“There’s a caretaking that needs to happen now with old routes,” explains BD athlete Sam Elias.
And that’s where this story begins. But what transpires in this four-part series by Sam and documentary filmmaker Mike Call goes deeper than the new bolts drilled into stone. Through the resurrection of classic, historic routes, a meaningful, impactful connection is made between old and new generations. This is RetroModern, a series breathing new life into the storied past and bright future of climbing.
Black Diamond Presents: RetroModern
Part 2: Blood Meridian
Video: Mike Call
Part 2: Blood Meridian
Words: Sam Elias
Ibex feels like another world, a different planet. It is special to me because of the juxtaposition of the salt flats with the rock walls. It’s an unlikely place that just feels like it shouldn’t be there. It’s paradoxical. It makes me feel smallness, but also vastness in the way the salt flat stretches way out to meet the sky, and then the sky stretches out further, seemingly forever looking in one direction. Looking in another direction, it’s the way the single horizon line is violently broken by the infinite vertical lines of the rock walls.
The rock is bizarre. It’s beautiful, high-quality quartzite. Solid white and light tan in areas. Solid burnt orange and brick red in others. Most striking when the color is streaking down the white tan. It’s very polished and slippery feeling, like marble, and it’s the hardest stone that I’ve ever drilled. It’s so exceptionally solid, perhaps even the best rock I’ve experienced. It requires thoughtful, intricate movements to climb. The whole formation is broken up in an interesting way and there are awesome boulders at the base, and single pitch routes scattered around, and multi pitch routes on the bigger walls. I haven’t climbed a lot out there, but it represents some of the wildest kind of crags. Primitive camping very near to climbing, but hours away from civilization. At night, Ibex is on par with the darkest places on earth. The night sky is the most spectacular version of itself. The sun can be fierce at certain times of the years, the cold at other times, the wind at any time. Staying out in these places for extended periods helps me reframe myself in the scope of things.
I wanted this whole project to highlight different places and different people, but to feel real and relatable. I had been living in Salt Lake City, Utah, for 10 years. Most people know that the state is special, but there are different reasons for why a place is special from a local, home perspective versus from an international, visitor perspective. None of the specific areas in this series are international destinations necessarily, however they all have been very special to me personally, and they are important to the story of climbing in Utah. Beyond that, they represent a broader reality — there is beauty and value and worth — everywhere. You don’t need to go somewhere “else.” There are places and people right in front of you, right now that can enrich your life.
Ibex, UT
Photo: Boon Speed
Part 1: Kintsugi
Words: Sam Elias
RetroModern is about connection and effort. I think it’s important to cultivate time and place and share work with people from a range of ages, experiences, backgrounds, and ability levels. It does not necessarily happen on its own. It takes intent and effort to remove ourselves from our echo chambers. Regardless of if Noah or Morgan, Colin or Timmy decides to bolt or re-bolt rock routes in the future — our time together was real and meaningful, and these stories matter. These stories represent mindful action, and they connect to a multigenerational flow of knowledge and of personal growth. I believe we are supposed to be seeking this in our lives: Learning. Growing. Teaching.
Black Diamond Presents: RetroModern
Part 1: Kintsugi
Video: Mike Call
RetroModern Part 1: Kintsugi
Maple Canyon is a very special maze of rock. It’s an unlikely and enchanting place, and it takes on a distinct personality with each season of the year. It’s like a cobblestone riverbed that got pushed up vertically and then turned into a labyrinth. By going from start to finish, you arrive on the very top of everything — able to see the whole of the canyon, and also the surrounding wide landscape.
I have been climbing there for a long time, since even before moving to Salt Lake City in 2013. I have had a lot of relaxed, casual and fun days there with friends. It’s a higher elevation area and is one of the nicest summer climbing areas around. The conglomerate rock is basically smooth river stones cemented together by a gritty, porous matrix. It’s not the best quality for climbing because it can break easily and frequently. Thus, the bolts for climbing can be tricky to place, and new routes can take a long time to clean up. The climbing is generally pumpy and gets whole-body physical and complicated, often with kneebars as the angle gets steeper.
The Compound is my favorite sector. The climbing has a unique character, but it also has a different vibe overall, because it’s the highest crag in the canyon — perched up above the trees. You see and feel more of the whole landscape, often with wind swirling and birds soaring around. The routes are not terribly long and require more strength endurance than most of the other areas in Maple. It was the last area in the whole canyon to be developed, likely because it’s the furthest from the campground and hardest to access. Similarly, it was the last area to get re-bolted. The age and use were evident with rusted bolts, loose bolts and spinning hangers.
I didn’t have a relationship with any particular route, more the place as a whole. Additionally, I had always wondered about climbing on an upper panel of rock to top out the cave. Most of the central climbs in the cave stop at a midway break in the wall. It’s an obvious anchor point, but many of the climbs could have an extension or second pitch. I chose Cracker because it seemed the least likely to have a full no-hands rest above the original pitch, before the new climbing on the upper headwall. I was surprised by the quality of the rock and the quality of the movement.
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