Spectacularly Moderate: Terma (5.9 II) on the Moab Rim

 I watched the sun rise in a slow ark over the lip of the opposing walls. We drove slowly north down River Road north of Moab. The Colorado River was to our left, with miles and miles of featured walls rising high above us on our right. The low hum of our truck was lulling me into a sort of trance as I traced the walls above to an imaginary parallel line with the markings of the road in front of us. I hadn’t slept particularly well the night before, as I had been waiting for today for months over the Rocky Mountain winter. I was excited. Very excited.

We passed by the familiar parking area next to Big Bend Boulders, a place that we had sweat many a session out before, and pulled into an inconspicuous pull-off on the side of the road. Through the talus leading up to the walls above I could make out several cairn piles. They would mark the way to today’s objective. We were to be climbing “Terma,” a rim route put up by Paul Bucher, Skyler Penrod, and Taylor Bond in the winter/spring of 2012. It is unique, as many of the rim routes in the area are either much harder or much less protected, or both. Clocking in at a 5.8+/5.9 rating, and with its copious protection bolts for the first two pitches of mostly face climbing, it surprised me that this route had not yet become an instant classic. According to the topo provided on Mountain Project, the route would follow a line of modestly spaced bolts for two pitches before joining a corner crack system for the final pitch before topping out on the rim. I wondered how they found this spot in particular while studying the route description online, but soon discovered it was nearly obvious after looking up at it from the road. Rising from a small weakness, “Utopia,” the crag that Terma rose up from, seemed to be the only spot on the massive swath of walls surrounding it that had any significant crack systems to follow.

We finished packing what little gear remained to be unaccounted for, made sure that our dog, Jasper would be cool enough while we were up there, and began our way up the talus slope. Both Sarah and I were excited. The line was obvious as we got closer, and this would be one of the first rim routes we would accomplish in the area. Overall, stoke was high. I popped out of the top of the talus field first, where luckily enough, I discovered that the entire route would remain in the shade for about the time that it would take us to climb it. This had definitely been one of my concerns for the day, as baking in the late spring sun wasn’t on the top of either of our lists. Late April in Moab, UT, this was key. It had been in the low 80’s during the day for the previous week, and I really wasn’t wanting to see how warm it would be today. 

As Sarah finished the approach, I went through what little of a rack we would need to bring with us, about a dozen alpine/sport draws, and a wee less than a standard single rack, though I threw in an extra 0.4 cam as per the recommendation online. I have to admit, there was a shred of doubt in my mind bringing such a light load of gear on a route that was supposed to go to the rim, but I assumed we’d be fine due to the bolt protected nature of the beginning of the route. Thankfully, my suspicions would prove to ring true. I am glad that a majority if not all of the draws we brought with us were alpine draws with long runners. Bringing regular sport draws on this would’ve created a heinous amount of rope drag.

The first two pitches of Terma progressed quickly and easily. A mantel move here and there with some suspicious rock, but altogether nothing more difficult than the reported grade. I have a tendency to be leary of grade in the desert especially, as our home area in the Rockies has made us no strangers to a good sandbag, but I’d have to call Terma dead on. No move was really beyond late 5.9, and nothing really easier than 5.8+. For the massive amount of moderates that Sarah and I find ourselves on year after year, this felt no different. Moving past the last couple moves of the second pitch, I scoped the final push to the rim from the two-bolt anchor. The copious amount of bolts stop after the second pitch, and one is allowed more liberty on where they want to go in order to end the route. As Sarah climbed up to meet me at the anchor, I racked what little gear we had brought with us, and proceeded up the calcited face.

The rock leading up to this was suspicious in a spot or two, with a good amount of sand covering any larger ledge. But the last pitch had nothing but fantastic rock quality. I don’t know if it was the calcite that covered a large amount of the holds, or just the fact that nearly everything was a jug if you held it right, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was sport climbing for the last couple moves. The gear, the exposure, and the stances on the third pitch were amazing. I plugged a #1 camalot before moving into the layback corner crack that finished the last 20 feet of the third pitch. Two moves later and a #0.4 fit in perfectly to protect the topout. I let out a loud hollar of delight down to Sarah as a crow flew quietly overhead in the late morning sunshine. What a stellar and chill tour to the top of the Moab rim.

We signed our names in the old ammo can-turned summit register box and took in the position we had just gotten ourselves to. Beyond us lay miles and miles of canyonlands, bright open faces of rock bathed in sunlight, with dark corridors of sandstone hidden below. Thousands, if not millions of years to create the sights that we took in for only a moment. Sarah and I smiled and each other and quietly acknowledged the simplicity of the moment. I wondered how long the snow would last up on the summits of the La Sal mountains beyond the red rock of Moab and the San Rafael Swell.

Three single 70m rope rappels later and we found ourselves down right at the bottom from where we started with our packs in the same position that we left them in. Both of us gulped down enough water to last us the hike back to the camper and began on our way. A few days in Indian Creek awaited us.

*All writing property of Trent Hillier and Sarah Howe*

*All pictures property of Trent Hillier and MountainProject.com*