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Climbing

Creeksgiving 2015

While the weather looks great it was cool, as evident by the puffy jackets.
While the weather looks great it was cool, as evident by the puffy jackets.

November 25-27, 2015

Fun times in the Creek.  Carly, Matt, Patrick and I caravaned to the desert the day before Thanksgiving planning to spend 5 days there.  We got a sweet campsite and then went out climbing for the day at a wall called High Horse.  We ended up not climbing too much that day except for Patrick who had an epic battle with a 120′ overhanging #4 sized crack.  While the MountainProject and the plaque at the base called it 5.10+, there’s no way it was 5.10+ with the size it was.  Patrick ended up finishing it with a few hangs and I was able to get some cool photos of him on the route.

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Patrick working on Standard.

Our campsite got filled with friends of friends of friends and we probably had close to 25 people.  We avoided the crowd and headed to Broken Tooth Wall on T-day with good friends Micah, Hillary, Ixta, and our gang.  I didn’t climb anything all that hard except a long varying hand crack called Gold Crown which was a blast.

Of course we did the whole Thanksgiving dinner.  Carly and I cooked a turkey ahead of time as well as a pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce.  Matt and Patrick brought some other sides and we had a great meal sparing none of the traditional T-Day foods.

Friday I wanted to get a little bit of aerobic in and take a rest day from climbing so Carly and I walked up Donnelly Canyon for a way.  We explored some of the small off shoot drainages and tried to make our way up to the rim.  We got stopped a couple hundred vertical feet from the rim by a layer of rock that made a bit of a steeper cliff band than we wanted to negotiate in approach shoes and no rope.  The weather through the day got cooler and finally the clouds fully covered the sky.  As Carly and I made our way back to the car the wind picked up and some flakes flew through the air.  About 20 minutes later it began snowing.  Our friends made it back to the car and we all headed to camp.  The snow was accumulating and after some thought Matt, Carly and I headed back to SLC to go skiing rather than deal with more less than favorable weather in the desert in the coming days.

A really tight and interesting tunnel behind a massive pillar at Donnelly Canyon.
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While the weather looks great it was cool, as evident by the puffy jackets.
Thanksgiving Day climbing at Broken Tooth.
Carly watching.
Ixta wondering when the sun is going to go behind a cloud and make the temps more forgiving for her.
Great view of Indian Creek from Broken Tooth.
Sunsetting over the Bridger Jacks.
Frosty morning after Thanksgiving. The whiskey was no worse for wear, though we were.
Awesome hoar frost in the morning.
Carly and I hiked up Donnelly Canyon to the end of a small branch. This natural ampitheather was really peaceful. I was hoping we'd spot some pre-historic art, but no luck.
The lines, colors, and shapes in the desert never fail to please.
Clouds building in the afternoon. About an hour after this it started to snow.
Back at camp. A snow storm rolled through and left a dusting. Matt, Carley and I decided we didn't like the prospects of the weather for the remainder of the weekend so we headed back to SLC.

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