Team Mammut: Ten Sleep

Showing posts with label Ten Sleep. Show all posts

Friday, October 30, 2015

Ten Sleep Tips

Ten Sleep Canyon is a popular summer climbing destination. This Wyoming cragging area sits at high elevation and provides reasonable climbing temperatures throughout July and August. After a three-week trip this summer, I thought I'd share a bit of information that we found helpful when visiting the area.

October Sport Climbing/ Sport Watching

In terms of normal-livin', the weather here in Ten Sleep has been A-OK the last few weeks. It's been cloudy with daytime highs from 30-50 degrees F here in town/ the valley. However, if you're gonna try to sport climb (and if you're a wuss like I am), this isn't gonna cut it! Thought it's definitely possible to climb here in October, you really need the sun to shine long and hard. So for the past two weeks (aside from a few Cody bouldering attempts) we've been milling around the house in slippers and sweatpants, running into each other and the walls.

But this morning we woke up, and it was sunny! So today, even though it was one of the coldest days yet this fall, we decided to bust a move into the canyon and see whether or not David really is from Sweden. Turns out that he totally is from Sweden and I'm not. After freezing myself silly on one pitch, he climbed a few more pitches and I sport watched.

Porch in the morning

Temperature at the parking

Cracks are cold even when it's sunny.

Derv exploring an old school slab... bolts are much, much more spaced than they appear.

David looking in vain for the next bolt

Sunday, September 30, 2012

September 29, 2012: National Public Lands Day

September 29, 2012 was the 19th annual National Public Lands Day. We (David and Rickard Sjöquist, Alli and Kevin and I) all showed up to support this volunteer effort, and to give the local land management a good impression of climbers.

In total, about a dozen people, BLM employees and others, showed up for the day's work. We met at 9am and split into groups with various missions. Everyone spent the day pulling removing weeds and installing a kiosk and sign-in box at the trail head. Our particular mission was trail work.

Here are some images of the day:

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Boulders in Sport Climbing Land?

I am probably not the first one driving through Ten Sleep Canyon looking at all the boulders generously spread throughout. I am also probably not the first one running around and looking at them. Yet, unfortunately I leave the boulders with the same conclusion way too often: big, amazing looking boulders from a distance - but up-close, you'll understand why there's not more people around hauling crash pads.

You would think that people coming here to sport climb just don't care about bouldering - and that would be the reason why there's no established bouldering. I am sure that's true to some extent, but I'm slowly starting to accept that there is no, or at least very few, boulders even worth looking at. It's either no holds at all, completely blank. Or millions of small, sharp pockets that would cut you up immediately.

I have NOT given up yet though. I'm sure that I, on one of my regular "looking-for-stuff-walks," will find something worth whatever it takes to climb it. I am not even looking to find a new area to develop, just something that would be worth the process that leads from finding to climbing, and being ready to start looking for the next thing. That's the good thing. It never stops!

I have and will always have a love for slabs, especially for tall ones like the one above. 27 feet (8 m) of good old slab climbing. This is the most recent one, well, I guess the only one I have bean psyched enough on to brush. Can't wait to try it! And when that's done I just have to move a couple of steps to the left for a taller and sketchier one.

Look at this! THIS is when you wished that there was more holds. The picture makes it even look like there's more holds than there are. This is what makes me keep my hopes up though.

Have a good one!!