> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://blog.novaugust.net/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # St. George | Turtle & Chuckwalla Walls - URL: https://blog.novaugust.net/st-george-turtle-chuckwalla/ - Published: 2016-11-29T22:54:25.000Z - Updated: 2016-12-04T15:05:43.000Z - Author: Matt Enlow - Tags: Desert Season '16, @skrotdisa, post, Utah, @meyer, St. George, Chuckwalla Wall, Turtle Wall, Climbing, #Import 2026-06-21 14:43 [Just the photos](http://photography.novaugust.net/Stories/St-George/?ref=blog.novaugust.net) --- Disa and I were overjoyed to see a Mr. Meyer's blue Honda CRV pull into the Chuckwalla Parking Lot north of St. George, Utah. We had last seen Dave at [Limekiln](https://blog.novaugust.net/limekiln-canyon/), where he had split off from us to go climb with another friend in Zion while Disa and I hung out with Darren [back in Vegas](https://blog.novaugust.net/red-rocks-2/). We three went to sleep with the sounds of the highway running nearby and the lights of the town laid out below us. ### Chuckwalla Wall In the morning I pulled my bike out of the van and went into town to work while my companions played at *Chuckwalla Wall*. ![sunrise](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350177.jpg) Code written and photos edited I booked it back up the hill just in time to force Dave into taking whippers in the sunset for me. ![dave takes a whipper at chuckwalla](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3340931.jpg) After another night's release, another morning dawned. This time Disa rested while Dave and I did the climbing. ![sunrise bluffs 1](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350181.jpg) We started on *Chuckwalla* again, a two minute walk from where our cars were parked. The wall is a chalked-up, grid-bolted outdoor gym with overhanging slopers that brought the pump. There was a lot of dead-pointing going on that morning. After only two climbs we stepped back to the trail and walked a mile to *Turtle Wall*, looking to break away from crowds as well as climb what looked to be some outrageously steep lines. ![Hiking to Turtle Wall](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3340991-1.jpg) The guidebook, to put it mildly, did not deceive. ### Turtle Wall Turtle Wall is an arch that's still forming. At its very top there's a small four foot gap that you can jump across, if you feel so inclined. Both sides of the arch sport lines that climb under, around, and then up its erosion-sculpted geometries. ![Dave scopes the line](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3340998.jpg) We started on the right side. Disa was kind enough to belay on her rest day, freeing me to shoot Dave as he onsighted **Banana Dance**, 11d. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350024.jpg) I - classically - Enlowed the anchor on my flash attempt. Let me tell you something about climbing a forming arch: as the climb scoops upwards, the ground moves up with it. You're really never farther from the ground than you are when you start, even though you've moved thirty feet vertically. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350032.jpg) "Thank god you called out 'falling'," Dave told me, "I pulled in an entire arm's length of slack." ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350048.jpg) "You should have seen how close your tailbone just came to the ground," Disa added. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350078.jpg) I went for the redpoint, but this time blew it early. My head was focused on the final moves rather than the ones I was doing in the moment. I may have put in one more short burn before properly executing movement that brought me to the chains. There, pumped from my multiple goes on **Banana Dance** as well as the 12 we had played on back at *Chuckwalla*, I found myself focusing on the consequences of blowing the anchor clip with the rope out. Psyched out, I called it quits and took another anchor-in-your-face fall and called it good for the day. Meanwhile Dave put up **Pinching Bird Shit**, 11c, on the other side of the arch. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350104.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350120.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350140.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350143.jpg) I challenged myself to toprope the same route in my approach shoes. This was foolish. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350162.jpg) We ended the day with our forearms throbbing. Dave had broken himself by climbing damn-near every route on Chuckwalla the previous day followed by repeats in the morning and the mega-pumps at Turtle. At the end of it all, he could hardly hold himself up. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350172.jpg) He could, however, still manage a smile. We'd had ourselves a helluva day. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/9b/95/9b955960-2312-4b04-8b46-7e66317cd0ed/content/images/2016/11/P3350174.jpg) One more day was in the books for St. George: we three were going to go climb **The Richness of It All**, a bolted 4 pitch 12a, in Snow Canyon State Park the very next day.