Spearfish Canyon with Kyler P

Spearfish Canyon is kind of a mecca of Limestone sport climbing and it lies directly on the path to and fro Okoboji Iowa. This year I was able to stay a few days and climb. A friend of mine was going to be climbing in Ten Sleep Wyoming already so we arranged to meet in Spearfish and climb for 3 days. Neither of us had been there before and neither of us left disappointed. We spent day 1 climbing in the Darkside area. I climbed 5 routes. We spent the next climbing in Big Picture Gully where I climbed four more routes. The last day was spent at the Shadowlands where I climbed four more routes. No matter where you went, you could not escape the pockets (not that you want to).  To sum up the area in one sentence: Steep pocketed limestone. This place is a 5.12 climber's paradise. Ill bet about 75% of the routes at all areas lie in the 5.12 range. I am not a 5.12 climber. Even though it reached 100* everyday, we were still able to find shade and climb all day.

A sport climbing day pack. Love it. Compared to my trad pack this was gravy! Wine, music, sandals, harness and draws.

The bridge to the Darkside.

Pretty

Hole in the Wall section of the Darkside. I climbed two easy short 5.10s here.

There are actually two ropes in this pic. Kyler climbed a route to the left of the rope you can see but its so steep the rope is hanging away from the rock at tree level.

Kyler jumped on this bad boy once this guy left.

I climbed this supposedly 'best for the grade in the canyon' route.

Necessity is the seed of invention.

Great pay camping.

Why wine? Because its good at room temp duh!

Started off our BPG day here on the Bradyism wall.

My favorite route of the trip. Its a route of mono pocket after mono pocket after mono pocket! Its only 5.11a because the pockets are deeper than your finger with a perfect positive lip. If there were ever 'mono pocket jugs' then these were them. I was smiling and laughing the whole way up. I couldn't believe it.

Beggars Banquet might be the only 5.8 in the canyon.

Shadowlands: The Green Mile wall has a couple of moderates for non-superhumans like myself. Kyler spent his time on the Courthouse (?) wall.