Ten Sleep is where its at

Wow! How easily a month slips by. I took on several handyman projects including a kitchen remodel, building a bar for the shop and a few other things which have eaten up a lot of free time. Since the month of June was forecast to be wet I figured I'd capitalize and get some things done, though as it normally goes I took on more than I could finish quickly and now the sunny weather is back and sport climbing season beckons me away from mundane responsibilities. The month was not without climbing sessions however, there were a few Tuesday/Thursday outdoor evening bouldering sessions, the 10 PM to 2 AM night bouldering session, several trips to The Island and a couple of Ten Sleep day trips.
Yesterday was a Ten Sleep day which usually consists of me working from 7 to noon and then jetting across the basin and into the canyon. The 2 hour commute puts me there in time for the cliff to go into the shade and yield perfect summer shade temps until dark. Clint and my friend Pat Mees were along for the journey eager to sample the finest pocketed stone in all the land. Pat is perhaps in some way responsible for my appreciation and love of the Big Horn Dolomite/Limestone having been one of my more experienced and opinionated partners early on in the mid nineties when I was figuring the climbing thing out. He lives in Iowa now with his wife and kids and tells me of a secret pocketed limestone crag that lies on private land but has been developed with the owners permission by him and a small group of dedicated bolters/climbers. A closed access situation for the rest of us but 80+ routes for those with permission - pocketed limestone in IOWA who'd a thought?!
Pat has long been a Lander afficianado, with crags like Sinks, Wild Iris and Baldwin the place is a mecca. I have been traveling for the last decade to Ten Sleep as the canyon fills with routes and I was eager to show off a long list of favorites that I know rival Landers stone. Pat and I did a day trip last Thursday and managed 6 pitches 0f 5.10+ through 5.11 all of which are 3 star routes. These served as a great intro and warm up for yesterday where we concentrated on harder and longer routes.
My friends in Ten Sleep Alli and Kevin have been climbing and bolting adding new routes at the Mondo under the Great Roof. Most significantly may be the king line gold streak left of The Burden of Immortality 5.13a, which we have eyed for years but deemed as too hard, not climable or some other excuse. Now there are bolts and tick marks and Petzl sponsor draws a hangin' and it looks amazing. This little harlet will probably check in around 13d or 14a, good luck Kev. The working name is Gold Member - perfect!
I asked Alli to recommend a 13 to me that suits my style of climbing. Yesterday she was up at the Superratic trying a 13b that starts on Pick Pocket 12b and drifts left onto the face via powerful bouldery moves and then motors up typical Ten Sleep 11+/12- terrain. This route sounds like what i am looking for, bouldery power versus crimpy sickness, which I can climb but not at that level. She says it suits my strengths so we shall see.
We had a particularly good day yesterday climbing the newly straightened and lengthened Schools Out 10+/11- and Jackabite 12a. Below are a couple shots of Clint toward the top of Jackabite 12a.


Alli asked me to try the Kablamo, the Wagon Wheel of Death 11d off shoot route just left of Gold Member and give her an opinion on grade. There were 15 draws hanging on this 30 meter route so I figured what the hell I'll give it an onsight burn having climbed WWOD several times in the past couple of years, which comprises the first 2/3 of the route. The new section is bouldery puncuated by jugs and I managed to persevere and clip the chains. I figured 12b/c which is what they had come up with and were hoping I'd sway it one way or the other. It seemed harder than Hapiness 12b and easier than EKV 12c, so I don't know.
I was pretty psyched to get that one done quickly and with that we headed down to World Domination to try and explode our forearms. We stopped at Great White Buffalo 11b on the way by because it is so cool looking and only 4 clips long, a classic indeed.

Clint Cook climbs Great White Buffalo 5.11b from Mike Snyder on Vimeo.

With that out of the way Pat launched up Bobbys Got A Dirty Mouth 11c/d an old route of mine that tackles a devious slab to reach a steeper slanting crack surrounded by pockets. I don't think it had been climbed this year and had been washed clean by the rain, this produced an eye opening tech fest that Mr. Mees was not expecting. He manged the chains with a few hangs and chalked it up for Clint and I. Clint had trouble with a height dependent reach separating the slab and the upper section but climbed well otherwise. I ran a quick lap and talked Pat into one more go before removing the draws, he was psyched and fired it off in good style. He had been talking about Captain Insano 11d and with the daylight fading and a quick impromptu visit from the ever intriguing Aaron Huey, I strung it up and manged the feat without incident. Pat ran a TR lap on this steep mind numbing line and raved about it. We walked down in the dark to find a note from AAron and Charlie on the windshield directing us to their campsite in the lower Canyon. We stopped in for a quick visit then hit the road making it back after 1:00 AM. What a whirlwind.
Here is a shot of cliff line that holds The Temple and Scrot Bloc, the uppermost developed areas from the World Domination Wall.

Ten Sleep at Last

My new home at the mouth of Ten Sleep Canyon.

Yeah right. We all think that as we are driving toward the motherland and see this quaint lodge at the base of beautiful sculpted red sandstone. Its probably all choss, right?

The Canyon comes into view just outside the town of Ten Sleep.
The Leigh Creek buttress always grabs my attention for a moment. No routes?

Yes I have quite the reverence for this crag and this time of year is so perfect. The days are longer and its comfortable in the sun or shade. You can get tons of pitches in if you last that long.

Sunday was a runaway to Ten Sleep day, Clint and I blasted across the basin to the brilliant limestone pocketed heaven of Ten Sleep Canyon. We caught up with our good friend and autotransplanted local Alli, up at the newly established Hound Dog Crag.

There were several of our friends climbing and working a shoot for Allis photog friend Jeremiah. We stayed out of the way for the most part and manged to get in 7 pitches of brand new routes put in last season on the right end of the wall.

Some real stunners, the longest easiest and quite possibly the best is the 100+' Big Bear Memorial 5.10. It forces laybacks and stemming up a leaning corner that changes directions half way up, it is for sure on par with some of the other super 10's in the canyon like Beer Bong 10b, Leggo My Guano 5.10b, Char Char Boinks 5.10 and Architects on Acid 5.10+. To the left were 3 climbs one of which was a project the others were 11+ and 12-, climbing out the steepest part of the wave. Left further and around the corner were a short 11- and a long pumpy 11 that followed a crack. These climbs all turned out to be fantastic, though we did not climb the 8 and 10 farther left in the corner.


Left side of Hound Dog Wall, Alli preps for her attempt on her current project.

Alli crimpin down hard at the crux

We ventured back over to the left side of the wall where I took on a 13 clip long 12- that had me worn out by the end. I managed to keep it together but that was it for the day. Clint TR'd a neighboring 11 off the same anchors that looked really good. We both some what haphazardly decided to do a cool down route and roped up for one labeled '10'. Well this shorter slabby looking thing put the hurt on me, it was epic. Clint wasn't sure what to think about my unenlightening performance and launched into his own version of hell. It was painful to watch probably less so than my lead, but we both persevered nonetheless and bagged it. A great day topped off by finding some killer pizza at the Tensleep Saloon after wards. Cheers to more of the same this summer!

Kiddie Crag Day

Saturday and time to climb but the whole tribe is mine to tend so.... Kids at the crag day!! Meg had some things to do so she couldn't come, so after the girls tested for their swimming class levels we hightailed it to the Island. There were a dozen people there when the girls, Ripley and I showed up so finding a belay for Bitch with a Broomstick 5.8 was pretty easy. This is the route my oldest Maya, has her eyes on. She will be 7 this summer and is always asking me to take her along on my trips into the woods and crag days. The weather is nicer now so it is easier to say yes, though that means Eden who will be 5 this summer wants to go too. Its so hard to say 'no' to one, and take the other. Regardless of the age advantage Maya has over her sister, Eden will be bummed if she isn't allowed to come as well. Today however I had all three, so we packed a lunch, various toys and stuffed things, a blanket, some diapers and all the required climbing hooha and off we went.
The girls took several turns on the route, but being that it is early in the season and their first trip this year, they were both a little timid and did more bouncing around on the rope than climbing. The bouncing is highly entertaining and a lot of fun for them so I encouraged it, plus it builds confidence in the whole system, which will help them if they decide to continue this silly game of climbing rocks. Ripley or Master Silly Piece as Eden has nicknamed him, was a hoot, running willy nilly all over the place. He managed to make everyone laugh, skin his knee and eat his fair share of dirt. The afternoon wore the little man out and he was fast asleep before we even got home.
Fortunately, in between kid wranglin sessions I was able to squeeze in 4 pitches which I am hoping will prepare me for tomorrow in Tensleep. Clint and I are day tripping to the pocketed Mecca of the sleep to see our good bud Alli and clip some bolts. Should be fun considering she has a house full of visiting climbers this weekend including the notorious CK.
On a different note local strong lad Kerrick Stinson dispatched The Wretched Harley V10 after putting in some sesions for his second of the grade. He questioned me as to the location of Pistol Whipper V9, rested a day then went and fired it with the quickness. This may only be the second ascent of the problem and he seems to feel the grade fits. He tried the center line that day as well but didn't get too far, seems he has a new project now. This is the line Dave and I landscaped and I posted about a few weeks back. Good Luck, shes gonna be tough.

Circuits Here, Circuits There, Circuits Everywhere

Tuesday, great weather, a good bunch of buddies and a few hours to kill. The posse gathers once again for the Tuesday evening bouldering session. I had to close the shop and was training some one but through a kind twist of fate I was able to leave early anyway. Still lagging behind the rest of the gang I caught up to them after their warmup at the Ethiopian Boulder, thank god I missed that, I'd rather jab sharp objects at my eyeballs than climb on the Ethiopian Boulder. I am only partially kidding, this boulder has become the default warmup due to its central location and vertical nature. Its not an awful chunk of rock, I'm just bored to death with it. Anyway I missed it, boohoo, on to the next one. We went to the Contact boulder, Dylan has these problems wired, so the two of us ran the gamut, while the others worked on the dyno or the traverses. This boulder has changed recently in that several hollow flakes got pried off creating and eliminating holds. I then drug the pads over to the Get It Up boulder to do Bobe Dole V4 and try Black Days V7. I managed BD via a couple different variants and got through Black Days in a couple trys. What a great problem! I wish I was strong enough to eliminate the jump start, its so powerful and I just wasn't feeling it. Time for one more, we ran over to The Pugilist for the troops to try, Dave, Pat, Garrett and Justin all made good progress on Spugilist V4 but no one sent. Clint and I hucked a few laps and then he headed out with Dylan. Garrett and Dave followed shortly after. I took Pat and Justin over to the Dirt Boss to show them the newly relandscaped landing, and feeling inspired ran a tennis shoe lap on the old classic traverse. I followed them down to the cheese boulder and watched Pat easily dispatch the V4 traverse whilst I sipped a well earned beer. Damn I love circuits in these boulders! Its no wonder I can never drag these guys away to clip bolts.

An Evening With My Honey

A perfect Saturday evening found Meg and I kidless for once and anxious to clip some bolts. We cruised up to the Island to get in a few pitches. I was to be the rope gun, so we started on some easier things for warm ups, then moved to the back of the Tunnel Wall to finish. I got in seven pitches and felt exhausted at the end. Meg TR'd three and may have found a route she would like to project. Routes were Feeling All Right 5.9, Communtiy Service 5.10b, Spider Pig 5.11a/b, Silent Spaz 5.9, Digital Jedi 5.11c, Light Tension 5.11b and Aah.. Me Wrikey 5.11b. No pics tonight, as we were by ourselves the whole evening. I kept thinking some one else would show up because the temperature was so perfect, though it was nice to have the entire crag to ourselves.

Into The Swing

Tuesday evenings are climbing days for me, though unfortunately we have no staff at the shop right now and with Meg working that leaves me with most of the duties for management and daily operations, argg!! Anything cutting into the precious climb time must be rectified. We are currently looking at applicants and within a few weeks should have some new staff and thus free up time for play and other work pursuits. Meanwhile my Tuesday night session with the boys was somewhat abreviated, but no matter I feel fat and weak from being on vacation for the last 2 weeks, so a couple hours was sufficient.
I met up with Dylan, Clint, Matt and Bryant at the Cheese boulder as they were all finishing up except for Dylan who was crushing one of the harder variants when I got there (and whining incidentally about feeling weak - ha). We all moved over to the Ripper Point V5/6 for Matt to give some burns on. No one else was interested, as Clint and I had climbed the problem the other day at the end of our session. D and I spotted and Clint hacked a new trail around the dreaded tree/boulder squeeze leading from Cheese to The Ripper. After a few goes we headed up to the Tuned Boulder so I could warm up. This boulder has 5 or 6 individual easy problems and a link or two. Apparently Dan Miller had cleaned a new hold and established a cool eliminate last week, so after dispatching with all the established stuff and the new variant, we felt inspired to clean a few more tiny crimps and poor slopers. We ended up making a handful of new eliminates and now we have another good boulder to warm up on with a dozen different climbs to choose from.
Clint starting up Physically Tuned V1

The Tuned Boulder session ate up the most of the remaining light and our psych, so we headed out. As I waved bye to D and Clint at the parking area, I noticed there was a climber on the Wretch Boulder. Turns out it was none other than Kerrick Stinson, a local young (15 yrs.) powerhouse who is currently tearing through the hardest Cody has to offer. Having done the Wretch V7 and Dead Mans Harley V8 he was working on the link up, Wretched Harley which goes at V10. I snapped a few pics then grabbed my shoes and joined in. Too late for me, I climbed pretty well but was too sapped from earlier to have any sort of chance. Kerrick on the other hand motored through the beginning over to the starting hold for the Harley like 8 times, but was unable to stick the big move. Bummer, I know the feeling. I can do the Harley on command but it always feels so much harder after climbing over there from the start of the Wretch. Hence I've never been able to manage the link. I studied Kerricks beta which is fluid and smooth having done it so many times and plan to visit this bloc more in the coming weeks.
Kerrick is very close and will soon power it into submission or will refine the moves to the Harley until they are automatic and go easy after the taxing beginning.
Kerrick and I both did our first V10 this spring sending The Plague at the Sphinx Boulders. He is 15 and getting stronger every day and should polish off the other climbs in town in that range this summer. For me at age 40, V10 is the pinnacle of my efforts, though the Wretched Harley is definitely doable.
Here is Kerrick blasting the intro moves of the Wretched Harley V10

Home Again, Home Again

Well the imaginary wonderland of the Family Vacation has come to an end. The girls, the little man and I are all back home. Unpacked and... needing some outside time. My old friend Marc is in town for a few days and after catching up we ran out to the Cornflakes Boulder to run the circuit. He is quite out of shape from being in school in Michigan, but as usual was able to do all the problems and in true form, humped a very humpable feature on the boulder. It was a pretty good evening session to get stretched out and back into shape.
Marc givin a little slap

Marc and Anna and the Cornflakes Boulder

On Saturday afternoon Clint and I went up on Cedar to meet some friends and climb some other classics. We met up with Matt and Bryant at the Cheese boulder and walked up to the Dirt Boss. This Boulder has gained in popularity since another generation of landscaping saw nearly every boulder clogging the underside pulled out and rolled away. There is now ample room for the old DB Traverse V3 and the No Cheating Traverse V7 actually works much better with room to swing around and no jagged boulders waiting to bite you should you lose tension. Also the ground is now low enough to start on the giant cheater stone underneath which gave rise to the Bloc Party Problems, a half dozen V2 to V4 roof problems all beginning on the same start holds and shooting off in all directions. We ran through many of these new problems and each of us projected something undone. A fun session for sure.
The Hall Bros. took off and Clint and I went down to the Vestal Boulder so I could once again do the Vestal problem which I always think I haven't done. Not that its forgettable, its actually pretty good. We did the easier problems on the West side as well then played around eliminating holds. Here is Clint getting down on some very small crimps.
Today I managed to sneak away in the morning with my friend Drew who has been in town for a week or so looking for new boulders. He has a break between Spring and Summer term classes. Drew is very intent on finding new stuff, building trails, cleaning and sending anything that looks good. He has focused the last week or so on establishing a quicker way into the Fort Boulder and in the process, found some more boulders leading down to this boulder from above. Pretty cool stuff but kinda dirty. We spent a few hours punching a nice trail through the woods to the new stuff which is adjacent to the Fort Boulder. We'll see what happens with this stuff as there are many newish lines elsewhere on Cedar that have been found and cleaned or not cleaned and are rattling around in my brain right now. Much to do.

I was happy to get home in time to make it to the nursery to buy some tomatoes for the garden. I used compost I bought and some nice organic stuff we've been making in a trash can since last fall. I'll buy some peppers this week and once I get it all planted, the salsa factory should begin producing by mid July. Can't wait!

Tomatoes!!