Cracks and Boulders in Southeast Wyoming

After a highly productive ten days in Ten Sleep, we drove to Laramie WY to spend some time with friends and get in some climbing at awesome but sometimes under-the-radar areas: Laramie is home to Vedauwoo and some of the best bouldering in the state. We stayed with a few of Seth's college ski buddies, Maciej and Jenn, and their hilariously goofy dog Decker. On the way into town, Seth forced Chelsea to make a stop at the notorious Beer Crack, a sixty-degree overhanging handcrack that requires some inverted knee antics to make the exit.  Chelsea's crack skills (which still mostly involve crimping nonexistent faceholds rather than jamming) weren't up to this classic Bleedavoo boulder.  Seth, however, definitely earned his beer and burgers that night, which we had at the Crowbar in Laramie with our gracious hosts.

Doing battle with the mighty Beer Crack

Chels and Decker

 

Our first full day in the Laramie area was rainy, windy, and cold - perfect for a GRE and grad school app work day at Night Heron, a second-hand bookstore in Laramie with delicious breakfast burritos, strong coffee, and homemade pastries.  We spent most of the day there getting work done, then went back to Maciej and Jenn's to watch some kung-fu movies and hang with Maciej, Jenn, and Decker.  We also learned that Chelsea's friend Adam was serendipitously driving through Laramie on his way to Boulder CO that night, and we were able to get together for dinner and a small-scale Alpine Ascents staff reunion with Adam and Pete (an Alpine Ascents guide) 1200 miles from the office, which was unexpected and awesome.

The next day we went bouldering with Seth's friend Davin.  Davin is the bouldering pioneer of southeast Wyoming, with over 2000 first ascents from V0 to V12. We had planned to go to the Bennet Peak area, but decided instead to meet up with Seth and Davin's friend Brian at Neverland, which is located in the Laramie Range and consists of steep, wind-sculpted gneiss.  When we got there that sculpting, smoothing wind was hard at work.  It was so windy that, when bounding across the plain on our hike to the boulders, Davin's dog was blown diagonally with each leap.  Eventually we tried climbing at the sheltered Fingerpaint Cave, which is aptly named (the cave is covered in modern renditions of Native American style hand paintings) and has great routes from V4 to V10/11.  Chelsea and Seth climbed Triangle Man (V4) and worked on another V6/7 while Davin and Brian cleaned off a new line through the cave.

 

Chelsea on Triangle Man, V4.

Our next destination was a sector called The Grove, a sheltered area full of aspens and some of Neverland's best rock (e.g., a few 30+ foot long roofs on perfect stone). We went to a large boulder that had not yet been developed and found some great potential.  Davin cleaned a steep line with some cool footwork, and Seth had a great lesson in developing on a steep prow that looked to have some fun moves: Davin and Brian pointed out a number of holds that Seth wanted to use but weren't actually safe to pull on, and we logged some serious crowbar time prying them off the wall.  This upped the significantly on Seth's prow, but eventually he was able to stick a hard deadpoint move to a pocket and finish the climb.  Chelsea found a right-moving traverse that shares a start with Seth's climb and ends with a nerve-racking mantle that probably favors the smaller climber.  Next Davin, Brian and Seth showed Chelsea the Evening Wall, a sheer ~35 degree fault plane up to 20 feet high, with abundant crimps.  Chelsea climbed This Will Destroy You (V4, and one of Seth's first ascents from 2011) and a steep V5 on an adjacent wall while Davin and Brian cleaned off a harder start to the one move power climb Thunderfuck (V7), name uncertain.  Overall, it was a long, successful day.

Seth finally sticks the pocket on his prow climb.



 

Chelsea on This Will Destroy You (V4)

 

 

Davin pulling the harder start for Thunderfuck

 

After Neverland, we spent a day in Vedauwoo with Dan, one of Chelsea's friends from Seattle.  It was still pretty windy, so we found a crag that was relatively sheltered and taped up.  We climbed Lower Progressive, a techy handcrack with a wide exit (5.9+, and Chelsea's first Vedauwoo 5.9 onsight!), and Handjacker, a classic 5.7 offwidth.  A group of climbers around the corner had just finished a 5.10b and gave it good reviews, so we decided to give it a try.  This route consisted of a tricky boulder problem into a leaning hand/fist crack.  Seth took some whippers but made it to the top, and Dan and Chelsea followed.  At the end of the day, we decided to try Plumb Line (5.9+), one of Seth's favorite climbs in the area, before having dinner in town, checking out the new ice cream shop, and getting psyched on winter ski plans in the Wyo/Colorado area with Dan.   

 

 

Chelsea on the wide exit to Lower Progressive (5.9+)

photo courtesy of Dan Scott

 

 

 

Dan sending Lower Progressive

photo courtesy of Dan Scott



 

 

 

 Seth getting wedged in the fat Handjacker (5.7+)
photo courtesy of Dan Scott

 

 

  

Plumb Line (5.9+): super awesome, mega, splitter.

 

Our last day in Laramie we had planned to make a trip to Needle Peak, a bouldering area about an hour outside of town.  We felt pretty tired after the past few days of dedicated climbing, though, so we spent most of the day working, sending emails to potential grad advisors (Chelsea) and looking at programs (Seth), and then polluting Maciej's Netflix account by watching an embarrassing amount of New Girl (sorry Maciej).  We rallied for a short evening trip to the bunker area in Vedauwoo to play on Thrasher (V6), one of Seth's top five boulder problems of all time.  Thrasher is a steep climb with relatively good holds and large moves.  We didn't leave ourselves enough time or, likely, energy to send before the sun went down, but it felt good to get some end of the day climbing in.  We enjoyed a last beer with Maciej and some much needed skin recovery before packing up and getting ready to drive east the next morning.

 

 

Seth on Thrasher

 

 

Sunset in Vedauwoo





 

We had a great time visiting and climbing with everyone we were able to connect with in Laramie.  Thanks to Maciej, Jenn, and Decker for hosting us, Adam and Pete for getting in touch and hanging on their drive through, Davin and Brian for showing us the radical lines in Neverland, and Dan for rallying through grad school commitments and a cold to get in some sweet crack climbing with us!