Indian Creek

March 17th, 18th, 19th: Like most climbers' first experience at Indian Creek - the land of perfectly parallel cracks sans face features - we found very little that we could climb without looking foolish. Superb crack-climbing technique is essential here. Thus, we spent a day flailing on easy hand cracks, borrowing duplicate cams from nearby climbers. We went back to camp early to tend to our bloody hands.



Determined to put one successful desert tower on our resume, we set out the next day to climb the South Six Shooter. This impressive peak requires an hour or more of 4x4 obstacle course driving and an hour-long uphill slog to get to the 30-minutes of vertical climbing. Luckily, for Alex's low-riding sports car (Seacrest) , we were able to jump in the back of another climbing team's truck. This was after a harrowing attempt to drive Seacrest over the unrelentingly pitted, rocky road-like clearing. We flew up the easy, 3-pitch 5.8 to the summit.










Distraught with the paucity of doable climbs in this breathtakingly gorgeous region, we made one last attempt at some impressive leads at an easy-access crag called Wall Street. We both got some much-needed crack climbing practice in, thanks to some top ropes set up by a local outdoor school, and to Alex's impressive 5.10 trad lead. Then it was ice cream and a long drive to Zion National Park.