsite.
I wanted to do some the multipitch climbs and we headed up the Amory to get on Slamfire 5.9 sport 4 pitches.
We did Slamfire as 2 pitches and went back for another route on the Armory.
Enjoying the views of Maple Canyon.
The summit shot.
We headed back up Little Cottonwood Canyon
We parked and headed in on the approach.
Views of Devil’s Castle.
We made it across the little snow field at the base and I took the first lead which was a little exciting and the rock was chossier than we were expecting but was over all a pretty good pitch.
The crux pitch was next and Anja wasn’t excited about the rock quality so I kept leading.
I got it done and enjoying the day.
Nice views.
It was then into the 5.8 pitch followed by what we did as 2 pitches of 5.4.
On the second 5.4 pitch.
Then we made the last 5.10 pitch and I was up again.
It was a little exciting to a roof.
Then it got going with a 4th class pitch to a huge ledge. From the ledge there were lots of choices to end but we took the 5.9 direct finish with a little adventure 5.7 at the end.
Anja found some cool formations at the top.
On the top ridge line.
Good day on top! The descent was about 1.5 hour hike down and we were home by 7 pm. Pretty cool day to get out so quick into such an alpine setting.
We’d made it down to SLC and rented a new car in SLC. It was cheaper to get a one way rental and then a local rental.
We headed to Hell Gate up Little Cottonwood Canyon for some sport climbing.
The first routes we picked were really chossy and not great.
While there we ran into one of our new roommate’s Jake. Go figure we know like a dozen people in SLC and we met one out climbing.
Jake’s climbing partner recommended an arête route on the right which was great.
It even had a little extension at the top.
Anja squeezed one more climb in and found this nice 10b.
Jake was up climbing next to us.
Weather was threatening so we called it a day.
We’d gone to Salt Lake for some interviews and had a window of free time so we headed to the Wind Rivers to go into Deep Lake.
We headed in the long dirt road to the Big Sandy Trailhead. On the last 4 miles of rough dirt road I heard a clunking sound and it had also out of character had the GEN light flicker. I crawled under the car and the front passenger wheel was moving around. I couldn’t see anything broken but our trip was clearly over as I had an interview on Monday and it was Thursday night.
Friday morning the van drove just fine out to Rock Spring. We luckily found a mechanic to look at it and he told us the van just had a loose bolt and if we took it to an alignment shop they would take care of it. They pulled the van out and parked it and left it running when I jumped in the van was dead and would not restart. I screwed around with the van but nothing worked and we turned it over to the pros. The biggest indicator I should have seen was the engine code reader I had wouldn’t register.
The van computer was fired and would take a week to get. We found a SUV rental one way to Salt Lake and headed down to SLC. We didn’t have the van to crash in so we called up our friends George and Denise to see if they had a room we could rent and we crashed with them. A week later I walked down to catch the SLC TRAX to downtown and caught greyhound to Rock Springs and then walked to the mechanic. The van ran fine back and everything was back rolling.
We headed up to Bitty Buttress to the right of the Blob in Boulder Canyon.
Bitty Buttress is 5.9 3 pitches. It’s a steep start with a little tough gear off the deck but on good holds.
Up near the top of the first pitch is a fairly committing slabby move above your last piece.
The belay ledge was awesome for the first pitch.
Anja took the second pitch which was another awesome belay ledge.
I topped out the third pitch which had a the crux move again above the last piece and a little runout on huge 5.8 sport holds. Anja following to the top of the dome.
On the walk off we went right past the Young and the Rackless 5.9 4 sport pitches.
The route was really cruiser.
We did the route in 2 pitches and skipped some bolts because their were just so many for the level of climbing.
At the top we could see a storm rolling and hurried off but being Boulder we could a party just starting the approach to the Blob. I guess if you are a local climbing in the rain just doesn’t scare you.
It was a great day of climbing in Boulder Canyon and my favorite day I’ve had in Boulder Canyon.
We had some nice times BBQing and brewing on my folks back porch in Boulder.
I also helped my folks get rid of some ridiculous furniture like these hide a beds which were out of my grandma’s house.
