By Jerry Moffatt

The plan was simple me, Ben, Marius and Ray would descend on Americas great bouldering fields. We had planned to start in Utah then go on to Bishop and from there onto Yosemite. But as you'll find out later it all went out the window when we found how good it was in Utah.

My first day could have been better. I arrived with two massive cold sores and got horrendous sun burn on my neck and face playing golf. I shot about 15 over on the first 3 holes which is twice my handicap. We then went up to the granite boulders of Little Cottonwood Canyon just to finish me off. The jet lag hit me hard. After putting a lot of effort into one particular problem and falling to the ground I stood up then promptly passed out and hit the mats.

I don't know why but I thought for some reason the bouldering in Utah was limestone, which has to be my least favourite rock for bouldering.

To my delight Little Cottonwood Canyon is beautiful granite kind of like Yosemite. The bouldering there really is very good indeed. We were staying with Boone Speed and being shown around by the guys from Pusher, namely Mike Call. The schedule was gruesome we were all so keen. With the jet lag it wasn't a problem to be up at the crag at 10.00 (as we were waking up at 6-ish) as it was a little hot for hard bouldering by mid day.

It was obvious Ben was in good shape. He actually said he thought he was climbing quite well. Normally when he's in his best shape he's just 'Yeah I feel OK'. I on the other hand ran around telling everyone I felt awesome. For us the best looking problem in Little Cottonwood Canyon was 'Bully' graded V11/12 which is Font, 8a or 8a+. We both fell off the last moves on the first day and managed it the next day we were up there. As with most areas the best problems are from about V6 upwards but there's plenty of stuff and its easy to find your way around.