This Sweet Hills Wash west of Cedar city is finally seeing a second wave of development. We have spent the last few years honing our skills by repeating almost all the old lines, the area was past due for some new lines. T Ghost in the darkness (7B) is a great problem located right in the middle of the Sweet Hills Wash west of Cedar City. Casey Webb found this gem which climbs up small edges leading to a tricky crux over a slightly sketchy landing. I was lucky enough to grab the FA on my last try of the night. Earlier that day I was lucky enough to find a great line on the Ragnarok boulder. This massive boulder was one of the first developed and I'm not sure how this variation hung out unclimbed for so long. The lone starts on Ragnarok warm-up traverses through the start of the sloping continues traversing right through some really cool holds topping out after rounding the corner. The route was dubbed El Matador, Casey grabbed a quick repeat for the second ascent.
The season's change has brought a lot of change to the climbing around cedar city. On Oct. 3 I got lucky and checked the weather report to find that a large storm was forecast to move in a dump the first snow up Cedar Canyon. Rach and I quickly decided to make one last ditch effort for the season and head up to The Meadows area of bunker creek. When we arrived the rain was just beginning to fall but only lasted a few minutes. We quickly hiked up to an amazing roof project that I had found the month before. I had spent one session trying to figure out the beta, I had done all the moves but the first one. I surprised myself and stuck the move first try but fell off the second move. I managed the send the next go. The line is truly amazing its very steep, always shaded and the rock is solid, so I dubbed the line "50 degrees of perfection". We then ran up to a great but very seldom repeated line called the skipper. I managed fall off of the last move before the weather turned on us. It was a bit frustrating walking away from a problem I knew I would probably never get to try again since we will be moving. But that is what life is about I guess. If we always get what we want their would not be any triumphant feelings to accompany the moments when we do succeed.
The real luck in the situation wasn't realized until later. Cedar Canyon had a massive land slide due to the sudden change in weather and it will be closed for at least the next four weeks. This will definitely rule out any alpine climbing for the rest of the season.
The change in access has pushed me to head out the the haven more often. After several hard sessions on the Lions Den Project trying to figure out each individual move I have finally been able to link the first half of the problem and found new beta to gain the lip of the cave. This new beta brought the problem from the realm of wishful thinking to possible. I am really psyched on my progress.
Rach and I have also bee doing some hiking around the area looking for some new lines. We came across several great blocks in a new sector. This sector is only a 7 minute hike from the parking area. The problems found look to range from V0-V7ish, on the blocks we found it looks like their are at least the potential for 15-20 new problems. This area is just waiting for development to happen. I think it could contain more problems then any of the established areas around Cedar City.
Pictures and some video coming soon.
Well that's a summary of the latest happenings.
Casey has been getting after it at the Virgin Cave, check out his blog.
The season's change has brought a lot of change to the climbing around cedar city. On Oct. 3 I got lucky and checked the weather report to find that a large storm was forecast to move in a dump the first snow up Cedar Canyon. Rach and I quickly decided to make one last ditch effort for the season and head up to The Meadows area of bunker creek. When we arrived the rain was just beginning to fall but only lasted a few minutes. We quickly hiked up to an amazing roof project that I had found the month before. I had spent one session trying to figure out the beta, I had done all the moves but the first one. I surprised myself and stuck the move first try but fell off the second move. I managed the send the next go. The line is truly amazing its very steep, always shaded and the rock is solid, so I dubbed the line "50 degrees of perfection". We then ran up to a great but very seldom repeated line called the skipper. I managed fall off of the last move before the weather turned on us. It was a bit frustrating walking away from a problem I knew I would probably never get to try again since we will be moving. But that is what life is about I guess. If we always get what we want their would not be any triumphant feelings to accompany the moments when we do succeed.
The real luck in the situation wasn't realized until later. Cedar Canyon had a massive land slide due to the sudden change in weather and it will be closed for at least the next four weeks. This will definitely rule out any alpine climbing for the rest of the season.
The change in access has pushed me to head out the the haven more often. After several hard sessions on the Lions Den Project trying to figure out each individual move I have finally been able to link the first half of the problem and found new beta to gain the lip of the cave. This new beta brought the problem from the realm of wishful thinking to possible. I am really psyched on my progress.
Rach and I have also bee doing some hiking around the area looking for some new lines. We came across several great blocks in a new sector. This sector is only a 7 minute hike from the parking area. The problems found look to range from V0-V7ish, on the blocks we found it looks like their are at least the potential for 15-20 new problems. This area is just waiting for development to happen. I think it could contain more problems then any of the established areas around Cedar City.
Pictures and some video coming soon.
Well that's a summary of the latest happenings.
Casey has been getting after it at the Virgin Cave, check out his blog.
