Build My Own FeedVIDEO: BD athlete Matt Segal makes 5.13 first ascent at Indian Creek, Utah
Black Diamond athlete Matt Segal snagged an amazing looking first ascent at Indian Creek, Utah during last month's Thanksgiving weekend. He teamed up with fellow BD athlete Renan Ozturk to film the 5.13 first ascent, which he named Like a Prayer. Below is Segal's thoughts about the route and Renan's short film of the FA and the wacky weekend antics that make the Creek so special.
Like a Prayer
Walking at the base of the Battle of the Bulge, one of the most classic cliffs at Indian Creek, I pass all the monotonous cracks, looking for something new. The Creek is loaded with splitters and corners that are extremely repetitive but it’s the routes between the lines that most often catch my eye.
I saw this thin seem that breaks off from a classic moderate called Train Tracks. From the ground it looked really thin and a little chossy, but my partner Jason and I were pretty psyched. The prospect of a first ascent drove us and we decided to climb to the top of the wall and rap into the line to clean off all the obvious loose blocks…
We climbed a classic 5.10-corner pitch behind Train Tracks that took us to the summit. We thought it would be mellow to rap to the top of the new route, place anchors and start cleaning. BUT... we somehow ended up 40 feet to the left of were our route goes and managed to get a core shot in our rope. Needless to say it was a failed mission. We went back the next day and Jason aided up the route, a pretty sketchy endeavor since there was lots of loose blocks that needed to be cleaned.
We spent two days cleaning the route, figuring out the gear and trying the moves on toprope. The gear is a little tricky there’s a sequence where you only have two #000 C3’s keeping you off the ground, but that’s the only real dangerous part. The climbing is very unique to the Creek: you do a boulder problem at the start, a very technical face climbing crux and ends with a crack.
The video by Renan Ozturk captures the beauty of the Creek and the climb.
— mAtt
United States / English 
28 Dec 2009, 5:01PM
"Like a Prayer" was beautifully done; some smooth camera work and an inspiring style - not to mention the wicked climbing! Keep up the great work! Cheers, Eric
24 Dec 2009, 9:10PM
Cool. My first visit to the creek was in october, just wondering what days it went up, I noticed people up there when I was there.