Murphy's Law.

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Murphy's Law

Another time and another place when Murphy sent us bouldering in the desert.

Murphy must have been somebody who knew something.  Perhaps extreme in his perspective, he makes a fair point. The funny thing with climbing, is that it sometimes results in making the best of a situation that Murphy would identify with. The weather around the Wasatch had been disappointing and resulting in among the worse December's I had ever seen (conditions wise) which worked in conjunction with his law.

Thus two climbs of mine were sabotaged recently; and while saying they went wrong is correct in the perspective that we did not top out, we still had a good time up high.

Mt Superior

"Where do you think it is?" Matt asked. "Who on earth knows?" I thought as I drove up the canyon shrouded in mist so dense we could hardly make out objects 15 feet away.  Despite being familiar with one of our home canyons, we were were bumbling around the canyon in search of the South Ridge of Mt. Superior (one of the largest features of the canyon) like we were blind. Still, running out of daylight from a late start due to life's demands, we decided to go for it as best we could. 

Since we knew that we were directly beneath it, we though how hard is it find and navigate a large ridge?

Do you think the ridge is this way?

Pretty quickly we realized we were not on the way too the ridge and had actually walked to far down canyon because of the obscurity caused by the fog and were on the south face of the mountain west of the ridge.  We decided from our lack of time to pursue it, and follow the natural lines up the face as they lined up rather than return to start of the original route.  Forgoing the topo and climbing what looks attractive is one of my favorite ways to experience the mountains and so I was quite happy that we were off route.

Fun mixed climbing low down on the route...

...that allowed for enjoyable but slow climbing.

 After several hours on the face we were nowhere near the top and had an hour before dark. The thought of being part of an epic on a face in our backyard with our warm beds so close by sent us scurrying back to the ground.

I think this ramp is the ticket!

Roberts Horn

While Roberts Horn is a beautiful climb that one should pursue early in the season to avoid excessive snow and/or avalanches, this season provided a later window than usual.  For whatever reason, the fog and falling snow decided to stick around from Mt Superior as we squeezed in the probable last "send" of the route for the season.

Big time spindrifts that would plague us the entire day.

They would periodically stop though while the terrain above was reloading.

Myself sorting out the gear on the pitch I would later back
 off of resulting in us taking a variation to the route.
Photo by Matt Berry

The upper part of the route consists of snow slopes that can consist of everything between snow wallowing nightmares or such perfect styrofoam neve as to make you cry.  In this instance though, not only would it be chest deep snow swimming, but it would be prone to slide. We decided to bail and take the slow way down rather than go the fast route that would ultimately be via avalanche.

I am not going to touch that snow! Myself rapping off the face.
Photo by Matt Berry

The good thing with Murphy's law, is that it does not affect how you see the hills.  No matter how much fog, snow, and adverse conditions you have, it is always good to be outside regardless of the outcome.  Something else to note, is that while we talk about failing on routes a lot, climbing often does go to plan.

As of late and according to plan, I have been teaching my brother to climb mixed and ice.  It is fun to view and experience climbing through the lens of a fledgling ice climber, as well as motivating to enjoy it with my brother.