Climbnskate: Little Cottonwood Adventures

Little Cottonwood Adventures

Prime Rib V9

After Joe's Valley we headed up to Little Cottonwood and Salt Lake City. We were desperate for the comforts of the city and some awesome granite climbing. It was great to also see Ben's best friend Kenny who came out climbing with us a few times. By this point in the trip Roxana and I were feeling pretty tired and warn down. I just felt like climbing easier lines and trying to get some endurance back up. On our rest days we would go into town to hang out with Kenny. We would skateboard a lot since the skate parks in Salt Lake were pretty cool. Ben and Kenny got some cool clips and reminisced about their childhood days.
On climbing days, Ben, of course, wanted to try hard projects and seemed to be rejuvenated once we got to Salt Lake. The first order of business was Prime Rib V9. This is a highball beautiful line up that sits up a steep hill on the south side of the canyon. It is one of the most beautiful lines I have seen. Luckily we had Kenny to help up spot on this day because it would have been a sketchy fall otherwise. Ben then continued to tick off some other pretty sweet lines like Gerbils V9. This is a super technical line that required very intricate foot placement. Ben tried it for about 45 minutes and then figured out he needed to move his foot an inch to the right and sent it first go with the new beta. Little Cottonwood is similar to Squamish in this way because the beta is so precise. Unless you have everything just right you won't send.

Gerbils V9

While Ben was working Gerbils I sent a couple cool V3's and V4's in the area and then tried a sweet lowball called Squeeze It V5. This line was perfect after injuring my finger on Chips V7 in Joe's Valley because the holds were all pretty big slopers and underclings. It was hard to pull my butt off the ground because it started on the underclings and then made a big move up left to a sloper. This line is super cool for how low to the ground it is. It required power and compression and I was psyched to send it. It brought some confidence back since I was feeling weak after Joe's.

Squeeze It V5

Another way in which Little Cottonwood is similar to Squamish is that the grades feel stiff. There was one line in particular that felt super hard for the grade. It was this famous V3 called Fat Albert Gang in a pretty popular road side area. It had the most slippery feet and required you to lie back this arête and slowly walk your feet up the arête in order to reach the top. I slipped off that thing for almost an hour before I sent it. This is a frustrating but important part about climbing. I felt that I should have sent this line much earlier than I did and I started to get fed up with it. I had to remind myself that my ego and the grade shouldn't get in the way of me trying hard on the line and enjoying it. It is important to not let the grade become more important than the climbing. If its hard its hard and no matter what the grade its worth trying.

Twisted V4

Fat Albert Gang V3

I think realizing this and being willing to try lines of all grades and project them is essential for improving. It creates patience and perseverance in a way I didn't understand before. I really took this to heart for the rest of the trip and started to enjoy working all the lines I tried. Two of the cooler V4's that took me some effort were Twisted and Surf Board. Twisted had some pretty interesting foot beta that I couldn't have figured out without Ben's help. Surf Board was another super intricate and delicate line that required lots of core tension and 2 good sessions to make the send. They were super cool lines and I was psyched to send them. Definitely classics of the area.

Surf Board V4

Bronson V8

Ben continued his streak of sending by ticking off Bronson V8 which looked super cool while Roxana worked the V4 next to it. He then flashed the Buzz V8, second goed the V9 low start and sent Flip SDS V10 next to it pretty quickly. Despite the warmer temps, it was awesome to see Ben still psyched and able to send hard. He ticked off two V11's Maische Roof and Baggins. Both are steep lines that come out caves. Baggins was such a cool line because it had all these rail features through the bottom. It is hard to find roof granite lines with lots of features because they tend to be pretty blank. Ben was psyched. Ben then closed in on his main projects which were Dominatrix V12 and Ezekiel V12. Unfortunately the weather was too warm to finish off Dominatrix, which would have been the real prize. That line is sick. It is not that tall but has this wild jump/swing out in the middle of it. Super cool overhang climbing. He sadly left that one behind. We ended up staying a couple extra days to get some semi cool weather for Ezekiel. Even on our last day, it felt warm and greasy but luckily Ben powered through and was still able to put it down. It was a nice way to end our trip. Little Cottonwood was meant to be our last stop on our big adventure and from there we headed home. We had just one final stop to make in Spokane to visit my family and of course test out the boulder there :)