Send of 'Air Swedin' 5.13R

Bitch yeah! Life is good!
After the really nice rest days at Tom’s dad Condo in Moab Kevin, Liesel and I went back to the lovely Creek! Tom and Mike left to Joe’s Valley to do their boulder thing again!


On Monday Kevin, Liesel and I woke up early enough to go and try ‘Air Swedin’ again! I tried it once more in top(gay)rope and then gave it a real try with all the gear! This was my second try on lead and my 4th try in general. I felt way better while I was climbing but I screwed up my beta just before I could place the C3 #0 BD and I fell, I fell deep, really deep! I was psyched! Not scared at all, just really concentrated! I love that feeling, that’s why I climb! After that try, the line was too much in the sun to try it again! So I waited the rest of the day. I wanted to climb but I had a pretty bad headache so a just slept in a little place of shade behind a little boulder. When that headache was a little better I climbed a little to stay awake and ready for a second try in the late afternoon when the line was back in the shade.
At six pm I tried it again! And guess what? I flew up that line like it was nothing! I was in the best focus ever! And it’s pretty necessary to be in a good focus if you do the crux of a 13R 3 meters above a tiny piece of gear! I love this line and am glad I could do it!

The day after that Indian Creek for me was open again! We went to the 4x4 wall where I did my first 5.12+ (‘Hydraulic Pump’) only in my second go! It’s a nice .5 to .75 BD splitter with some lay-backing and two difficult corner switches at the start and in the end!
Those two last days where great and I feel I’m really getting in to crack climbing!

On Wednesday I had an easier day of climbing but a lot of hiking was involved! Ken (One of my favorite Canadian!) and I did the North Six Shooter! This is one of the two obvious towers in Indian Creek! The hike took us two hours but it was worth it. We did the line called ‘Lightning Bolt Cracks’ (5.11-). This is only a three pitch line but it’s at the highest point in the Creek and it’s nice and exposed! Ken lead the first pitch and I lead the second and the third because of the rotten anchor at the second pitch. The last pitch is a 5.9 unprotected squeeze chimney! For the ones who don’t know what a chimney is, just think about a crack in the rock that is too big to place fingers, hands, arms, feet or legs! But the crack is big enough to crawl in to! So I got as deep as I could into that crack and used my feet, knees, back and hands to go up! You can see at as two opposite walls with nothing to hold on and you just compress your body between the walls and struggle your way up! And the squeeze of squeeze chimney means that it’s pretty small. My head and helmet got stuck a couple of times! Really scary climbing because once you relax your body, you just slip down! Even this was an awesome experience and I’ll do it again!
The view from the top of the tower was amazing, we could see all over the Creek, Canyon lands and the Abajo Mountains.


Yesterday I found somebody to go to Zion National Park but this morning he changed his mind and decided to go home today according to his original plan! So I still don’t have a climbing partner for Zion! I really want to do ‘Moonlight Buttress’ (V 5.12d), a hard but classic 9 pitch climb! It is hard to find a partner for this climb because I want to free-climb it. Two weeks ago Lauren told me that she news some people who lives near Zion where I maybe can climb with! I’m going to try to contact them because I don’t want to leave Utah before I did some big walls on sandstone! Today I left Indian Creek for real; I’m going to join Tom and Mike at Joe’s Valley for a couple of days! It was really sad to leave this place! Indian Creek is by far my favorite place in America until now. I’m really going to miss this place! Everything was perfect! Tons of different walls, beautiful free camping, far enough from civilization, nice people, all climbing grades, beautiful environment, high quality sandstone and easy to gear placements! You see? This place is amazing!

This is a little tick list of my best climbs out here:

- Air Swedin 5.13R
- Hydraulic Pump 5.12+
- Tenderloins 5.12
- Slice and Dice 5.12
- Not That Funny 5.12-
- Comic Relief 5.12-
- T-Bones Tonight 5.12-
- Swedin-Ringle 5.12-

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