Dave&Callie

07_23_to_08_04_2015 Uintas-Lover's Leap Road Trip, Part IV

OMG. I hate this software. Sorry these are centered. One day while at the Leap I had to work so Dave connected with a local we know from an online forum. Super fun day was had it seems. I know they did Hospital Corner, but have no idea about the rest of the routes.

(The photos continue to post at random in terms of order). A fun part about the day is that Dave's partner had a sprinter van that he'd renovated. We spent some fun time at the end of the day checking it out. It is only a matter of time before you see a blog with our new Sprinter Van featured. :)

07_23_to_08_04_2015 Uintas-Lover's Leap Road Trip, Part III

This software is so frustrating + a camera that is making life hard. This means that these photos are in crazy order. Bear with me.

Dave among some of the big pine cones.

A nice view of the Leap with all the horizontal dikes.

On top of the left side of the wall

Another monster pine on top of the formation

At the base of a climb.

Coming up something on the right side of the formation.

Another climb...

We did see a crater event while we were there. Some bozos who should not have been climbing were. We had been next to them earlier in the day and heard a lot of their interaction. We all went our separate ways and we say the emergency extraction of one guy after he fell about 30' and decked. Happily he did have a helmet. Unhappily, he did have a brain injury.

Seeing him hauled out totally covered made us think he was surely dead. We talked to some of the EMTs who let us know he wasn't dead - but he was messed up.

Sight at our campsite later - lots of emergency vehicles.

Not sure what climb this is. Can't remember the name of any except corrugation corner.

Near the belay.

Summit shot.

07_23_to_08_04_2015 Uintas-Lover's Leap Road Trip, Part II

Our next stop on the trip was Lover's Leap California. Dave had climbed here a long time ago, and it was my first time. I'd heard a lot about the horizontal dikes. Somehow, I took this to mean it was a face-climbing locale. It's not!

Quite beautiful nonetheless.

We arrived and sat up camp then walked the original Pony Express Trail to a climb.

Of course, I can't remember what it was. It was fun but it was during this route that I recognized it was not a face climbing area at all.

Summit shot before hiking down the backside and back to camp.

A view of the largest part of the wall from the Pony Express Trail.

The next day we did a few climbs - one of which was the multi-pitch Corrugation Corner. Fun stuff even with chimneys and offwidths.

Here I am coming up a corner.

And there I am waaaaaay down there coming up some other corner.

Just before the mandatory belly flop-beached whale maneuver on this route.

Blargh! I'm flopping and my leg is stuck. Given I'm home and typing this, you can see I eventually got my leg out and flopped over to the anchors.

Pretty climb.

Monkeying around at the top of the climb

There are sugar pines at the top and lots of pine cones. this is actually a very small one.

The Strawberry Lodge with the Leap in the background.

The campground was really nice (far nicer than what we had in Utah). And it was only 10$ a night. A total bargain.

The Stellar's Jays were loads of fun at camp.

07_23_to_08_04_2015 Uintas-Lover's Leap Road Trip

Wowza - time flies and that means I'm behind on the blog entries. Lots of fun has been happening. I'll get some blogs on some of the highlights.

In July/August, Dave and I hopped in the car and headed west. Our first stop was the Uintas in Utah. It's a nice area with some climbing. Neither of us have been there before.

Although we someone managed to head out on the biggest holiday weekend of Utah (Pioneer's Day), we did manage to get a campsite in a nice place.

Lots of fun birds were around. Lots of babies fledging.

It is a pretty area and the hikes were mild to get to the walls.

Here we are hiking to one of the walls.

Lots of wildflowers.

At the wall, while belaying Dave, a baby Chipmunk (aka Chippie) fell from about 50' up and hit the rock right next to me. He looked dead as a door knob. After a minute, he started twitching and eventually rolled over and stumbled into bush where we were. He was clearly stunned and I thought he'd just die there. Instead, after many hours, he started making noises calling to his mom who was searching for him up high (with two other little guys). After hours, mom came down and they were reunited. Mom then had the fallen youngster follow her back to the top. Pretty nice ending to what started off awfully.