At 8,500 feet above sea level, heading to Wyoming’s Vedauwoo in the middle of September is a gamble, but the weather report called for sun and 70s, so we rolled the dice. When storm clouds rolled in on Sunday afternoon I could only think about getting caught in summer hailstorms each of the last two trips I took to Vedauwoo. But this time the gamble paid off as blue skies prevailed allowing for a two days of fantastic climbing.
We woke up early on Saturday and hiked around a herd of cattle to Plumb Line Crag. The namesake route shown above highlighted the day. Jason, the best crack climber in our group, also gave the nasty 5.11 offwidth, Big Pink, a solid effort. I admire him for getting on that ridiculous grunt-fest. It shut me down just looking at it.
Left: Jason looking to bump a couple #5 cams and a big bro up Big Pink
Sunday we tackled Lower Progressive and Upper Progressive at Vedauwoo’s largest and most popular crag, Nautilus.
Right: Ryan figuring out Lower Progressive.
Lower Progressive was the most unique route of the trip, requiring thin hand and foot jams on the right, while smearing up the smooth face before finishing in a big offwidth.
After Upper Progressive, near the top of the Nautilus, the fierce winds howling across the range hit us hard. From there, an unprotected 5.2 slab leads to the top of the most characteristic rock formation at Vedauwoo, a huge roof known as the Potato Chip that has rap rings at the tip. Once on the exposed top, I estimate the wind was a constant 45 miles per hour with gusts of 60. I could feel my ear drums shaking as we had to yell to be heard even though we were sitting right next to each other. All of that made the awesome free rappel a little more entertaining than usual.
We grabbed lunch, let the weather pass over and headed back out for an afternoon session. We enjoyed the first pitch of the pumpy Vedauwoo classic Friday the 13th. I thought it was the best route of the trip. Located in an area of the Nautilus friendly to cragging, it’s a great route to do with a bigger group.
On a different topic, Vedauwoo has many beavers working hard to make sure that every dead aspen is promptly incorporated into a dam. Some of the dams they’ve constructed are very impressive. In certain areas, streams contain so many beaver dams that the water flows in steps between flooded areas.
Although some tough guys and gals probably climb in Veadauwoo through the winter, I’ll be sitting on my couch, getting fat eating chocolate and complaining about poor circulation in my legs. However, I can’t wait to get back there next spring and rediscover burly granite crack climbing.
Jason and Chels are off to Nepal where they will spend the next several months rafting serious water, enjoying a beautiful landscape and loving life. Good luck to them and I can’t wait to catch up with their travels when our rafting season rolls around again.
I like the scenic photos