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Friday, May 19, 2006

That Crag Named

George Bell was right that this picture shows silhouettes of Cutler sandstone formations. But he had the wrong area of towers. This photo shows Dave Goldstein headed back up the overhanging prow of the Shark's Fin in Monument Basin, Utah, on our second day of climbing. (The Shark's Fin is on the right, Mars tower on the left.) The prow is one of the best and steepest aid climbs in the desert, and it goes hammerless with trickery (assuming two crucial fixed pins are still in place). Would it go free? I think it might, to a 5.12 climber unfraid of big-time runouts and sketchy rock. Anyway, the route is steep—assuming the gear held, you wouldn't hit anything in a fall...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

How you expected us to get that from such a dark photo is beyond me! Kinda cool shot, though. What's next, post a lichen photo and ask for the location? ;-)

Anonymous said...

I agree with George. I didn't recognize myself in the photo, let alone the background formations. What an ace-buster.