Tom Grundy's Maple Canyon UT 2008 Page

The second half of June I went to Maple Canyon Utah with Julie for a little sport climbing. The rock at Maple is cobble conglomerate. Imagine climbing a solidified streambed tilted up past 90 degrees and you get the idea. The holds are often quite good, but it can take some searching to find the good spots. Much of the climbing is very endurance intensive, and last time I was here in 2006 it took months to develop that endurance, but we would only have 2 weeks this trip. As we drove up into the canyon, the first person I saw was Vivienne (who was there with Dave and it seemed like the whole Blythe clan), throughout the trip, we saw a lot of people we knew.

As it turns out, we spent much of our time at the pipeline in the left fork, an area with relatively short, bouldery, overhanging climbs. This saved us from heaps of endurance suffering training. Amazingly, I did manage to get up the few "enduro" routes I tried, although there was much huffing, puffing, gnashing of teeth, and forearms expanding to zeppelin proportions.

Maple canyon is in central Utah, near towns like Moroni, Ephraim, Nephi, and Manti. It is a rural area that seems to specialize in turkey farms. Moroni has a turkey processing plant complete with direct sales outlet which we investigated, although most of the items were larger than we wanted to deal with in the trailer. There are also such luxuries as a Walmart super center, and the Snow College library in Ephraim. It tended to be hot out in the valley during the day, but rather cool in the shadowy canyons, and cool at night. This was appreciated, as the slick cobbles could be desperate enough even when it was cool. Unfortunately there also seemed to be something allergenic in the air, plus a fair bit of dust from the road along with lots of flies and a few mosquitos.

Two weeks really isn't enough time to enjoy the fun of climbing at Maple Canyon, so we planned on returning in July.

Justin on a 5.12a at the pipeline (Julie pic)

Vivienne on another pipeline climb

Sanpete valley traffic jam

Lots of turkeys

Kyle on something on the cobble roof

a gopher snake in box canyon

Back again - July 2008

There were plenty more climbs waiting for us, so we came back for the second half of July. This trip featured a lot of climbing at the minimum. I managed to redpoint two new hard climbs (for me) one of them "just a little something" is rated 5.13 in the guidebook, but is probably more like 5.12+, and the other"spacelord" is 5.12d. I was pretty pleased with those 2, especially "spacelord", which featured continuous overhanging climbing for some 75 feet. It rained a fair amount on this trip, including a real downpour when we got there, but the rain didn't really stop us from climbing. Although occasionally we had to avoid climbs that were wet at the top. One of the advantages of overhanging climbs is that they tend to stay dry and provide shelter in the rain.

Helen joined us for a few days on her way back from Wild Iris. She had been here once before, but hadn't seen some of the "good" crags. She cranked hard and then escaped before her forearms exploded. It was a lot easier to get some pics when there were 3 of us climbing, even if it did persist in being overcast.

Julie warms up at the pipeline

Helen on "Groundworks" (J pic)

Helen clips on a pipeline climb

For one rest day we went to some hot springs near Spanish Fork. Despite some clouds and even a bit of rain, it was hotter than we really wanted for hot springs. Luckily there was also some cool water, so we tried to balance between the two. There was also a nice waterfall, and the walk up was along a loud mouthed creek. I was hoping to paddle down the creek for training and entertainment purposes, but the rapids were a bit rough and there were a lot of strainers, so I ended up paddling less than the last mile, which was fun, but a bit too shallow for my tastes (too many rocks to bump on).

Waterfall by the hot springs

Sagittarius, Jupiter, and the milky way

For the first half of the trip, after climbing I ran a trail loop up the middle fork and down past the pipedream cave gaining over 1000 feet (I think) a number of times in preparation for the next adventure, suffering in the Montana mountains (stay tuned for the web page about that). I was also eating a lot trying to gain a bit of weight. For the second half of the trip I concentrated more on the gaining weight... Amazingly my climbing didn't seem to suffer too much, although there were some days I felt like the gravity had been turned up a bit.

the turkeys have grown

Zebra in Wales

Julie thought I was talking complete nonsense when I said something about maybe seeing the zebras in Wales (she thought I said "Whales" which confused her even more). The first trip we looked for them without luck, but we saw them the second trip. What zebras are doing in Wales is a good question, but it is cool to see them. (for those continuing to be confused, Wales (formerly Coalbed) is a small town in central Utah near the climbing area).

Back again - August-September 2008

Julie's plan to pass the summer involved lots of time off, and of course lots of climbing. We returned to Maple Canyon yet again in the last week of August. I was coming from the Uintas, and Julie and Josh came from Flagstaff. Things were a little cooler this trip, although we still usually wanted to climb in the shade. The first trip we concentrated on the pipeline, the second we mostly went to the minimum, and this trip we went to box canyon a lot. For the first 5 days we were camped below the bridge fairly near the box canyon, which made it the logical choice. Then after we moved camp, we all had projects there, so we kept getting lured back. I did manage to send one climb that thwarted me and made my finger hurt when I was here 2 years ago, so that was satisying.

The weather was generally quite nice this trip, with a lot of rain 2 nights. Unfortunately one was the day before we were scheduled to move, which made moving a little messier, but it also cleared out the campground nicely so we could move to our new site. The other day of rain was our last day. We were at the pipedream, so it didn't really matter, although it continued to rain off and on all night, which once again made packing up a little more trouble.

Julie and Josh talk to Charmaine
(she said she'd kill me if I took her pic)

lots of turkeys
gobble cobble gobble

Josh is much more of a trad climber than a sport climber (he is the rope gun at Indian Creek), although he had a lot of fun at Maple, he was also just getting used to the sport climbing way. This included taking some pretty big falls on the overhanging walls at Maple including one that frightened away some Bulgarian beginners. Luckily the areas we went to featured climbs to challenge all of us, and we usually all had projects within a hundred feet of each other. Lots of rest is required between redpoint attempts, so climbing with three people wasn't a problem, and it also allowed me to drive everyone nuts taking photos.

Julie heads up "Watermelon Sugar"

Josh takes a fall in box canyon

Josh takes another on "49"

Todd, one of Julie's co-workers stopped by on his way back from Colorado and tried climbing for the first time. Last I heard he has been seen trying on shoes and harnesses at the gym.

Dan on the diggler, pipedream cave

For the final 2 days we went up to the pipedream, where I got beat down by some steep but inspiring routes. Once again I am leaving unfinished business for whenever I return.

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panoramic from the top of a spire