Emery County

We arrived at our campground 30 miles north Joe's Valley in dire need of a shower. It was already dark and difficult to navigate through the campground. Nobody was there besides us except the campground host. We parked the car, went to the shower house and were surprised with wonderful clean hot showers.
The next day we awoke to a beautiful autumn sunrise surrounded by trees with unusually yellow leaves. We enjoyed a coffee at the campsite, refilled our water supplies and then drove towards Joe's Valley. On the way we stopped at the Food Ranch, a local supermarket that also sells climbing equipment and extraordinarily good donuts and coffee.
First, we went to the campground to see if there was still room for us and luckily grabbed the last free spot. We paid for two nights and then headed to the "Left Fork". Joe's Valley is basically separated into two valleys that each have a long road into nowhere. At a junction at the beginning of both valleys the two streets separate creating a left and a right fork.
We spent our first climbing day searching for good warm ups, which turned out to be quite difficult, since we didn't yet know the area at all. After failing to warm up at The Sandbox sector, we went to the Riverside Boulders. The lines were high and polished. On the way back to the campground, we stopped at a famous boulder called "Worst Case Scenario", V9, that lies directly next to the road, but a couple meters above it on a sloping ledge. A couple of moves into the boulder you have to put a foot above the ledge and in the worst case scenario you would slip and tumble down onto the road. However, this is very unlikely, because at that point you are climbing on jugs. The crux of the boulder starts just after that notorious foot placement and is really safe. It was really fun to work on the moves and finally send it.
On day two we started our day at the Boy Size area (Right Fork). It was hot, but we found a few lines in the shade. Yet, eventually we had to move into the sun, where Birte climbed "Mono e mono", V5, and "The Rich", V4, and I did "Golden Plates", V8. After a lunch break with coffee at the campground, we spent the afternoon at the Man Size area, where I suprised myself and the crowd of guys that was projecting "Finger Hut", V10, with a Flash of this famous crimping testpiece. Birte started working on "The Great White", V6, a beautiful line with big moves and compression between crimps under the roof and slopers on the shark-fin-shaped arete. She was hooked, but could not yet do all the moves.
We started the third day at "The Great White". Birte made new links, but the sun shone on the arete earlier than expected and made it way harder to keep the necessary grip and tension. We had to abort and come back later.
Next on our list was The Perimeter area, but we could not find a parking spot, so instead we went to inspect an old house at the coal mine. We changed plans and drove a few hundred meters back to the No Substance area. On the way to the warm up block, we got stopped for a while by a small snake that guarded the steep trail. After warming up, I climbed the name-giving line of the sector: "No Substance", V8.
Joe's Valley is a dust desert. There was and still is a lot of mining in the area. Much of the vegetation had been destroyed in the last century and it takes a long time to cover the ground again here in the desert. So everything was full of dust all the time. The pads, our car, the clothes and of course ourselves. We were constantly thinking of water. I had to cream my hands several times a day. Even Bepanthen was soaked up by the skin in a matter of minutes. So we decided to drive back to the campground of our first night in Joe's and get another nice shower. We payed online an drove the 30 miles north, parked our car at the same spot, packed fresh clothes, towels and shampoo and went to the shower house. And it was closed. Whaaat? We walked to the camphost's RV and asked if we could get the keys to the showers. "Sorry folks, they turned off the water today. There is no water at any campsite, no water in the toilets and no water in the showers. We'll close the campground tomorrow." ...shit...we needed a shower. Panic mode on. We checked Google Maps and found a state park campground 20 minutes away. Since we had paid for the campground already, we figured we could shower at any other place run by the county. We drove to the state park, sneaked into it in the dark, went to the shower house and checked the water. It worked. We showered, sneaked out of the campground again and drove the 20 minutes back. The things you'll do for a shower...
The next day we had a lot of things ahead of us. Birte wanted another shot at "The Great White" and we had to drive down to Bryce Canyon to meet Manu and Lisa, who had just landed in Las Vegas and if possible we wanted to see the Pando Aspen Tree on the way.
We set the alarm to 6am, drove to the Food Ranch to get coffee and a dozen donuts. At 7:20am, we walked up to Birte's project and arrived before the sun was above the opposing mountain range. Birte warmed up and had a few good burns. Then the sun came up and it went from fleece and pullover temps to shirt temps in a few minutes. Between tries I covered the arete with a pad to extend the time of cool rock as long as possible. At around 8:30am Birte stood on top! Woohoo. What a start into the day!
Enough time to stop at the Pando Aspen Tree at Fish Lake on the way to Bryce Canyon! 😬Read more