In particular, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and into the unfamiliar territory of harder finger cracks. I’d often stayed away from the fingery stuff, partly out of fear--when my attempt to weld my toes into this thin gap fails, as it inevitably will, surely I’m going to lose that finger that’s so perfectly locked above--and partly because of the sheer intimidation of thin cracks requiring thin gear and often more delicate placements. But the Supermoccs helped change that game. The exceptionally sticky and malleable rubber seems tailor made to be pasted on the edges of thin cracks, while the added toe rubber provides extra surface area of the sticky stuff. The overall design, with a nice and snug heel cup, made the shoe feel more powerful than its namesake, with more force directed into the toe box. Now, I’m not going to give all the credit to the shoes; over the last few seasons, I’ve worked hard on both my physical and mental game, climbing with more (well-earned) confidence. But I was psyched to have the Supermoccs along for the ride as I saw how far I’d come since my last Creek trip almost a year ago.

    As great as it felt to push myself on the thin routes, the highlight of the weekend was probably onsighting Rock Lobster at Broken Tooth. Years ago, on one of my first real Creek trips, I climbed a couple of easier routes at that area and then stared longingly at the perfect long hand crack. At the time, that grade was definitely a reach for me and I was intimidated by any plus-100 foot pitch--still in the habit of placing gear very, very often, I couldn’t fathom how I’d be able to carry enough to protect 110’. Plus, the thin hands and off-fingers crux wasn’t my thing--I didn’t have the quintessential “tiny girl hands” (still don’t, of course) or anything resembling good thumb stacking technique. Returning to Broken Tooth for the first time since, third day on after two days filled with hard climbing, I knew Rock Lobster would be a good test of how far I’d come both physically and mentally. I passed my own personal litmus test with flying colors, loving every minute of being able to climb calm and confident.

    Hoping there are more desert trips in my future before it gets too cold, but who knows? The ice is starting to form....