The last day in July I piled in a car with Matt Lloyd, Dan Cornella, D Scott Clark and loads of gear. We drove North from Denver. Our first stop was Buffalo Wyoming, the area is Piney Creek. Home to a small under developed crag with some excellent Ten Sleep esque limestone sport climbing.
Once we finished our climbing in Wyoming it was back into the 4Runner heading North for the Canadian border.
We made it to the border about 12 hours later (roughly 10pm).
Long story short, we were turned away at the border. Now the original plan was to go to Mt. Temple and climb the North face. Which would've been, very big, very hard, very scary and very dangerous. So we needed a back up plan to make up for that.
Our first step was a 600' Multi-pitch sport climb in Black Leaf Canyon, Montana.
On Limestone.
It was quite awesome. But then it was time to move on.
The next step was to jump in the car and drive from Montana to Idaho, camp around midnight in Idaho then finish the drive to the Sawtooth Range.
When we got to the Sawtooth Range we parked, loaded up, boarded a boat to take us 6 miles across a lake.
After swimming for a bit.
We began the 4 mile entirely uphill trek to the camp site.
Past the wobbly bridges we found our camp site right next to these beautiful alpine lakes.
The next morning we were up at 5:00am to start the 10 pitch 1000' tall climb.
Matt leading pitch 7
Note: We finished the climb on a slab pitch while it rained on us.
We walked off the climb, and hiked back to the lake only just getting there in time to catch the last boat back to the car. Dog tired we drove a little ways to a hotel and crashed for the night. Our next day was the trips rest day. We watched Guardians of the Galaxy - well worth a watch.
Next was a day of single pitch sport climbing in Logan, Utah.
Here is Matt onsighting a cool 5.11c we found
After climbing in Logan we headed over to Salt Lake to join the Hippy Tree Crew at a concert event they put on.
That night we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta Ski Resort and camped there 3 of us in the car and one us underneath. It was a rough night.
After 5 hours of sleep it was time to wake up and climb this awesome 700' 5.10b. I didn't bring the camera but it was beautiful. The only catch was there was a ton of loose rock on the route. It was a little scary.
This was Thursday, after the route in Alta we drove to Salt Lake and joined the OR show for the day.
Friday the entire day was spent at the OR show in Salt Lake.
Note: The Outdoor Retailer Show is a giant trade show for everyone in the outdoor industry. It's pretty cool and quite overwhelming your first time.
Saturday We drove to Maple Canyon Utah. Maple holds some of the most ugly climbing I've been on. However - It's tons of fun. If you've never been. Add it to your list.
Sunday we drove to Carbondale, CO and went to an area called the Fins
After a short day of climbing and a Free Solo by Matt we jumped into the car and drove home.
3,000 Miles
10 Day Trip
7 Days of Climbing
7 New Areas
5 States
4 People
3 Hotel Rooms
It's always an adventure.
Keith
