escape from the hotel

We escaped from the utter shite "America's Best Value Inn, St. George" with its lax attitude towards hygiene and scary caretaker guy and checked into the wonderful Ramada inn, St George. After moving our stuff and stopping by the excellent gear shop (The Outdoor Outlet), where we bought a tent for Zoe to play in, we drove to the Chuckawalla Wall and off to the Turtle Wall, which none of us had been to yet. After setting up the tent



and warming up on the 5.8, Chloe and I led Director of Human Affairs





and the 10s to the left of the Banana Dance cave

and then on to Banana Dance, which was really fun. Almost horizontal moves on big jugs for miles. Unfortunately, I forgot that my phone was in my pocket, and it fell out of my pocket and smacked the red sandstone after a 15 foot fall. Amazingly, the iphone survived yet again, with just a small crack in the LCD. After seeing my phone fall to what I assumed to be it's demise, I pulled myself together (with some tough talk from my belayer) and sent. That's definitely up there with my proudest climbing-focus moments along with the time that the front of my shoe blew apart on a a climb in Omblexe but I still finished the climb. You have to celebrate the small victories, I guess. Here is chloe seconding the climb:





A crew of Germans on a worldwide climbing trip were on the next climb over, which ended in a somewhat startling stem

We ended the day by unlocking the sequence of Tortuga

after a few tries, and then going on for a sweet end of day RP


Chloe also got on it and was inches away from getting the crux


Amy also gave it a valiant burn


We packed up, but not before leaving a chalk tattoo on chloe

and letting ZZN sleep for a little longer