Written by: Santi and Jasper
During the third section of our gap trip, we traveled to Indian Creek, Utah. With downcast eyes and heavy hearts we parted ways with the trek students. Gloomy weather and wet sandstone greeted us. Our first day was spent driving around Bears Ears National monument. We stopped at the Bears Ears information center to learn the history of the place we would be climbing at for the next week. The sky was blue and the sun was hot the next morning. We learned rope coiling techniques and took much needed solo time in Donnelly Canyon as the rock dried.
The next few days were filled with beautiful and very painful crack climbing. We learnt all about cams, nuts, hand jams, foot jams and everything else needed to scale the giant smooth cliffs and columns of Indian Creek. Hands and souls grew weary from long days of crack climbing, which were only worsened by the unfortunate departure of a peer and instructor. Our sore bodies and sorrowed souls were freshened by our arrival in the canyons. This alien landscape gave us hope for the coming days, and our hopes were not misplaced.
Our rappel into cowboy was a gleeful, healing experience. We had six rappels, each of which fresher than the last. The freshest of them all was the fifth rappel, leading us into a tremendous murky lake. We waded and swam through the pockets of water in the gorge, which widened into a beautiful grove of cottonwoods that made us feel like we were in a land of giants. Our final rappel ended at the base of a great cottonwood, and we finished the adventure walking through the winding canyon to the base of our camp. The next morning this chapter came to an end with a hike back to our trusty Terrapin in record time. We now set our sights on the desert oasis of Moab.
