Kinder Sends Causey Testpieces

Joe Kinder working through the crux of Welcome to the Jungle (5.14a)Photo by Colette McInerney

Joe Kinder went on a sending spree in a little limestone crag in northern Utah called Causey, 45 minutes outside of Ogden, Utah, sending three 5.14 routes in three days of climbing.

On October 12, Kinder sent Vampire Café (third attempt). “Vampire’s a crimpy, traversing 5.14a on sculpted, ivory-bone, Euro-style limestone,” says Kinder. “On day two, [October 13] Black Knowledge [5.14b] went down second attempt.” Black Knowledge involves power-laybacking into a long V9 boulder problem, followed up by 5.13c climbing. On the third day, October 15, Kinder sent another 5.14a on the Serendipity Wall, called Welcome to the Jungle. “It’s a subtle power climb with huge moves on a 60-degree overhanging face — like V9 to a V5 outro … so good,” says Kinder. “I was surprised to do all these routes in a short amount of time. I wanted to climb at Causey for almost a whole year, so when I got there and found out how perfectly those routes matched my style. I was ready to send.”

Joe Kinder working through the crux of Welcome to the Jungle (5.14a)Photo by Colette McInerney

Kinder’s success at Causey, is preceeded by some stunning ascents of Rifle testpieces Lungfish (5.14b), Gomorrah (5.14a), and Zulu (5.14a) in the month of September, as well as Mr. T (5.14a), Seven P.M. Show (5.14a), Simply Read (“hard 5.13d”), and Bride of Frankenstein (5.13d) over the summer.

Date of Ascent: October 12-15, 2006

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