Holy crap, that escalated quickly! We went from zero to one-hundred in the climbing realm this summer and it’s time to play catch-up. It all started with the successful completion of the “Domain of Pain” a.k.a. “The D.O.P.” A complete remodel of a bedroom and several days hovering over a sawhorse delivered our very own climbing gym. One that now I can say (some time later) has proven to be quite sufficient for keeping us in shape for climbing outside.
We spent the winter slowly accumulating holds to outfit the Domain of Pain.
It didn’t take long to transform a room into a training dungeon henceforth known as the Domain of Pain.
Some of the holds we bought from Bigwood Fitness belonged to Tony Yaniro a local climbing pioneer and one of the strongest climbers of all time. Pretty cool to have this piece of history in our Domain of Pain.
Finished the campus board on the side of the house. The goal is to climb from rung-to-rung without feet (campusing).
To celebrate the start of the climbing season we kicked things off with a long weekend of climbing in Hell’s Canyon and Leslie Gulch. With only one “Hells” trip under our belt and no experience at Leslie, we were ready for an adventure.
Boom.
Leslie Gulch, Oregon.
Leslie Gulch
Robyn and Chossy at the base of the manufactured “Einstein” crag.
Robyn and Chossy exploring the banks of the Owyhee Reservoir.
Sun setting on one of the massive untapped walls of Leslie Gulch.
Our camp in Leslie Gulch, ID.
The view from the Einstein.
Post-climbing hike into a random canyon led to all sorts of cool finds.
I’ve never seen someone so stoked to build a fire ring..
Sunset on the towers.
After a couple days at Leslie we high-tailed it to my parents house in Halfway to catch a couple Blazer playoff games and revisit the limestone walls of Hell’s Canyon. With no guidebook, climbing here is an adventure. There are obviously a handful of stoked developers and gobs of great routes to climb. On this trip we struck it rich with high quality routes on perfect stone. If you’re one of the developers, and happen upon this post feel free to get in touch with us. We have a bag full of bolts and a couple lines in mind. Also, the names of the crags in this post are purely for our own personal use.
View from the Nugget. Free camping all along the canyon. Zero crowds, lots of limestone.
The crag we decided to call “The Nugget”.
The Nugget with a rainbow hat after a great day of onsight, no-beta climbing.
Just another impressive hunk of Hells Canyon stone.
The Arch of Swallows. Hells Canyon, Idaho.
Lots of beautiful stone, most of which has routes. No info.
Flawless rock littered with cool holds like this one. I was so stoked I stopped and took my phone out on the route to take this shot.
Limestone doesn’t get much better.
Limestone and more limestone!!
In an epic moment, Chossy learned to swim.. got super confused about why she was wet, rolled to get it off and fell in again.
Nighthawk. Pond is filled for the season and ready for loungin’.
Chossy amid a thick carpet of wild grasses and flowers.
Much of the spring climbing season is spent down at Dierkes Lake in Twin Falls. With a pile of hardware generously donated by the American Safe Climbing Association Robyn, Peter Heekin and myself put in new anchor stations and bolts on a handful of climbs in the canyon.
Babe with a Bosch. Robyn replacing a vandalized bolt and hanger at The Skunk Cave – Dierkes Lake.
Now that is a rusty anchor bolt…
Out with the old, in with the new! New hardware in the Skunk Cave at Dierkes.
Robyn’s first bolt.
Robyn and Chossy at our first campfire of spring!
We found some really cool free standing boulders out there.
I’m not much of a boulderer, and I don’t like stinky caves, but if you do you will want to check this out. Featured, horizontal roof with a flat landing..
Scoping some possible new routes near Twin Falls.
Doing some bouldering in The Channel.
Just don’t stick your head up above the hill until the 400 target shooters have retreated for the night.
Robyn enjoying a sunset from our camp near Dierkes Lake, Idaho.
That’s all for now! The last 6-8 weeks were spent at the Fins capped with a week long pilgrimage to join Team Try Hard On in Wyoming. Lately, we’ve been tackling some hiking in the White Clouds with plans for some alpine ascents in the Pioneers. Gotta get it while the summer’s good!