Went to Ute Valley, not to be confused with Ute Pass, yesterday with Max, Ben and Julia. My first impression of the place was pretty much the standard for a local crag; it had some excellent bouldering and some great lines but it’s immediate proximity to an urban area and somewhat questionable nature of the sandstone left much to be desired. Most of our time there was spent on THE line of the area Sheik Power, which will probably go at V9. Max wasn’t sure if the line has seen an FA as of yet and is positive that if it has, it most definitely hasn’t seen a second ascent. The problem is only 5 moves long but it climbs very well and has a very committing move at the top, which just so happens to be the crux.
The beta for the last move is a large dyno (at least for me) to an okay sloper on top that has a bit of a lip. I tried this move a few times and it just was not happening for me. As usually is the case with problems involving dynos, I started to look around for other holds and trying some different beta. Off to the right I spied a very shallow mono that could act as an intermediate to the top. Max, who was climbing much stronger then me, hopped on, threw a high heel, locked his left hand off at about his chest, reached up and stuck the mono. It was on for a second or two but it was concluded that this beta could work as well.
We also worked a line that Ben Snyder spied, which was a traverse that involved some insane body tension. We didn’t work the line for very long but it was concluded that if it does go it could very well be double digits.
At the end of the day I hopped on this bulbous arete that I had been spying all day. The compression climbing and sloping sandstone holds at the top were somewhat reminiscent of a problem that would be at The Brickyard. Definitely more my style.
All in all it was a great day; as most of the days spent with the crew are. Today we are off to Bishop, we won’t arrive until Friday because we are taking a slight detour to visit Max’s grandma but we will be there for 10 days so you can bet we will get in an obscene amount of Bouldering. See you in Cali!
Tags: Bouldering, Friends, Pictures, Ute Pass
