Joe's Valley

Since I was a lil' segal there was one sport I excelled in: skiing. Yeah of course I can run and swim and surf but I will never be amazing at them.....they are like background sports. But a few years ago in Chamonix I learnt to rock climb.

Straight off the bat: I am not an amazing rock climber but it is the only thing that comes close in enjoyment to skiing and snow activities.

Joe's Valley

During this season I have been getting back into it and added a new skill to my little bum bag: bouldering. Unlike sport climbing, bouldering is done with no ropes and with a crash pad underneath you......yeah it scares the shit out of you but the more confident you get the more fun it becomes. The problems are graded from V0 to around V16 but people are always pushing the grades.

My first introduction to bouldering was Little Cottonwood Canyon where the boulder problems are all granite and I swear, near impossible....or at least very challenging. Luckily yesterday I went to check out Joe's Valley, out of SLC and slightly towards Colorado border and all my hesitations towards bouldering were forgotten. It is a mecca of beautiful sandstone boulders in all shapes, sizes and friendliness.

We started out near Mt Pleasant to run some errands, found some interesting country town advertisements and then drove over the Mt Pleasant pass (which seems to still be in the middle of winter) into the lower valley of Carbon County near Price.

milburn, almost like melbourne?

encouragement from the township of fairview

spring snow, almost, the whole town were out snowmobiling in the pass

-7 C......definitely wasn't warm at 11:20am.....

Joe's Valley is made up of several areas, Stefan and I head up to New Joe's, which is pretty much just a huge delicious valley of boulders in amongst a coal mining companies land.

new joe's

walking into the boulder fields

crazy sandstone formations

New Joe's- boulder mecca

I was born to carry this thing and look like spongebob squarepants

Anarchy boulders

We kicked it off at Anarchy boulders and I made it up 3 problems in no time, a V0, V1 and a V2, which for me was amazing. The day just got better, we found heaps of fun interesting problems, some which made your arms feel like jelly, others that ripped your fingers apart and a one or two that were a stroll in the park.

Classic V0 in Joe's

fun!

highstep.

the best part of bouldering is you get to hang out on top when you win.


stylin it

checking out V6 planet of the apes

planet of the apes

Stefan bagged a V6 on the 'evil boulder', worked out some new moves on Planet of the Apes and I tried several V2 problems (my current challenge). Garnished with a beer and a sunset- it was a pretty damn good day!... Yoga however is now needed.

some more kind words from fairview