Q & A w/Chris Tatum of Flagstaff Climbing Guides

Chris is the head guide at Flagstaff Climbing Guides, making him a very busy man this time of year. I snuck in a little Q & A with him between guiding trips to find out more about what Flagstaff Climbing Guides is all about. Thanks, Chris.

What was your path to guiding? Why do you do it? My path to guiding and teaching began when I started climbing. I quickly realized how much fun the sport was and I felt I needed to share it with friends and other people. I went to Northern Michigan University and earned a degree in Outdoor Recreation Leadership and Management and also earned AMGA certifications and was able to get a job with Vertical Relief Climbing Center and Flagstaff Climbing Guides teaching and guiding full time. I simply love sharing the sport with other people. To me, it doesn't matter if you are brand new to the sport or well seasoned, I don't get bored teaching and guiding climbing. It is the best sport in the world!

Flagstaff Climbing Guides is an American Mountain Guides Association (AMGA) Accredited climbing school and guide service. What does that mean? What does a client get out of that? It means that the guides and the program are meeting and exceeding standards on a national level. Our guides are certified and trained with the most up to date skills and techniques available. You expect bus drivers, pilots, doctors, etc. to have a certain level of training and credibility before you trust your life to them... Rock climbing is dangerous, why should it be any different when hiring a guide?

So, who are the other guides and what makes them good at what they do? Do they have AMGA certifications too? We have very high standards and make it a requirement that our guides, at a minimum, are AMGA trained but most are certified. Our guides each have a specialty and their own unique approach to the sport. We try to get a feel for what clients want out of a day and match guides accordingly.

Where do Flagstaff Climbing Guides guide at? We guide mainly in Northern Arizona. Our sites include Jacks Canyon, Paradise Forks, Mount Elden and Le Petit Verdon (The Pit). We also hold a permit for Joshua Tree National Park.

What skills can clients learn? We can literally teach just about any skill. Geographically, we are uniquely positioned to teach on several different rock types and climbing sites. This is good because it allows our guides to utilize the resources and teach a wide variety of skills. We can help climbers take their first steps onto the rock, teach anchoring fundamentals, trad and sport climbing skills, improvised self rescue, aid and big wall climbing and more.

Can they just go out and climb and have fun or does it have to be all about learning a skill? Absolutely, they can just go out and climb and have fun! Hiring a guide doesn't have to be all about learning skills and practicing techniques, we take individuals, couples and families out to simply enjoy climbing. Sit back and let the guides do all the work and just experience the sport! We also go out with experienced climbers visiting that don't have a partner and want to get some mileage in while in the area.

Does a client need experience or equipment to climb with Flagstaff Climbing Guides? No experience is necessary and we can provide all equipment. We only start requiring experience when clients want to learn advanced skills.

How do I get in contact with Flagstaff Climbing Guides to schedule a day out or ask more questions? Shoot us an email or just call. Our staff are answering phones 7 days a week and are ready to take your reservation!

Contact us at info@flagstaffclimbing.com -or- 928-556-9909

Trail work day at The Pit and Burcham Slide Show

Support your local crag, The Pit, and participate at the Adopt-A-Crag Event, April 29 &30!

Sponsored by:

Friday, April 29

John Burcham Slide Show and NACC membership drive!

Starting at 8 pm at Vertical Relief Climbing Center, 205 S. San Francisco Street

A bit about Burcham...Flagstaff local photographer, John Burcham, has traveled the globe, for companies such as Patagonia and Mountain Hardware, to some of the most inhospitable and seldom visited landscapes to capture moments in exploration and adventure.

Whether it is schlepping in the Arctic’s sub zero temperatures or fleshing out the photographic details in the midst of grinding chainsaws and falling trees, Burcham meshes a photojournalist sense of story with a studio photographer’s obsession for detail.

Many major clients including National Geographic, The New York Times, Popular Mechanics, The History Channel, and American Airlines have used him for assignment work.

Saturday, April 30

Trail Building at The Pit

Starting at 9 am at The Pit Parking Lot

We will provide coffee in the morning, pizza when we are done, water and all trail building equipment needed (Recommended: wear sturdy shoes, pants and bring work gloves if you got ‘em). Come prepared to get a little dirty, sweat a lot and give some serious love to The Pit.

See you there!

Questions? Contact us...

info@flagstaffclimbing.com

-or- 928-556-9909

Cheops Pyramid

(Cheops Pyramid)

In March Benny Spencer and I went to go climb Buddha Temple in the Grand Canyon. Here is brief report on our ‘failed’ effort.

On March 13^th, we rallied at 2am in Flagstaff for some Canyon adventure.

While sipping coffee and waking up, we had our eyes peeled for elk sightings on the early morning drive up to the canyon. We only saw a couple elk along the road, although we were sure there were plenty more we did not see.

We parked at the day use area just east of the road to Yaqui point and started down the south Kaibab trail at about 3:30 am. The air on the rim was cool, but as we started the approach we could feel the warmth radiating from the canyon. We were shedding clothes within 40 minutes of hiking.

Buddha was the objective. A beautiful summit located northwest of Phantom Ranch and often attempted in one push, commonly done from the North Rim. We figured we’d rather start from the south rim and hike more than drive the extra couple hours and access the canyon from the North Rim. The road to the North Rim was still closed in March so that was out of the question anyway.

We had a single 60m rope and a light rack. The packs were small and we guessed they weighed no more than 30 pounds each. We got to the bathrooms at river before dusk. We took our time filling our water, snacking and waiting for enough light to see to better navigate the next section of the approach.

Camp site #1 in the Bright Angel Campground is the ‘trail head’ for the Utah Flats Trail (a new trail for us). It was easy to find and climbed steeply up the west flank of Phantom Ranch where the cottonwoods were just starting to bud for the season.

We motored up through the scree and layers of rock, passing through piano alley and onto Utah Flat where we got our first view of Buddha Temple. The trail gets a little hard to follow for a mile or two through this section as we traversed the east face of Cheops Pyramid towards the upper end of Phantom Creek where we had an unobstructed view of Buddha Temple. It looked very far away still, even after the 4.5/5 hours of hiking we had already put in.

From the upper end of Phantom Creek, the approach drops significantly down to Phantom Creek and then begins the ascent up the south flank of Buddha. We estimated another 3 to 4 hours of approach time. This along with the several technical pitches of climbing on Buddha led us to change plans. We decided to go after Cheops Pyramid which was right next to us.

After an hour approach, we were at the base of the north ridge on Cheops. This climb is rated 4^th class and it was at least that hard. I would even call a section or two easy 5^th class.

We took the rope and rack with us because we had it and after Benny climbed through one crux section about three quarters of the way up I requested he toss the rope back down to me for a belay. The red limestone felt solid, mostly, and the holds were big but so was the exposure. The route puts you right on the ridge line, snaking back and forth with big air on either side.

(John climbing the ridge on Cheops Pyramid)

The summit was big and flat with great views all around and the summit register was full of climbers that have been on top. Many ‘phantom ranchers’ enjoy this climb, possibly sneaking a big day in after a work shift. Only one person mentioned that they thought it was ‘sketchy’, a thought I shared. We decided to rope up for the down climb and short roped/down led some of the trickier sections.

We refreshed ourselves at the base of the route and decided to descend Phantom Creek for our return trip. Phantom Creek is another described way to approach Buddha and we thought it would be fun to check out, making a lollipop loop out of the day.

Dropping down to Phantom Creek we ran into a group of climbers heading to camp in upper Phantom and then attempt Isis the next day. One of the climbers was Dave Gancy. Dave had done the first ascent of the Southwest face of Zoroaster Temple which was my first route ever in the Canyon. He was stoked to meet someone who had repeated his route and we stopped for while and chatted with the group trying to get beta on what dropping Phantom Creek might be like.

There was a 20 foot rappel required soon after we hit the creek. We then discovered a hand line on the opposite side of the creek that we could have used to bypass the water fall. This could work if an approach was made to Buddha up the creek.

Hiking down the creek was amazing. It was mid afternoon and the sun was shining directly down into the canyon. There were puffy floating seeds everywhere that looked like fairies; really cool.

We mostly walked through shin deep water and navigated some tricky bouldering to get around some deep holes but here was one hole that we could not avoid that got us wet up to our chest. With all the water and bushwhacking it took a long time to get through the creek. Each turn had us looking for the north Kaibab trail and the end of the canyon, but eventually we were out, and a mile later we were back at Phantom Ranch where we regrouped and prepped for the hump out.

(Benny getting wet in Phantom Creek)

Heading up the South Kaibab Trail, we noticed it is in really good shape right now (hats off to the trail crews and NPS for not allowing mules on the trail any more). Many spots are like the urban trail, nice and flat with no deep ruts.

We were out at 8:30 pm, feeling good and worked.

Cheops was a great climb and if you want any more beta give me a shout. I may plan to pull a permit in the future to camp in upper Phantom for a couple nights and attempt Isis and Buddha from there. It looks like a great place to camp and would put you in a great position to pick off a couple of great Canyon summits.

-John Doskicz