Area & Style of Climbing
Ibex – Bouldering & Trad/Sport Routes

Location
USA, Utah, South West

Overview
A beautiful, awesome and extensive area of quartzite cliffs and blocks strewn around the perimeter of a dry lake bed, 50 miles from civilization in the SW Utah desert. The venue centres around a huge cliff accompanied by a fine selection of large boulders (the Ibex Crags Area), with numerous other crags and blocks - Topus Mountain, Warm Point and Candyland being the other main sectors - in the near vicinity.

Best Time to Go & Conditions
October through to April is the best time to visit although you may still get the odd hot day at either end of this time period. The rock is a super compact crystalline quartzite and thus requires cold conditions for optimum performance. That said the main sector (Ibex Crags Area) goes into the shade by the early afternoon in mid winter and can get overly cold, especially if there’s a wind. If this is the case head for Topus Mountain or Warm Point for more sunny locations.



Rainfall
Due to the desert location rain is minimal throughout the year although you may get a small amount of snow mid-winter.

Getting There
The nearest town is Delta, 50 miles to the east, although this is still a fairly small conurbation of around 3000 people, hosting quite a few diners and motels but not much else. The nearest large city – and your likely fly-in destination – is Salt Lake City a further 140 miles north (3 hours drive from Ibex). Salt Lake City flanks the amazing Wasatch Mountains and plays host to plenty of top notch climbing, bouldering and skiing. Due to the diversity and density of the climbing in Utah it is likely that most climbers would combine a trip to Ibex with a visit to at least one other of southern Utah's major areas; such as Moab (300 miles east), Cottonwood Canyon (185 miles north), Zion (240 miles south) and Joes Valley (190 miles south east).

The Bomb (V9)


Accessibility
As pointed out above the climbing is situated at least 50 miles from the nearest town so a car is a prerequisite. Once at the main Ibex Crags Area all the other sectors lie within 4 to 5 miles so getting about isn’t too hard. It's worth noting that all the areas require some minor offroading – all be it on mainly solid and reasonably even terrain – so a half decent car is a plus point. Also take it steady, if you get stuck or bust your car it may take sometime for the AA to find you, this place is seriously remote!

Accommodation & Provisions
The best and easiest (not to mention only) option is to wild camp, which is obviously free but primitive. This offers stunning nighttime panoramas, being situated well away from the light pollution of big cities and relatively near to Tonapah, Nevada – cited as one of the words best stargazing locations. Provisions wise you will need to take everything, including water, as there are no facilities within 20 miles of the crag.

Guide Book/s
Title: ‘Ibex and Selected Climbs of Utah's West Desert’ by James Garrett (2001). A guide to some of Utah's best climbs in Utah's remote and beautiful western desert. Includes information on Sport, Traditional, and Alpine style climbing routes.

Title: ‘A Bouldering Guide To Utah’ by Jeff Baldwin, Mike Beck, and Mark Russo – The definitive and best bouldering guide to Utah is, unfortunately, unavailable in the UK and may be out of print but is the best guide book option if you can get hold of it.

Title: ‘Utah Bouldering’ by Chris Grijalva, Noah Bigwood, Dave Pegg (2003) – A decent select guide including Ibex and all the other well known Utah bouldering destinations. Be wary of the overly generous star ratings in this guide, it seems to give everything three or four stars making the star system a little pointless.

Grade Spread and Recommended Routes
Over 250 problems from V0 to V11, with best problems being in the V5 to V8 spread. A few of my favorite problems: Weigh Cattle (V2), Ice (V5), The Blob (V5), Left Arete (V6), The Thing (V7), Big Gulp (V8) and The Bomb (V9). The classic Red Monster problem Ju (V6/7) also looks excellent but is a bit of a sandbag.

General Tip/s
Be calculated in your approach: due to the colouring and formation of the rock every problem appears to have far more holds than it actually does, thus knackering yourself out or blowing a tip through poor sequences can be the undoing of a possible good days sport! I found the grades to be generally harder than most other US bouldering destinations.

There is a good in depth article on the routes at Ibex in the September 2008 issue of ‘Climbing’ magazine (number 269), this may still be available in the UK, failing that it is also available via Climbing's online back issues ordering website here.

Useful Links
Air Travel: ebookers.com
Rental Car: www.holidayautos.co.uk
Buy the guide book here: Utah Bouldering guide book page

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