The cold snap in Moab gave us the nudge to join the great snowbird migration south to warmer climes (and climbs) so we set the sat nav for Arizona. First stop: The Grand Canyon. We’d visited the more popular South Rim on our Big Trip so were planning to check out the North Rim this time. It’s a four hundred mile drive from Moab to the North Rim, with the bulk of the Colorado Plateau inconveniently in the way, and it’s six and two threes whether you go clockwise or anticlockwise. We went for the latter, motivated in part to potentially grab a YECTOYD in Cedar Canyon on the way.

Graveside Matter Wall lies about ten miles up the canyon from Cedar City, and just a few minutes from the parking.

At almost 8,000ft in a cold snap at the end of October we thought it might be chilly – it was, with plenty of well-formed icicles in the shade.

Nonetheless, the crag was basking in sunshine and at least seemed worth a look, so Helen wrapped up for a heroic belay.

Good decision – La Santa Muerta is a brilliant line through steep, featured sandstone, alternating between huge huecos and fingery crimps – 11a/b to the first anchors with an 11c extension. YECTOYDs don’t get much better than that…

Tempted to make the most of the sunshine I jumped on what I thought was a 10b warm-down, only to discover I’d chosen a 12a by mistake. That didn’t end so well!

Back on the road for the remainder of the spectacular drive with views over to Bryce NP and Grand Staircase-Escalante NM to the Ponderosa Campground near Kanab, and a launching off spot to Grand Canyon.

Bright Angel Point is the go-to viewpoint…

The South Rim of the canyon is the far horizon in the shot below, about 15 miles as the crow flies (or a 200 miles drive!)

The walk down to the river, about 6,000ft and 15 miles including all the wiggles, is somewhere on the Bucket List, but needs a bit of advanced planning and good fortune for the permit lottery – instead we just mooched down the first mile or so.

Onwards into the Vermilion Cliffs NM, we stopped to see if we might catch a glimpse of the Condor community that has been gradually restored over the last decades…

… but only had guano-streaked roosts highlighted against the bright red cliffs as a clue to their presence.

A bone-shaking 20miles of dirt on the House Rock Valley Road separated us from the charming (and free!) Stateline Campground which straddles the Arizona-Utah border.

This is handy for Buckskin Gulch, a crag composed of the Kaibab Limestone that also forms the caprock of most of the Grand Canyon’s Rim. It’s enduring resistance is the reason why the GC exists, and we’d admired it at North Rim from a climbing point of view, it being studded with great knobbles of chert.

Mountain Project damns with faint praise: “two-star sport climbing in one of the most scenic places on earth“. It also advises: “be prepared for stiff, old-school grades“. Certainly a fun place to spend a day. John Holmes Pillar is a phallic curiosity and something of a sandbag at 5.8 with a 10c extension.

The Carrot is perhaps the best sector, with the outstanding Barrel O’Fun, 5.9+ taking the scooped arete on the left of the shot below, and worthy of 4*s regardless of what MP says.

As a further bonus, we had a flypast from a Condor!

Buckskin Gulch is far more famous as “the world’s longest slot canyon” (though quite how you define that, and whether this is “The World” as in “The World Series” are open questions.) What isn’t questionable is that it’s an impressive geological feature, running for around 15 miles, with walls well over a hundred feet high and a width of only a few feet in places.

The most convenient entry is via a side canyon, Wire Pass (permit required but easily available online). You approach via a mile or so’s scenic wander along a wash / dry stream bed – very pretty but no sign of a slot canyon…

… then for whatever combination of geological factors, the streamway takes it upon itself to slice it’s way through a wall of sandstone:

Here’s the view down into the slot…

… and the point at which it emerges into the main Buckskin Gulch:

Following this downstream for a couple of miles, you’re treated to some fantastic rock architecture and amazing colours as the sun illuminates the walls from different angles.

… before turning around to retrace our tracks.

Next stop, Flagstaff.