Birthday Challenge Recap

Many a badass climber partakes in the “Birthday Challenge”. The idea behind the birthday challenge is to climb as many pitches as the age you are turning on your birthday… I am not that badass… So I decided to do it in an off shift. 5 days to climb 29 pitches! Here’s a recap of those intense 5 days:

Day 1: X Rock

My buddy Greg from my NOLS Outdoor Educator Course decided to come down to Durango and help me with the challenge. He arrived into town at around 3:00pm and we headed to the closest crag to start off with a few pitches. X Rock is minutes away from town and has some a few pretty nice sandstone crack lines on a rock that looks like an “X”. We knocked down the following 3 pitches before the sun set on us:

1) Left X, Trad, 5.7+ 60 feet
2) Red Book, TR, 5.9, 60 feet
3) Right X, Trad, 5.7, 60 feet

Day 2: Lemon Reservoir

Lemon is a picturesque Durango climbing spot where tall granite walls tower over the Florida River. Climbs are mostly sport with a few gear placements. The longer length of the climbs make them less than ideal for ticking off pitches, but the climbing is pretty top notch!

4) Hotness, Sport, 5.8+, 90 feet
5) Finding Forrester, Sport, 5.8, 80 feet
6) Vertical Alluvium, Trad, Sport, 5.10a, 80 feet
7) Bonsai, Sport, 5.10a, 80 feet
8) Around Right, Sport, 5.7, 25 feet
9) Wildflower, Sport, 5.6, 30 feet

Day 3: Rain

This day set us back a bit. Got in one pitch at the Fume Wall (Nice Jugs, Sport, 5.8, 45 feet) before it started raining. Decided it was time to head to the desert.

Day 4: Wall Street

Wall Street is a local Moab climbing spot. Aside from some really cool sandstone climbs, the highlight of Wall Street is the approach. You can literally park on the side of the road and belay out of your car. We had some work to do since we had been rained out the day before. The problem was that the climbs were right in the desert sun. We moved the camper with each climb so we had some shade to belay from and dealt with the fact that we were burning our finger tips off in the afternoon. Got some really nice climbs in (and admittedly ran up a few easy slab pitches at the end of the day to get the numbers we needed!)

11) Stego Slab, Sport, 5.9, 35 feet
12) Unnamed 10a
13-17) Various 5.5-5.6 leads on the School Room Slab
18) Top 40, Trad, 5.8, 60 feet
19) Lacto mangulation, Trad, 5.10b, 60 feet
20) Nervous in Suburbia, Sport, 5.10a, 50 feet
21) Slab Route, Sport, 5.7, 90 feet
22) She-la the Peeler, Sport, 5.9, 90 feet
23) Unnamed contrived 5.9+
24) Slab 2, Sport, 5.5, 60 feet
25) Unnamed Slab, Sport, 5.5, 50 feet

Day 4: The Main Event! Ancient Art, Stolen Chimney

This was the finale we had been planning for. We left 4 pitches to reach the 29th on top of the popular corkscrew tower Ancient Art in the Fischer Towers. This climb is probably best known by non-climbers as the route featured in the Citibank commercial

We slept outside the camper nearby with one of the most beautiful sunsets imaginable and hit the rock early in the morning. I led the first pitch that included a tricky 5.10 bolt ladder. Greg led the 5.8 trad chimney pitch which gains most of the height. He also led the next 5.10 bolt ladder so I could have the glory of leading the last pitch.

The last pitch is where the fun lies. First you walk across “The Sidewalk”, a 20 foot long walkway about a foot wide with about 500 foot shear drops on both sides. Then you get to “The Diving Board” where you have to do the “Jump and Hump” move to get up on the platform before you can clip a bolt. Last but not at all least comes “The Corkscrew”, by far the coolest and most exposed climbing I have ever done to stand atop the 2 foot by 2 foot summit block.