We All Knew He'd Find a Way

For all that know Brig, I'm sure you also know that he LOVES climbing. He claims he is addicted to crack. (*Crack climbing...not the drug)

So, when he conveniently had Labor day off he choose to go rock climbing. Seeing as I am currently incubating a little human I opted out of climbing and being his belay buddy, so we drug along the Blombergs. They mistakenly let Brigham know that they too also love climbing. :)

Brig purchased a rock climbing guide book for Alaska the first week we were here back in July, and apparently had been perusing it. He and Dan chose to try a place at the Aleyeska ski resort in Girgwood.

Here we are at the beginning of our adventure.

The guide book said that somewhere in between the 2nd and 3rd light post there would be a faint trail that would lead us to the crag. We found a downhill mountain biking trail and assumed this was the one so started hiking up.

It was an awesome bike trail. It had huge bank turns and all sorts of crazy features.

Brig and I both decided that we could use this sweet trail as leverage to get my dad to come visit during the summer...if we tried for winter he would just say he would rather stay in Utah where the real snow is.

Well, at about the above pictured bank turns we decided we were not on the right trail. So we turned around and headed back down.

We got back to the light posts and Brig and Dan just plunged into the trees and brush to try and find the rock. They were gone for probably about 20 minutes when they came out in between the 1st and the 2nd light post.

We followed them back on the actual trail that they eventually found, and we finally made it to the crag.

Brig and Dan decided that they would warm up on a climb rated 5.9, and then proceed to the 5.10. After Brig was unsuccessful at finishing the climb, Dan gave it a go and was shut down as well.

At this point I began thinking..."hmmm, I don't think this is a 5.9." So I got the guide book and looked up the climb. Sure enough, they had jumped on the 5.10 first.

Since neither of them could finish the 5.10 they decided to do the 5.9 and then wrap down the 10 to get Brig's quickdraws back. However... when we looked at the 5.9 we could only find 1 bolt way up at the top. The rest of the bolts had been sheared off and only the heads were left.

Do you think that stopped Brig? Of course not!

He proceeded to climb and did something with his trad gear that I have never seen done before. He claims he saw it in a climbing book.

He loosened the nut, put the wire around the bolt head, and then cinched it tight. Here's a close-up.

Needless to say, his amazing skill and sweet bag of tricks got him safely to the top of the climb.

Dan followed him up, and then Brig repelled down the 5.10 and got his draws back. By this point we were out of time so we packed up and the boys swore they would come back and conquer the 5.10 another day.