Beginner's Guide to Survival at the Creek

One: Just Tape It. You want to be able to climb for more than one day, right? Well, until you learn how to get the perfect jam that doesn’t tithe a layer of skin to the rock, cover that flesh with the white stuff. It’s worth it, and when you fall in love with the Creek, you can contemplate all the hardcore nuts who scorn tape and maybe you will too. The first day I didn’t tape adequately and got a gobie that lasted the entire two weeks that will probably scar. I don’t know who said this (help me out here Jeff) but scar tissue doesn’t grip as well as regular skin. Think skin preservation – whatever it takes.

Two: Take adequate rest days. I mean really rest and don’t do anything. Every two days. I started by climbing three days in a row and I think it wrecked me for the rest of the trip – my ankles and shoulders never recovered and I always felt like I was playing catch-up. Two days off in a row would be even better, especially for long trips, if you can stop yourself from swimming up the perfect cracks for that long. Of course, if it hurts to walk, that could be a deterrent. Well, not much of one. See number five.

Three: Eat a lot of protein, ‘cause you’ll be building muscle. Drink a lot of water because you’re in the desert. Drink a lot of beer because that’s what you do after climbing and you probably need the calories anyway. Plus, Utah beer might as well be a sports drink for the buzz it provides. But, plan for the protein. It’s all I craved when I came home from the crag.

Four: Don’t look at the ratings, look at your hands. It all depends on your personal hand size here, because the cracks are rated to a man-sized hand. A lot of the tens, especially the super-classic Supercrack are too big for my hands and equate closer to off-widths than hand cracks, which ups the grade to .11+ or more, especially if there’s a roof (T-Bones Tonight comes to mind, a .12- fist crack through a roof that would be like .13- for me). But, the wonderful perfection of a thin-hands crack that’s rated .11- and fits me so well that getting to the top is not about if I can do the moves but if I’m fit enough to make the same move for 100 feet. Sometimes I am, sometimes not. Pente, an uber thin-hands classic, was a super challenge (I also did it my first day before I had much practice at crack technique) to huff up on toprope, but Soul Fire was so deliciously perfect that all I had to do was concentrate on moving and breathing until I was at the top. Well, that wasn’t all I had to do, I also had to forget how much pain I was in between my stretched ankles and bruised backs of hands.

Five: Move beyond the pain. After the first day climbing, you will ache. Unexpected areas will hurt, like the muscles between your thumb and forefinger or your Achilles tendon in addition to your shoulders, neck, lats, forearms, calves, thighs (where did those bruises come from?), soles of your feet, and of course, ankles. The first route of the day will feel like you’re being put on the rack and your body will sag, trying not to put weight on those stretched-out ankles but the route will intensify, you’ll have to go for it, punch it to the anchors and all the pain is forgotten as you move with the route, snaking your rhythmic way (hand, hand, foot, foot, repeat) to the top of it. An experienced Creek climber knows that success is about the technique as much as your strength.

Six: Make big moves. In order to make it to the top of a 100+ foot route, you must keep moving, and the bigger the moves, the fewer you have to do, the less time you spend pumping out. Instead of shuffling your feet up a lieback, make big steps, so you can do the same with your hands. It might be more powerful, but you get to a good rest or the top quicker. No hesitation allowed. Same with a splitter. Make big moves – motor!

Seven: Don’t be afraid to try a route that might be over your head. You can always aid to the top. Trust me, I’ve seen it, I tried it out myself on The Inhabitants, a 5.11 thin hand crack that looked great until I got on it and from the get-go fell, hung or pulled on every single piece I placed. I aided through the crux at the bottom, Elvis-legged through the OW-for-me middle part and ran it out at the end when I ran out of pro. All in all, a wonderful lesson for me in a)listening to other people’s advice (Jeff told me he hadn’t been able to get through the bulge last year and he wasn’t getting on it this year), b)learning that ‘thin hands’ does not always mean ‘easier for Anchen,’ c)I can aid it if I can’t do it and d)I trust my gear to hold even more now, big and small stuff, and I pay more attention to my placements.

This is only the beginning. Tune in later for more reflections on the lesson of the Creek!