Day 1: Muir Valley

We arrived at the Red mid-afternoon and drove straight to Muir Valley. It’s $15 dollars to park, and you can see why. The trails are well maintained, it has clean bathrooms, not porta potties, and amenities I’ve never seen at a crag before, like free loaner stick clips (not some old abandoned stick clips lying in the dust at the foot of the cliff, but a hung neatly on a rack at the park entrance) and a vending machine selling, among other things, Ale-8-1, the caffeinated ginger soda that’s Kentucky’s favorite beverage after bourbon. Adventure climbing it is not!

Muir Valley is a beautiful and beautifully maintained climbing area.

We chose the Bruise Brothers crag for our first day out because of the high density of easy (5.8-5.10-) 4-star climbs within a short walking distance. Unfortunately, even at the Red, which is known for its steep angles, the 5.8s and 9s were on the slabby side. As is so often the case in climbing, easier doesn’t equal safer. If your foot slips on a vertical or overhang you’ll have little to no impact with the wall, but the lower the angle, the more chance of bashing a knee or ankle on the rock.

We had more fun around the corner at Rat Stew, 5.10a, (above) although we did have to wait around for 20-30 minutes for it to be available, and we ran out of sunlight before we had a chance to hop on the other classic 10s on that wall. We always meant to return, but with so many other crags to explore, we never got around to it.

One thing that’s unusual at Bruise Brothers is that there are only rappel rings at the top of the routes. On a 30-40 foot route, it takes more time to clean and lower than to send, at least it feels that way. Everywhere else we climbed at the Red had Mussey Hooks.