Ten Sleep, WY

I will start this post by saying that we MUST climb more. Ten Sleep is an amazing climbing area that would be heaven to a 5.12/5.13 climber...but, this is sadly not us at this point in our lives. As such, we spent much time wandering around from crag to crag (and there are many), looking for more moderate climbs we could do without killing ourselves.

There would be one or two climbs at a crag that were below 5.12, so after doing the two routes we could manage, we'd have to move on. It was a bit frustrating...but we just need to become rad climbers and return.

Ten Sleep was named by the native americans,

b/c it was 'ten sleeps' away from two different camps.

This was the symbol for the village.

Out of the middle of flat farmland comes this lush canyon,

lined with limestone cliffs.

One of many cliff faces along the canyon highway.

You're probably getting a good idea of the amount of rock here by now.

On to some climbing shots...

Of course this looks way slabby.

H leading "Ice Station Zebra", a classic 5.9.

This one received a 'patriotic/military 5-star rating'.

Now, for a lesson on the hilarious rating system.

The levels of the best rating, 5-stars, all described above.

B climbing "Step Right This Way", 

a 5.10 climb receiving the '4-star/porn rating' (see below).

OMG, we absolutely laughed our heads off over these rating descriptions...

but the best is still to come, the '3-star/kitty rating'.

 B starting to get in the groove, 

climbing "Insane Hound Posse".

In our guidebook, this climb was listed as a 5.10b/c. Some other nearby climbers looked it up in their older guidebook and found it listed as a 5.11a/b.

We think the guidebook authors truly cannot tell the difference in difficulty on climbs 5.11 and below. They probably walk up these routes with their eyes closed and in tennis shoes, shrug their shoulders and say, "It's 5.EZ. Call it a 5.10a".

Included so you see something other than a terrible butt-shot.

B at the top of a short, unrated 10c called "Shadow of Crowes".

Its hard to see me but I'm near the top of the rock...

follow the rope and you'll see the blob that is me,

another nice belay butt-shot.

"I Love the Big Top" was an awkward 5.9 receiving the '3-star/kitty' rating (see below).

When I got down from the climb, 

I said to Brandon, "Meow, blah, blah, blah, meow, meow" 

and he knew exactly what I meant.

This entire book is hilarious...but alas, I'm already committing copyright violation by posting these so I will stop now. Next time you are over at our house though, remember to take a look through the book and get a good chuckle.

B in a sugar coma after enjoying his ice cream 

in a homemade waffle cone at Dirty Sally's.

The other issue we were having while at 10-Sleep was the weather. There were thunder showers every afternoon and evening. Fun tent-camping!

When we awoke on our last day of climbing, the thunder and rain had decided to start early. And so, we headed out of town one-day early and on to Montana to visit B's grandparents.