Indian Creek 4/28-5/4/06 Erika, Seth, Amy, Mark, Erik Neumann [partial report - many details and climbs still to fill in - 5/6/06] 4/27 - I drove to Barstow and met Erika there at about 6pm; she had driven from San Diego. Stashed my car there, and we drove on to Las Vegas. 4/28 - Picked up Seth at the airport at 3:40am, drove up on I-15 and I-70, then south to Moab. Got food and water, then on to Indian Creek. 1. Split Pillar 5.9 - E led, C followed, S tried, C TRed. This is an old classic which is fairly wide in the top section; I tossed up a #4 Friend to Erika to help handle the wideness. I noticed the anchor was one drilled angle and 2 1/4" buttonheads, so I replaced the rightmost 1/4" x 1" bolt with a nice 1/2" x 3.75" bolt. Drilling in the sandstone was fairly easy. 2. unnamed Blue Gramma c 5.10 - C led with some aid. This is a steep small LFC with some good thin hands sections at the start. Then a 10' 4" section which I had to aid with my #4 Friends. More 5.9 steep hand jams to another point of aid in a wide bit. Erika climbed free into the 4" section, and jammed her leg in, but it got stuck and we used some serious pulling on the rope to free it. We set up in the same campsite at Newspaper Rock as last time; Amy and Mark arrived late that night. 4/29 - Scarface Wall 1. Spam p1 5.9 - E led, S followed, C TRed (equalized sling and got oval biner) 2. Gobbler 5.9 - C led, S followed, E followed A new route - 5.8 corner to 5.9 hand traverse left. Same corner start as Desert Sunset, and finishes at anchors of nice crack (un SF c, right of Spam). 3. un SF c 5.11- - C TRed, S tried, E TRed 2x, A & M TRed w/ hangs 4. un SF d 5.9+ - A led w/ a fall at the start 5. Scarface 5.11b - A led w/ hangs, M led w/ hangs 6. Spam p1 5.9 - A led, M led 7. Dirt Cheap 5.10+ - C led, E followed, A & M TRed 4/30 - Optimator Wall 1. Charlie's Crack 5.8 - E led, S followed, C TRed. It is a splitter/diagonal hand crack on the left side of the flake which forms Charlie's Pillar. 2. Neat 5.10 - A led w/ hangs, M led, C TRed, E led, S TRed w/ hangs to final roof. 3. Hayduke Lives / Hayutake - C TRed most of it and led final easy hand crack. A TRed, M TRed, E TRed, S TRed w/ hangs; he injured his shoulder a bit on the traverse and it started hurting a lot that evening. The plaque at the base reads: "Hayutake Neat 96" So it could be that the big corner is Hayutake and the traverse to steep hand crack is Neat. 4. double crack 5.11- - Megan led, Dan pinkpointed, and set a TR for us. A TRed w/ hangs, M TRed, C TRed, E TRed. This is apparently Bloom #13 "crack past a bolt to sandy RFC", and I guess someone added a second bolt and chains. This makes sense if Bloom #7 is moved between Bloom #13 and Charlie's Crack, because that one is a double crack to pod/shallow flaring section. 5. Lady Pillar 5.10- - C led, E followed. Mark cooked his famous apple pie for dessert! 5/1 - Donnelly Canyon + Supercrack Buttress 1. Chocolate Corner 5.9 - A led w/ hang 2. unnamed short 5.9 - E led as a warmup, single bolt anchor 3. Supercrack 5.10 - M led, A followed w/ hangs, E led, C followed Erika got some forearm abrasions from reaching in for the jams. I finally made it to the anchors on this wide hands classic. It completed Mark's leads of the "Indian Creek Trilogy"; Amy and Mark then left for Albuquerque. 4. Incredible Hand Crack 5.10 - E led, C TRed, and set up TR for Stefan and Tonja. 5. The Wave 5.11 - C led w/ hangs/aid, E followed w/ hangs. Maybe it is only 5.10+ when done as a lieback, but the first section (#1.5) felt like 5.11a lieback, and the final crux (#2 above roof) felt like solid 5.11 to lieback or jam. I definitely did not want to run it out liebacking up there and take a big fall. We talked with Erik Neumann that morning at his site at Newspaper Rock with JJ, Michelle, and Carolyn. That evening we visited with Shannon Moore and Casey at their site at the Cottonwoods. 5/2 - Second Meat Wall 1. Tube Steaks Tomorrow 5.10+ - C led, E followed w/ a hang at the wide pod. This was a nice challenge, where I had to actually use a fist jam at the wide pod, and then hang on to place gear in the #2.5 section above. 2. flake to right 5.10- - C TRed, E TRed. I liebacked the wide section, E jammed it. It's reachy to grab for the chains. 3. Tofu Crack 5.10 - E led w/ hang, C followed Steep lower bulge w/ wide hangs, where time is of the essence, then a cool lieback section with good footpods. Above this, Erika only had one #2 Camalot left, so she lowered briefly to backclean a couple of them. Top Sirloin looks stunning here, sustained #2.5. The 5.11+ thin crack on the right wall also looks doable, with many rests. 5/2 - South Six Shooter Seth's shoulder had healed up fairly well, so we headed out to bag a desert tower. The road was rather rough on the Prius, hitting bottom several times in spite of very careful driving. The road map was not very helpful; eventually after some loose sand sections, we decided to park at a fork in the big wash and walk the rest of the way on the right fork. This worked well, with a cairned trail at the end of this road going up to a break in the White Rim layer, and then up a decent trail on the main talus cone. Erika led p1 on the 9mm rope; S and C both tied in near the end. Seth spotted a booty #4 Metolius 4CU with Hotwire biner just off the ground; C was able to extract it later. C led the top mantle pitch on the N summit and we took some photos. C led the short flake crack pitch on the higher S summit; Erika followed up the face on the arete, more photos. For descent, E and S did the main 95' rappel single line on the 9mm using the Munter hitch. C rapped 30' and then tossed the rope down, then soloed down the climbing route (chimney). I got some photos of the nice petroglyph and was able to clean the booty cam. Back down the trail with no incidents, and a pretty clean drive out. 5/3 - Battle of the Bulge Buttress 1. Cave Route 5.11a - Erika led w/ hangs, Seth TRed w/ 2 hangs (mostly liebacking), Clint TRed, Carolyn TRed w/ 1 hang, Erik TRed 2. Railroad Tracks 5.10- - Carolyn led, Erik TRed, Seth TRed (liebacking arete right of start), Erika TRed 3. Crack Attack 5.10+ - Clint led (it's rated 5.11- in book but it's studded with rests and the crack is worn wider now from all the traffic), Carolyn TRed with a nice effort liebacking the crux and barely making it, Erik TRed smoothly after demoing his ow moves at the start, Seth TRed with 2 hangs, Erika TRed. 4. Warmup Handcrack 5.9+ - Erika led, Seth TRed w/ 3 hangs. This has a thin / thin hand crux. 5. Our Piece of Real Estate 5.10+ - Clint led (another one rated 5.11-, which felt hard but only briefly), Erika followed. I dynoed to a fingerlock in the corner to the right to make the crux easier. We drove out that night, getting some pizza in Moab and then driving on to Mesquite for a 4am-7:30am bivvy at the fringe of a subdivision under construction. Another brief loose sand encounter for the Prius. On to Vegas in the morning, and Barstow at noon, where we split up after a nice trip.