Creeksgiving: A Recipe for the Climbing Soul

If someone were to ask, “What’s the one climbing area that best represents America?” There would be no hesitation to my answer.

“Indian Creek,” I’d say, thinking of the hundred-foot splitter cracks that line the cliffs like the stripes of an orange zebra.

So to combine Indian Creek with the most American holiday on the calendar –Thanksgiving- and you’ve created a very tasty and truly American concoction known as Creeksgiving.

But this delicious marriage of Creeksgiving’s two major ingredients- Indian Creek and Thanksgiving- would not be possible without some crucial spices and seasonings.

So in the spirit of giving thanks, I’ve created a list of four secret and helpful ingredients to insure that your 2012 Creeksgiving is a complete success.

Embracing the Whip

Most people are scared to fall. At least that’s what I’ve been told. For me, falling is about as easy as swimming is to a house cat. So as a climber, I thought I had found my tribe. However, after a few weeks into a punishing first season at Rifle Mountain Park, I have to wonder. Just the other day I witnessed a guy I know only as “chain-smoking John” jump from the unclipped anchors of a steep, burly jug haul called Slaggisimo in the famed Arsenal cave, taking a 30-foot ride just for fun. “There’s not a route in this cave that I’ve sent and haven’t jumped from,” I heard him say afterwards. “And hell, that was just a dogging go.”

It seems this is a tradition in Rifle. After clawing up one of the mega routes lining the belly of the Arsenal, climbers will skip the last quickdraw and drop without clipping the anchors. Sometimes they do back flips. But regardless of how they choose to fly through the air, it amazes me because fearing the fall seems so natural. The problem, however, is that the fear often creates a crippling conundrum, one that guards the anchor chains of success and ironically keeps you falling.

“A lot of the people here are still afraid to fall,” my buddy Derek said after whipping big off of the classic Slice of Life (5.13c) in Rifle’s Wicked Cave. Derek sat below his project, stripping the duck tape from his knee-padded legs and added, “But there are a few climbers who are really in tune with their abilities and they aren’t.” He then indulged me with the Canyon’s most recent massive whipper story.