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Rob Gowler hasn’t climbed anything for two years. He got a nasty infection in his foot while surfing down in Mexico. And it takes a lot to hobble Gowler- a fused ankle and many months in a wheelchair after a run in with some falling ice didn’t keep him down. But some gnarly critters that you can’t even see- they seemed to get the better of him. I really thought that maybe he had given up all of that pack carrying, finger-locking, anti-gravity rock climbing stuff. But no. He seemed to think that a good way to break back into the sport would be to climb Black Elk.

Black Elk is a classic line that ascends the southeast face of Warbonnet Peak in the Wind River Range- first climbed in 1981 by Jeff Lowe and Charlie Fowler. The seven pitches of classic granite crack climbing has a steep 5.11a wide hands crux. Gowler figured we just do it in a day from the car- after a little anti-inflamatory preloading, 13 to 14 miles of hiking and a little rock climbing didn’t seem like too big of a day.

And it wasn’t. The hike is fast and flat, the route is an obvious line, we roped up just about 2 hours after leaving the car. We rock, paper, scissored for the first pitch. I won. Which meant that he would end up linking the 2 5.10 pitches, I would lead the crux, then he would get the next 5.10 pitch. He started off on his lead- I guess its just like riding a bike- you don’t forget how to climb. I couldn’t help but wonder how surfing and endless games of ping-pong got him fit enough to just jump into 5.11 in the mountains. When he was about ten feet above me, he goes, “this might take a while.” I wasn’t worried.

Then came the crux- through a couple of roofs, then into the number four camalot section. The crack wasn’t small enough for my fist- but it proved to be a good cardio challenge- I made it to the belay huffing and puffing.

Finally, after climbing through a giant chockstone at the top of the route, we took off the ropes and commenced the scramble to the summit. I was out of food and almost out of water- feeling more tired than I should- and the summit kept getting farther away. But finally, we sat on top of Warbonnet- looking over at the Cirque of the Towers- inspired to come back and climb more.

And I won’t tell anyone about all those gobbies on Rob’s hands.