London Spire

On the 17th of October myself along with two other friends, Brigham and Clint, took on the London Spire which is located in the just west of Willard Bay. The day started when I got up at four fifteen am so excited for the day to start. After a quick breakfast I picked up Brigham and we took off down to the Willard area. Finally, after waiting for this day to come for a month and not knowing if it would really happen (due to weather) we were off. Meeting up with Clint at the base of the mountain we geared up, clicked on the headlamps, and started up the mountain. The hike up was not too bad we connected with a switch back for the first forty five minutes then it was bushwhacking from there. I have never really hiked in much scrub oak before but for those of you who have not it was definitely an adventure. The branches are very stiff so when you walk into them they nearly push you over. (don't laugh I didn't get beat up by a tree) But we had to hack our way through scrub oak, pine, sand, rock piles, field weeds, and anything else in our way. After about two hours or so we reached the base of where we would start climbing.

I will admit when reaching this point I was extremely nervous. Not really having done much of this style of climbing I didn't know what to expect. But all three of us tied into the same rope with Brigham in lead, Clint in the middle, and me as the caboose. The whole climb is about ten pitches and rated at a 5.7 so we did it in our hiking boots which was very convenient but also very scary because trying to smear a hiking boot doesn't work as well. But we were there and so there was no backing out. Brigham took off and started laying gear for our protection. When he was thirty meters up the climb Clint was on his way. And there I was watching these two take off. I was contemplating just backing down but then I felt a light tug on the rope as Clint had pulled thirty meters away from me and it was my turn to start climbing. It was like climbing with a time bomb. For if I went too slow then I would start to get pulled along by Clint and Brigham but conversely if I went to fast I would have to carry the rope with me so it didn't get caught on rocks or in cracks. But we all settled into pace nicely and up we went.

I was starting to feel very comfortable until we hit the crux. The move is not too hard it is just a slight roof that needs to be pulled but doing it in hiking boots and due to the fact it was right on the edge of the cliff it was a little scary. So we set up to belay and Brigham went up and over. Then Clint made it look easy and it was my turn. Now I could not see anyone at this point so I just yelled "on belay" and believing I heard a "belay on" I took on the roof. Working my way onto the edge of the cliff I found two good hand holds and pulled. Getting my feet over the roof I shifted my weight to move my right hand. Then both my feet slipped. . . I was scrambling thinking of falling over seven hundred feet to the rocky landing. My left hand held on but my feet slipped away. Looking down I saw my feet slide over the edge and when I thought I was going to tumble down the cliff the rope pulled tight and brought me back into the rock. Yes indeed my friends the belay was most certainly on. Taking a minute and regaining my composure I pulled the move and climbing the remaining twenty meters to where Brigham and Clint had set up the belay. Upon reaching this location all Brigham did was smile and say "How was it, I felt the rope get a little tight."

Laughing I sat down at the lunch counter, a large flat-ish section, and pulled out some water and lunch. We took some time, gratefully, and I regained my composure for the last few pitches of the climb. Setting off again we took on the the last part of the climb. This was steeper and more mantles and pull ups over and over again. The climb though all of this was not really on the widest of paths, at some points we were on a two foot wide boulder with cliff drops on both sides. Climbing along we made good time and when I came within the last pitch of the summit Brigham and Clint gave me the go ahead and I took on the last section to the top. Around eleven am we reached the top. The view was amazing and feeling was perfect and the adventure was only half over. We still had to go down.

After a celebration and a picture we headed down. The down climb was not what I expected. We finished the ridge line and headed into a canyon. All that was there were bark sized rocks that were as sharp as arrow heads and the only way to get down was ski. (It felt like winter had come early) These sharp rocks got bigger and bigger until we hit boulders. We joined back up with the trail we took on the way up and hiked out. Getting home around four it was wonderful to jump into the shower and have a nap. What a great day!!