Moab, Utah

Bouldering in Joe's Valley near Orangeville, Utah, has been as good, and better, than promised. We put in 4 full days before being forced to take a rest due to Mani's inability to climb. But more on that later. Joe's Valley is in the middle of nowhere Utah, Salt Lake City is about 2.5 hrs drive away. Orangeville has everything you need though, and the free camping and fires make the valley pretty attractive. It's also a very happening  place, with bouldering bums occupying most of the available campsites. This has been great for socializing while working on problems together, and Ryan always has someone else to project hard stuff with. I am in full bouldering mode now, sport climbing is at the back of my mind and I just wanna send, send, send. Luckily this is easily done at Joe's, where my first V5 ever I flashed and subsequently got my first V6 in two tries. Soft grades much? I think so but I'll take it. Or maybe we are just in great shape now, it is the end of our 3 months-climbing-almost-every-day trip. Ryan has ticked off several V7s and a V8, and I'm sure he'll be adding to it when we get back there in a couple days.

For now we are sitting in a coffee shop in rainy Moab, killing time and resting my finger. (I sliced a lot of skin off sending a V5, aka the biggest flapper ever). So it's been game over for me for climbing for a while, I figure I'll climb on it in a couple of days since it will have all the time in the world to heal once we're heading home. I'm enjoying this last bit of our trip though, Moab is great to check out. Lots of mountain bikers here, it is supposed to be world renown for biking. Of course there is lots of splitter crack climbing here but we are not on that train. Only on the bouldering train. We've camped beside some boulders up the Colorado River in a beautiful canyon, unfortunately the wind and rain is keeping us from checking things out around here. Hopefully tomorrow will be better so we can see Arches.

This may well be the last post and since pictures tell more than my silly stories here are some to look at:

The picturesque Zion

The hardships of bouldering

Ryan on Big Joe V7

Colorado River from our campsite, outside of Moab

Moab sandstone, not as good as Joe's!

Hot days in Sin City

We're back in the city of sin again. Just can't seem to stay away from all the slot machines and black jack games. No really, it is kind of fun and as long as we get more free coronas than the amount of money we're losing it's all good. We feel to have come out on top.
The days have been hot here in Vegas, we have actually busted out our shorts. This warm weather is making us lazy and so we have gone bouldering most days. Ryan has topped his best bouldering problems by sending a V8 today. This is cause for more gambling and free drinks at the Red Rocks Casino.
Before coming back to Vegas we were in and around St. George. It seems our expectations for the area was too high, as we didn't get too motivated or stoked on any of the routes/areas. I think we're just getting picky, having come from some of the other areas we've loved so much.
So the trip is coming to an end pretty quickly, and our motivation level to climb along with it. Truthfully we are already dreaming about getting on some hard routes in Revelstoke. Before heading home though we'll be bouldering in a place called Joes Valley. Free camping and apparently some of the best sandstone bouldering awaits us.