Where: Climbing around St. George, southern Utah
When: September 16 - 22, 2006

We forgot the camera. Perhaps it was a good thing; we savored each and every fiery sunset and delicious view of the hills. Frank tried to capture some of the landscape in his sketches.

These paintings from memory somehow don't capture the vividness or the lightness, but they are those colors.

The yarn, purchased at the town's yarn store, captures some of them: sunset reds, desert whites and golds, leaf and shrub greens, limestone greys, sky cyans and blues. Sometimes when I look at the yarn I can imagine all the colors we saw. With digital photographs there isn't a whole lot to imagine, as it's right there in front of you. Memories are sweeter and more poignant.

On to the meat of the trip: the climbing! We were supposed to go farther North to Maple Canyon, but decided to try St. George's climbing areas. We camped for the better part of the week at Welcome Springs crag, and climbed at the three main walls there: Sumo, Wailing, and Cathedral. The trails to each were clearly marked, but the approaches weren't. Strike 1 for the guidebook. The climbs were the best at Cathedral, with brown limestone; Wailing's warm-up was a bit hard (holds probably broke off); Sumo's climbs weren't marked clearly. As a matter of fact, none of the routes on Sumo's or Wailing's were marked clearly, so what we mistook for a 10d at Sumo was actually an 11d. Strike 2 for the guidebook.

I'd definitely go back there just for the climbing at the Cathedral Wall. There are a few climbs I'd like to try (one that Frank onsighted), and one I'd like to redpoint. The thing is, we had the old guidebook. The new one, I hope, is clearer.

We took our rest day in St. George. There was quite a bit of construction on St. George Boulevard, lots of housing development scattered across the countryside around the base of the mountains. Do they really need six golf courses there in the middle of the desert? I say build a climbing gym. Preferably next to a yarn store.

Our fourth--and last--day of climbing was at Chuckawalla wall, a mere mile out of town. Damn it. We have the choss pile named Echo an hour and a half away, and they have this solid wall within walking distance. Great rock. Lots of pockets. Good redpoints and onsights. It's in the sun the whole day so it's perfect for winter.

Talked to Lauren Lee at the Chuckawalla Wall and at the Cathedral Wall approach; talked to Jorge Visser at the Cathedral Wall approach as well. Frank didn't think it was them but as I put it, how many climbing couples named Lauren and Jorge did he know? It's like Frank and MJ: you know who you're talking about.

Our last night of camping near the reservoir was nice, but in the middle of the night there was a bit of a strong wind. Argh. In the morning we woke up to find that the strong wind had swirled the sand around our tent and left the finest layer of dust all over our faces, our pillows, and our sleeping bags. Thankfully it was our last night, and after climbing at Chuckawalla we drove back home on Friday.