After seeing Thesenga and Honnold's van builds I got it in my head I could do something similar with the Land Rover. Needing an excuse to put up 3/4" plywood on the steeper bouldering wall in the garage, I ripped down the 1/2" 4'x8', thru some foam on top, legs on the bottom, and it ended up in the Rover. High level thoughts after the first night: ensure the sleeping platform reaches the edge of the interior and blinds. Would have been great to have blinds or some sort of privacy barrier from the outside world.
Hiking down over the bridge and past the waterfall, we immediately had trouble locating routes not having been to Foster Falls before, and for some reason I was relying on screenshots of routes rather than a guidebook or mountain project.
We climbed two routes that looked manageable, and to this day I don't know what we were on (which is terrible for data purposes). After passing the bunkers, we finally got our bearings and climbed both Ankles Away and Saturated. 4 routes on day 1 with a 50% level of comfort of what we're doing. Not too bad I suppose.
Our second night in the Land Rover when much less smooth then the first. For the first we managed to park in a camping area close by, but the second night the gate was closed so we just parked in a pull off on the side of the road. The romantic surface appeal of "van dwelling" was diminishing quickly, but still lovely to have the close proximity to climbing.
The next morning we ran into a couple that had a guidebook and shared some beta which put us on a path to the red light district where we climbed pocket pool and Jacob's ladder. Jacob’s Ladder had some good moves for a 5.8, and some sneaky traverses that had you thinking more often than I would have expected. Pocket Pool tho? That route was a blast. There were two separate sections of good crimpy ledges that were fairly far apart. You had to commit, get those feet up, and go for it. Super enjoyable climbing! I may have cut a finger or two on some of those moves, but it just makes the climb more memorable.
We wrapped on two 9+ routes, Rolfed and Therapist. Rolfed had a long traverse out right, climb up, then back left right before the roof. In my opinion the traverse was the hardest part, then the roof rewarded you with great holds up to the chains. Therapist had a slightly harder roof, but a much more enjoyable sequence leading up to it. With 4 routes done and the threat of snow moving in, we called it a day and took off for Knoxville. Ben and Katie graciously allowed us to couch surf with and showed us some great local food and beers. Aaaaand it’s not time with them unless we play volcanic disaster.
The snow and cold prevented us from spending a day at south clear creek climbing more classics, but we'll be back.
