Lander and Wild Iris

Ok so we arrived in Lander, WY and immediately sought out the climbing gear shop to find a guide for wild iris and Devil's Tower. (Sorry mom and dad--you might not want to read this post!)

So we found the Wild Iris Mountain Shop (or something like that) and met a really nice young lady that gave us the lowdown on the area and sold us some overpriced climbing guides (in my opinion anyway). We had a late lunch and headed out to camp at Wild Iris. Incidentally, the town of Lander offers free camping in the city park--now that is pretty cool. Flagstaff could learn a few things.

So we found a spot at Wild Iris and took our bikes out to explore the climbing areas. The place is beautiful with large grassy meadows and patches of really cool mixed con forest at the base of the climbs. We were about a week early to see the fall colors, but I bet the Aspens are spectacular (unless the constant wind just blows the leaves right off!)

We awoke to some sketchy clouds and high winds. We sat around wondering whether we were going to get rained (or snowed) out of our climbing day--but decided to risk it. We had the whole main wall to ourselves all morning long. We climbed some 3 star routes and I tried out my new full-body pregnancy harness. Once I had it positioned properly, it wasn't too bad, but what a pain in the ass when trying to clean a route! Anyway, the climbing was different than what I expected. We were told that Wild Iris was steep and powerful. Indeed the harder grades are just that, but I was expecting it to be more like Enchanted Tower where even the moderates were steep and pumpy. Not so here. There were actually quite a lot of slab routes--which seemed strange for limestone. The limestone was bullet hard and beautiful though. We took a little break in the afternoon and ended the day climbing Zorro--the first route ever set at Wild Iris. Isaac red pointed it while I struggled as the top-rope queen! Ah well. (BTW we were also told that the climbing would be hot and to wear sunscreen--I wore my down jacket all day yesterday!)

So today we're off to Devil's Tower--perhaps stopping at Tensleep if we get the urge. It is hard not to turn this trip into a climbing trip, but that wasn't really our intention. So we have to have a little restraint.

Lots of fun!