The Mezzanines

The Mezzanines are a traditional climbing area located along the Wasatch front north of Ogden canyon. Sunday we decided to hike up and check out some potential routes for an accent in the next couple of weeks. The approach is about a mile and a half with an elevation gain of approximately 1000 feet. The approach turned out to be a little easier then I thought it would be due to the fact you can take an angling route and not have to hike straight up, the hike took just about an hour to get near the base of the climbing. The actual climb will be about 800 feet, should be awesome.

With all the ran we've had the cactus flowers were in full bloom, This is something that you don't see that often due to the dry conditions that normally prevail. Sometimes during a hiking season you won't see these in bloom all season.
We came across this rock outcropping near the end of the approach it looked like a beautiful solid sandstone wall nearly 80 feet high. After getting to the base Josh discovered that it was so soft he could actually just pull large pieces off, it had a weird crumbly feel. Odd.
This was about half way up the approach.

Photo shop anyone?

Utah wall photo
Too much fun!

Ogden Canyon, Utah Wall 5-30-2009

People often ask me why I spend so much time in Ogden Canyon. Click on the picture above or below and I believe the question will be answered. Today 5/30/2009 I headed up the canyon with some friends and new acquaintances, soon to be called friends to go climbing. What else is new, right? Anyway we had an awesome day, sun shinning with just enough cloud cover to keep the temp down. The destination we decided on was Utah Wall. Utah Wall has some great climbing routes, that is if you can manage the approach. I've often heard it stated that the approach is more dangerous then the climbing, it's about 400 yards of nasty loose scree on a 75 degree pitch where rocks are bouncing down to the road. It's a law suite waiting to happen!


Once you arrive at the wall the first thing you notice is the roof that runs about halfway along the wall, this makes for some super exciting climbing. The picture below is my friend Dave setting up an anchor after leading a wondering trad pitch.


Here I am just under the roof.

Josh just after making his way up the thin face 10b?.
Dave looking for a shady place to rest.
Charlie just before making the move onto the thin face.

Another great day in the Canyon!!

Forgot the camera

Alright, I forgot the camera today. Had another great day up in Ogden Canyon, climbed 7 pitches. I decided to post a couple of pics of my new portaledge now that I've figured out how it goes up and down. After you do it a couple of times, it can be done in a matter seconds. I picked this up because I'm planning on heading to Yosemite next spring to do some big walls. My main objective Nose of EL Cap. 3300' of beautiful rock!!

"Up in Ogden Canyon"

Here I am standing atop the first pitch.

Josh getting ready to traverse this 1-1/2 foot wide ledge 70 feet off the ground to the start of the 2nd pitch. Great exposure, Airy, and allot of FUN!

This is Josh at the top of the second pitch.
This is a shot looking up from the ground, it's zoomed so it's hard to get a feel for what it really looks like.
Time to get ready for work, I'll try and post again soon.

Ogden Canyon 5/18/2009

I had a few hours to kill Monday morning before work, so we packed some gear and headed up the canyon. Because we only had a few hours we decided to stick to single pitch routes, on top of the first pitch we climbed was a good photo opportunity. I took this looking east up the canyon.

9th Street Wall 9/16/2009

Early Saturday we headed out to go climbing in Ogden canyon to do some multi pitch routes, but did not realize this was the day for the "famed" Ogden marathon. I should have known this due to the fact that one of my climbing buddies could not make the climbing trip today because he was running in the marathon. What was I thinking? So as an alternate plan we decided to head up to the 9th street wall.

This is 9th street wall as you approach from the south west. As you can see it's a nice wall with about 15 established routes. Several of them are really nice quality although short, about 40 feet.
Here I am looking down from near the top, with my friend Josh belaying from a comfortable rock in the shade. It turned out to be a beautiful day, sunny and 75 degrees.

Arriving at the top you have a view of Ogden in the valley below. This is looking north west.
Had another great day in the Utah outdoors. Looks like I'll have to spend next weekend up in the canyon.

Advetures

This is my first blog entry, I will try and update this on a regular basis.

I live in a beautiful place, this is the view from my front porch, I get to get up every day and see this.

I spend allot of time rock climbing and adventuring in the Utah mountains and desert and thought it might be nice to share some of my adventures with everyone.