Moab III Day 2

DAY 2

Lost World Butte

Innumerable options for day 2 and we chose to head north to look at The Sphinx and Canyon Point Butte, both graded at 5.7 (repeat ascents for Evan and me). Of course “Slugman” had to open his big slug mouth with, “Let’s try Pearly Gates” on Lost World Butte, at 5.5, A1, instead. All right – let’s see how that goes!

Getting to the base of the butte was the first crux of the day. Evan skilfully negotiated a path through and over the wild terrain of steep slick rock and sandy paths to a point only a 10 minute hike from the start of the route.

We then tackled the first 5.4 pitch with Evan leading. It became immediately evident that climbing in a group of four was impractical to say the least. Nevertheless, we continued up the next pitch and were soon confronted with the second crux of the day - the bolt ladder up a slightly over hanging, blank rock face to the summit.

Even though we could see the second bolt was missing its hanger, Evan stepped up again and led the aid route to the top, using the wire of a nut as a substitute for the missing hanger. I, for one, had my fingers crossed as he climbed the etrier that was attached to the wire and then reached for the third hanger. The wire held and Evan completed the ascent. Well done again!

And there ends the good stuff.

Jordan and Dan had never aid climbed and my last experience with it was a half-hearted effort up Happy Turk, 3 years ago. The bolt ladder was about 65 m above the ground with nothing but air below. This was not a good place for anyone’s first attempt at aid climbing. Still, Jordan was courageous enough to give it a go (I dare not even look over the edge, yet alone attempt to climb the exposed face above!).

Unfortunately, determination alone was not going to get any of us up that face. The missing hanger, lack of equipment, and our general inexperience translated to failure. Jordan attempted to climb the rope, but that too was futile. When Evan shouted from above, “What should we do?”, my immediate (perhaps panicked response) was “BAIL!”. Everyone was in agreement and after Evan rappelled to join us, we all retreated down the mercifully easy route we came up. A slow, but scenic drive out of the area ended the day.

Even though Evan was the only one who reached the top of the route, we all learned a great deal from the attempt and everyone had fun. Plus, Slugman agreed to refrain from decision-making for the rest of the trip - BONUS!!