Project Reflections

Introduction to Notes - This is a compilation of notes I had taken during my EDGE project. There is a lot of information I edited out of these notes because it was personal and not related to my project. I made the decision to live out of my vehicle for the duration of this project. I figured I could save money on rent and put that money into the development of climbing areas. Because of the amount of publicly owned land near Cedar City, and the Swett Hills being part of it, I was able to spend many nights out in the Swett Hills and hiked throughout them whenever I had the time. I spent weeks out in the Swett Hills, exploring, climbing and enjoying the great outdoors. This is what was going through my mind and thought it would be important to have a record of transactions I made during this period of time (August through December of 2016).

Notes

• August 20th - First day back in Cedar City from summer break. I realized how many climbing areas there are in Southern Utah and decided that I could not be able to travel to and from these areas on a daily basis. I chose the option to stay local to Cedar City and planned on keeping this area close to home for later construction and development.

• August 30th - Headed out to the Swett Hills today for the first time in 4 months. An area close to the Hills had been cleared for a solar field but the climbing areas had been untouched. The Wash was quiet, like always, and seemed to be the same as I had left it months ago. I hiked to the developed areas within the Wash including Ragnarok, Tool Monkey and Mega Marvels. I climbed a few problems and before I left, I planned what directions I would head to find new problems.

• Beginning of September 2016 - Purchased a shovel, rake and a pair of work gloves that totalled to the amount of $45.

• September 16th -25th - The Swett Hills have now become very familiar to me. I remember where areas are and what I had explored and haven’t. There is a big cliff line at the top of the Swett Hills that is a few miles from any road or campsite that I intend to hike to soon. I found a potential climbing area today past the Sarsen Blocks that I will most likely head back to with a boulder pad to claim some first ascents.

• October 1st - Went to the area behind the Sarsen blocks again and climbed three new boulders. The first boulder is up the main canyon past Sarsen blocks and across a valley of torn down trees. It is the most obvious boulder straight out of the canyon with an overhanging arete on the north side. I climbed this arete and named it “Steeper than you think”. I also climbed an easier boulder behind this one on the south side and named it “Hamburger Helper” because the rock looks like a hamburger.

• October 13th - Today I decided to do some trail maintenance for the trail to Ragnarok from the parking area. I built a few cairns along the trail and lined rocks alongside the trail to make it more obvious. I also built a cairn in the parking area and cleaned up some garbage.

• November 3rd - After hiking to many areas in the Swett Hills I decided to make the journey to the big cliff line with my friend Noah. There was a bit of snow cover on the ground and it seemed like a great day to head out. Along the way to the cliff line, we came across some massive boulders and decided to climb up them. There is a big boulder under the cliff line to the left that we named “Ash Pit” and another tall boulder to the left of the ridgeline we named “The Big One”. The cliff line looked like it had plenty of potential for sport climbing routes and the rock was magnificent. Different than most of the Swett Hills, this rock was more of a conglomerate mixture of welded tuff. This area felt untouched and I got the feeling as if we were the first people here in a really long time.

• End of November - Finished a map of the Swett Hills and an interpretive sign to be placed near The Cone area. I also made my hardest FA yet of a problem in the North adjacent canyon to The Wash I called “The Egg”. The boulder was a round boulder sitting on top of a few other boulders that looked like a nest under The Egg.

• December 1st - 15th - The Wash is now covered in snow and starting to go out of climbing season. Other areas in the Swett Hills are also becoming inaccessible. I made one last trip out to pick up more garbage in the campsites under the telephone lines.