Mother Nature formed huge molds in the shapes of cliffs and/or ant hills (some parts of the canyon look like enormous ant hills!) ;) she filled it with rocks, cobbles, and pebbles. and then she filled in the empty spaces by pouring in some sort of gluey rock paste to hold it all together. once it was settled and dry, she removed the molds .. and wallah! Maple Canyon! we spent two weeks there -- and my verdict, a super duper fun climbing crag! this place gets a bad reputation bc of the sandy, broken rock (aka "chunder" - a term we learned from some locals.. hilarious!), and questionable grades -- but if you can get past all of that, the climbing itself is just plain fun! we dont have too, too many pics.. we were so busy climbing! so i'll keep this as short as possible - but i can already tell this wont be short. ;)
let's start with -- no guidebook!
again! what is up with utah??! we had an old, old topo from the drtopo.com days. very dated and didnt have much info. but one day, early in the trip, we ran into friends that we met at the New! small world! so great to see them! anyway, the point is, there is a copy of a newer guidebook (although still from 1995 or something) that has a ton more crags. also, we learned that you can purchase it online for $12 or something - for this, ask liz and amber. totally worth the purchase. there is a ton of climbing here!
approach.
pretty easy! Box Canyon is right there off the road. Minimum is about 10 minutes uphill. and Pipedream is at the top of that same hill and takes a good 30 minutes. the plus: you can count it as your cardio for the day! Damascus and Craganmore are also along that same uphill hike ;) but closer than Pipedream. we stayed on that Right Fork area. it was enough to keep us busy for two weeks.
the climbing.
how do i describe it - cobbles and anti-cobbles everywhere (where cobbles have broken or fallen out). if something breaks off, it can make a climb harder or easier. there was an 11 in Pipedream that had a hold break, and it turned to a 12. there was a 12 at Minimum that had a hold break, and is now a good warmup 11 for the harder climbs in Pipedream. fascinating! (especially since generally if a hold breaks, the climb is usually much harder.) the climbing is overhung with awesome holds (just feel around and you'll find something that works for you) and awesome feet options. i didnt touch a climb that i didnt like :) there wasnt anything particularly cruxy about the climbs i did. mostly, the difficult part was being able to hold on long enough to get to the anchors. really, dont look at the grades - dont let anything scare you off. just get on everything.
i cant stress enough -- all of the climbs are fun!
our cute little cottage! thank you lillian for setting this up!
box canyon - lillian and jason are trying to work magic with the drtopo guide. walls of rock on both sides..
Pipedream - check out the steepness of this cave! thats lillian on the left warming up.
im in the top right corner .. some people will hike all the way to Pipedream (and as i said, it is a 30 min uphill hike!) and they will climb inside that hole. jason did. he said it smells like poo. we think lots of pigeons frequent the spot.
jason made pita chips! cut up some corn tortillas and baked them! a salty batch and a cinnamon/sugar batch. so good! impressive!
mr quinlan working for his send! he CRUSHED it for 5 days!
ms lillian sending her last climb (of so many!) of the trip. talk about epic send! storms rolling in, thunder echoing through the canyon .. and RAIN falling and soaking the rock face above her (wet cobbles?? no thank you!) .. intense!
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