Journeys: SEND IT - July 22nd - City of Rocks, ID

Tired from a full day prior, we slept in until 8:00 a.m. and pulled out of camp at 9:00 a.m. We did not have much on the list for today, I primarily wanted to shoot video of the two of us climbing for the home brew documentary. I thought it would be cool to shoot a 5.10 classic, so picked out Tribal Boundaries on the west side of Flaming Rock. We set up all of the cameras and gear and I decided to climb the route once then turn on the cameras and climb it again. Big mistake. I climbed the route, got hurt fingers through the crimping section and decided to not climb it again. Once was enough and I never turned the cameras on. We moved around to the east side of Flaming Rock to climb Rain Dance another two pitch low angle classic. We climbed in the sun enjoy the warmth, because it was a chilly morning. We had a terrible descent as the rope got jammed three times on the way down, the final time it girth hitched itself around a patina plate. Back on the ground we decided that the first pitch would be Beth Ann's first sport lead. She had climbed it once already and I felt like it was time for her to experience lead climbing. She went up it just fine and we got some great video of it all. We decided we would pack up and move up to the Breadloaves to climb our final classic for the day, Intruding Dike, in the Bloody Fingers Corridor. We got video there too. It was so windy though the two tripod mounted cameras are shaking the entire climb. It was a fun climb, definitely the classic everyone makes it out to be. Especially the step over midair before the final 20 feet of climbing.

Beth Ann nearing the top of Intruding Dike.
Photograph by Chuck Bolte.

Once we were done we went down into town to try some Rock City pizza, which was very good. Then it was an early bed time back at camp. Tomorrow we attempt our final classic. Five pitch Sinocranium on Steinfell's Dome.