Crack Addiction

I have never liked climbing crack. At all. I find it painful and uncomfortable, and I’m always convinced that my hand it going to get stuck and I’ll take a massive fall. Not to mention that crack climbing is done on trad gear, so I don’t have the comfort of immovable bolts keeping me from hitting the ground. Additionally, the style is so different from face climbing that the skills I have spent years developing don’t seem to translate at all. In the end, I usually struggle up a climb about 6 grades lower than what I usually climb, and hate the entire process.

John climbing at Indian Creek

For any non-climbers reading this, you might be thinking that all climbing is the same. Scroll to the end of this for a brief overview on the three distinct types of climbing: bouldering, sport (face) climbing, and trad (crack) climbing.

As we entered Utah, we had plans to hit the southeastern part of the state before heading over to Colorado. Research showed us that there were a ton of famous climbing areas here… but they are all crack. Being the wonderfully supportive partner that I am, I agreed to go for John’s sake.

We ended up at Indian Creek – one of the country’s best locations for crack climbing and the home of over 1,000 named routes. We soon met a tiny, blond girl in Lululemon running shorts and a bikini top, with her hair piled directly on top of her head. Convinced that she was a prissy climber’s girlfriend who would be more of a cheerleader for the rest of the group, I was surprised when I realized how badly I had misjudged her; she ended up being a badass crack climber who also chooses to live out of a car. We ended up joining up with her group of friends, and I found John a climbing partner who would actually be able to push him. In the meantime, I decided I should try to learn to like crack.

Me at Indian Creek, ‘cheating’ and doing a lay-back

Me climbing crack the right way at Indian Creek

It wasn’t an immediate change. I still hated my first few climbs, and even by the end, I wasn’t exactly in love. However, I did start to learn the technique, and there were moments where I would scramble up 20 feet of a crack without losing the proper technique or resorting to a lie-back (meaning that instead of jamming my limbs into the crack, I climb it by leaning sideways and holding one edge of the crack with my fingers). I came down from my fourth climb realizing that for the first time, I had actually enjoyed the process. By the end, I wasn’t exactly a convert, but I’m ready to try some more crack.

John’s scrapes after a few days at Indian Creek

We were heavily scraped and bruised at this point, so we took this opportunity to take a break from climbing and visit Arches National Park. We ended up hiking more than 10 miles to see various arches and we were never disappointed. It was absolutely gorgeous and a great finish to Utah before crossing over into Colorado.

Jumping around at the base of the Delicate Arch (which is actually a long ways up, with a sheer drop just a few feet behind us)

Me at the Double Arch

John at the Landscape Arch

Crash course on climbing types:

Bouldering is done on climbs close to the ground – usually less than 30 feet – and don’t use ropes of any kind. There are special mats – called crash pads – used to cushion any falls when bouldering (we used two of these mats to build our bed, so we are ready to boulder on this trip). This style of climbing uses its own grading system called the V-scale, where even the lowest level – a V0 – can be challenging to get up. Bouldering tends to consist of more powerful moves than other forms of climbing, since climbers don’t need to sustain that power for as long.

Sport Climbing consists of climbs up a taller rock face where there are bolts drilled into the wall along the way. The climber clips the rope into these bolts as they progress up the climb so that it will catch them in the case of a fall. The climber uses various holds along the way to make their way up the face. This is my favorite type of climbing.

Trad Climbing (short for traditional) refers to the type of climbing done when there are no bolts on the wall. This is how climbing was done before people started ‘defacing’ (as some – not me – would say) walls with bolts. Anyhow, since there are no bolts, climber wedge pieces of gear – such as cams or nuts – into cracks. As a result, trad climbing requires there to be cracks, or they would have no way of protecting their fall. As a result, most of these climbs appear on smooth rock faces with a large crack running up the middle. They can be ascended by wedging body parts – like hands, arms, and feet – into the crack. This style is incredibly different from face climbing, because you use the friction of a body part wedged into a small area instead of grabbing onto edges or lips.