Climbing season well underway in Idaho

It’s hard to believe the best skiing of the year is happening in Valdez right now.. Last year we racked up double and triple-digits on skis by early March and climbing was some weird distant memory of West Virginia canyons carpeted with deciduous trees and inhabited by people who cared about things like “The National Football League” and “Nascar”. A wild twist of events has brought us back south, albeit much closer to home, and our pent up climbing-stoke propelled us to 4 months of non-stop climbing. Settling in Idaho with its incredible diversity of rock and climates provided us a selection of climbing areas that kept on giving long into November and early December. A trip to Red Rocks, Nevada capped off the most adventurous and prolific climbing season to date and despite fat early season snow in the Sawtooth’s our minds were geared toward an early start to 2013 climbing.

Hanging with Vincent for his first overnight of the year at Murtaugh, ID.

Camping at Murtaugh. The Snake River is just over the sage on the left.

Robyn can’t believe how good a camp chair and some Terminal Gravity IPA can be after putting in 13 pitches.

Rope hanging on Petit Digits (5.11c) a beautiful climb that was only slightly outshone by the 5.9 finger crack to its immediate left.

Upon return from Red Rocks the months of January and February were primarily spent in the snow. But the idea of hitting next climbing season full stride, with just enough break to let our muscles and tendons repair themselves, and not SO long as to lose all climbing strength, was appealing. We set goals for 2013, started a training log and hit the gym on the first of February with our goals in mind. Now nearly 2 months in we are feeling fit and motivated after a dry snow year and warm temps has gotten us out for several early season trips.

Next week we will be camping with Vincent in Saint George Utah with good friends from near and far for a solid week of climbing that for me at least represents the kick-off to true climbing season. I can’t say I have ever come into April feeling this motivated or fit, and both Robyn and I are excited to push our climbing abilities again as we head into the 2013 season!

These photos are from two nearby cool-weather areas Murtaugh, ID and Dierkes Lake, ID. We had a great weekend with Jeremy, Dana and Ben who made the trip up to camp with us and we get to climb with them again this weekend down in Utah!