Trilogy Butress

In one of my previous posts ("My First Multi-Pitch") I told you about the adventure Jeff and I had on our attempt to climb Trilogy Buttress, a four pitch tower in Rock Canyon. If you read that post, you'll remember that, not only did we fail to make it up the thing, we actually got stuck, and had to spend considerable time figuring out how to get down. Last week, after talking to the guy who made the route, I decided to give it another try. My partner for the climb was Micheal Davidson, a guy I recently met in my new ward here at BYU. After examining pictures and reading descriptions of the Buttress, we decided to take a different route for the 

first pitch. It was rated only 5.6 (really, really easy), but our info showed that although it was a full rope's length (60 meters) long, there were only four bolts on the whole thing. If you do the math, that's one bolt every fifty feet or so. When I asked the guy whole put the bolts in about it, he said that you could definitely bring some trad gear (cam's, nuts, chock, etc), but the rope drag would be awful. 

Nonetheless, 50 ft between bolts is too much for me, so w

e did bring some trad gear, and the rope drag was indeed horrendous. 

Micheal led the first and third pitches, and I led the second and fourth. When we got to where Jeff and I had gotten stuck, we found that we had been literally ten feet from the anchors we had looked for but never found. This time, we found them without trouble, and were able to continue upward and onward without any problems. The climbing was lots of fun, the view was spectacular, and the exposure was dizzying. The last pitch was only a 5.8, but let 

me assure you that 5.8 climbing on top rope, 20ft above the ground is one thing, and 5.8 climbing on lead, 10 ft above your last bolt with 500ft of air below you is 

an entirely 

different thing altogether. Fortunately, I was able to keep my head together, and both Micheal and I made it to the top without any problems. In

stead of rappelling, we were able to hike down the back side and make it to the car just after 

dark. 

But the story doesn't end there. Three days later, I was on Trilogy Buttress again, this time with Jeff Belnap and Jason Webb. We got started just before dark, and made sure to bring headlamps. 

Partly because it was getting dark, but mostly because they are wimps, both Jason and Jeff decided that they weren't going to lead climb at all. Of course, they didn't decide this until we were already at the top of the first pitch. So I got to lead all four pitches (Okay, so maybe leading a new route, in the dark, hundreds of feet off the ground would be a bit scary). In the dark, I didn't get the same 

sense of height that I did in the day-my attention was primarily confined to the small bubble of light from my headlamp.

The highlight of the climb came on the fourth pitch. A few feet above the first bolt, the handhold I was using broke loose, and I suddenly found myself falling through the air. When the rope jerked me to a stop I was a good ten or twelve feet lower than where I had started. When I regained my composure I was able to finish the climb without any more falls. The view from the top was just as amazing at night as it was in the daylight.