Draw Daze

A few highlights from the most recent Priest Draw outing last week. This was a great day filled with silly banter, many big links on projects, some epic chuffs, and a couple of sends. Climbing locally has been quite enjoyable as of late.

Pink Lightning....fell off the finishing jug from the start

Skyler sending R God is Neither

Anthony working Carnivore Direct

Christina working Anorexic... she fell off the last hold from the start!

Unexpected send of Carnivore Direct

Repeating Carnivore

Richard learning the foot first method

Unbrushed Stone...

I walked by a few intriguing pieces of rock this year while chasing the limestone layer in the Flagstaff Hinterlands.  Some could be worth returning to in the coming months if the forest roads stay open this winter. To be continued...

20 degree sandstone face with thin, positive crimp rails

Massive roof crack! Holds and jams go all the way back

Meh...maybe

Probably B-ster crack/pod roof

Deep cave with many holds... just needs digging

No Carry

I have spent a few sessions tagging along with local Flagstaff developer Matt Hoch to revive a nearby backwoods area he and his friends found many years ago.  The canyon is dubbed "No Carry", which I am intentionally spelling wrong to mask the true narrative behind the name of the canyon.  Ask Hoch sometime and maybe he'll tell you the story behind it.

The canyon and its stone are characterized by similar traits to Cherry - sections of bullet orange limestone bulge walls weave in and out between small bluffs of chossy layer.  The canyon gets pretty chilly during this time of the year, as it is tucked away in the shadows of the ponderosa pine canopy.  Most of the walls are spotlessly blank (as expected with Flagstaff limestone), except for a few excellent standout lines scattered loosely throughout the canyon and its little drainages.

Kudos to all the incredibly hard work that Hoch has been putting into this canyon! He recently put up The Impeccable Problem and is very close to wrapping up a hard roof project that climbs through a giant Tufa pinch. Hopefully the canyon stays dry until the next year...Fingers crossed. 

Hoch getting the first ascent of The Impeccable Problem (V9ish)

Trying The Impeccable Problem

Hoch on his tufa roof project

Tiger King

Tiger King 

Sunday Funday

Spent another sunny but chilly day at the Draw with Anthony and Skyler.  Puzzle Box Roof was first on the menu, and then Mars roof afterwards.  At Puzzle Box, Anthony quickly unlocked his beta for R God is Neither and managed to snag the send after a couple of goes. Well done Anthony! I got my beta sorted for Pink Lightning, and then ended up fell off the final sequence of the Puffer Fish exit on my best burn from the start.

Once we got to Mars roof, the sun had mostly gone away and the chill started to creep in.  We still made it work and got a couple hours of solid climbing in. Skyler had a really good send burn on The Girl from Ipanema, but numbed off the end sequence due to the cold.  Anthony reached the phone hold on the Receptionist a couple times on his send attempts.  Before we left, I shared my start beta for Lolita with them and watched them make quick progress on it.  Fun times! 

Mars Roof

The Receptionist

Skyler on The Girl From Ipanema

Pink Lightning

Skyler on R God is Neither

Priest Draw

I've been busy with work and life lately and therefore have been spending a lot of time climbing at the Draw.  Here are some recent highlights from the past few weeks:

Sending the Receptionist 

Richard on Lolita

Sending Carnivore (finally lol)

Sending Suplexing Navavjo

Christina on Anorexic 

Skyler on The Girl from Ipanema

Here goes...

Well fuck, I did it too.  I decided to jump on the blog train and start documenting my adventures around Northern Arizona.  I wish I had pulled the trigger on doing this a few years ago, but alas here we are.  Better late than never?

I am generally a visual storyteller, so I imagine there will be a lot of photo logs with captions on here rather than long essays detailing events.  2025 is coming to a close, and with that will come some reflections on a very eventful year. 

For now the weather is good, forest roads are open, and the psych is high.  Stay tuned!