Arriving late at night, we scanned the guidebook for camping information. It warned that this place could be one of the windiest places on earth. Dasha and I had the pleasure of spending a day climbing at Ibex last spring. We had a beautiful day with barely a breeze. Since it was dark and late, we decided that heading to Ibex Crags would be the easiest to find (since we had been there before) and the wind didn't seem so bad. Upon arriving at the crag, we camped away from the main bouldering on the lee side of a decent sized boulder. The wind was consistent and strong, but not that bad.
About an hour later, the wind had changed directions and we were now on the windward side of the boulder suffering gusts of up to 75 mph. The tent sounded like it was going to rip in half, and I had to brace my body against it to keep it from blowing away. Interesting.
Nevertheless, we survived the night and woke excited to test ourselves on some quartzite. Unfortunately, the wind continued to blow ridiculously hard all day to the point where some problems were probably a full grade harder. Here are two of the few pictures we have from that day. Dasha climbing a fun problem on one of the smaller boulders at Ibex. This place is really special and one of the most unique landscapes I have seen in the west. Visit it if you have the chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment