Climbing in the McDowells

Thomas and I took Thomas’ little brother, Matt, rock climbing in the McDowells. It was nice to be climbing somewhere other than Camelback. We drove out to the Morrell Wall and hiked up a bit to a toprope for Matt to try out.

Gearing up...this was taking at the worst possible time for me.

Thomas climbed up and set up the toprope, and then Matt climbed it.

Rock formation in the McDowells.

Thomas putting on climbing shoes before climbing to set the toprope.

Matt climbing.

Matt climbing.

Matt climbing.

Matt topping out.

Then Thomas took the camera and climbed. I climbed up and Matt belayed.

Matt at the bottom of the pitch.

The mountains around us.

Mountains and cloudy weather in the McDowells.

Putting my shoes on.

Me climbing.

Me climbing.

Me toproping.

Me climbing.

Me climbing.

Me climbing.

Taking a rest.

Pulling myself in the last few feet to the anchor.

Thomas and I rappelled off the pitch and we drove from the Morrell Wall car park on a terrible dirt road out to the Sven Slab. We scrambled up to the base. Thomas did a little bouldering and we waited for a group of climbers to get off of the pitch we wanted to climb. A man was belaying her wife. The wife was begging to be lowered down the pitch and seemed to be nearly in tears. It took forever. Then, she finally finished toproping the pitch, after a half hour or so of us being there (she was already half way up when we got there). We thought that we would climb next, but as we scrambled up to the bottom of the pitch, the father was climbing up with a toddler. The toddler was also crying and begging to go back down, and the father kept pushing the kid up the pitch while the mother belayed. It took forever, and since they were using the only anchors on the slab, we had to turn back without climbing anything. We hiked back to the car and drove back down the road. I had to walk and jog most of it because I was the spotter. We got out of there and drove home.

Putting a sticker on a sign.

Sticker on the sign.

View from parking lot.

Thomas driving.

Thomas driving while I look ahead.

Thomas driving.

Thomas driving.

Me spotting.

Me spotting and Thomas driving.

Me with a log for when Thomas has to cross the ditch.

And, the tough part is finished.

The road Thomas just drove.

I have to say, the driving looks easier in the pictures. It would have been just as fast to jog the road. All in all, a great day. Also, thanks goes out to Matt for being a boss, taking some great photos and providing the camera for some awesome photos.