Vision Quest

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Wording

Vision Quest

Shirley on crux of Vision Quest.

A quick weekend trip to Moab. Got to the motel in Green River well after midnight on Saturday and woke up bright and early to spitting rain (…again). Rest of Saturday turned into a marathon of sleeping, eating, and sky watching. Though we did drive out to Indian Creek and the trailhead just to make sure we still remembered where it was. Sometime in the late afternoon the wind picked up and things began to dry out. Blue skies and sunshine greeted us on Sunday morning and so we drove back to the Bridger Jacks trailhead with Vision Quest in mind. VQ (5.10+, 4 pitches) is the easiest route on the tallest tower of the Bridger Jacks. It has a reputation for being “fucking burly” and we would not disagree with that sentiment. The meat of pitch 1 is a thin (yellow aliens) finger crack in a dihedral with some stem rests to keep things 5.10…but really too hard to be considered a warm up for us. Pitch 2 is where the business starts. An initial squeeze chimney interrupted by a nice hand crack (blue Camalot) bring you to the crux move of the route: the entry into a short squeeze slot section. There’s a photo of Jeff Achey in this squeeze in the IC guidebook. Think you’re a 5.10 climber (I’m not!)? The third pitch is short but has a couple of burly bulges to keep the blood flowing. The 4th and final pitch is significantly easier (esp. after the flared chimney opener) but the protection gets sparser towards the top. Beautiful summit and a quick descent (4X single using a 70 meter cord) and we were back in SLC waiting for our Sunday night flight home. Oh, if I’m doing my arithmetic right, this was our 30th Moab area desert tower…it’ll take us another ~140 years to complete our 100 at the present pace.

Photos

Vision Quest

Unsettled weather on a late May weekend in the Utah desert (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Bridger Jacks and the Six Shooters on a rainy saturday in Indian Creek (South one on left; May 2015).


Vision Quest

Paris – Dakar…


Vision Quest

Bridger Jack spires (left to right): Thumbelina, Sparkling Touch, Easter Island (tiny), Sunflower Tower, Hummingbird Spire, King Of Pain (with the classic Vision Quest route climbing the dihedral leading to notch between the twin summits) and Bridger Jack Butte (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Starting up pitch 1 of Vision Quest (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Above the crux of pitch 1.


Vision Quest

Shirley starting up pitch 1 of Vision Quest (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Pitch 1 top-out.


Vision Quest

Pitch 2 of Vision Quest: this is the lower squeeze chimney…much easier than what’s to come above (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Looking back at Shirley from the lead of pitch 2…crux is above (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Shirley on pitch 2 of Vision Quest (May 2015).


Vision Quest

…and the crux: moving into the squeeze slot (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Shirley absolutely loving the stout squeeze on pitch 2 of Vision Quest. Good news is that the crux is over at this point (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Views of Indian Creek from pitch 3 belay (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Short but invigorating pitch 3 of Vision Quest (May 2015).


Vision Quest

The only easier pitch of the day (#4) starts with this flared chimney section (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Start of pitch 4 (May 2015).


Vision Quest

View down from high up on pitch 4 of Vision Quest. Kind of cool stemming between the two summits of King Of Pain (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Views from the summit (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Shirley approaching the summit (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Shirley admiring the Six Shooters from the summit of King Of Pain (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Dusty lens and some a-hole on the summit (May 2015).


Vision Quest

South Six Shooter is on the left; it’s North twin is on the right (May 2015).


Vision Quest

More Six Shooters from the summit (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Shirley rapping off. We did 4X single raps with a 70 meter cord not bypassing any stations (May 2015).


Vision Quest

Hiking down. Vision Quest climbs the prominent dihedral system in the center of photo (and then up to the right hand summit of King Of Pain).


Vision Quest

Packing up and trying to make our flight home (from SLC).


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