Arm and Hammer!

Beckner was in town, although for unfortunate reasons. Darcy Deutcher was prepping for a contract in Lander, and as he was going through a drive-thru teller at a bank, he badly crushed his hand in the door of his car. Both Darcy and Josh are two of the folks I went to Greenland with.


He required immediate surgery, so Beckner drove him on down to Salt Lake to go to the hospital here. Darcy is in good spirits and anticipating full, if long, recovery. The doctors are concerned about the circulation in his hand and keeping him in a warm room with his arm elevated. He's such a good man and it's sad to see him in pain.


In the meantime, Josh had some time to kill. So we cruised up Bell Canyon to climb Arm and Hammer (III, 5.10, AO) on Middle Bell Tower. We didn't get to climbing until 4:45, so we had to go quickly.

The climb was beautiful. The rock on the lower 2/3rds of the climb is bomber, flawless granite. The highlight pitch is the "Zion Curtain" pitch, which is an offset flake that splits the middle of a blank buttress. The flake is less than 1/2 an inch thick at times and resounds like a drum when you tap on it. Eerie. On the previous pitch there was some difficult, thin face climbing that added a little spiciness to the overall experience.


The climb went well. We got to the top at around 7 p.m. and rappelled for half an hour, drank a Miller High Life, and hiked back to the car for an hour.

Darcy is supposed to go back to Lander today with Josh and his girlfriend Alli. The doctors don't seem to be giving him a ton of good attention, and he's frequently surprised with new information. It's possible that they'll surprise him anew, and he won't be able to leave for another day or two.