Arizona - Camelback Cragging

August 2007

I took a long weekend to go visit my brother who lives in Phoenix, and was able to convince him and his girlfriend to go out and climb with me. After a quick stop off at REI for a local map, we decided to go to the very popular camelback area. We got a kind of late start at 6:20 in the morning, and were greeted by a super crowded parking lot. After finding a spot, it was off to climb.

The heat was pretty mellow in the morning(and by mellow I mean high 90's), so we were sweating by the time we made it up to the cragging area. We were a little lost, but got some great beta from a few locals who were done by 7:30 and wished us luck in the heat. Fortunately, the wall we were on stayed shaded for a couple of hours.

I lead the routes, and my brother and his girlfriend top roped the first two, and didn't want to climb a third. All in all, it was a great day of climbing with my bro. He hadn't ever belayed before, but he picked it up rather quickly and I was quite impressed. He also reassured me that he would continue to "keep his pimp hand strong" while I was climbing, and not ever let go of the brake hand. With that in mind, leading was never a problem :)

My brother and his first time on rope

Katey climbing the Donamatrix

Katey topping out on Donamatrix

Me leading

Me topping out the lead