Travel: Utah’s Rock Climbing Country

Scotsman.com, from way across the water, has this interesting article describing rock climbing in Zion Park and Moab, along with other national park adventures. The title of this post is also the title of the article. Below are excerpts.

He (Dougal Tavener) is a world-class professional who can be found regularly gracing the pages of international climbing magazines, and favours Utah’s parks for the challenging and exciting climbs. Places such as Zion, which offer big-wall climbing up to 1,000 metres, and Moab, in eastern Utah, are among his favourites.

Tavener speaks in a voice that is quiet and cool. “I’d heard lots of good things about climbing in Utah, so I came here to try it for myself. The crack-climbing – climbing fissures that go all the way up the wall – is outstanding, but you need to be experienced. Utah is the only place in the world where you can find this type of climbing,” he says.

We try our hand at canyoning, dressed up like seals in wetsuits with climbing gear on top. It’s fun sliding down rock chutes and ending up in deep-water pools, and we down-climb narrow, twisted, super-tight slots, abseil down walls and walk through a labyrinth of 50m-high canyons barely a metre wide.

The article describes adventures in these places:

• Zion National Park
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Along Highway 12
• Capitol Reef National Park
• Arches National Park

It is a good article, worth reading.