White Rim in a Day 2012

OK, my last two posts were about "In a Day" efforts.  Obviously, I haven't gotten them out of my system.  So off I went with Courtney Phillips to do another lap on the White Rim Trail.  As fast as we could in a day.  This is my sixth WRIAD and I have always gone counterclockwise, thinking that the last 30 miles and the brutal slickrock you encounter would somehow get easier over the years.  Well, it hasn't, so we decided on another strategy...

We started at 0600 at the bottom of the MIneral Bottom hill. We climbed that hill and the 10 miles to the highway by headlamp in 30-ish degree weather.   A perfect warmup for what was coming.

Full of beans at 0730 at the top of Shafer

The famous Shafer switchbacks

Monument Basin

Big Scenery

White Crack. Finally. The last 10 miles had not been kind to me.

Twisting jeepies!

 Feeling good at the top of Murphy's.  It's 1300 and we're full of...

 CHIPS!

After rounding the corner and seeing the Green River we knew we had it in the bag

The Green River from the top of Hardscrabble

The last mile.  You can barely see the car in the distance.

Yeah, mon.  9 hours 45 minutes.  Not bad for an old fart.

Of course, Courtney could do that time on Schwinn Stingray, but that's another story.

All in all, it was an incredible day.  Perfect 60 degree temps, blue sky, no wind and a great companion made it memorable.  God only blesses us with a few days like this...so I try to make the most of them!!!!

The Grand Teton In A Day

I had always wanted to climb the Regular Exum route on the Grand in a day.  Luckily, I had a  very willing accomplice in Russell, my son.  He is super fit and strong...a perfect person to do it with.  And a dream come true for me!

After a 3 AM start we finally got to some of the business around 7 AM.  Here is Russ climbing through the Eye of the Needle.

At the start of the Wall Street "step around" we were bogged down by other parties and waited about an hour.  I'm not a good wait-around kind of guy.

Finally up high on the route.  The sky is hazy from nearby fires but the view is still incredible!!!!

Nearing the top. Russell in fine fettle.

Ze top at noon.  Cold wind, Subway sandwiches and Clif bars.

Coming down from the Lower Saddle.  Only 7 miles of feet-trashing, gut-busting hiking to go!

At the car.  Can you say, "Fun, fun, fun!"

All in all, it was an incredible experience to share one my favorite places with my son.  He is definitely a gamer, and I can't wait for the next "In A Day" project with him!

Half Dome In A Day

I've always been drawn to projects that call for doing the maximum amount of effort in the shortest period of time.  It seems natural to me.  And since one of the standard units of time is a day the logical thing to do is dream up projects...they can be anything...that can be done in one 24 hour period.  I've done a lot of In A Day efforts over the years, and I thought I had them out of my system, but the bug bit me again this summer...hard.  So here is a brief recount of two In A Day trips that I had been thinking about for a LONG time.  It's great to be able to tell the stories because I had a blast doing them....

I have dreamt of climbing the Regular Route on Half Dome since I was 14 years old. It is one of the iconic climbs of the world...hundreds, if not thousands, of incredible stories have been written about it.  And as the years went by it seemed my chances to do it were dwindling.  Enter luck and an incredible partner to make it happen.  Peter Croft was kind enough to take a day out of his life and share Half Dome with me.  And what a day it was.  Here are a few photos to round out the experience:

Got Caffeine?  The start at the car.  2 AM in the valley floor.  Only 9 miles and 3000' vert up the Mist trail to go!

At the shoulder below the cables we got our climbing shoes on and got ready to scamper down to the start of the route.

The first pitch.  We had the entire wall to ourselves.

Peter contemplating the Robbins Traverse.

The start of the chimneys.  Rated "Yosemite 5.8," they are are burly and fearsome.  At least to this old duffer.

The famous Thank God Ledge.  This part isn't too bad.  It's the 5.9 offwidth after it that kicks your butt.

At the top, 10 hours after starting.  What an incredible day of climbing.  Now we only have 3 more hours of hiking and 3 more hours of driving....you get the picture...to do it in a day!

Sierra Climbing 2011

Perhaps no place on earth is more fun or better suited to climbing than the Sierra Nevada. Looking back, the large chunks of my life I have spent hiking and climbing in the Sierra comprise some of the happiest moments of my life. And I keep coming back for more. This particular trip with Jeff McCarthy was geared toward climbing the Red Dihedral on the Incredible Hulk and then get after as much climbing as possible in Tuolumne Meadows. That's about as much fun as you can have in one week, I think.

Jeff lacing up at the bottom of the Red Dihedral. He had some heinous blisters on his feet but laughed it off. Definitely the type of partner you want to have.

Nearing the end of the second pitch on the RD

Starting up the namesake of the route. At 5.10c, no gimme.

Higher up. More incredible rock on the Incredible Hulk.

Once we were done with the Hulk, we went to Tuolumne. First off was the Matthes Crest traverse. It's makes for a long day, with about a 3 hour hike to the base, but once you start, it rocks. Super fun climbing in a fantastic setting. We did the entire traverse for full value.

We took a rest day to move our campsite and stock up.  At the end of each day we would jump in to Tanaya Lake to cool off...a great swim in a spectacular setting.  
The last day we slept in, drove to Fairview Dome and hopped on the Regular Route at about 10 AM.  Such fantastic climbing. We were at the top by 2 PM.  Along the way, I pickup up a cigarette butt at a belay station and put it in my mouth.  Jeff took this picture:

Boy, did I catch shit for that when I got back to GJ in Salt Lake.
Anyway, we finished the climb, hopped in the car, and drove back to SLC that night, arriving around 2 AM.  Crazy....wake up in Tuolumne and go to bed in Salt Lake.  But that's the way it goes out west....

Grand Gulch 2012

It was a cold day in early April when Russ and I were dropped off in the middle of nowhere.  Well, maybe not exactly in the middle of nowhere, but somewhere in the high desert of southern Utah.  Our goal was to travel from Collins Gulch up through Grand Gulch and then out Kane Gulch...a distance of about 50 miles. 

The Start

Big Man Russ with Big Man (and Woman) pictographs

How the heck did they fit in there?

Inside one of the ruins

More terraced, beautiful ruins

 A cool panel

Near the end of the road at Junction Ruin

All in all, it was an amazing trip.  We found beauty, solitude, dehydration and lots of adventure. It would be fun to take an even more extensive trip....From Kane all the way to the bottom!