I feel like every outdoorsy person in Colorado takes at least one trip to the Utah desert every spring so that we can regain color in our skin, and also to realize there is more to life than 4am wake-ups and afternoon post-holing in brown slush. I am no exception, so I was happy to venture to Moab, Utah this past weekend to realize that I didn’t do a good job maintaining my mountain bike over the past two years, and that slab climbing is the best climbing when you have tree-trunk sized thighs from skiing 75 days this winter.
After rolling in to Lower Onion Creek on Friday night, I headed up with the DU Alpine Club bike crew to ride Porcupine Rim mid-Saturday morning. It’s a great trail and there is plenty of stuff about it on the internets, so I’ll just provide you with some pretty pictures (which you can now see fully since I changed my website).
Thanks to a blown ring and a funky drive shaft, my front fork doesn’t hold air and my chain breaks with any decent amount of tension, so I ruled out biking Slickrock the next day and instead opted for some rock climbing on Wall Street. I had never climbed there before, and I have to admit, not having any hand holds and a gently inclined wall is a great way to actively use your legs in climbing, which makes it so much easier compared to any sort of overhang.
Coming back, we hit the monsterous snowstorm on Vail Pass, but all 50 trip participants still made it back safe. Now I can feel a little better about my tan as I continue to get elevated for the rest of this month and the coming May. Plus, with all this new snow, I know when the time comes to transition to summer sports, I will still be skiing.
