The Forces of the Universe Align

UNTIL A MONTH AGO, I was quite occupied with a book deadline and the tasks of icing-and-immobilizing my left knee. However, the fall has arrived and with that, three things come simultaneously together:

*my knee is (apparently) healed
*my book is done
*the air has finally cooled enough to permit non-greaseball climbing

To kick off this season, I opted out of tutoring for a week, and headed first to Indian Creek (Sept 25-27), and then to Devil's Tower (Sept 28- Oct 4)-- for a grand total of 11 non-work days. What's up.


INDIAN CREEK was a hoot. Though I had remembered falling in love with it last spring, I had forgotten exactly how amazing that place is; it's freaking amazing. And "freaking" is a powerful word.

It was quite satisfying to get down there, and probably very necessary to have a warm-up session before heading to Devil's Tower for a week. There were no better inaugural buddies than Zac and Lizzy, and Team Night Climbing was once again resurrected.

DEVIL'S TOWER was wicked awesome as well. I went with two acquaintances-turned-friends: Dean Lords (aka Brian) and Nathan Smith (aka The Donk). Politeness quickly yielded to familiarity and fart jokes, and within a few days, the group became a giggling, nonsensical spectacle for bystanding hippies to behold.

The actual "rock climbing", on the other hand, took quite a lot of getting used to. The feet were (more often than not) slicker than slick- and the cracks were (also more often than not) finger-sized, and usually accompanied by cryptic stemming moves (on those aforementioned slick feet). Slick, slick, slick. However, within a day or two, we had sorted through the unsorted guidebook(s), and generated a list of classic lines to climb and shoot. Within another day, we'd figured out when was best to photograph each line, light-wise, and finally a day or two later, had greatly adapted to the new stone. We sometimes even managed to find unusual caches of good friction.

To comment generally: the second pitch of each route was almost always the "money" pitch. The top pitches were usually not worth doing (due to excess choss), and the first pitches were typically slabby means to approach the main line. The rock was generally "bomber, dude", and accepted protection gluttonously. Though the cracks were laser-straight, they required thoughtful climbing and sequencing, and featured flaring and constrictions. For the average attention span, there is at least a month's worth of routes; I would argue more. Tourists were silly, and and if I actually was to stay longer than a week, it would be necessary to find a Stealth Trail to the base of the routes.

"Yes, we climbed it. It takes 3-4 hours to get to the top. There are no aliens up there. No, we're not crazy."

For anyone who wonders whether there is enough climbing there to make the trip worth it: like totally, and stuff.