Day 1: Arriving in town we’re welcomed with good temps, tall mountain peaks and ponderosa pines as far as the eye can see. We make a stop at the local climbing gym to inquire about a bouldering guide, only to find that it’s electronic, then head over to Cheba-Hut for a delicious sandwich and internet so we can scope the lines at our first stop, Le Petit Verdon a.k.a. “The Pit”. This sport climbing mecca consists of solid limestone walls 30 to 100 feet tall and boasts some of the hardest routes in the area. With a full belly and happy thoughts, we head to our camp, coincidentally located at The Pit trailhead.
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| Peaceful meadow next to our campsite |
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| Our campsite |
Once settled in, we headed down a steep short trail into the canyon bottom where we then proceeded to slip and climb our way up the other side to the base of the routes.
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| First sighting of The Pit from the trail. |
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| Approaching the base |
Unfortunately for us, on this day, the jaw-dropping vistas and serenity of the forest were sorely interrupted by an obnoxiously loud teen camp with an even louder annoying counselor who kept shouting at the current cadaver on the rope, “Move your foot! Move your foot over there! JUST DO IT!” The climb is a 5.7, the kid is 13, struggling with the climb, and this old guy is yelling non-specific, un-motivational slurs at him. This kid probably doesn’t even want to be up there and I just want to tell them all to “Shut the fuck up!” so I can enjoy the moment in peace. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen as even more people began to steadily arrive at the crag. We quickly warmed up on short route then moved over to the “Gone Wall” where we spent a majority of our time on this fun-filled day. At this crag, there were tons of short and long overhung climbs filled with pockets, rails, and palm-turning roofs; definitely no shortage of overhung climbs there. The roofs were all made with big moves up and out of the overhang, a.k.a. “The Fun Part”, while the faces felt extra high due to the exposure of the canyon dropping away from the cliffs themselves.
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| The Pit |
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| Warming up. Rob and Dusty on the other wall |
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| Steve getting ready for the Gone Wall |
From first sight, I had seen a beautiful face climb that looked superb in its majesty which slowly infatuated my mind, but we didn’t get on it that day, so it was left glorious and mysterious until the next day.
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| Two climbers prepare for the ascent of this beauty called the Swiss Tower |
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| Chris checking our the routes |
While on the Gone Wall, we met two climbers, Robert and Dusty who helped us guideless folk point out some of the routes all around. 9’s, 10’s, 11’s, 12’s, and 13’s could all easily be found here as Robert explained. Little did we know at the time, but Robert actually wrote the guide book to this area and so he gladly informed us of all we wanted to know in our brief encounter. Judging by some extremely hard looking roofs and remnants of old bolts now clipped off at the roof crux, this area showed signs of futuristic 5.14 or 5.15 projects…
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| Hard looking roof..5.13..maybe a future 5.14.. |
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| Same roof different angle |
We return back to camp for some lunch and it’s off to “The Draw”, also conveniently located a short drive from our camp and after meandering through residential streets, we meander a bit more on a dirt road before it dead ends and we’re there. First boulder is right off the road, sweet! Good start to this new area.
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| First boulder is seen from the parking lot |
My impression of this “warm-up” boulder was that this decent-sized rock looked solid and had quite a few chalk marks across the face, enough problems to keep you busy for a little while at least, but unaware of the ludicrous amount of climbable rock just up trail, we settled down at this first boulder.
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| Jofrann pulling on the warm-up boulder |
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| Chris trying out some holds |
Nevertheless, thanks to our evolutionary tactic of thinking ahead, we brought plenty of lights with us so as the night approached we could keep cranking. =) Good thing we did because the other boulders were quality limestone with zero degree, parallel to the ground pocketed roofs. Can you say: pumpy? We met another local climber here, Chris, who gladly showed up around his playground and eventually took us to the Anorexic Roof. No online video or guide could ever prepare you for this powerful, tendon-ripping roof that was littered with both bomber and deceptive pockets alike. This route is a beast! One bad mammajamma! And after watching Chris modestly send, our efforts seemed futile. With light quickly fading we decided to try something that wouldn’t totally drain our energy; precious energy we would need for the next few days. We headed over to The Triangle Boulder for some mellow, high ascents; my warm down for the day. It was 11pm and we were still bouldering into the night with our bright lights full blast. It was incredible to be able to share this experience with good friends in a nice place. Tired from an awesome first day, we receded to camp for some much needed food and sleep.
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| Good mellow vibes in The Draw as the Flagstaff Chris leads us to the Anorexic Roof |
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| Getting ready to try the Anorexic roof |
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| Chris giving a good attempt in artificial light |
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| Back and camp...mellow and tired |
Day 2: After a night of rest and some breakfast we head back to The Pit for Round 2.
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| Back in The Pit for Round 2 |
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| Roping up |
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| Chris on the warm-up |
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| Hanging out waiting our turn |
We warmed up and headed straight for the wall I had been eyeing just the day before. Thanks to Robert and Dusty, we learned that the mysterious route I longed for was called “Mr. Slate”, a 10b classic that is a must-do at The Pit. Turns out he was right, and after the roofed-out pumpfest was over we all had big smiles on our faces having just experienced an awesome route filled with Malibu-style pockets and jugs all fused together with big moves over a roof on this slightly overhung wall known as The Swiss Tower. Yeah, it was awesome!
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| Jah's got it made in the shade at the base of Mr. Slate |
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| Steve on Mr. Slate |
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| Me pulling through the crux on Mr. Slate |
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| Jofrann above the crux on Mr. Slate totally pumped out! |
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| Ain't nothin like a nice barefoot ascent before we head back to camp |
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| Heading back to camp |
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| The boyz are a bit warm in that Arizona sun |
Time to head back to camp for some lunch beneath a tall ponderosa in that friendly Arizona shade, where we relaxed before our next move out to Kelly Canyon. With only an electronic guide to this new bouldering area and no place or time to print it, we lugged around a laptop as a reference to this magical mystery zone; a delicate answer to a tricky situation.
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| Jofrann looking up the routes on his laptop |
Sitting in the shade of a ponderosa, we scanned the laptop screen for directions and then get on the road. Somehow, even with the directions we got lost, made a wrong turn, parked at the wrong spot and hiked up and down into cattle-boned infested area far from where we wanted to be, leaving us desperate to find the canyon boulders we had seen in the pictures just an hour before. We hiked until we finally found the boulders all the way on the other side of the canyon.
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| Chalkless wonder |
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| Warm up boulder |
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| Hidden boulder in the distance |
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| Roof that looks like a dogs head |
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| More chalkless wonders |
Once there, we oOoOooed and ahhhhhed before we came upon two mellow locals who were already busy on the rock, and after another hike and a drive we were ready! One of the climbers, Stephen, stayed in the canyon to continue climbing and join us as our guide through this new bouldering gem we had finally found. It was as if the whole trip had been planned out this way, with a friend to meet us at each spot and be our guide to these wonderful, new areas, but it wasn’t planned. It just happened and that’s the way it should’ve been anyway. By the way, up to this point all the locals we ran into were cool and friendly and Stephen was living proof of this, quite the contrary to what I’d heard in the past; mythbusted! We cranked on a few problems in the Trailer Park, the area where we had originally met Stephen, before moving on to “The Dope Lounge”, an aesthetic V5 classic we had all been waiting to try since we saw it in the movie “Reach”.
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| Finally ready to climb the boulders |
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| Strapping up for The Dope Lounge |
Having already spent quite a bit of time just trying to finding the right spot, the sun was beginning to retreat as we arrived at The Dope Lounge. This big overhanging boulder has a sweet, obvious line straight up the middle. There are no secret holds or crimps to crank off of, just good holds between big moves that shoot straight up and out of a roof. Nothing else to it. Just grow yourself a pair…errr, I mean biceps that is, and do it! Well, apparently my biceps weren’t big enough to complete the moves and I wasn’t alone on this one. After a series of serious attempts by all of us, we headed out of the canyon with just enough light left for the hike out. By now, we were physically and mentally tired, however none of this mattered because our motivation towards this latest area were so high, that it just overpowered any tired thoughts we might be thinking of having the next day; mind over body, psyche over exhaustion.
Day 3: We slept good and woke up sore but still motivated and stoked that we were going to get a full day in Kelly’s Canyon (hehehe). Nothing could stop us on our last day. It was time to give our best efforts and lose all the skin we had left on our fingertips. Having just tasted a small portion of the full meal at Kelly Canyon the day before, there was plenty of hand-sanding to be done on these super quality sandstone boulders. We got to the correct parking lot with ease and descended down to the boulders within minutes of leaving the car, quite a luxury when compared to the 2-hour frustration we endured just the day before. Once down at the boulders, we find that we’ve got the whole place to ourselves and decide to head to the “Warm-up Wall” for some high cruxes and slippery, slopey mantel topouts to start the day off right.
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| The Warm Up boulder |
After some struggles and successes, we moved across the way to another boulder with a wicked overhanging traverse on solid jugs and pockets. There was such a nice flow to every move and plenty of room for heels and toes, that we easily got sucked into this fun but tough problem.
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| Steve entering the crux on this fun, quality problem |
However, with so much more to try, we moved back into The Trailer Park to try some other hard problems. In the shade, we projected a small pocketed, crimped out V6 which shuts us all down, but not before sending a sweet V4 crack to the right with a high topout which is unfortunately covered by overgrowth that blocked the upper-half of the line. Dropdown send and off we were to the next area, Donkey Punch. This area provided us with some more good challenges and the V6 Donkey Punch problem provided us with a punch in the face once we saw and touched the miniscule holds, however, this didn’t break our psyche because The Dope Lounge was next. Now late into the day, we noticed a slow, but steady flow of climbers now entering the canyon; we knew our time was almost done. We had trained on the “Mini-lounge” earlier in the day so that way we could send the real Dope lounge but it seems that we either hadn’t trained enough or were just drained from the whole trip to stick the big moves required for the send. Either way, it was awesome to just be there, try it out, and have something else to look forward to the next time around. Suddenly, the area felt crowded and we began to get a bit tense with so many people around and there was our cue to leave and so we did just that.
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| In the Trailer Park |
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| Jah on a slopey V3, apparently the hardest V3 around |
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| Steve catching the small pocket on this V6 |
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| Steve trying the dyno in his sandals |
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| Trying to "read" Donkey Punch |
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| Steve trying the first crux move on Dope Lounge |
Not one minute had passed after we arrived at camp, when the mood turned sour as the campground host shot our way in his golf cart and demanded we pay for another night even though we leaving that same hour. Ridiculous! And after a heated debate and a threat to call the sheriff, we scrounged together our last dollars to pay “The Man”, an old, grumpy, and unsympathetic character who we were happy to get off our back. Once everything was packed, we sardined into the big metal box again and headed west. Final destination: home.
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| A peaceful setting in our last minutes in Flagstaff |
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| Having a little fun with the camera |
Final Thoughts: Overall, the trip was a great success and a lot of fun. I’ll admit that the sound of Arizona in the summer didn’t bring the pleasant thoughts that one might get when thinking of a place like Yosemite, but I was proved wrong, and I’d definitely go back to that spot sometime in my future. Arizona gets a bad rap for their record-setting temps, but Flagstaff has it all figured out, and they even have a ski resort close by! All four bros, Me, Jofrann, Chris, and Steve cranked quite hard the few days we were there even popping some ibuprofens to help with the pain and soreness to let us keep climbing, but nobody pulled hard this trip than Steve. That kid has got some hidden beast inside of him that only gets revealed once he’s on the rock. For the majority of the trip, he was the first one to send the problems that we were trying and then push the limits of our climbing inevitably creating a new limit for himself and that was inspiring. He’s a little bro now, but soon he’ll be a big player in the game if he stays with it. Chris and Jofrann surprised me both with their camping skills and general outdoorsman ship, not to mention their performance on the rock as well. Chris projected a .12 in The Pit, and I tried out this new grade which was foreign to me, so I was stoked to give it a try and just get a feel for it. For amateur climbers, I felt like we were kicking ass and being super productive with our time there, so that kept the psyche level high. I’m not going into more detail about grades but we were all pushing our limits out there and that’s what really counts. All the areas we visited were filled with more than one lifetime worth of climbing and all the other spots that we didn’t go to but only heard about seemed to give this place a feel of limitless potential. Knowing this, the locals are freely sharing their established areas but keeping their secret spots a secret for sure. So, the town retains this low-pro status as the world’s best climbers continually pass it up for places further west like Bishop or the mountains to the east in Colorado. Fuck it, let em. Cali props to Flagstaff for the mellow awesomeness and a sideways thumbs to the sideways way of life there.
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| On the road headed west |
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| Its hard to capture sunset in moving vehicle |
