10 Days and Counting!

For those who might be interested and who have requested, this is the tentative itinerary for the climbing trip Anne and I are about to embark on. Those of you who know me well, know that this plan is very tentative. For example, if we see a cool boulder on the side of the road we might climb it, or if the weather is bad in one place, we’ll drive to another; or if we dislike an area, we’ll just move on to the next. Anyhow, It goes like this:

Phase 1: Driving
We’re leaving Saturday Oct 24 as soon as we can get packed, and we’ll head west. The plan is to climb for a day at Cochise Stronghold in AZ. It is supposed to be unique granite, with a lot of easy and moderate routes to warm us up. After roping chicken heads in Cochise we’ll make our way to the Needles, Sequoya National Forrest.

Phase 2: Needles
I’m not talking about sewing needles. We plan on spending a weekish climbing and camping at the Needles. These are huge granite formations that are supposedly one of the most beautiful places to climb in the States. We’ll see. Hopefully its not too cold there.

Phase 3: Tuolumne
Tuolumne is in Yosemite but its at a higher elevation than the valley. Go figure right? Again the hope is that it's not too cold. If it is too cool for having fun; we can always descend to the Valley.

Phase 4: Nick
Wednesday Nov 4, we’ll be picking Nick Masten (one of Anne’s older brothers) up from the Airport in Fresno. He’s going to hang with us for 4 or 5 nights in Yosemite. We’ll probably do some climbing, but more hiking, exploring, and a little bouldering with Nick.

Phase 5: Yosemite Valley
By this time we should have a better idea of what else we might want to climb in the valley. Or, we may feel like heading to another area by then, and clipping some bolts instead of place gear. Who knows? We planned a pretty laidback schedule despite the temptation to add 10 other areas I wanted to visit.

Phase 6: Zion
At some point during the week of Nov 9-13 we’ll drive our selves over to Zion National Park for more climbing and awesome slot canyons. The rest of the trip is desert sandstone rather than Granite.

Phase 7: Moab
We’ve reserved a good portion of our time for Moab, due to the multitude of things we want to do there, and the fact that the weather should be great. There is also the chance that we may go to Maple Canyon or other great UT climbing areas. We do have plans to meet up with some friends in Moab for Thanksgiving.

Phase 8: Back to the real world
Nov 27th we’ll drive from Moab to Colorado Springs and meet Camp Eagle friends for the CCCA 2009 National Conference. On Dec 3rd we’ll caravan home to Camp Eagle.

Thanks everybody for keeping up with us and thanks for your prayers. We are super blessed to be able to take this trip!