Ingredients:
- 5 racks of Friends
- Harness, rope and the standard hardware
- Climbing shoes: prefer tender and over-ripe pair for comfort
- Five cups of courage (can be substituted with a gallon of risk unawareness)
- Tape to taste
Preparation:
- Preheat sand and stone until perfect splitters appear.
- Thaw toes, if frozen.
- Cut tape into stripes and wrap around hands.
- Spread cams on clean surface and examine for blemishes and other signs of wear
and tear. Hang to harness in assorted fashion. - Gather all the courage and willpower you can get your hands on.
Baking :
1. Trim out ego. That’s the essential point I learned down in Indian Creek. Climbing those perfect splitters was an entirely new experience for me. You can be a strong and established sportclimber, but starting crack climbing with hardly any experience makes you very humble, very fast.
2. Every person who has some crack climbing experience had something to teach. It has a lot to do about learning how to twist your ankles and how to use every single part of your body to keep moving.
Some of the situations I got in reminded me of caving and I must admit I really like it. Put yourself in an awkward situation and fight with all got to get out of there. That is the basics of splitter climbing.
3. Learn to be patient and to make a proper preparation before climbing an attractive line. It’s essential to take the time to do a thorough taping job for hands or fingers and to choose the required gear. At first, I often found myself running out of the right gear, which can be uncomfortable or outright scary. Note: climbing a 40-meter crack takes lots of energy out of you and so calm down a little. (I was very excited!!!)
4. Watch carefully many many people climbing. It is a very good way to learn. Because once you’re in, you want to be able to remember and tell your body how to move, at least in theory. If not, you will get stuck.
When you first hand jam, you have to go through the stage of « killing some nerves on the back of your hand ». The soreness will hang on during the first week. A good trick might be to switch from those painful hand jams to tiny finger cracks or to get into something that has more of a sport character. A like chimney or a layback for instance.
5. It’s very important to be well surrounded. For the climbing, but also for the camping. Indian Creek is a wild place. It gives you room and offers the calm needed to reflect on life. At the same time, life is very social there. The perfect setting for cooking around the campfire, a beer in your hand, and someone’s guitar for a soundtrack.
Indian creek offers a beautiful feeling of freedom. Consume without moderation.
To finish your feast, let the enormous mixture of techniques and lessons sink. Drain out the nuggets and let your massive ankle gobbies heal.
The learning curve is as steep as the walls down there. Yet, with this crack feast in your sandy pockets, you are ready to head out to bigger and wilder climbing.
I would like to thank my team of kitchen hands who took such great care of Nina the Dirty Sandbagger. I showed up without a car and only minimal camping gear but it all worked out thanks to everyone’s wide-open arms.
America has plenty of flaws, but the open mind and the hospitality of the people are the things that I will take with me.
Photos: Michael Pang