Home Sweet Moes

Casey and I became regulars at Moe's Valley about 3 years ago when we first started dating. It was my first experience with climbing, my first taste of the failure, trying over and over, and my first taste of success. Of course this led to my love of bouldering! I have great memories with B-ridge and Ali of first projecting V1's, then V2's and finally V3's and beyond! Casey and I have been discussing lately how awesome that time was, especially because we had the best core of climbing friends anyone could ask for. I seriously felt so legit when I was sending my first V1s because there were so many people cheering all the time. It was so exhilarating and great!

A few years have passed since that time and a lot of our buddies from that climbing crew have moved away to new fun adventures, but we are still enjoying our little trips to good ol' Moes Valley. Especially when Tommy and Bridget get to come down with us! How awesome is it that despite living 3 hours apart, they are still our best friends and climbing partners?! We love them a lot. 

The last few weekends in December we have been heading down to the warmer/dryer temps of St. George and enjoying some of the old and some new boulder problems there. Casey's projects are very temperature dependent, so we've worked out a good system of me climbing while it's warm and then he climbs when the sun is starting to set and the temps improve. You'd think it might get old climbing at the same place year after year, but we are still having a blast! I have been climbing some great new problems that I love because they are inspiring to me and motivating through these cold winter months. I've found a new challenge with climbing since I've started teaching is maintaining psych and working out during the week when I don't get as many chances to get outside. (Kind of off the subject, but we are so excited for Derek's new garage renovations!!!!!) I love it when I have a specific project to work towards that pushes my limits.

Here are a few pics of some things we have been doing at Moes.

Really fun V3 called Sidewinder Eyes kind of near the Device Ignitor boulder. Semi-powerful start moves to a nice easy top out. Totally my style. :)

 The Goose, a really fun and unique v4 around the corner from the Swan. Turns out it's actually much easier when you climb it at the start of the day instead of the end!

Casey is getting super close to sending Settlers of Catan V11!

Tommy impressed us once again as he flashed Petri Dish V6.

And then he sent Spectro V6/8!

 I almost sent my cave project. Fell on one of the last moves! So exciting! I'm pretty sure I love it as much as Device Ignitor middle. It's great because it's working my endurance and my core big time, which I need. Very very fun movement. Lame name though. V5. How much more boring of a name could you get? Maybe Bryce can think of something mind blowing.

Tommy pushed through sore fingertips to work on Casey's new line, Scavenger Soup. V8ish? Great line! Highly recommended. Just look at it! Awesome!!

And a fun V3 warm up on the No Mind boulder.

Schedule for this week:
Tomorrow: Derek's garage and Moe's Valley
Tuesday: Derek's totally rad garage!!!
Thursday-Saturday: RED ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Insanity

A few weeks ago my cousin, Kyle, let Casey know about a website that is an online outdoor journal featuring articles by various outdoor enthusiasts. Casey wrote an article and today it was posted! Here is a link so you can check it out for yourself! http://thebackcountryjournal.com/2011/12/22/insanity/
If you're still reading this stop! Click on the link!
I'm telling you it's a lot more interesting then this!






Wait, you're still here? GO to the link!! Trust me. You won't regret it!

Ibex Bouldering

We should have a part two if we ever get back there to finish up the projects. Enjoy!

Mountain and Desert Valleys

Well it's been a pretty busy November. Not too many adventures really happened this last month. No worries though, we're back at it. Last weekend we made it out to LCC with our best buddies Tommy, Bridget, and Matt. My goal for this trip was to climb Copperhead. After a a few failed attempts and some bloody knuckles I quickly changed my mind. Too hard! So we proceeded to meet up with T and B at the Smiley boulder where Bridget and Sheralee nearly sent the Surfboard Arete. So close! After that we went Bronson's Arete, one of the most beautiful problems in the canyon. Tommy sent it in just a few tries. He's been on a little bit of a rampage lately. The night before sending Bronson's arete he climbed High Life (V8), Dead Worms (V9), The Egg (V8/9), and Fat Grips (V9). He also flashed a V7 called Whiskey later in the afternoon. Crazy!!

After throwing in the towel on Bronson's we went back to the Egg just so I could try it. I gave it a good flash attempt but just missed the hold at the lip. On my third try I stuck the first move crux and easily moved through the moves preceding the mantle. Everybody started cheering "Nice Job, Casey" and I thought I was on my to an easy ascent. Wrong! Tommy said the mantle would be easy and I trusted him. I desperately tried to push/pull/roll/lay/scratch/claw my way on top of the boulder. Fail!! I kinda lost it and started kicking stuff a little. Tommy casually walked up to the boulder and said "Just do this" as he effortlessly did the mantle in his approach shoes! This of course didn't help my temper at all. So 10,000 tries later I finally figured out the mantle and was ready to go from the start. I pulled on. I hit the first move. As I stuck the second move my feet and right hand came off and I was forced to hold the swing with just my left hand. I hung on as if my very life depended on it. I did not want to try this problem again. I made my way up to the mantle with confidence. I pulled. I pushed. I rolled. I clawed. I did everything, but mantle the dumb boulder problem. I lowered myself slightly to shake off. I tried the mantle again. I guess by this point my spotter had begun to cry from laughter. I used my hands to mantle. I used my feet to mantle. I used my arms to mantle. I used my legs. My chest, my face, my teeth, my eyelashes. I used every part of my body to get to the top this boulder. 10 minutes later I finally found myself on the top, absolutely exhausted. I tried hard. I know it may sound weird, but the Egg is my favorite LCC climb, so far.

With conditions being perfect, we headed out to Duct Tape. Duct Tape is a problem I had gotten really close on this spring. It is a two move boulder with the crux being a jump to a decent hold off a basically non existent sloper. With it being dry and about 35 degrees, I figured I would be able to climb it in a couple tries. Wrong! On my 10th attempt I slammed my knuckles against the rough granite as I tried to jump to the good hold. I really lost it this time. Crash pads flew through air as I released my frustrations. It had been an emotional day. With blood running down my fingers I continued to try in anger. More failure! Eventually I did calm down, stuck the move, and sent the problem. It was an easy mantle this time.

The Surfboard arete

My attempt at the Egg

Told you it was ugly

Tommy sending Bronson's Arete

Tommy nearly sent Wristrocket. You can't get much closer than this!

Moe's is in season! This means new epic projects! Sheralee did really well on this cool roof problem. I bet she sends it soon!

This is my new problem I did this week. I call it Scavenger Soup. I think it's a really nice addition to Moe's.

My new project, Settlers of Catan. I can finally pull my butt off the ground! Yay!

Escape Artist is amazing! Hopefully I'll be strong enough to climb it someday.

Some Recent Stuff, and Ibex...of Course

Let's start with Tommy.  In September I gave him the goal of climbing a V8 or better each week until the first week of December.  This means 12 V8s or harder in 12 weeks. Tommy modestly accepted the challenge responding with something like, "There's no way! But I guess I'll try."  Well today is October 30th and Tommy has already completed his goal with 8 V8s, 4 V9s, and a V10! Basically the kid hasn't even touched his potential and will surely be pulling down CRAZY hard stuff really soon.

Zach has also come up with some impressive FA's as of late.  All of them being really nice additions to the Cedar City area.  In Bunker Creek he climbed this neat roof hidden amongst the titanic boulders.  He called this line "50 Degrees of Perfection" (V9) and I believe he considers it to be the best in the area.  Another amazing FA is the the Wash project.  It's a boulder that we found about two years ago and cleaned just this spring. It is really different from the other problems in the wash in the fact that it is gritty and climbs more features than face holds.  I think it's pretty neato! He named it "The Bounty Hunter" (V10).

Zach put this video together:

Southern Utah Episode 4: Fall First Ascents from Zach Bradford on Vimeo.

Last weekend we took another trip to Ibex for a few days.  It was especially nice because Sheralee's family came and brought their luxurious trailer for us to relax and poop in. Tommy and I tried Bruce Lee and the Atomic Bomb.  I feel pretty close on both, but they just keep managing to evade me. Maybe next time.  Then we climbed the White Arete sit, a beautiful boulder climb. Next we tried Bigger is Better, and it shut us down. Fortunately I was staying an extra day so the next day I managed to crawl up it.  I absolutely love that climb. Sheralee has also been climbing really well lately.  She climbed Captain Choss in two tries and nearly climbed this super fun V5 called the Blob, falling on the last move.

Bruce Lee: It won this round

White Arete Sit: Tommy murdered it

The Blob: Next time for sure Sheralee!

Ya I got guns!!

Cameron on this fun boulder rock

Bigger is Better: Love it!!

Nice view eh?

The Cone

Probably my favorite thing about climbing, besides actually climbing, is the people we climb with! Nothing beats a good session with good people. We had a fun evening at The Cone bouldering with all our group of newly married friends. There are some seriously fun problems there! We also discovered that s'mores are really quite delicious when graham crackers are substituted with chocolate chip cookies. Bonus!! Thank you to Hope again for supplying us with delicious edibles. It's a good thing she's so prepared.