Another Fun Filled Desert Weekend

After several phenomenal weekends of skiing and more or less a great spring skiing cycle in general...I've had a lingering desire to head back to Indian Creek before the shade searching days of summer set in. This coupled with the fact that several of my friends were posting amazing photos of the southern deserts forced me to reiterate the idea of a climbing trip to Chesy and Mark. We left Saturday morning in light of a cancelled Grandeur Peak Fun Run and found exactly what we came to the desert for; torn skin, blood, sore forearms, and shoulder rashes that you can't quite tell if they're from a dihedral or a sun burn. 

Desert flowers 

Nak would just about lose it every time one of these guys would dart across the trail.

Now for some climbing photos: We arrived in the early afternoon on Saturday and decided to start at Supercrack given the lack of cars we saw in the parking lot.

Chesy on the 5.11 portion of Incredible Hand Crack...I can't imagine doing that roof as a fist crack (hence 5.11 for her) but she crushed it! 

Mark leading up 3 a.m. crack 

Nak being lazy 

 Supercrack

Me leading Scarface

More of the same

Nak giving a real attentive belay 

Mark finishing up Scarface 

 Chesy giving it a go

Wavy Gravy 

Nak was much more interested in the local animal habitat than anyone climbing 

Roof spanking

Tips spanking 

Spanked...The End

South Thunder and Lone Peak

Woke up early on Saturday, True Alpine Start (4:45 a.m.), and jetted up Bells Canyon. Skied the false summit of South Thunder, then booted up to the real summit, knocked that off too. Had intentions of getting into the NE couloir of Lone Peak but Mother Nature had intentions of allowing me to ski just the lower snowfield.

Spring skiing is the best! Also nothing beats the look on the faces of the hikers going up Bells as you descend.

Saw this crack from a distance...had to test it out...might have to go for some FA's in the summer/fall.

 Box Elder, Timp, Utah Lake

Mighty Lone 

Big Dummy

Never know who you might meet on the summit registry

Looking back at South Thunder from the Lone Apron 

 Lone Apron

In like a Lion

An old English proverb describes March weather as typically in like a lion and out like a lamb or vice versa, as skiers we'd hope you get a little more lion until about...mid May. With this most recent storm cycle it's clear it has been very lion-like lately.

Argenta on Saturday, the upper half skied gloriously, the lower half...not so much.

With a full day free on Sunday we first headed to Little Pine Couloir until we were about half way up the Chute, when we saw slide debris that lasted forever (at least 500 yards). Not interested in skinning and skiing half the chute littered with debris we headed elsewhere. Here Mark Swartz is harvesting what we came for, unrestricted by avy debris.

Holy Toledo in poor lighting

Two Trees: Mt Superior

Nak got to come out afterwards: here she is leading the way up Ferguson Canyon. 

On the Run (Photo Dump)

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here, and I must admit now I'm simply posting to break a two month fast. Albeit, I have put in a significant amount of climbing and skiing days. Most of them however, have reluctantly taken place at night, either under the glow of a headlamp or at Momentum climbing gym. In both cases there's clearly not much need for photography. Although I feel with spring on the way this will soon change. I have gathered a few dozen random photos (several of which are "good enough to post") to add to my collection here; for your enjoyment nonetheless.

Little Pine Couloir

Another gorgeous view from Indian Creek (Taken from "The Wall")

Lizard Head Wall

Chesy cleaning up Blue Collar Crack

Working on her splits

New Camera New Footage

This past year I've had the pleasure of doing joint research with a company named Curza (more info can be found here) more or less it's a way of funding my measly graduate salary working on antimicrobials etc. Curza is a subsidiary/branch/whatever you want to call it, of Clarke Capital Partners whom recently bought out Contour in light of their recent closing. Since they knew I had a knack for pretending to be cool they gave me a ContourRoam 2 video camera. Without using any other type of helmet cam i.e. GoPro I can't say one is better than the other, but the Contour certainly does the job.

I'd tried (key word being try) to make a movie of last Sunday's (12.15.13) trip to Indian Creek...enjoy. 

Indian Creek Take 1 from Travis Haussener on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving (Creek Style)

Chesy and I packed up and took off for IC last Wednesday. Didn't get any climbing photos but...thought I'd share a few others. 

Chesy prepping

So much for "mostly sunny" 

 Deep fry

Final product...well deserved

There's something special about Indian Creek

 I think the title speaks for itself...aside from the occasional send parties...Indian Creek has now become my most treasured climbing spot (along with hordes of other people, I'm fully aware of that). I'm also aware that broadcasting this sort of information can have drastic consequences but if you haven't heard of this place by now you probably never will. These last several weeks my schedule has been, more or less, work Sunday to Friday, leave work Friday night, climb all day Saturday, rest, repeat.

This weekend was no different except I decided to opt for the full weekend off and try to bruise and batter myself in as many ways as possible. Another wonderful advantage of living in the Salt Lake area is that the creek is a mere 4.5 hrs southeast and even with a full study schedule Chesy was able to make a trip down on Saturday evening. Hence why there are less "belay shots" in the pictures below...Enjoy.

Mark on Blue Sun needless to say, Chesy hasn't arrived yet.

 Scenery 

Nak got to come too, here she is posing.

Anunnaki (5.12- most hardasses say 5.11+)

Trying to figure out the sequence

............And aiding (so I can't say)

Tiny Hands Chesy giving it a go

Chesy finally leading

Two beautiful girls.

The End