#THEWILDFRONT
Rock Type: Sandstone
Distance from Salt Lake: 2.5 hours
Directions: Check out Mountain Project
Pros: Escape the crowds, a boulder for every skill level, awesome sandstone, dense and walkable, plenty of shade, master your mantles
Cons: Just a bit of choss
There are rumors that dinosaurs are lurking near Triassic, or at least it feels like one is always just around the next big boulder. When warming up on the handful of V0-V1s in the Sweet Boulder area, you can look around and see sandstone that seems as if it was gashed by something prehistoric and probably hungry. We hear that Triassic was given that name due to its vicinity to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, known for the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur fossils ever found, which is pretty cool. However, this area is also known as the Land of a Thousand Boulders and that’s what we were really there for.
The weather was perfect—a little chilly, but warm in the sunlight. Our crew got to Triassic around 10am and didn’t see another soul for the entire day, which seems strange for such an amazing bouldering area, but not surprising due to Joe’s Valley being 20 minutes away. Joe’s is the most popular bouldering in Utah and for good reason. It has an insane amount of classic boulder problems and high-quality sandstone, but the Land of a Thousand Boulders has some features that undeniably makes it a great destination.
Even when the conditions are perfect at Triassic, it’s unlikely to run into a crowd. Plus, it’s more condensed than Joe’s—if there’s ever an outdoor spot with the variety and density of an indoor bouldering gym, this is it! However, it will test your top-out abilities so get ready to master your mantles. The boulder density there makes it a great place for groups with varying skill levels; the friend who isn’t so great at bouldering, but you bring along for his great personality will have fun projects that will leave his ego intact.
Our crew met in The Front parking lot at 7am on Sunday. It was the first day of daylight savings, so the early morning stung a little harder than usual. Long-time Front member, Seth Reelitz, organized the trip (thanks, Seth!). He recently came in second place in the Climbing Up For Air endurance challenge/fundraiser at The Front. He climbed over 100 routes in under 8 hours! He brought along Brittany, the badass woman with Princess Leia buns. She drove. She picked the music. She was feeling Bjork. Johnny was the first one on the boulders and the last. We even named a new route after him called Sloberin’ Sloper Jonny (you won’t find that one on Mountain Project). Seth’s old friend and wildland firefighter, Tyler, joined us midday while Brit was climbing one of the best V1s around called Golden.
First, we climbed a V4 on the Out of the Comfort Zone boulder then we headed to the project that Seth brought us down for, a monster V7 named Desperate. He’s been working on this problem over several trips. We know Seth as a climber that “doesn’t do dynos.” If there’s a problem that uses a dyno in the gym, he’ll try to find a workaround and climb it slowly and methodically. Seth made two strong attempts, missing the lip by just an inch. Tyler got on the problem and hit the dyno on the fourth attempt. The top out wasn’t any easier, but he managed to pull himself over for the send.
We spent over 8 hours at Triassic and we only scratched the surface of what it has to offer. At the end of the day, we cleaned up our area, picked up some extra trash people left behind (we encourage you to do to the same), and then we headed back to The Front! If you want to take a climbing trip with us, hit us up! We’re always looking for new partners.
