Tape

Despite what some of your crusty friends might say, tape is NOT aid. Tape is a reality of wanting to climbing numerous days in a row on rough Wingate sandstone. I generally use it on anything hands or bigger, but when it’s thin I like to be able to get as much purchase as I can and usually go without. With refined technique, you might find you need it less and less, but once you tear skin, those gobies can take a long time to heal, so don’t be afraid to do what you need to to preserve the precious little skin you have on the backs of your hands. True Creek connoisseurs often have a brand of tape they are preferential to, as any old variety just wont cut it. Arguably the best is offered by a company called Curity, which makes medical grade tape that’s incredibly sticky and wont roll up on you, which can make things more painful than if you hadn’t taped in the first place.

Shoes

Anyone who’s spent any time climbing splitters knows the truth: crack climbing is painful, especially on the feet. To succeed in the desert, you need to stack the deck in your favor, and a large part of that involves dialing in the right footwear. Watching a new-to-the-Creek friend try to shove a Miura into a crack this weekend, I was wincing in discomfort, vicariously experiencing the pain their toes must have been going through. Everyone’s got different opinions on the matter, but generally for all around use you want something that is comfortable, with your toes as flat as possible while still offering a good fit. Mythos are popular, and many Creek rats swear by Moccasyms, as the narrow profile allows you to get that much more of your toe inside the crack. Personally, I roll with two pairs, Moc’s for anything in the two friend and smaller range, and TC Pro‘s for anything bigger. Figuring out the right footwear can border on an art form, but once you get it right you’ll find you can climb better without being distracted by the pain in your feet.

Maintenance

Even if you are only hitting the place on the weekends, you’ll want to do all you can to make sure you are recovered for your next trip. If you are spending prolonged time down there, then it becomes even more important. For gobies, something like Joshua Tree Climbing Salve is essential. It speeds up the healing of your abrasions, which you hope you don’t rip off again next pitch. Another essential tool is a Theracane, as climbing at the Creek blasts your big muscles groups, and it’s perfect for working out the kinks and keeping everything running smooth.

Taglines

The classic Indian Creek pitch offers around 150′ of jamming fun, and racking up at the base it sometimes feels like you are loaded up for El Cap. The last thing you want to do is add more weight to the situation, but you know you can’t get off with a single 70m. As long as the route is relatively straight up and down, which most are, once you reach the top you can simply pull up the rope through the gear, and then drop it back down to pull up a tag line. It’s a little more work, but most would agree a worthy trade off versus having to trail a second cord. Another option is to think about a longer rope. We are currently testing an 80m Sterling 9.2, and so far have been impressed.

That’s all we have, for more tips and beta, be sure to check out the excellent resource Luke and Lizzy put together over at Dream in Vertical.

Get Involved With a Youth Climbing Team

When it comes to climbing, perhaps the most selfless thing you can do is to pass on your knowledge and experiences to others so they can hopefully enjoy it as much as you have. Getting involved with a climbing team can be a great way to do this. Maybe you can be a full time coach, but it doesn’t have to be that big. Perhaps you could give a technique clinic, or talk about big wall climbing, or any number of things they maybe haven’t been exposed to that you happen to specialize in. There are numerous opportunities here, and in the end you’ll broaden their horizons that much more. And who knows, maybe you’ll inspire the next Tommy Caldwell.

Do Some Trail Work

As climbing gets more and more popular, our crags are getting loved to death. More people means more impact, and the trails and base areas at cliffs often need a little maintenance to prevent erosion and keep them in good condition. Local climbing groups tend to organize these events in conjunction with the appropriate land managers, and it’s a great way to spend the day helping out and meeting other climbers. Even if you don’t go to a formal event, you can always take the extra 15 minutes before leaving the cliff to shore up some stone work that is coming apart, or block off a side trail that is getting too eroded. A little bit goes a long way.

Help At a Comp

Climbing comps can be a great social gathering where everyone comes together to have a good time pushing themselves hard. Comps can be a lot of work to organize, and often volunteers are needed to help with a variety of tasks. Next time you hear of a comp in your town, maybe sit this one out to see if you can help everybody else have a good time.

Set Routes at Your Local Gym

Maybe you live in Boulder, and you can climb at the best crag in Colorado year round, where the route setting is almost as good as nature intended it. For the rest of us less fortunate souls, chances are you climb at a smaller local facility, which may not always have fresh routes every 3 weeks. Good routesetters are hard to come by, and most gym managers will welcome the extra help, especially if you are volunteering your time for free. That being said, not everybody is good at setting routes (i’ll just make the holds smaller and put them farther apart!), but most will have something unique to contribute in this area.

Bolt Routes at Your Local Choss Pile

Putting up sport climbs is hard work. You can spend a whole day working out where the bolts should go, cleaning holds, and trundling choss, while your friends are out there getting in pitch after pitch. In the end, however, you are creating more climbing for the community to enjoy, and there are few who wont appreciate your efforts. Obviously you should only do this if you have the proper skills/experience or an appropriate mentor.

Replace Old Hardware

Most of our sport crags are hitting that 30 year mark where the hardware is in need of upgrading, and it’s no small task. At last year’s Rifle Clean Up, it was impressive to see how many people got in on the anchor upgrading. Over the course of one day, numerous routes were improved so that others could safely continue to enjoy them. As with the previous item, make sure you know what you are doing or go with someone who does.

Got any others that we missed?

Red Rocks is one of the premier climbing areas in the United States, with everything from single pitch sport climbs to some of the longest trad routes in the country. Slabs, cracks, overhangs, and a range of grades from 5.easy to 5.hard make it appealing to a wide variety of folks. The drive from western Colorado is relatively easy, as you are on interstate the entire time, and you only cross one stretch of mountainous terrain that can present weather-related driving challenges. Here’s our simple guide to getting the most out of your next Vegas road trip.

Best Stops Along the Way

Green River – The stretch after Green River is one of the most desolate in the west, with 110 miles to the next gas and services, so unless you have a fancy hybrid that can go 100′s of miles on a single tank, you’ll probably want to refuel here. Food options are pretty limited, as there is a Subway by the exit,and a Blimpie at the gas station in town.

Cedar City/Saint George – If you stopped in Green River, you’ll probably want to stop here, or go a little further to Saint George. You’ll have more dining options in Saint George, although we admittedly haven’t spent much time exploring non-fast food joints in Cedar City. 5 Buck Pizza looks promising, offering a medium pie with unlimited toppings for only $5. Saint George is home to the ever popular In-N-Out Burger, and also one of the funkier coffee shops around, Jazzy Java, which serves up tasty caffeinated beverages as well as delicious food.

Campgrounds

While this is a fairly simple drive to do in a single push, sometimes you get a later start than you’d like and you need a good place to crash for the night.

San Rafael Swell – Just west of Green River, this huge swath of BLM land offers numerous free camping options.

Fishlake National Forest – This is the stretch after the Swell, where you drive over some mountains. Consult a map for the best access to public land.

Parowan Gap – 15 minutes off I-15, about 20 miles north of Cedar City, this area offers free camping, and climbing too. See below for more info on that.

Walmart – For those who don’t know, Walmart allows free car camping in their parking lots. This is better than your average commando hotel parking lot because it’s ok if you go in and use the bathroom, and many are open 24 hours. Here are some key Walmarts along the way:

Grand Junction
Richfield
Cedar City
Saint George
Mesquite

Climbing Areas

Most of us are strapped for time and usually try to get where we are going as quickly as possible. That being said, if you have the time there is a plethora of climbing between here and there. Here are some of the more notable spots:

San Rafael Swell
About 30 minutes north of I-70 is some of the best Wingate crack climbing outside Indian Creek. Sunny walls and a range of grades make this a good spot for just about anyone. It’s also very scenic and rarely crowded. There is limited info on Mountain Project, and plenty of exploring to do.

Parowan
This is sport climbing on cobbles that are similar to Maple Canyon, a mere 20 minutes off I-15. See the Southwest Utah guidebook for more info.

Saint George
This town has it all, from Red Rocks style sandstone to some of the steepest limestone in the US.

Virgin River Gorge
The Puoux’s big brother, right off I-15. The climbing tends to be difficult and techy.

Local’s Beta

It’s the little things that make all the difference and here are a few nuggets we’ve picked up from our time there.

Urban Crag – Most visitors to Red Rocks know that if it rains you should really give the rock 24 hours to dry out, or you risking breaking off holds and possibly ruining a climb forever. It seems that few actually follow that advice, much to the dismay of the locals who will have to deal with destroyed routes long after we have all gone back home. So what to do the day after a storm when the sun is shining and you are jonesing to crush some rocks? Head to the Urban Crag, a funky little limestone cliff right on the edge of town. It boasts about a dozen routes from 5.7 to 5.12 on featured limestone. It’s fairly sheltered and gets sun until mid afternoon, and it’s only a 5 minute approach, about 5 minutes off I-15. There are a few other limestone outcrops in the vicinity, beta is available at Desert Rock Sports on Charleston.

Food Deals – One of the great things about climbing in Red Rocks is how you can go into town and get good food at places like Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, etc. Some might dig the cheap buffets, but you’d probably get more nutrition from dog food. Anyway, we discovered two great deals last time we were there. One, the Whole Foods on Charleston has a deal with$1 tacos on certain days. The other was two for one drinks at Starbucks. Food and caffeine, and you are ready to roll!

Cheap Tickets – Most of us don’t go to Red Rocks to experience Vegas, but it is fun to spend a least one night on the strip, pretending to be a big shot or the guy in the movie 21. Most shows are pretty pricey, but Tix4Tonight offers big discounts on same day tickets, and is your best bet for a low cost evening on the Strip.

Feel free to add your own beta below, we’ll incorporate into this list to help create the best resource possible for road tripping to Vegas!

Ah winter, that magical time of year when snow blankets the earth and creates untold possibilities for endless fun in the mountains. For a dedicated few, however, winter offers some of the best rock climbing of the year, but it usually means driving farther to get to sunny stone. And it’s not unusual to run into some nasty weather along the way that can add to the stress of an already long journey. When it comes to bad weather and driving, going slow is the number one thing you can do to make sure you safely get where you are going. However, most of us are generally in a hurry, especially when covering large distances, and here are some things we’ve found helpful for dealing with the unexpected snowstorm that shows up the day you leave for your week long climbing trip in the heart of winter.

Tires
Let’s face it, tires are expensive, and it’s all too easy to let them get so bald that your mechanic refuses to let you take your car home from your last oil change until you promise you’ll get new ones. However, there’s nothing that affects your driving during winter as much as worn tires. If you live in a place that gets a lot of snow, you might have seasonal snow tires you can swap out and put off getting new ones until spring. If not, you should really get some new rubber before it’s too late, or you’ll be wishing you had when that 8.5 hour drive to Vegas takes 14 due to slow speeds through bad conditions.

Wipers
Now that you are gonna stick to the road, it also helps to be able to see it. Even when you can no longer ignore the heinous noises coming from your wipers as they move back and forth across the glass, it’s easy to think they are good enough. As soon as you switch them out for a new pair, however, you’ll have much better visibility, so you can see and avoid all the cars spinning off the road around you. Most rest areas sell wipers, so this is an easy last minute purchase to make.

Chains
This is one of those items that you can easily get by without for a long time, but if you need them, you’ll wish you had them. You can also consider them an alternative to upgrading your tires, though you aren’t supposed to go over 30mph with chains on. For all wheel drive and 4×4 vehicles, this is probably unnecessary for 99% of the conditions you’ll encounter, but if you have rear or even front wheel drive, chains can make all the difference between pulling over to wait it out or continuing on ahead with confidence.

Those are the big three, but there are other things that can be equally important. It’s all too easy to think about the warm stone you are heading towards, and give little thought to what you might need along the way. Your boots, warm gloves and puffy jacket might seem unnecessary at your destination, but if you have to stop along the way to put chains on the car in a blizzard, you’ll wish you had all that warm stuff. Likewise, it’s a good idea to have a sleeping bag and some extra clothes, along with some food and water should you have to pull over and hole up for awhile. Thankfully, most storms don’t just come out of nowhere, so if you see bad weather is coming up, you can plan ahead to make sure you’ve got your bases covered.

In this day and age, there are also several technological advantages for the winter road warrior. If you have broadband Internet, or just a smartphone, you can access relevant websites that show the road conditions of the state you are driving through, as well as any closures, restrictions (chains only) etc. Also, a current membership to AAA doesn’t hurt either.

In the end, getting there quickly isn’t worth endangering your life, so if it gets really bad, just pull over at a safe spot and wait it out. If you’re with a group, split a hotel room and watch some TV while the plows clear things up for the morning. Be safe out there, wherever your winter travels take you!

(I’ve never had any of these things happen to me, but I know this guy…)

More Rubber Means More Rock Climbing

Every time you went out this fall, you looked at the soles of your shoes and thought, they’ll probably make it one more day! Hopefully they did, but now is the time to get that fixed. Send them off to a good resoler, like Rock and Resole in Boulder, and you’ll soon have shoes that climb like they’re new again. It’s also a good time to patch any wear spots with Five Ten Stealth Paint, just make sure you do it outside or in a VERY well ventilated area.

Cams Need Love Too

If you trad climb much, your cams could probably use some fine tuning. Maybe your trigger wires are frayed, or even blown. Get some replacements and swap them out. Do you get pumped trying to pull the triggers? Sounds like they could use a wash and lube, good directions on that over on the Spadout blog. And maybe the slings on some of the units are getting old. Send them out to a place like Yates, which will get new slings on there for a good price with quick turnaround.

Take Your Old Gear For a Walk

We all know how hard it can be to let go, but winter is as good a time as any. Now that you aren’t using the stuff every day, maybe it’ll be easier to decide to retire those old slings, and ask Santa for some fancy new ones. Maybe your rope looks like it’s dragged one too many cars out of the ditch, and your partners have stopped calling because they are afraid they might have to use your cord. Or the most common worst offender, perhaps its time to finally get rid of that old JRat harness you just couldn’t part with.

There’s probably more things you need to get back up to speed, maybe your tent has a bad zipper, or a sleeping bag needs to be fixed. Whatever it is, this is the time to get all this stuff done, because spring will be here before you know it and you’ll want to be ready to rock when it comes!

The problem, according to KP, is that when you are attached to an anchor with a daisy, you’ve taken the rope out of the system, and made it completely static. This can set you up for a potentially dangerous shock loading situation, in which the daisy can blow apart and/or you can get severely injured due to the high forces of a static load.

A further problem is noted in that it’s quite easy when shortening your daisy to clip it incorrectly, such that in a shock loaded fall it can blow apart and leave you detached from anything. The video does a great job illustrating this.

QC Lab: Daisy chain dangers from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

Some would be quick to point out (and rightly so) that the Metolius PAS eliminates this scenario and therefore is the safer option, but it doesn’t change the fact that you are still anchored via a static system. Imagine the following:

Many people I know use a daisy chain or PAS to anchor in on multipitch climbs. Typically they will go in short with the daisy and then back that up with the rope. If this is how you are anchored, and your partner is climbing the next pitch and takes a big fall, you will be violently jerked upwards. The daisy/PAS is static, and you’ll take the full brunt of the fall to your back. Ouch, gonna need to see the chiropractor after that one!

Now, I’ve never liked daisy’s/PAS’s for several reasons, and so I always just use the rope to anchor in at belays, but I’ve often used a sling to go in short, which creates the same problem. It seems the best way to anchor in, to avoid any static loading, is simply using the rope. Some might say this only gives you one point, and you need two to be redundant, but the rope is always just one point when you are using it. And if you really want a backup, you could anchor in short with the rope, and then use a long PAS/sling as a backup. This way, the rope would take the impact of any fall and save you from that chiropractor visit.

For many, this isn’t new news, and it seems this info gets recycled every couple of years, but for good reason. There are still a lot of people out there using these potentially dangerous systems. Of course, you could go your whole life and never have a problem, but climbing is all about calculated risk, so why not stack the odds a little more in your favor?

CU Belay Glasses
From the moment I put these on, I knew I had to add them to my kit. The comfort of belaying without straining your neck is too blissful to put into words. No longer do you have to take breaks from belaying to let your neck recover, with these you can keep the good times rolling all day long.

Stick Clip
Want to rile up some egos? Mention the use of a stick clip in a room full of “trad” climbers. “I don’t use stick clips, I’ve never even seen a stick clip, blah blah blah.” What these misinformed souls don’t realize is that a stick clip is a very useful sport climbing tool. They’re great any time you are concerned about making it to the first clip without falling, or if the rock at the start isn’t the best. And sometimes routes are actually bolted in a manner such that the first bolt is meant to be sticked. As for me, I pretty much stick the first bolt on everything, as I find it allows me to flow through the opening moves and get in a good rhythm for the rest of the climb. Minimum danger and maximum fun, it’s what sport climbing is all about.

Gri Gri
It’s amazing how many people I see sport climbing without Gri Gri’s. Sure, they are kind of expensive, but they last a long time, and they are an invaluable tool.

Flip flops
Gotta have the flip flops. After cramming your feet into tight (or even not-so-tight) shoes for a pitch, it’s nice to reward them with some room to breath. They are low profile and can strap to the side of your pack without adding hardly any additional weight. Of course, if you climb in a place like Rifle, they can also double as your approach shoes. Bonus!

Belay Gloves
This is another one that some folks scoff at, at least, until they get their own pair, whereupon they are usually hooked themselves. Most ropes are dirty, and using gloves keeps all that grey goop off your hands. Plus, they are nice for lowering, and great for rappelling when you clean an anchor. One caveat, if you get a new rope, wash your belay gloves before using them on the new cord or you’ll leave a trail of grease after the first lower.

Tape/Grip Ball
I’ve had some finger problems in the past, so the two ways I deal with it are tape and a grip ball. A hand doctor told me the tape couldn’t hurt, and might even be doing some good, so I tape. (At the very least it reminds me to be kind to my fingies.) The grip ball I use to warm up my digits by squeezing on the hike to the cliff, and before I start up a climb.

Toothbrush
This little guy sits on the back of my harness, unused most of the time. However, when I need to brush off a dusty hold or clean something up, I can pull it out and get the job done quick. This is especially useful when climbing at areas that are relatively new and not as clean.

That’s what’s in my kit, how about yours?

As we read further, the enlightened book suggested that the best climbers are those who are constantly learning from their climbs, not just focused on adding another progressively harder tick to the list. Most of us go out to “send”, and likely give little thought to the numerous factors that come together to get us to the top, aside from strength.  The irony is that strength is only one piece of a larger puzzle, and there are many others (technique, speed, tactics, etc.) that can contribute to a successful ascent.

And while trying harder climbs, failure is usually the best place for learning to occur, especially in these other areas. When you succeed, you likely did at least a couple of things right, and may or may not remember why. But when you fail, you have to learn why and figure out how to do it right, in order to eventually succeed. Hopefully, that means doing more than just “pulling harder” next try. Plus, if you truly value learning above all else, you’ll have fun every time you go climbing, not just when you get everything right and “succeed.”

I wish I could say I remembered what we had read, and casually hung on the rope, staying calm and collected as I studied the rock to understand why I was getting my ass kicked, and what I could learn from it. I did eventually get to that point, and even made some positive progress, but not after some serious frustration and WTF? moments. Once I did get my head in check, though, and focused on the learning, I enjoyed the rest of the afternoon, even though I doubt my frail ego will recover any time soon.

I found a couple of accepted methods, this is how we did it:

Using a standard washing machine, run the machine one cycle on empty to flush out any chemical residue that might be in there. If you use hippie green washing detergent, you probably have nothing to worry about, but better safe than sorry.

Next up, daisy chain your rope. This keeps it from becoming a tangled mess in the machine. Some folks will also put it in a mesh bag, but you can skip that step if you like.

Lastly, run the machine on a gentle cycle with cold water. You can use a mild, non-detergent soap, or pick up some of Sterling’s Rope Wash.

Hang dry the rope in a cool, dry place for at least a night, maybe more if you live in a wet climate.

You can also use a bathtub, more info on that method here.

A quick side note, there’s a couple things you can do to help keep your rope as clean as possible, aside from a rope bag. One, don’t use worn quickdraws. Once you wear through the anodizing, it leaves a lot more aluminum on the rope than newer ‘biners. And two, wash your belay gloves before handling that new cord. Your gloves are probably a mess of aluminum oxide, and only one or two lowers will coat the outside of your new line with all that muck. Those two steps alone will help preserve that new rope feel that just makes us all tingly inside.

Take this old City of Rocks guidebook from 2006, for example. It’s full of good information, and I want to keep using it, but many of the pages have started falling out. Thankfully there is a solution using zip ties to hold it all together that takes only 5 to 10 minutes and will have it back in excellent working order.

For this project, you’ll only need a drill, some zip ties, and some scissors.

First, get all the pages back in the book, and tap the sides to get everything neat and tidy. Next, mark the spots on the cover where you want to drill the holes. Three is best and you don’t want it too close or too far from the edge. Once you’ve got your spots, go ahead and drill the holes, keeping the pages in place as much as possible.

Next, take the zip ties and thread them through the holes. Cinch them down, but not so tight the book spine begins to compress, and you cant open the book.

Lastly, take the scissors and snip off the ends of the zip ties. (Don’t use your wife’s nice, expensive sewing scissors unless you want to spend the night on the couch though.)

And there you have it, your guidebook has come back to life. In part two of this series, we’ll look out how to protect the cover from getting beat up and torn beyond repair.