Back in Time, Back in Ved

So, here’s another post about activities we did a few weeks ago. I put photos from one day that weekend up in the gallery.

So, two weekends ago, July 21 & 22, we spent our first weekend back at climbing in Vedauwoo since we left for vacation. Saturday was hot, and we weren’t feeling strong, so we hiked out to Jurassic Park, an area we had never been to. It took us a little while to find the climbs we were looking for. Though, we did spend about an hour laying around in rock caves and in the sun enjoying the view.

Around lunchtime, Ann and Dylan found their way to our little crag. It was so nice to see Dylan hike up around the corner, glance up at the wall and exclaim “Oooo! Sport climbs!”

He started us out on an exciting lead of First Iteration (5.9+), a fun steep slab climb with a few bolts. Dylan got the redpoint (of course), but he had to do some wild, huge sidesteps back and forth across the face. I fell a few times but found my way up eventually, and it felt good to be back on the rock, and on my toes again.

Mark had a great lead of Recombination Mutation (5.7) after this. The climb goes through a squeeze opening to start out, and Mark had some trouble getting himself and his gear through. He actually spun a full 360-degrees before deciding how to proceed upwards. I had a ball on this climb, which finishes in a fu-u-un handcrack after the cool little chimney. My favorite two things about Ved in one climb, chimneys and handcracks!

Our last climb of the day was Sore-O-Pod (5.8). This was a long, grunting, grinding handcrack that we all climbed on TR from the First Iteration anchor. It was hard, especially after being off the rock for so long, but I had a great time on it.

Saturday night we camped out with Dylan and Ann, and enjoyed celebrating breaking in their new camper! It was an exciting evening, with fans grinding up metal, batteries going dead (and causing carbon monoxide alarms to beep), and giant moth attacks!!

Sunday morning, Mark and I hopped on Ted’s Trot (5.7). I’ve done this climb before but Mark was out of the country. This time, Mark got to try it. The pro wasn’t as good as I remembered it, and Mark did not enjoy the beginning chimney as much as I did. The crux was really interesting, though, and he figured it out and had a great time to finish. It was a great morning, and we had enough time to get everybody up and down before most of the rain hit.

Hello Vedauwoo, we’re back!