Joe's Valley

Usually when the spring weather in Colorado sucks the best thing to do is bail to Joe's Valley. This was not the case last week, as somebody must have hijacked Cobra's Weather Dominator and used it to devastate Utah with snow. Lots of snow.

On Monday the tops of the Jordan and Eden boulders were buried under a foot and a half of snow. Blackout was obscured by a two foot thick mound of ice, though the Gentlemen's Project was completely dry. The Masterpiece was under so much snow that the entire boulder blended into the hillside. Trent's Mom had a waterfall streaming down from the topout and the start holds were seeping.

 Though the holds on Worst Case Scenario were dry, the top was a sheet of ice. We had to camp in the left fork, as all the parking and camping sites in the right fork were inaccessable. Hiking up to Battletoads/Playmate of the Year would involve post-holing up to your thigh, and anything past the mine was approacable only by snowmobile. Ghost King had a nice drizzle of snowmelt covering all the holds, and the other lines on that boulder were 100% wet. Nevertheless, our small posse saddled up and rode into New Joe's, where there were dry boulders to be found.

Matt Miller sends Chips

 

I Would Rather Be Climbing Her

 Resident Evil

The rest of the week was a frustrating battle with conditions. Despite lots of snow removal, the start of Trent's Mom remained wet until Friday. The Jordan boulder was 90% wet when we left on Friday, and there looked to be enough snow left on top to keep it that way for another week or so. Eden never dried out while we were there, though there wasn't any snow left on the topout. Ghost King was dry on Friday, until another snow storm blew through and soaked it again. 

On the plus side, I got to check out a few problems I'd never seen before: Black Dahlia, The Obelisk, Groundation, and Prince of Thieves. I've always been interested in Prince of Thieves, but I must say that I lost most of that interest upon firsthand inspection. Several of the holds are sharp and uncomfortable, and the line is less obvious than I imagined. Also, it's quite tall and the landing is not exactly a confidence booster. Still, it has nice black rock and would be a very worthy send, should the mood strike. The other three problems looked very good.

I didn't get to climb nearly as much as I wanted, as most of the things I was psyched on were in some stage of weather-based unclimbability, but it was a good time with good friends, so I can't complain too much. Too, I got to play with my camera a bit more than usual, which was nice.

A

Matt really needs a cowboy hat, and a blade of grass hanging from his lips

As a warning to anyone heading out to Joe's in the next week, be careful! Every boulder has been soaking up water for the last week and holds are waiting to explode. They Call Him Jordan has already broken, and we all know what happened to The Knocking Room. Also, the hillsides, especially in the left fork, are very unstable. Each day the road was littered with fresh rockfall, and throughout the week we could hear the rumbling of rockslides. Spooky.