Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Vedauwoo, Wyoming

this past weekend coby and i traveled to Vedauwoo, wyoming, a national recreation area outside of laramie. for anyone traveling west on I-80, this is a beautiful place to call it a day and camp out. it's about half way between cheyenne and laramie, and offers free camping in a beautiful setting (you can pay too, but it's just as easy to drive down the road a bit and pull off into one of the already established free camping areas. just bring your own water). it is well known in the climbing world for off-width cracks in pink granite. off-width means a crack that is bigger than your fist but smaller than your body- meaning, you have to pull some crazy, grunting moves to work your body up one of these cracks. salt lake city reached 100 degrees, so we ran out of town and enjoyed the 70's weather and shade in the park.


Unique, granite rock-mushrooms inside the recreation area


Coby grunting her way up an "off-width" crack. turn your head sideways- sorry!




me trying to decide which big piece of gear will fit into that monster!




me being eaten up by another big crack. turns out i can only climb 5.8 big crack at vedauwoo. it was hard climbing!



Over memorial day weekend, eric and i attempted to backpack in the Uintas in north-eastern utah. turned out there was still too much snow and we couldn't even follow the path. so we drove around, admired the view, and came back home. it was nice to know we have such beautiful mountains so close to home! my parents are coming out the second weekend of july to backpack in these same mountains. can't wait!


(pilsner is afraid of heights)