• What better place to start my Zion climbing experience than The Headache, one of the finest and most classic free routes at Zion, good enough to have been featured in Climbing magazine on at least one occasion. The route features pitches of mostly 5.10ish hand crack climbing, with plenty of features and variety along the way to keep things interesting. The route might have gotten its name from the fact that it is easy to bonk your head when exiting the pod at the top of the third pitch.  

• When I passed through Zion on a photography roadtrip in June 2010, I came through the East Entrance. One of the first formations I saw was Checkerboard Mesa, a petrified sand dune (technically it's a lithified sand dune complex according to a geologist friend of mine) that gets its name from its checkerboard pattern of cross bedding. I remember getting out of my car and looking up to see if I could spot a feasible climbing route, but I was not the gutsy type to climb into the unknown without climbing shoes or route beta, so I drove on. Perhaps I would be back. Perhaps not. In 2014 I was back. Dow and I had just climbed The Headache, and we were looking for something a bit athletic to get our blood pumping. I was paging through the guidebook when I came upon Checkerboard Mesa. There was a 5.6/5.7 route. Appropriately called Wheat Chex, this route follows the most continuous crack system on the northeast prow of the mesa when viewed from the road. From the description, it sounded like an old school adventure route, full of soft rock, sandy cracks, run outs, and unclear belay spots. Apparently Checkerboard and its neighbors were in vogue during the 1970s, and several wild and run out routes had been ascended on the peak at the time; but ascents of Checkerboard are rare these days, since as climbers and climbing gear have improved, most of the climbing in the park has focused on the more splitter and solid sandstone that the park is famous for on the west side of the tunnel. But Dow and I were up for an adventure, plus Checkerboard Mesa was one of the few free climbs Dow had not done in the park. We initially planned on simul-climbing the route, but when we got to the base with our rope and rack, we decided to make it even more of an adventure and solo the route. With the sandy cracks and soft rock, there were a few moves that were a bit heady without a rope, but all in all it was a really fun route to solo. Most of the route was 5.5ish with perhaps four or five 5.6/5.7ish cruxes (these felt 5.7 to me, but might have felt 5.6 with a rope). We moved carefully and the route took us an hour. The walk-off descent took about half an hour.

• Mythical Kings and Iguanas is somewhat of an adventure climb: a bit off-the-beaten-path, a bit scrappy, a somewhat onerous uphill approach, and some looseness and dirt. Nonetheless, the route makes for a fun outing and the climbing is rather enjoyable and moderate at the grade. The route ascends a crack system just east (climbers' left) of the North Ridge of The Watchman (the prominent peak at the south end of the Park), and follows that crack system for six pitches to the top of the large pillar where it joins the North Ridge route; from here you can either rap (3 raps—the first 2 with one rope and the last with 2 ropes—off trees will get you to the base) or continue to the summit. The climb mainly consists of handcracks and chimneys and a few short offwidth sections. The rock quality ranges from quite good to quite bad, but even on the bad rock the actual climbing is rather fun and varied. A big perk of this climb is that view of Zion Canyon from the route is outstanding. And by the way, the original Mythical Kings and Iguanas was the second solo LP by Dory Previn, released in early 1971; the song concentrated on the quest for spiritual fulfilment and a loving relationship.
• Click here to go to Dow's excellent description for Mythical Kings And Iguanas on summitpost.org.

9:11 am - Leave Zion Canyon Visitor Center parking lot
10:18 - Base of climb
10:49 - Start climbing (wrong route)
1:12 - Start rappelling (wrong route)
1:40 - Start climbing (correct route)
4:45 - Top of route
4:59 - Begin descent (got a rope stuck)
6:15 - Base of route
7:12 pm - Car
• About 1 hour approach, about 3 hours climbing up route, about 1 hour rappel descent to base, about 1 hour hike back to car
• About 10 hours car-to-car (3 hours of which involved climbing and bailing from the wrong route, and 30 minutes of which inovlved dealing with a stuck rope on the rappels)

• This route follows an obvious crack system on the southwest facing side of the south buttress of Angel's Landing. It is clearly visible from the trail up Angel's Landing. The route is not climbed often, so it is somewhat dirty and loose, but it has the potential to be a better route if some significant route cleaning was enacted upon it. It is a cool line at least. The first pitch features a looming "Chockstone O'Death" you must climb around. The second pitch features some wear-a-long-sleeved-shirt-and-bring-some-large-gear-5.10+ offwidth followed by a hand crack; Dow and I both enjoyed this pitch. The third pitch features some friable varnish and spackles of nodules that tend to crumble off when you step on them, as well as a fun roof move and decent crack. Overall, a fun adventure climb. For the descent, you can apparently walk to the left and rap a fixed line, but we chose to rap the route—3 raps to the ground with a single rope.
• Note on large gear: We had three #3, two #4, one #5; this was sufficient for Pitch 2.
• Click here to go to Dow's excellent description for this route on summitpost.org.
• Note on route name: As of Aug 2014, this route is listed as "South Face-Unknown" in Brian Bird's SuperTopo guide and is listed as "South East Butress" (sic) by Gaar on MountainProject. This route is actually on the SW-facing side of the South Buttress of Angel's Landing (the importance of this designation is that it means the route starts off shaded but is in the sun by midday). The buttress is a bit SE-tending, I suppose, but on a map (see map to left) it strikes me more as a South Buttress than a SE Buttress. Hence I decided to call the route the "South Buttress (SW Face)" in my route description. I think Dow called it the Southwest Buttress on summitpost. Sorry for any confusion!

• This fun route is a great way to finish up a day of cragging. It sees less action than the routes around the corner, perhaps because the first pitch is a bit dirty. But the second pitch is one of the best splitter 5.10 hand cracks in Zion. The route is west-facing so it was perhaps not the most comfortable choice for an afternoon climb in August (it was hot!) but it was worth a bit of suffering in the sun to climb the second pitch. Descent: rap the route.
• Note on gear for Pitch 2: We had singles to 5", along with an extra 1" and five total 2" (eight would sew it up).
• Click here to go to Dow's excellent description for Cynthia's Hand Job on summitpost.org.

• Our first objective of the day was Kung Fu Fighter. You definitely want to do this route when you are fresh, as the sustained 5.11- offwidth of the second pitch is a fight. Kung Fu Fighter is the most popular (and rightfully so!) route on the Kung Fu Theater wall. It was actually the first route done in the area. The first three pitches are great, but the fourth is rather junky, so most climbers forego getting to the top of the formation and rappel after climbing the first three pitches. It was a hot day when we climbed this route (100° a we drove out of the Park that evening), so an added benefit to the route is that Kung Fu Theater wall is always shaded and is some of the higher elevation climbing in the Park. Descent: rappel (double ropes if rappelling the route, or a single rope will work if you rappel the new anchors of the recently-established route next door called Operation Condor).
• Note on gear for Pitch 2 (the offwidth): Four C4 #4's and four C4 #3's is the ticket on the crux second pitch. The 3's are nice because you can get them further in the crack and thus not be in the way of your feet. A C4 #5 protects the top, but is not necessary.
• Click here to go to Dow's excellent description for Kung Fu Fighter on summitpost.org.

• Just left of the second pitch of Kung Fu Fighter is a nice looking 5.10 corner called Pu Corner (probably named for the bird droppings above and on the sides of the corner). Despite the bird droppings, it still looked like a fun pitch. So after climbing Kung Fu Fighter, we climbed Pu Corner, accessing it via the left start option for Pitch 1. Both pitches featured good climbing. You can either stem or climb the finger crack in the corner straight on (I climbed it straight on since I have small fingers). Descent: rap the route.

• When reading route beta for Kung Fu Fighter on MountainProject the night before, we noticed a new route that had been put up the previous day just right of Kung Fu Fighter. Given the great name of Operation Condor and a 5.11 grade by FA'ers Ethan Newman and Steffan Gregory, this route looked like it would be a great way to cap off a solid and varied day of climbing. We didn't even have to move our packs. The first pitch was easy 5.8. The second pitch was a bolted (a dozen bolts) vertical 5.10ish face climb on sharp varnished holds. Since the route had just been established, it had seen little traffic, so it made pulling on the thin edges a little spooky. But the rock was actually fairly solid. We had skimmed the route description a bit too quickly and had assumed that the majority of the third pitch was just the third pitch of Kung Fu Fighter, so we left our gear down below. But it turns out that probably the best section of the route—and probably the 5.11 crux—is on the third pitch, in the form of a wild finger crack splitting the face on the traverse over to Kung Fu FIghter. We were disappointed we had not brought our gear up to climb it. We cannot really claim to have climbed the route without climbing this section. That third pitch crack looks intriguing enough to return to climb it.

• This four pitch climb is one of Dow's (and now my) favorite free climbs of its grade in Zion. It is at the east end of Cragmont on the Tunnel Wall area. The first pitch is a short hand crack to a twin crack system. The second (crux) pitch is a marvelous corner that starts as fingers and progressively widens to fists. The third pitch involves squirming up a deep narrow chimney. The fourth involves a somewhat dirty corner and a ramp to a rather cool belay spot under a giant roof. Descent: Four rappels will get you down. The first and fourth are single rope raps while the second and third are double rope raps.
• Click here to go to Dow's excellent description for The Gypsy's Curse on summitpost.org.

• This one pitch climb goes up an obvious wide splitter crack cutting the face. The crack is fist to offwidth, depending on your hand size (definitely offwidth for me). The climb seemed sandbagged, as both of us found it more difficult than the 5.11- offwidth of Kung Fu Fighter we had climbed a couple of days previous. Nonetheless, it is a great line and a good climb, especially if you want a workout! Descent: rappel with a single rope.
• Note on gear: The crack takes only #4 cams for much of the climb, so the ideal rack would be a light rack to 3" with about five or six 4" and one 5" cam (the latter to protect the first 10 feet). Needless to say, our rack with only two 4" cams was entirely insufficient and resulted in a lot of walking and back-cleaning and eventually aiding for safety.

• When a major thundershower blew through Zion, we had to wait a day for the rock to dry out until we could climb there. I drove to the park anyway, with the intention of hiking The Narrows. But the water was still running too high and too dirty for a comfortable hike, so I entertained myself photographing the friendly squirrels on The Riverside Walk. I was using my wide angle lens and the well-fed squirrels were programmed to think my camera was a piece of food, so I got some rather hilarious photos of the squirrels reaching for the camera.

• Living on the Edge is one of Dow's favorite climbs in Snow Canyon, and was actually featured in Climbing Magazine at one point. The pitches are each distinctly different in nature, with the first three being very high quality. The fourth pitch to the top is a bit crumbly. Fortunately you can rappel (3 single-rope raps) from the top of the third, and the fact that you missed out on the summit is made up for by the fun hanging final rappel over the arch to get back to the ground. The position of the climb is also great, giving a nice view of the area and plenty of exposure. This was a great choice for my first route in the park. Dow's got a pretty amazing playground in his backyard.
• Click here to go to Dow's excellent description of Living on the Edge on summitpost.org.

• The predicted thudershowers (the same ones that were hitting Zion much harder than us) had not yet hit by the time we got down from Living on the Edge, so we decided to eat lunch and then run up the Pygmy Alien, not far left of Living on the Edge. Pygmy Alien is three pitches of pretty steep featured 5.7 climbing, and reaches the top of Island in the Sky. The first 1.5 pitches are sport (on old pins hammered into the sandstone), while the second 1.5 pitches are trad (just a small rack is required). Most climbers climb just the popular first pitch, but then miss out on the second pitch, which is the crux of the route involving a super cool and super exposed step out of a pod onto face holds. The 4th class somewhat-tricky-to-navigate descent caps off the adventure.
• Click here to go to Dow's excellent description of Pygmy Alien on summitpost.org.