River Road Area. During Jeff Lowe’s honeymoon with Teri Ebel, they established a new route, a hard, wide crack 200 feet left of Artist’s Tears, three miles up River Road from Moab. It ascends 30 feet of aid (climbed years ago by an unknown party) before launching off into two pitches of wide crack. Acquired Taste is rated II, 5.12a/b. Craig Luebben and Jeff Achey climbed Sorcerers’ Crossing with two points of aid in April and then returned to make the first free ascent with Kennon Harvey. Jeff suggests the route may be the hardest wide-crack spire in the Canyonlands at 5.11+. The Sorcerer is located above Mile Marker 3 on the River Road. Jay Smith and his wife Jo have established several notable routes on the Wingate walls above the River Road. Above the bouldering area on the right just beyond Big Bend, they put up Avalon (5.10+). Above the top of the hill at Mile Marker 11, they climbed four routes: Girly Man (5.10+), on the Pleasure-Pain Wall, Whips and Chains (5.11), S and M (5.10+) and Bring You Pleasure (5.10+). With Paul Teare he did Take the Pain (5.10a).

Eric BjØSrnstad