On Friday the 17th we travelled south of Jackson to a small sport crag called The Rodeo Wall. There are only 14 routes there and range from 50 to 70 feet in length. I have to say that the routes there are very stiff. I talked to a local and he said that most of the route were put up by Greg Collins. He is apparently very strong, so that would explain the stiff grades. We first ran up a 10 named I Against I. All of the routes here full a small roof. This route is east until five feet after the roof. And as I found out all of the routes have the same beta. The top of the routes are SUPER crimpy on Limestone. The little rails are bomber but scary when clipping blots. After I sent IAI, I would grade it more as a 10b. Next I went up on Thelma, 9. It too would, in my opinion, go as 10a. Next was Copenhagen 10a, and the best route out of the ones I tried, Alive in Wyoming, 10a. The roof on AIW is large but the holds above are enormous. The line moves into a crack and is really fun. There is a swallow nest deep in the crack. So look out. Everyone loved AIW. It is a great route.

All in all the Rodeo Wall is very fun. And is a good place to visit if you are in Jackson. The grade range is 5.8 to 11a. There are only 14 routes but the close proximity to the road makes this a popular area.

The next day Lori, Rylind, and I went into the Tetons to climb the Guides Wall. When I woke up the sun was just starting to rise and the alpinglow on the Tetons was one that I will never forget. But of course my camera battery was dead. We took the Jenny Lake boat across to the base of the hike. We took the Cascade Canyon trail to the climbers trail that is very.... not obvious. On the hike in we saw several marmots and small wildlife.

The Guides Wall is a very popular area because of the grades and route variations that can done to give a guide more variety to their clients. We decided to take it slow and climb the easy 5.7 pitch skipping the 10a P1. I placed a piece very low which turned out to be bad because of drag. The second pitch was interesting. There are two variations, a fifth class left and a 5.7 crack on broken rock right. I went where I thought was left but turned out to be the 5.7. It turned out to be very easy. I pulled the lip and found the tree anchors. It was a very easy free solo, sorry Star. The third pitch was up a easy 5.6 finger crack to a small ledge. Pitch four is an easy 5.6 "scramble" to the lunch ledge. P5 is a great pitch what ever way you choose to go. We went up the wonderful looking 5.9 finger crack. It was tough down low but easy higher up. This funneled to the smallest ledge on the rock before the final and crux P6. The 6th pitch was absolutely amazing. There was a little exposure but was not bad considering it was 600 ft up. This lead to a beautiful view on top of the buttress. The abseil down was done in three rapps. If you ever do this route be careful when abseiling, your rope has a very high chance of getting caught in the many flakes. There is an alternate walk off after the first rapp, but be careful it is very loose and not often used.

The hike out was somewhat eventful. Hiking out we walked within 20 feet of a bull moose. We tiptoed by and made our way to the nearest water source. We ran out of water on P4. So we were very parched to say the least. We missed the boat back, so we had to hike the 2 miles around the lake. We met up with Chris who was just arriving from a Teton trip. We ate some pizza and drank some New Belgium beer. We slept very good last night. Rylind and Lori made everyone breakfast and it was wonderful. I did miss breakfast with Star which sucks.

Sorry that I do not have pics from the Guide's Wall. I will have some more from today. We are taking a rest day and climbing a few pitches at Blacktail Butte or the Rodeo Wall again. Chris and I want to talk about rope rescue a little and run through some scenarios. Stay tuned for more photo fun.