This blog is aimed to share and collect stories and photos of trips and adventures that I am fortunate to experience. I am a 22 year old climber and guide splitting my time between SLC in the winters and Ashford, WA in the summer. I enjoy alpine rock and ice climbing and have been doing so for the past 4 years or so. I recognize that this is not my first attempt at a blog/space to record my adventures and it very well may crash and burn like all previous attempts. Regardless, it is worth a shot and we'll see how I do. There are many trips I could start this blog off with sharing, yet the most impactful from this past winter is not one trip but a season of ice and mixed climbing in the Salt Lake Valley. Enjoy.
Winter showed up right on time here in Salt Lake by mid October. I had recently finished up my first season with RMI and spent the following weeks enjoying the desert down by Escalante, UT and the Wind River Range. Which may pop up as a post here following this first one. By October 25th, Margaret and I were skiing up at Alta and the Upper Cottonwoods were accumulating significant snowfall. So much so, that on the 10/27/23 Jaxson Rose, Larsen McCleary and I skied Suicide Chute off of Mt. Superior.
Wallowing up Suicide Chute on Oct. 27th
As the snowfall tapered off late October, the Intermountain West settled into a steady period of high pressure which allowed some more ephemeral mixed lines to come in. The first zone to receive significant ice was Hellgate Cliffs where some of the longer lines in the canyon are located. Hellgate has received plenty attention from some of the best SLC climbers over the years but there is very little information besides a few blog posts.
Bone Collector & Hellgate Slot Couloir Topo
On Nov. 13th Marshall Allen, Myself and his brother Spencer went to check out a Nikki Smith/Chris Thomas line named Bone Collector (WI5 M5). After a quick ski to the base, we booted up the apron and found shelter along a band of limestone and racked up. The initial 50ft of climbing was loose and hard to protect. The brothers were getting hammered with snow as I worked my way up the left facing corner system, cleaning microwave sized snow mushrooms and slinging lackluster bushes as protection. Finally, I made it to the lone bolt on the route and traversed left onto the pillar of ice.
After a few swings, I found myself hesitating to commit to the pillar. The hollow sounds of my tools swinging into the ice didn't inspire much confidence and soon after I found myself back at the bolt and being lowered back down to the belay. Today wasn't the day but I knew I would be back.
Instead, the three of us shifted our attention climbers right to a gully that looked promising and offered moderate terrain with good ice. We traversed over into the groove and climbed about 300ft of perfect ice and neve with a few thin, unprotectable WI3 steps. Finally I got to the base of a steeper, chimney system full of loose chockstones. I built a belay, threw the rope down and brought the brothers up. At the belay, we restacked the rope, I tied in and continued up.
The climbing was in my face and hard to protect. I tiptoed my way around the loose rock as best I could, but Marshall and Spencer were both directly in the line of fire at a marginal belay below. I was able to sling a tree root up high and was soon at a tree for the belay. I hollered down that it was pretty blue-collared climbing and they both agreed we could descend. I tied our two 70m ropes together and did a full length rappel back down to the moderate terrain below that we had simul soloed and picked Marshall and Spencer on my way. Once in more moderate terrain we continued to down climb a short WI2 step and soon we were back at the apron and on our way back down to the car.
We agreed upon the name the Hellgate Slot Couloir and estimated it to be around (WI3 M4 R). Later talking with Alan Rousseau, he shared he had soloed the route back in the Mid 2010s. What a crusher.
Four days later, I returned to the base of Bone Collector in the dark with my roommate Jaxon. I couldn't wait to get back on the route and had convinced him to climb before our 10am shift at the Gear Room. Now, we were back at the base listening to Biggie as we racked up at 2:45am. With the previous cleaning I had done four days ago, the initial climbing went quick and soon I was back at the lone bolt. I swung into a more supported pillar and fired upwards toward the belay. Jaxon followed and climbed through and joined me on the ledge.
Jaxon topping out on the P1 Pillar
Pitch 2 consisted of more quality climbing on natural gear. I traversed right off the belay and manteled my way into another left facing corner system. Delicately stemming up the corner I found a bit of gear and swung a high tool. A few moves later and I was into a steep runnel system and continued up the belay. This pitch clocked in at around M4. I brought Jaxon up and soon our energy levels were rising. We had climbed through the majority of the technical terrain and had only 300ft of moderate terrain to the top.
The next pitch went quickly and we simuled through the last pitch of WI3 M4 terrain to the top tree. The sun was rising and we knew we had to descend quickly. Four rappels and a bit of downclimbing, we were back at the apron quickly coiling ropes and gunning it back down to the car. We both agreed at work an hour later it was well worth the early wake up.
Ice continued to build with good conditions throughout the valley. My sister came to town and we spent one of the days climbing the Great White Icicle which is always a blast. Highlights included climbing with crampons on the wrong feet and great turf sticks high on the 4th pitch.
P4 of the Great White Icicle
Whoops...
Chris Gmitro, Co-Owner of the Gear Room and I had caught wind of good conditions down on the flanks of Mount Timpanogos and figured we ought to check it out. After a slippery ski up from Aspen Grove we approached the base of the East Face of Roberts Horn. Conditions were great with thick ice and and very little exposed rock. We started climbing at around 11am and topped out the summit ridge of Roberts Horn just after 3pm. We found difficulties up the WI4 and after the first 300m put the rope away and soloed short steps of ice to the true top of the route. We both agreed it was an excellent alpine adventure with a great mix of technical climbing and snow wallowing and a great prep route for future alpine climbing elsewhere.
Chris on the third pitch
Soloing high up on the East Face
Topping out the face and onto the summit ridge
Provo Canyon began to come into shape and I began heading down there with some good friends to climb some of the reliable classics. Notable routes climbed include a thin Millers Thriller, the first 8 pitches of Stairway to Heaven and a day in Santaquin Canyon cragging with Margaret.
Conditions in the Cottonwoods continued to improve and I climbed the thin Storm Mountain Falls (WI4) on two separate occasions. Once with Kevin and Chris Gmitro, brothers and the owners of the Gear Room (just the first pitch). I then returned with Phil Rodriguez one afternoon and we climbed the full route to the top of the Psychobabble wall. Following the first WI4 pitch we found moderate M2/3 terrain up to the base of the third pitch dagger. Phil took the rack and floated the pitch. It ended up being in the M3 WI4 range.
One of the last, and biggest climbs of 2022 was in Little Cottonwood Canyon with Phil Rodriquez. Flipping through Nikki Smiths Beehive Ice book, there are few routes with little to no information besides a small blurb from the first ascensionists. A Day in Scotland is one of those routes. Originally climbed by two local legends Brian Smoot and Bill Robins in the 1980s, the route follows a giant chimney system that is visible from the road. I had alway been curious about the the climbing and figured we ought to go check it out.
The short curtain to access the Day in Scotland Gully
From the road, we crossed Little Cottonwood Creek and began the arduous bushwhack through the woods and into the Triangle/A Day in Scotland gully system. The snow quickly firmed, and we had great front pointing conditions up to the base of the route. After simul soloing some of the moderate terrain of the first pitch, we roped up and I took us over a short curtain of ice and up some moderate runnels to an exciting cave belay. Phil took the second pitch, a steep in-your-face pitch that climbs vertically up from the belay and through a series of massive chockstones. The climbing was engaging and very three-dimensional. After shimmying through the chockstones, the climbing rejoins the large chimney system via a small runnel and soon we were kicking steps surrounded by a towering gully.
P2 of A Day in Scotland
The gully stopped at near vertical step of mixed terrain where the climbing traversed into the next section of runnels. I took the rack and traversed left below a chockstone finding adequate pick torquing and even a thread around a chockstone that I discovered after chopping out the veneer of ice that was guarding it. The thread allowed me to side pull all the way left. I swung into the runnel and after a bit of faffing was finally established. I continued up to another cave belay and brought Phil up.
P3 of A Day in Scotland
Ahead lay one more crux pitch and then moderate terrain to the top of the gully system and the end of the technical climbing. Phil started up the snow covered slabs and was able to get a few pieces of gear in. The large amounts of snow made the climbing slow and technical. His crampon tines skated along the smooth granite but soon enough he made his way over into the final runnel and stemmed up to easier terrain and good protection. Soon the rope came tight and I followed the pitch and up to Phil.
P4 and Crux Pitch of a Day in Scotland
We were elated and enjoyed a few moments soaking in what had just happened. A Day in Scotland was one of the best traditionally protected mixed routes I had ever climbed and the icing on the cake was that it was right in our backyard. we did four double length rappels back to the base and glissaded the now soft snow filled gully we had front pointed up this morning. Back at the car, we relived the climb as we cruised down LCC and back into the valley...
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