Paradise Forks

Just another part of exploring Northern AZ, Emma and I stopped by Paradise Forks. Paradise Forks is a set of waterfalls at the start of Sycamore Canyon, the second largest canyon in Arizona. It's a haven for trad climbers, and considered some of the best climbing in Arizona by many, and the best crack climbing in the US outside of Utah. Even if you don't climb, the 40 minute drive to Flagstaff is totally worth the views. There is a great horse and hiker trail (sorry mountain biker's, it's in wilderness land) that travels over relatively flat ground along the rim for several miles, giving away amazing views of the canyon at every turn. The canyon and the national forest surrounding it offer miles and miles of hiking trails and jeep roads, as well as a bunch of primitive and back country camping options. We only spend a day and a half here but I could easily go back for at least a week to explore even more.

Enjoy these photos of Paradise Forks, if you look closely many of them have climbers dotting the walls.

Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Garden of the Gods Climbing

There has been some serious lacking of climbing in my life recently. And as I was laying in my bed thinking about this, I realized that I never posted photos from climbing in the Garden of the Gods.

I knew there was some good climbing in Colorado, and I didn't know how to contact any of the other bike mechanics I was going to be there with. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to find an awesome climber, named Patrick, in the Colorado Springs area on Mountain Project. I met up with Patrick twice while staying in the Springs, and both times we climbed in Garden of the Gods, which is really an obvious choice for any sort of geophile. If you haven't seen my previous post from the Garden of the Gods, get there. One night we met up with two other climbers, and spent the last hours of sunlight bouldering. The second time we went out for the day, on a crazy busy weekend. I've never told some many people how I got the rope up there. We climbed on a pair of 35 foot spires that I could belay from a sidewalk, it was an interesting experience to say the least. On the opposite of the spectrum, we hiked a mere 100 yards from the road and climbed an adventurous 3 pitch climb, and I felt like I was in the Cochise back country. The place continued to amaze me, and I'd go back in a heart beat, but I'd probably aim for a weekday.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Top of Ewephoria

The posts are getting fewer and farther between these days. However, I just got some film developed, so there should be plenty coming this week.

This shot is of Kevin after we climbed Ewephoria(5.8) on the Sheepshead dome in Cochise Stronghold, AZ. The climb is an awesome 5 pitch mixed climb that includes some crack moves, 5.8+ slab climbing, a small roof, and of course, a field of chicken heads. Tons of fun, and a great summer morning climb. Obviously the celebratory drinks were worth the weight in the summit bag.

Enjoy
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Fuji Provia 100 Ansco Ventura Deluxe 66

The People

I came back with so many amazing images from Indian Creek, so I'm breaking the images up into separate postings. The first was of the great landscapes, this one will be of the great people I was with, and the next and final will be of the great climbing.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Camplife below the Gash

"Bellessimo!" Gourmet camp cooking brought to you by Damien & Megan

On approach to 2nd Meat Wall

Describing the change over on the Sicilian

mmmm...cams

Not too many better places to take a nap.

Approach to Scarface

Indian Creek Landscapes

Looking Towards the Six Shooters from 2nd Meat Wall

I recently took a trip to Indian Creek Rec Area in Utah to do some climbing. I met up with a friend of a friend, Conor, and his two friends, Damien and Megan. Damien's an Indian Creek veteran and kindly showed the rest of us around on our first trip to Indian Creek, and my first time doing real trad climbing. More importantly he shared his plethora of gear, which without it we wouldn't have been able to climb anything, so thank you again Damien.

Indian Creek is at the south east end of Canyonlands National Park, about 40 miles south of Moab. The place is an unreal labyrinth of canyons, that seems to go on forever. It shares a lot of land with local ranches, and in fact used to be all ranch land. It wasn't until 1976, when climbers finally discovered and freed the first route on the Supercrack Buttress, that people started using it for recreational reasons. It was slow going, as far as climbing development goes, until the cam was invented. With the cam, good protection could be easily placed on any of the nearly parallel splitters covering all of the cliff faces. Shortly after climbers started flocking to the area the land was purchased from the ranchers and is now controlled by BLM with the help of the Access Fund and of course the Friends of Indian Creek(donations to either will help keep Indian Creek free and accessible to everyone, including climbers).
The landscape in the area is at once awe inspiring and humbling, especially as you discover just how truly massive the canyons and cliffs really are. I hope you enjoy these landscape photos of the canyons. The next posting will be filled with climbing shots from the area.

Enjoy,
Tyler Gates
Good Life Photography

Bridger Jacks and Six Shooters

Looking East down 211

Where it all started, Supercrack Buttress

Donnelly Wall

Sunset over the Six Shooters

Chochise Stronghold

Sheepshead Rock, The Stronghold

Here it is, Chochise Stronghold, or at least the Sheepshead section of it. Shortly after moving out here I was in contact with a bona fide mountain climbing and he asked if I had been out to "the Stronghold" yet, that was when I started obsessing over the place. The Stronghold is one of the best places to climb in Arizona. It is part of the Dragoon Mountains in Chochise County, and was where the last Apaches held out against the U.S. government. It is large concentration of exposed rock domes with a tremendous amount of established trad and sport multi-pitch climbs. My dream has been to get a few people together to spend a weekend here, just exploring and climbing, but no one seems to ever have the time. Finally, 3 other climbers and myself decided to day trip and climb the 760 ft Ewephoria(5.8) on Sheepshead rock(the largest dome in the photo above).
We met in an empty food store parking lot at 4 am in Tucson, loaded into one car and drove off into the pitch black desert. After an hour or so of easy highway driving we turned onto a dirt road, wound through the darkness for another half an hour. Our directions told us to turn down an unmarked road that lead to a windmill. Fortunately for us the cloudy skies made it impossible to see anything, we took a chance and got lucky. As we got our gear ready the skies began to get lighter and we could finally see the rock. It was amazing, and an hour long hike away.
We took our time on the climb. Two teams of two yo-yoing up each pitch always slows you down, but we had all day. At the top of the third pitch we got a little lost, with a sport, a mixed, and a trad option, non of which had chains in site, we took our time to figure things out. As we did, we noticed an impending wall of rain coming our way. As it moved closer across the fields the winds picked up until we could barely here each other. By this time Kyle had decided to figure out the trad route, which look the easiest, in order to get us off the rock and on the decent trail. We all expected to get soaked before getting off the rock. We hurried up final pitch, snapped a few shots at the top and started down the trail. Have way down the wind stopped, and the sun came out. We hiked back to our car through an amazing boulder strewn field filled with horses. I wouldn't have believed the place existed if I hadn't seen it myself. I can't wait for the next trip down there.

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6 am approach

Kyle on the final pitch(the storm was the other way)

The valley southwest(?) of the Stronghold.