Indian Cracks
Photo by Pranay Pareek.
Climb Review:
It was because it was a colder than usual day in Spring, but there were very few cars in the parking lot. When I arrived at 9:30, there were still parking spots available next to Indian Rock!
We found Indian Crack not at where our guidebook (Rock Climbing Guide to the Castle Rock Area) told us it would be, but on the opposite side of the trail.
The area around Indian Crack was pristine—no trash of any sort.
Mantle (V0; Indian Cracks)—I flashed this one. The crux of the route is just a throw to a jug for the right hand. It had been a month since my last climb and it felt good to still feel like I had it.
Indian Crack (V0; Indian Cracks)—I didn’t flash this one, but once I found the jug, I thought it was pretty easy. There were really good holds for hands and feet along the route.
1 1/4" Crack (V1; Indian Cracks)—This is a layback route and I found it to be difficult. I made it half way up (or a bit more?) but then either ran out of steam or tried to get out of the crack and kept falling. I eventually gave up when it started to rain on us.
Thanks to Pranay for the below pictures. He’s an amazing photographer and I’m lucky to call him my friend.
What I Learned:
When the weather is cold, bring extra jackets! Usually, my kids have a great time exploring and climbing the easier rocks, but due to the cold weather, they mostly played under the blanket on one of the crash pads.
We should get one more crash pad. It would have been nice to have another crash pad for its actual purpose. Pranay had a fall on Indian Crack that was really scary as he rolled onto a boulder directly on his back. Thank goodness he was okay, but that was really scary.
I think it’d been good for me to study the routes on Mountain Project before I went (for the beta), as for 1 1/4” Crack, the pictures on the website are giving me ideas that I would like to try out.
Because I didn’t climb for a month before this, I found my body to be aching the day after the climb. Maybe I should climb during the week to keep up my upper body fitness level, as I haven’t felt this sore since I first started my climbing gym membership.
Friends Made:
Pranay, Gene, and Vivian made it to the meet and it was really awesome having them there. I just really enjoyed seeing them and hanging out with them—I had missed them without really realizing it.
What Happened?
We were supposed to meet up at 8:30am, but I was late by an hour. Still we had a good climbing session where Pranay almost climbed his first V0 and the rest of us got used to bouldering again.
We found Indian Rocks to be an awesome place to boulder with amazing routes and really considerate people. We would have climbed longer, but it started sprinkling and it made our shoes super slippery.
At the end, it was just me and Vivian climbing, so we headed off to a local Pizza My Heart to share a slice and to make plans for our next climbing trip!