Indian Creek Ritual

I flew into Vegas on Sunday morning to meet Scotty, rheumatologist Shay, and Nate to drive the rest of the way to Indian Creek (zussamen). After driving through a small snow storm, a couple tornadoes and a hurricane, we rendezvoused (yes that's French) with Gil outside of Moab and proceeded directly to IC . To our pleasant surprise, we scored the best camp site at Creek Pasture (it comes complete with a picnic table and a great little fire pit for burning poop in). On the first day we all went cragging at Cat Wall. It was Gil's first day at Indian Creek, and I got on my first lead at the Creek with only minimal whining. I believe at one point the phrase "This was my best day of cragging ever" was emitted. But mostly, it was a lot of "DUDE!" and "Talk about it!" with the occasional humming of Final Countdown (not surprisingly). The second day was the last day Buster and Ian were with us and we decided to go to Scarface. Gil jumped on his first lead at IC, and Ian took an exciting fall on Mantel Illness, blowing a piece in the process. On the third day Buster and Ian went back to Colorado. It would be Nate and Gil's last day with us so we headed to Supercrack. The highlight would have to be the first sombrero ascent of Incredible Hand Crack. Oh, and Shay sent Coyne Crack. And Nate ate my lunch.

And then there were three. On the fourth day, with my insisting, we went to Reservoir Wall. In the end I didn't even get on Pente (I decided to wait a year and let it open up to perfect #1’s for the OS…). We did however find a jewel of a climb (Warm-up Hand crack), Scotty sent Slot Machine like it was his job, and we had a little party at Excuse Station. On the fifth and last day of cragging we decided to check out Pistol Whipped, as none of us had ever been there before. It turned out to be a great wall and we'll definitely go there again. After Pistol Whipped we left Indian Creek and we were on our way to Canyonlands for a desert tower adventure.

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