Living On The Edge (II 5.10c) Snow Canyon State Park, Utah

Doris Day parking, instant exposure, and red-desert aura

Forecast Radar Cameras

Just north of the Suburbs of Saint George, Utah, you’ll find Snow Canyon State Park. Named after the Mormon missionaries Lorenzo and Erastus Snow, this quiet zone has approximately 75 sport and trad climbs, from one to six pitches, on Navajo sandstone formations reminiscent of Zion. On the crown jewel, the 400-foot Aftershock Wall, you’ll find Living on the Edge, a four-pitch, mostly bolted crimping masterpiece that offers awesome exposure and killer desert rock sans Zion’s crowds, buses, or river crossings.

Aftershock’s distinctive left-arching dihedral, where lies the Edge, is easily visible from Snow Canyon Parkway, the park’s sole road. Driving in from the south, after a dip, you’ll see a break in the fence on your right: park here. Follow the rock-lined tourist trail for five minutes to a 50-yard slab scramble; the Edge begins where the arch’s right side meets the slab. The opening mantel offers instant exposure — from here to the top of P1, near the apex of the arch, a fall almost anywhere leaves you dangling

The Edge’s FA frontman Wayne Harding, a St. George local, took an adventuresome approach on this dramatic line, in an area once known as Utah’s “soft-rock crucible”: “I drilled by hand and on lead,” says Harding. “I’d use a Talon with a daisy. . . . It was the freakiest thing my belayers ever saw.”

Above the arch, two more wandering pitches of bolted face navigate mail slots, layback flakes, huecos, and moderate crack. The second pitch doesn’t require gear, though 2-to-3-inch pro in a brief hand crack/layback calms the nerves (it’s also the only gear you’ll need . . . unless you tackle P4). Above the cams, traverse left to an overhang (5.10c crux) ending in a body-sized hueco and bolted belay. The third pitch heads right, to surmount a giant, very detached flake.

Although many parties rap from P3’s end, you can continue via an awkward, knobby, fingers-to-hands crack (70 feet of 5.9; bring pro). Hauling cams for P4 vs. ticking the neighboring classic, Aftershock (5.11b)? No contest. Bo Beck, Harding’s partner for the Edge’s first pitch, agrees: “Most people . . . do the first pitch and are satisfied,” says Beck. “It’s what Living on the Edge is named after.”

The Beta
Guidebooks: Rock Climbs of Southwest Utah & the Arizona Strip, by Todd Goss (sharpendbooks.com); Rock Climbing Utah, by Stewart M. Green (falcon.com)

Guide Service: Paragon Climbing Instruction — (888) 412-5462;
paragonadventure.com

Equipment Shop (St. George): Outdoor Outlet — 1062 E. Tabernacle; (435) 628-3611, outdooroutlet.com

Season: Autumn through spring

Rack: 14 QDs; one each 2-3” pro for traverse on P2; P4 takes 1-3.5”

Descent: Three raps with a single 60m take you to the ground, or down-scramble the north side of the buttress via fourth/fifth class.