curl

The devil, or whomever is running the show at this point, will indeed find things for idle hands and feet to do.

This summer has been a great mix of trail running and gym time. I’m feeling faster and fitter than ever, but the hunger to get out of training and into adventure must be fed. Enter the CURL. The Cardiff Ultimate Ridge Loop is a shorter looser and scarier version of the WURL. The idea being to completely circle Cardiff Fork by staying on the surrounding ridges. When Jason Dorais and I had the idea to do it we weren’t really sure it was worthy of an acronym. There was only one way to find out.

Jason is fast in the mountains and on the web. His version of the day is already up if you’d like an understated, down-played and sandbagged version. Maybe I’m just getting old, but he makes it sound like a walk up to Lake Blanche. I hope he’s a better ER Doc than he is story-teller. Stay here if you want the truth and nothing but the embellished truth delivered in an overly dramatic fashion.

We weren’t sure which direction would be best, but we decided to start on Reed and Benson and finish on Kessler. However, I’m going to blog in reverse just to mix it up. To keep your brain from hurting you may want to scroll down and start from the end.

Spoiler alert: we made it.

The jog/walk/run off Kessler was steep, but it felt nice to be on gravity’s good side. Three thousand feet and 3 miles later we were in the cool flat woods of Jason’s backyard. We gulped down some much needed water and pulled into his cabin where Amanda had a great little picnic waiting. Thanks Amanda!! The perfect way to end the day. The CURL is fully worthy of it’s name. Not a “classic”, but if you’re into long days of scrambling choss through some of the Wasatch’s scenic center then have at it.

Trying to keep up with Jason and snap photos at the same time=fail.

Obligatory summit selfie on Kessler, our final peak. Our smiles divulge the varying degrees of type 2 fun that was had from a day that would total 13 miles and almost 6K ft in 9hrs.

Oh yeah, one more little climb before topping out.

Flat ground felt foreign, but was well received by the legs.

Scramble on a doo doo doo doo do, sing that song.

These silly little adventures, mini explorations have somehow become a crucial part of my existence. I can’t stop my mind from wandering and daydreaming in the mountains and I don’t want to stop my body from following.

“Exploration is what you do when you don’t know what you’re doing.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson-

If you’re going to do something stupid, be smart about it. We took our time feeling our way up this shit tower. If it weren’t for this section I think the CURL could be considered a classic, but this section really was treacherous. I’m adding it to the list of things I will never do again. One could skirt around it, but then the you’d need to take the U out of the CURL and CRL just doesn’t sound as cool.

For some reason we both thought that R&B would be the harder of the two opposing ridges. After a quick break on Superior we were quickly informed of our mistake as we encountered the rugged choss piles of Cardiac Ridge.

There was some discussion on how to proceed at this point.

Nice to get onto familiar terrain and move a bit quicker. On descending to Pole Line Pass we discovered two WURL caches and helped ourselves to a coke and some snacks. Many thanks to Spencer and Jenny!

After 4 hours we reached Flagstaff and started wrapping around to Superior and the second half of the ridge.

Jason down climbing with the a great view of the terrain already traveled.

For me, great scrambles don’t require a rope, but do require full attention and keep you on your toes. R&B delivers.

The gnarled Bristlecone Pines somehow decided this is a good place to take roots. Hard not to stop and marvel at these creatures. After some googling I found out they can be up to 5,000 years old and are the oldest known species!!!

It’s possible to stay on the ridge for almost all of Reed and Benson, but this big prow in the background forced us to backtrack and skirt around it to the east.

“C” is for CURL! A few hours in we realized it was a much more technical traverse and it was going to take a lot longer than we initially thought.

“What’s the worst that could happen”? Jason asks as he carefully dropped into a really exposed crux.

A good mix of  hands on ups and downs.

And then the rock came and kept on coming. It was much more solid and fun than we had expected.

The steep and deep bushwhacking gave way to nice open slopes. No trail, but easy ground.

First light and we were on the ridge proper.

In his infinite wisdom Jason Dorais has moved to the mountains and is loving every minute of it. He runs right from his doorstep almost daily. He’s been showing me around the hood. One day while we were running the valleys, we wondered what it would be like to stay on the ridge instead and circle around Cardiff Fork. It sounded fun to explore two major ridges that we knew so well, but had never explored right in one of the most popular forks in the Wasatch. Our schedules and the weather finally opened and last weekend we gave the CURL a whirl. Starting from his front porch at 6am we bushwhacked in the dark until we reached the ridge.

Jason works through mother nature’s welcome mat.