Utah 2007
Katy Holm on Super CrackIndian Creek
I don't really know what to write about Indian Creek. It took me ten years to get to this place, since my first journey through the canyon-cum-river-valley in 1998. That was a bad trip. We had a guy who was discovering that he didn't like camping road trips. He had done sort of okay on the drive over from Vancouver, but he was losing it. We'd be listening to music and I was singing along and he'd say
"Hey, who sings this song again?"
"U2. Why?"
"Well, why don't you let U2 sing it?"
That sort of shit. I starting surreptiously cutting him off the edges of group pictures so that I could erase all memory of him in my photo albums. The car broke down alot too, and what with one thing and another we didn't do any climbing. We camped at Squaw Flats and watched rattlesnakes chase rabbits. In the years since, I have driven by the cut-off for The Creek twice without stopping. Finally, in the vaccuum and aching emptiness that followed a really good 2006 climbing trip, Jay Burbee and I committed to come to Indian Creek in March of 2007.
Originally my brother Dave was supposed to come along but there were two problems with that:
1) Dave's boss is a douche bag
Apparently 6 months wasn't quite enough notice for Dave's boss, who threatened to fire him if he took the week off. Incredibly, being this integral to a company hasn't reflected itself in wages.
2) Dave makes most of my friends uncomfortable
It's undeniable. Dave has this uncanny ability to find the most ridiculous and inappropriate position in any conversation. I'm usually enough beers along to enjoy it and be a bit inappropriate myself, but this style of conversational humour is not everyone's cup of tea. In fact, it was nobody's cup of tea except for Jay, Dave, and I. So when Dave couldn't make it, a few more folks climbed out of the woodwork. Katy and Julie agreed to split the gas and driving with us and we headed out to Utah as a four.
Jay Burbee on Pente
Katy Holm on Ship Of FoolsIndian Creek is pretty much the World's Hugest Collection of Crack which is great because in my years of climbing, I have come to love crack more than anything else. When you're on that rock, and it's crack, that's all that matters to you.
I also discovered that cragging at Indian Creek is different than cragging pretty much anywhere else that I've been. Since all the routes are long and steep, and continuous, you're well toasted after about 4 pitches. That ended up being a big day for me. One day I could only manage 3 pitches. How pathetic.
I would have to admit that after three or four cragging days at Indian Creek I was a bit restless. We usually broke camp by 11 am, and got to the crag of the day by noonish. I've never really been a "crack-o-noon" sort of guy but it's hard to fight the group on that one for a number of reasons.
A) Making people go faster in the morning just means that they will be bitchy and tired by the time they reach the crag.
B) Starting early in Indian Creek is pointless because you're only going to climb 4 pitches anyway. What's the hurry?
C) My usual modus operandi FINISH EARLY - DRINK BEER was desperately compromised by Utah's 3.0% beer. It was a tragedy to discover that we had forgotten to buy normal beer before crossing the state line. Despite my best efforts, vast consumptions of Pabst Blue Ribbon in the evening only led to a distended bladder.
Gee, an arty-farty picture of a rock!
Camping at the Bridger Jack MesaSo, eventually, we ran away from Indian Creek to go do a tower or two:
Washer Woman Tower
&The White Rim Road
back to Utah main
