Valley Massif
Valley Massif is a very cool, kinda out of the way crag at Vedauwoo. The setting (lack of cars, parking lots, and crowds) make for a very different experience than the central Vedauwoo crags.
We first visited Valley Massif in September of 2000 with a bunch of our
friends. It was such a
blast!
Angela, Alison, and Rita (team estrogen) teamed up to climb Soft Touch
(5.5). Since Angela and Alison agreed to share the lead duty, Angela
had to downclimb through one of the harder sections when she realized that she'd blown
past the first belay and was hogging all the fun! Now that's a true
friend!
Meanwhile, Rick and I ascended Screw (5.7). It turned out to
be a very enjoyable climb, but I almost talked myself out of completing it
when I got to the chimney section near the
beginning of the first pitch. I was glad I finally sucked it up and
headed upward. After the short chimney is a fun section that follows
one of two diverging cracks. After a bit more excitement (wide crack
or runout face--take your pick), the second pitch finishes on a truly
splendid 5.6 hand crack.
In typical Vedauwoo fashion, it started raining a bit when we were on top. Our teams joined forces and carefully made our way to the rappel anchor. On a subsequent trip to Valley Massif we found that the downclimb/walkoff to the north is much less hassle than the rappel. Oh, well, it was a great team building experience to get everyone safely across wet exposed rock to the anchor!
