I am not a mixed climber and have never pretended to be. Something about combining the sketchyness of hard aid climbing with the pump of sport climbing and the fear of falling while covered with pointy things never really did it for me. This season, however, I decided to out a little more effort into learning how to mixed climb because I figured it would help my ice climbing. After getting off the rock and pulling onto the ice, even the steepest ice feels piss easy.
So far it’s worked pretty well, and since nearly everything in the state either fell down or is in danger of being avalanched, Alex and I came down to Santaquin to play around in the Baghdad cave. Kyle and Jewell were there with a friend from Montana, and watching them all crush gave us the motivation to try hard on the easiest thing in the cave, which at M8 is two grades harder then either of us has ever led. With the intention to do nothing but get in a last good pump on my fifth try, I squeaked out a send my the skin of my teeth. This was by far my hardest mixed route and also a complete fluke, but it sure was fun.
Kyle Dempster one try before the frist ascent of a new mixed line up the middle of the cave
Jewell Lund sending Baghdad (M8)
Me sending Baghdad (M8)
Jewell Lund attempting Tropical Hooker (M10)
