Marius at 43 was by far the most motivated, he'd been training, lost weight and was climbing better than ever before. Pretty inspiring stuff really, it just goes to show what you can do if you do the right kind of training and are motivated.

There's a bunch of other good areas within a few hours drive of Salt Lake. Joe's Valley is about 2 hours its up high and sandstone more similar to Northumberland than Font. But just loads and loads of rock. Its just outside a place called 'Price' right out in the middle of nowhere. I can't image there ever being loads of people up there. We bumped into one of the local strong boys Steven Jeffries he's 21 and really is strong. I had a very quick go on one of his problems called 'No Additives' V12 Font 8a-ish. I would have got it with a bit of time I think and Ben didn't try it as he'd hurt his knee when he stumbled walking to the boulders. He also showed us a totally awesome project called ' Black Lung' he'd been working on it for a couple of years and had fallen off the last move. It was desperate we stayed a second day as Ben was keen to give it a good go.

The first moves a 7c dyno to a sloper crimp, its 7b to match next to it and 7b to pull up and get the next edge. Ben was getting close he'd done all but the last move on his second day. We returned a few days later and after a truly determined effort after about 3 hours between snow blizzards and about 10 'this is my last try' finally did it. It's got to be 8b Font and one of the hardest problems I've seen. Jeffries sit down start to 'No Additives' also looks 8b. We saw him try it and that also looks totally desperate.

Another area about 3 hours away is Ibex. Its again right in the middle of nowhere although it's a lot lower down and hotter than Cottonwood or Joe's Valley. I love it there. Its kind of baked sandstone not loads of boulders but a couple of big boulders with loads on them. We did a couple of V10's (7c+) then started to work on another project of Jeffries and one which Klem Loskot spent a couple of days on. Another hard one 8b Font I think Ben did well and looked like he'd get it the next day and I couldn't quite get one of the moves. We went so hard that day I had to have 2 rest days my arms were pummelled.