Talking Turkey

Climbing at Turkey Rocks

It's been a loooong time since I did any rock climbing, never mind a weekend climbing getaway to some far and exotic part of the world. Kristie and Justin were planning just such a trip to Paradox Valley in western CO and invited us along. The forecast wasn't great, however, so we ended up making a last minute switch to something a little less exotic and far; Turkey Rocks in the South Platte, a modest 2 hour drive from home. Amy and I visited Turkey last year, but didn't do any climbing due to late-season snow and a big helping of cluelessness.

Saturday Today's destination was the popular single-pitch crag the Turkey Perch mid-way between Turkey Rock and the Turkey Tail. Most of the routes on the Perch are 5.7-5.9 cracks but there are a few outliers of harder and easier grade. I tackled what looked like the easiest of the easy routes as a warm-up and season openner: Sangophagos (5.6), a wicked-looking off-width crack with a set of internal holds that make it easier than it would otherwise be. As a first climb in five months, it was a doozy and soon had my full attention. I'm not a crack climber by nature and will do almost anything to avoid using off-width techniques. I spluttered and groaned up the route, finally arriving at the top, but it felt great to get my first lead out of the way and I soon relaxed with nothing further to prove.

Justin meanwhile lead the adjacent Reefer Madness (5.8) and set a toprope on both his route and mine. Amy cleaned my route and Kristie and I tried the 5.8. Reefer Madness was really excellent with some nice hand jams (did I just say that?) and a thin slab finish.

Next up, Justin lead the famous Left Handed Jew (5.7+). I cleaned it and found the route to be just boat-loads of fun. Ironically, it features a lot of right-hand jams followed by a short leftward traverse, a small roof (the crux), and a thin crack above. Really classic route. I reset the TR anchor and rapped. Amy tried the adjacent Honky Ass Jam Crack (5.7) and got most of the way up. I followed and, despite the easier rating, found it a lot harder than Lefthanded Jew.

The Turkey Perch. Climber is working on Sangaphogos (5.6)

Justin works on Steppenwolf (5.9). This is about where I fell off.

In the meantime, Justin was busy leading the classic Steppenwolf (5.9). When we first started climbing with Justin and Kristie three years ago, they were just a little better than us. Since then, they've been busy. Justin attracted quite a crowd to watch him send this hard 5.9 route with substantial speed and grace. But someone had to clean it. Kristie and I drew straws and I lost. Fine, I'll try most anything on toprope. I got up 20' of awkward flaring offwidth getting my feet stuck several times. Near the top of the OW section before it transitioned to more coventional wide-hands, I got stuck. After a couple of falls, I gave up and lowered off. Justin rerigged the rope and cleaned gear on rappel.

We packed up and headed back towards camp. The girls headed directly back to begin the drinking phase of the day while Justin and I scouted out to the west. We hiked past the huge Turkey Rock itself, full of hard-looking 3-pitch routes and found our way to the Leftovers at the extreme west of the crag. Several routes there looked interesting, so we vowed to return.

Ah, camp life!

Sunset over the McCurdy Massif. Spectacular!

Sunday It was with mixed feelings that I noticed it had snowed in the night. Not much, a couple inches at most, but enough to possibly put the kibosh on more climbing. We'd had a good day yesterday and it wouldn't be totally bad to pack up and head home. But we had driven all the way down here to climb, so let's do it, eh?

Fortunately, the sun came out and the snow vanished quite quickly. None seemed to have stuck to the rocks and they were totally dry by the time we hiked up and over the saddle and over to the Leftovers. Kristie wanted another go at the Reptillian Wall (5.6) on the far left. She lead it and Amy cleaned. Then I lead it finding it quite easy for the grade with maybe one actual 5.6 move. It would be a great first-lead since it took gear like crazy and had many rest stances. Justin tried the OW on toprope, then we TRed the unprotected face of Chicken Legs (5.9). Not terribly interesting, but nice enough.

These purple hairy pasqueflowers were everywhere!

Kristie cruises up the Reptillian Wall (5.6)

Justin wanted to try Mellow Yellow, so we packed up and headed over there. Mellow is a classic 2-pitch 5.8 with all kinds of crack moves. It was getting hot, so we lounged about while Justin made his way up. After the demonstration on Stepenwolf yesterday, he spent a lot longer on this route. The route was too tall to TR, so Justin stayed at the top of P1 to bellay. Amy gave it a try, but quickly backed off after the first 20' of awkwardness. Kristie went up without much trouble and then brought me up. It was a very interesting climb with a little of everything. Definitely hard for a 5.8, IMHO. Sustained and steep, but with enough rest stances to keep it below 5.10.

From the top of P1, we could see a short, 60' crack up to the summit of the rock. It looked a lot like the fourth pitch of Fandango on the First Flatiron and looked quite mellow. I nearly volunteered to lead it, but decided to be Mellow instead. Justin lead the pitch and found it harder than it looked. When I came up, it was definitely stiff. Maybe not as hard as P1, but definitely a 5.7. The crux moves through a thin, overhanging finger crack were quite pumpy and it was very nice to finally top out. The views were spectacular to north and south. We escaped via an involved scramble down into the notch between the Leftovers and the main massif of Turkey Rock. Then it was back to camp for some brats before heading home.

It was great to get out for a good old classic weekend of camping and climbing. I'm not as rusty as I'd feared and Amy's shoulder is working pretty well, considering. Turkey Rocks is a nifty place and I'm looking forward to heading back for more crack schooling.

The Wilderness Journal

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