Friday, February 25, 2011

Slab Climbing In Sedona

Besides being a beautiful place to visit, Sedona, AZ is known to the dream catcher crowd as a spiritual “power center.” (Here’s a map of the “energy vortexes” located near Sedona.)

But there’s also a lot of climbing. This visiting climber tells his story of climbing a route that’s “only 5.8” but has two slabby pitches.

“I looked up at the first pitch, which climbs a low-angled slab. It certainly looked easy from the ground, but it featured a runout of at least 20 feet to the first protection bolt. I had also read that this pitch has a sandbagged crux move at another bolt further up. And really, although I'd read about the basics of slab technique, I had basically zero experience in slab climbing….Then I went for it, but I forgot two of the most important Rules of Slab: (1) you must keep moving, and (2) you must believe in your feet.”

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