The worlds "first" 5.13 offwidth

I'm coming up on a month off from work in a few days and I am psyched to go back to the Utah desert.  I have a couple  projects both old and new to attend to that should prove to be difficult, and an old nemisis, The Bellyful of Bad Berries.  The Bellyful of Bad Berries is the worlds first (5.13) offwidth established and still holds it own today .  I have tried this Brad Jackson masterpiece a few times spread out over the last five or so years, and have yet to hold onto it until the end.  Its an amazing route, both technical and brutal and is considered the benchmark for entering (5.13) in the world of offwidth.  There is another offwidth located in Veduawoo that was once called (5.13) and established years prior, but it's not near as difficult as suggested, and the proper credit should be given where it is deserved.  Hats off to Brad on this major accomplishment and a timeless route that will be sought after for decades to come. 

Jackson on the FFA of the Belly

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Patrick



fall and winter desert action

This fall and winter i was able to make a few trips down to the desert.  I got to repeat some cool lines and establish a handful of new ones.


I headed to the desert and beat my partner (pamela), there by a week, so i decided to check out the phantom sprint solo.  I aided on a clove hitch and a single alpine aider plus a double length, and then mini traxioned the pitches as i cleaned.  While the route is a relativley popular aid line, it still hasnt been repeated free since Stevie Haston (a hero of mine) first freed it almost 15 years ago.  I spread out the climbing over three days, fixing lots of ropes and doing lots of mini traxioning and dialing in the route.  Everything was going pretty well for freeing until the crux pitch where i figured i needed more work.  After that, i ditched trying the last two pitches on the mini and went for the top.  Its an amazing route, and one that I want to invest more time in as a free project, as its pretty clean for the fishers and the climbing is pretty awesome.  Hats off to Stevie for that one and his many more!

 

Only a couple pitches up and PYSCHED!

 

 

 



Hand drawn Topos are fun

 

 The Sprint takes the left skyline system.  You can see my haulbag a few pitches up...

 

After the Sprint I had a few days and hiked about and scoped other mud routes and then went to Onion Creek to check out another Stevie free route.  I forgot my climbing shoes in the jeep, but had fun aiding the thing and imagining the free climbing sequence.  What a cool little tower.

The Hindu

 

That evening I met up with Pamela in Moab and we were on a mission to climb some offwidths!

 

We headed to the creek and started out with some obscure classics established by the cobbler himself.  We got on David, Big Red and a few others for a few days, checked out a few potential offwidth roofs and picked out a blue collar project or two each.

 

 

A very steep offwidth I scoped a few years back, that sprouted an anchor but no signs of a free ascent. (lots of dirt, loose rock, ect)  Any one know?

 

 

Little Pam and "Big Red"

 

 

We went back to a shared project of ours, where Pam had freed her pitch a few years ago now, yet I still flop around on the tips first pitch.  I think we put in three mornings on this trip.  I got close, but still no cigar.  Grateful for a patient and dedicated belayer as this thing is kinda frustrating...

 

Durring the trip I also got to establish a cool little .12a on the Cliffs of Insanity with Trevor and made an onsight of Sacred Space, an adventure of an offwidth.

 

 

"Walk on the Weird Side"

Trevor also put a nice offwidth on the far left of the COI, and dubbed it "Insane in the Membrain"

Trevor drilling the anchor after the onsight FA

Pamela and I worked a beautiful two pitch line, consisting of tight hands to fists on the first pitch and then squeeze and offwidth and even an inversion high on the second pitch.  A great line indeed!

 

 Pamela projecting on our two pitch route "Artemis"
photo: SteveO

 

On my last morning there, I established a mini tower with the help of Trevor, who was camping with us and he then freed it momenets later.

 

 

One spike and two bolts on the aid, and .11a for the free lead.
photo: Emily Reinsel
 

 

After a week or two back at work, i got a few extra days off for thanksgiving and headed back to the creek.

 

Pam and I headed straight up to an old abandoned Alf project that he had come in from above on almost five years back, tr'd and cleaned.  We were able to put it up ground up, onsight and were psyched!  3 pitches of offwidth and squeeze and perhaps one of the finer offwidths either of us have ever climbed.  A good FFA on thanksgiving day; thankful we were!

 

 

Pamela mid crux on pitch 3 of "Sampson"

 

 

Hand drawn topos are fun! Bring a bolt kit for the final anchor if you're thinking about repeating this...

 

 

One more of the crux pitch.

 

We then celebrated Thanksgiving at the brewery, took a rest day and then headed to a sick project of Pamela's.  I didn't get any pics, but it is a big, bad offwidth, and the meat of it is up on the third pitch (again!)

A great trip indeed. 

 

 

 

 

 

I went back to work for a month, did christmas with the folks in Arizona, and then went back to Moab with Trevor for almost a week of climbing and exploring. Amazing that no one climbs there in the winter.

 

The first few days were a bit cold, but still plenty nice in the sun and we checked out a ton of less than popular zones, including the north wash a few hours to the west.

 

Trevor and I both got to establish a 5.12 in the creek, put up a cool easy 11 offwidth and cleaned up another line just right of the OW.

scoping choss towers in the sun
 

 

 

North Wash

 

 

Trevors thin rig... (black aliens!)

 

 

 Trevor on it...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aeon Flux

 

 

 

A short video of the lower face climb section

 

 

 

 

A new OW, that is very clean and friendly!

 

 

Trevor following the Oh-Dub

 

 

 

What a fine looking junkshow of an anchor with a couple degenerates hanging from it.

 

 

With so much picked out to do in the desert, I can't wait to go back.

 

Cheers,

 

Patrick

 

 



Squat

Went up to Squat for the first time in almost 6 years and finally sent.  It was the first OW roof that I ever tried to lead and it was nice to come back to it and feel solid.

Here's a short video of it:

Wideness in the Voo

I am back at work, cranking out 70 hour weeks, and did a shift from 6 pm to 6 am last night with the wolf pack.  Lazy day today.

Anyways, a few weeks back I did a cool trip to Vedauwoo and got to climb some cool routes and climb with some cool people.  The people I got to see and climb with included Pamela Pack, Zach and Racheal the local guidebook authors, Matt and Molly the OWers and Nathan and Jim photo/ film guys and climbers.

All in all it was a great trip and alot of cool stuff happened.  Pamela established one of the sickest offwidths I have ever seen.  Matt got the ultimate sandbag tour, and I got to try a few old routes and a few new ones.

The crew hanging out as Matt prepared for Burning Man.  An all out Ved classic and cool spot to hang out.

Pamela helping me figure out the beta on the Glass Hummingbird.

Pamela showing how its done on Vedauwoo's burliest offwidth roof, the Forever War. (photo Zach O)

Nathan Smith sinks some steel on a soon to be new route.

Jim Aikman doing his thing

The Glass Hummingbird

Matt Cool on Burning Man (pic by Molly C)

A shout out to Pamela from the strongest man alive!

A flash of Lucile

Beginning the battle on the Forever War

An attempt on New Mutant (photo Nathan Smith)

Molly Chambers, in the chamber of Right Parellel Space.

OW's and Jim Beam?!  ofcourse!

Matt gunning for the second ascent of Empty Suit, great job man!

Matt again on Penetration

River crossings

Pamela crushing Simiantics

Pam on More crystal than...

Me on the same.

All in all a great trip with some good repeats and some even cooler new ones!  Thanks for letting me borrow some shots, Matt, Zach, and Nathan. 

Check out Pamela and Matt's blogs for more details as I turned this into more of a photo blog today...

Cheers,

Patrick



Vedauwoo

Climbed in Vedauwoo last weekend.  Worked and scoped a couple "secret" projects, and got an onsight of "Iron Maiden", an Andy Johnson masterpiece.  Its a very good route and a great example of the potential still available at the Voo.

An offwidth gangster keeping a low profile...

One project is an amazing offwidth roof at a terrible angle that I found last season hidden deep in the woods and brought Pamela to on Saturday.  The pysche was high and she managed to TR it cleanly on her second go, crazy!  I couldn't touch this thing last season on mini trax, but made much better progress this round with good beta and encouragement from below, though still have quite a ways to go.  Its a crazy hard inversion and shuffle at a 60 degree angle and should be the hardest wide thing in the voo.  The lead will be quite sketchy though, as the angle will almost certainly secure a head banger if you blow the crux.  Head bangin' heavy metal!!!!!

The next project is a huge finger crack roof that i also scoped last season and is beyond my capacity. (5.14?)  I think if Pee-Wee comes back through he's gotta check it, but for now, Im gonna keep it DL and flop around it a few more times before writting it off.  Its amazing though, and probably one of the most spectacular lines in all the Voo.

The project that I am most psyched on (read doable .12ish).  Is a flared seam to offwidth and squeeze, that is kinda steep and very asthetic.  Its on a somewhat obscure crag and is a very obvious line.  There is another cool undone steep hand crack right next to it.  Its crazy how much potential is available at Vedauwoo.  And there's more....

So besides a fair amount of hiking and scoping new stuff, I also got to check out Andy Johnson's masterpiece, Iron Maiden, (5.11) that has only had one previous repeat (Pamela) since the first ascent that I or Pamela know of.  It's touted as more difficult than Lucile, with a very similar crux lip and flared finish.  Its an amazing route, that is flared, sharp and steep; its certainly a classic and deserves more action. 

http://mountainproject.com/v/iron-maiden-aka-blood-drive/106164072  link to the beta on the proj, and the video of the onsight below.

All in all a very great weekend, with many things on the list both thin and wide.

Cheers,

Patrick

Giulia

Here's a (bad) profile picture of a route that Pamela sent last spring that I helped establish.

A find that looks much easier than it actually climbs.

Its baggy sixes in an overhanging corner, to run out squeeze, and finally a 9" wide 12' long roof.  The start and finish are the cruxes and it clocks in around .11+ or maybe a shade harder.  Its only 50', looks easy (haha), is a 1 minute flat hike from the road and is just down from newspaper rock towards the creek.  Get some!!

sent the same day as the red point of EHs second pitch.  props!!!!!

Patrick

Go Spuds Go!

Here's a short video from last summer on the Craig Luebben unsung classic Go Spuds Go!  (5.12a), seems kind of stout and maybe short enough to boulder if you hike enough pads up the 2 mile approach.....

Cheers!

The color of 1987

Patagonia just put a shot of Pamela and I hanging out (and looking straight out of the eighties) on there website.

borrowed from patagonia.com

"After a drizzly start, Patrick Kingsbury and Pamela Shanti Pack hope to see the light on Dark Passenger (5.12). Long Canyon, Utah. " ~ from there site and photo by Andrew Burr aka the MOGWIDTH.

 

 

cheers!

Craig Luebben's Desert Offwidths and Beyond

A couple seasons ago Pamela Pack and Andrew Burr came up with a good ol' desert challenge and tribute.  To climb Craig's top 10 offwidth FA's in the desert ;and asked if I was interested.  I couldn't say no, but was some what skeptical at the same time as Craig defined offwidth and his routes are a testament to what is possible in the world of wide.  We dubbed the challenge the 10 x 10 and weren't quite sure what we were getting ourselves into...

The list... (they're mostly 5.11s, how bad could it be?!)

With everything on a single peice of paper and thinking we would cruize these things we felt pretty good about the idea at first. 

We started in the creek with the Dentist Chair and the Tooth Fairy and hit a slight bump in the road when Pam fractured her hand on the second route of the trip.... 

Maybe we could start over on the 10 day rule? 

With some rest, very quick healing time! and lots of tape we relocated up to Moab where the majority of the challenge sat in empty canyons.

We went to Long Canyon and climbed the Done-Lubin' and would later set others up top ropes and sandbag leads while we worked on the more difficult lines around the corner being the Mayor and Ralph.  By now the ten day rule was far out the window, but finishing or atleast trying all of Craig's routes was still on. 

The Mayor in all of its glory

We took a break from the empty long canyon where we would be the only climbers but sometimes would see the random jeeper and once saw Pam's buddy Isaac cruizing through on his dirt bike with his gang.  We went to River Road and up to the Sorcerer.

Two routes ascend the sorcerer; we were psyched to do them both, decided to replace all the old belay anchors and fix lines for Andrew all over this thing.  It took a bit of work and so did the climbing.

The common final pitch suited me as there is a bit of height needed on some of the moves and Pamela had some serious doubts, but we kept hiking up there day after day.  The last time we went up there, Pam hiked it and I think suprised herself.  Bad Ass!

The very serious Pamela Pack trying to avoid pitch 3 at all costs...

After swearing of the Sorcerer and the Crossing for the season we found ourselves back in Longs for one more route before we had to bail for other commitments.

Dragon's Lair  is obvious from the road and is also VERY obvious that you don't get much gear after about the first 50 feet on this monster of a route.  It was a calm hot day, and this thing was cooking in the sun, so Pamela and I sat in the shade and threw small rocks at a target for a solid 2 hours waiting for the shade and an attempt on this beast.

Waiting for the shade

After the route hit the shade I easily "floated" (inside joke) this beast in just under 90 minutes and was only completely stuck for 30 of those short minutes.  Pamela then ran up the thing in less than 15 minutes and we walked out in the dark.  It must be easier for girls or something.  haha

A season later we were back.

We had a good chunk of the routes done, but still had a few to go.

We ended up spending 3 or 4 trips in Longs looking for the infamous Slither and Scream, which we assure you doesn't actually exist, but settled for something that looked like it might be it at the time.... well sort of.  With more than alittle pressure from Burr and Pamela, I racked up under a mega long chimeny system and set off into the unknown for what seemed like an eternity.  The climb turned out to be good in the classic old school no pro feeling that it should.  Burr got some shots and we walked out tired in the dark.

Burr rapping down with camera gear and the drill.  He chucked the rock we used for the hammer.

With 8 down, we only had 2 to go.  The amazing Sidewinder, and the casual? Offwidths are Beautiful. 

Sidewinder is way up in Longs Canyon, and simply put, is amazing.  Its 160 feet of burl and helping put the enormous sling of gear onto Pam's shoulder, I think we both wondered how she was going to leave the belay ledge or let alone climb!  Its a tough pitch that took Craig alot of time to finish and even developed a new technique for; but Pam did awesome on it, and Burr got amazing shots.  Its a route that I know we both want to go back to for sure and is easily one of Craigs proudest in the desert.

Mike Clelland, Climbing Magazine

Last on the list that we once thought would be done in less than two weeks, to thinking we would never finish was Offwidths are Beautiful.  Its located on river road, just outside of Moab on a detached and astethetic pillar.  Perhaps the most impressive thing about that day was the new route that Burr established on the analog crack that was done mostly solo until I put him on belay for a 20 foot pendulum out of a sandbox and onto the ledge system that connected to the route proper.

It turns out that OWs are Beautiful isn't as easy as one would expect, (Craig puked on it!) but it does live up to its name.  Its a CLASSIC and is easily 4 more stars than the route known as Mogwidths are Beautiful, probably 5 more actually.

With the list complete and pics taken Pamela wrote an amazing story about it for Climbing Magazine and it should be on the shelves any day now.  It was a good adventure, and the first question asked at the end of the day was "what's next?", I guess thats always  the question.

A preview shot from Climbing Magazine on FB

http://pamelashantipack.com/2012/01/29/a-tribute-to-craig-luebben/#comments

and a link to Pamela's blog about it also

Cheers to the goodtimes,

Patrick