Climbing In Southwestern Utah

Saturday morning we woke up early from the campground right outside Zion National Park and headed for the town of St. George, UT. We drove for about an hour and a half and made it to St. George. We looked around for a gear shop, until we found one. We told the employee there that we were heading up to Crawdad Canyon, and that it was recommended to us by another climber in Arizona. She said the place rocks, and that we would have a great time. She also gave us some accurate directions on how to get there, and that it would only take us 20 minutes or so. We left there pretty pumped, and had the whole day ahead of us to climb. We headed down the road for about 20 minutes and found Crawdad Canyon. There is a sign for it right off the road, and the funny part is that it is considered a "climber's resort". We didn't know what that meant until we got down in there and started to climb. We drove down into the canyon, and checked in with the camp hosts. We told them we would be staying a couple of days, and wanted to climb. We payed for our camping upfront and also our climbing. Yes, we had to pay to climb. It was only 8 bucks per day, but all the money went to the Southwestern Utah Climbers Coalition, for anchor replacement, so we didn't mind. They told us where we could put our tent so we pulled down and set up camp. As we were setting up camp we looked around, and found the climbing was right next to us. Literally, you could belay from your tent if you wanted to. Upon further examination of the guidebook, it looked like all of the climbs were within 2-3 minutes from us. We were super excited, and couldn't wait to climb. After setting up camp we grabbed our climbing stuff and went to it. We chose the "Cartoon Crag" as our first stop, since it was right next our tent. Yes, we are getting lazy. Anyways, we started all the way over to the left and worked our way the remainder of the day to the right. As an added bonus, at the start of most climbs was a plaque that stated the climbs name and the grade. How cool is that? We really didn't need the guidebook at all. Now we knew why this was called a "climber's resort". There were 10 climbs at the "Cartoon Crag", and we picked them all off. There are too many climbs to name, but we fired off (1) 5.8, (1) 5.9, (2) 10a's (1) 10b, (1) 10c, (1) 11a, (1) 11c, (1) 11d, and (1) 12a, all clean. We ran laps on many of them, and lost count after 30. Jodi had a banner day, and lead her second 10b, as well as other 5.8's and 5.9's. I was especially excited, because of the 12a (first go) send. This was my hardest send since my finger injury, and it was nice to see some improvement during the healing process. We climbed until dark, then fixed some camp food and hit the sack.

As a side note, most of the climbs in the canyon where on the short side. With 50' being the standard height. Most climbs were between 4 and 7 bolts. We also found that most of the climbing was very bouldery, and that a lot of the climbs packed some serious power into such a short distance. This was a nice, because we needed a change from the long, pumpy, sustained routes that we have been climbing.

Sunday morning we woke up, fixed some breakfast and hit the cliffs again. We walked across the stream to the other side of the canyon, and checked out an area known as "The Pipelines". We climbed 4 of the 6 climbs over there and each ran several laps on each. The climbs were (2) 5.8's, (1) 5.9+, and (1) 10a. They weren't the best of climbs, but we both had a load of fun. Those climbs took us to about noon, so we headed back to grab some lunch and plan out the rest of the afternoon. We fixed lunch and then decided to head over to an area known as "Sunshine Buttress". These climbs, were on the other side of the parking lot, where more camping was. Again you could have belayed from your tent. Actually, on one climb we belayed next to someone elses tent. That is how close you are to the cliff. We spent the whole afternoon over there and climbed the whole buttress out. There were 6 climbs in total and we did them all. (1) 5.8, (1) 10a, (1) 10b, (1) 10d, (2) 11b's, all clean. Again, we lapped several of them to get a really good workout. It was close to 7pm, so we decided to call it a day, and go back to camp and fix some dinner. As we arrived at our camp spot we noticed a "fiesta" going on. It turns out several locals had decided to set up a picnic right in front of our camp. There were about 25 in total and were grilling out and playing music. Jodi and I thought it was kind of cool so we started talking with them for a while. I guess we were so nice (or maybe they felt bad for taking over the place) but they brought us over a plate full of food for us to split. We talked with them a little more, and really had a cool time. They all left around dark, and to be honest, we kind of missed the "fiesta". Anyways, we watched a couple episodes of "The Office" on DVD before turning in for the night.

Monday we woke up early again, fixed some breakfast, and then off to climb. We hiked over to an area known as "The Rubicon". This was the cream de la cream of the canyon. Every line looked amazing, and most in the 11a-12d range. We warmed up on the only 5.8 there, then pushed on to the harder stuff. We climbed (2) 11b's (1) 11c and (1)12a all clean, before we started to show signs of fatigue. I was happy with the way my finger was holding up, as it allowed me to send another 12a. (again first go). By now it was getting close to mid afternoon and we really didn't have much energy left. On our way back we stopped and put up a climb called "A Little Help From My Friends" (11a). We were looking at the line since we got into the canyon, but never managed to get over there to do it. This was our chance. I put it up first go, but had a rather interesting/scary time doing it. To make a long story short. I was going from the last bolt to the anchors when I stepped up on a hold and it broke. I didn't fall, because my other leg (left) was still on something pretty solid, and the hands were pretty good. I though I kicked off a small piece, but as I looked down it was huge. I yelled "rock" and Jodi moved at the last second. The rock slid down the rope and hit the ground, right next to Jodi. I'm taking inches away. I looked down at Jodi and made sure she wasn't hit and that she was ok. She told me she was fine, but also told me the rock hit the rope. I told her to check it out the best she could, while looking for any damage. She told me she couldn't see any, so I pressed on to the chains and clipped them. She lowered me back to the ground and pointed to the rock I just kicked off. No joke this thing was 2 feet long by about a foot wide. A boulder if you ask me. Definitely wouldn't have been pretty if it hit someone. We sat off to the side for a couple of minutes because we both were a little shook up. We toyed around with climbing something else but quickly lost the desire. We headed back to camp to inspect our rope with a fine tooth comb. As we were inspecting, we did find a section of the rope that had a "bubble" in it. We both have never seen anything like that before in a rope, and weren't going to take any chances. We cut it to check it out, and it ended up being a core strand that lapped over itself. It is very hard to describe but we both knew it wasn't right. The rope was in dire need of retirement anyways, this just confirmed it. The rest of the afternoon/evening we hung out around camp. We cooked some dinner, watched some "Office" and headed to bed. We both were feeling pretty lucky after today. Below is a picture of our camp site next to the "Cartoon Crag". Pretty sweet!!!!