Arm and Hammer

Brent and I climbed my first multi-pitch climb on trad gear this last Friday and gosh was it a blast! Here's the climb, and what a beauty! It's called Arm and Hammer, about a 2 hour hike up Bell Canyon in Salt Lake. It's technically 6 pitches I think, though we did it in five, and those are tall pitches! We figure we summited at over 700 feet, which makes this route like 12 Logan-sized climbs stacked on top of each other! It took us 6 hours to get up, and another 2 to rappel down. There's a thin little crack that goes up that blank looking face in the middle- that's where the route goes...


Each pitch was really different! This first pitch was basically a layback all the way up, except for the end which was more like a really awkward chimney.

One pitch followed a crack, which I loved!, that was small enough for finger jams in some places, and off width in others. This next shot is at the end of a pitch which followed a crazy flake (that actually flexed when you weighted it!) and then suddenly disappeared to reveal nothing but slab to chains. Yikes! I told Brent that move was the hardest thing I've ever done! Haha. Maybe an exaggeration. I mean, he DID have me on belay, but it felt really hard!

And here we are at the summit, looking...adventurous? The view from up top was glorious! What a perfectly beautiful day. :) I was a little nervous to untie from the rope at 700 feet to scramble to the top. In the end I made Brent hold on to one end of the rope just in case cuz I'm afraid of heights (after all, it'd be a shame to roll off the edge after working so hard to get there!) And I was glad he made me summit cuz it felt like a grand achievement.




Brent looks hard core without even trying. :) He's m' hero.