The Indian Creek Wednesday, 31 May 06 @ 02:28 pm

The Indian Creek

Indian Creek is simply the paradise of cracks! In Springtime its one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and the deep red rock is unique as nowhere else.
Ines, Moni, Manu and me spent the first three weeks of April in the canyon to learn all about crack climbing, which turned out as a hard but very exiting project.

Forget about grading!
Even if you know a lot about climbing, you will start with the easiest cracks and you will possibly have a hard time with it. An off width 5.10 will appear harder than some 5.13 sport climbs you have done and a 5.11 “thin hand” is a possible long term project.
So here is the beta: Don`t look in the guide book for your route. Just choose one of these thousand cracks you like and try to climb it. If its a good size for your hand, you will find it easy but if its the wrong size it will be an interesting project. Mostly you will feel like just starting a new sport. You will be afraid first time falling on lead, you will experience the sawing machine in your leg, and you will feel sour muscles in body, you never even thought about these muscles. But if you are ready to deal with these barriers (once again) you will have a perfect adventure in you head and body with every single crack.
The right color
Choosing gear for a new crack is like reading a cooking book. Moni looked into the guide book and told me the prescribed sizes, which I placed carefully at my harness. After some days of swearing around, I realized that sizes in the guide book are not Camelot sizes but inches. After some more days of confusion I realized, that cam, friend, Metolius or alien is a very different story. But if you try to lead a lot and lead hard, you will also start reading the crack sizes and sometimes it happened that I failed just once.
Placing all the gear myself was a big challenge and I really enjoyed it, comparable to my first time climbing ice on lead.
No pain no gain
Tape is aid, was one of the first things I heard about taping hands or fingers. I decided to use tape anyway and get the chance to climb more and longer than other climbers without. The right tape is mostly avoiding the worst Gobi and pain, so definitely a good reason to use it. Beside that it is still sometimes quite painful to jam, at least until you know the technic much better. The more we climbed the better got the technic and also the harder the skin on places you need it.
The off width story
The word off width is mostly effecting goose skin on most climbers neck. In the same way I remember the “harding slot” on Astroman /Yosemite valley, but for some reason routes like “Binch and Perch” or “Big Guy” where like a magnet for me. These cracks look sometimes not climbable at all, but thats also the challenge.. Its permanently in your head: Are you able to climb me? With a good technic, some good motivation and no claustrophobia, these routes mostly turn out as a very interesting movement mosaic.

Life in the creek
One of the best experiences for Ines, Moni, Manu and me has been the live style in the desert of Indian Creek. Sitting around the fire place, meeting a lot of new people every day, or enjoying some lonely crags in this unbelievable huge valley, showed us (again) the simple way of living a happy climbers life. Personally have seldom been impressed that much, just watching new fantastic and colorful rock formations every day. It`s for sure one of these obligatory places to be in a climbers life.

The Pink Flamingo
After some days of climbing I was feeling more comfortable with jamming, placing gear or simply the different friction of the rock. I saw a poster of “The Pink Flamingo” and knew this would be my little project for the time in the creek. The reason for this route name is the Indian petrographic placed 5m above and just next of the beginning of this crack. Feeling the old spirit is a good reason to be around or inside this crack.
Finger cracks are painful! That was my first impression of the hard access of the route. But the more I was trying the better my technic got and after some days of top roping, I was able to climb big sections of the crack.
Leading and falling far makes the difference! It`s a hard fact of climbing cracks, but makes the whole story also that interesting. So I realized that it`s the same story again: Red point climbing is just a big adventure in your head.
Although it took longer than I thought. Taking some big weepers, getting a clue where to place the right gear and waiting for the right temperature, where steps to success.
Finnally I did it and even it was graded “just 5.13” (I have already on sighted this grade on sport routes) I was happy like a little child.

Climbing in Indian Creek is not only the best you can do, if you are bored from sport climbing, it also shows you a different style of climbing, away from our grade orientated climbing scene.

All photos by Keith Ladzinski

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