Deep Water Solo at Pace Bend 8/2/25

The recent floods and their tragic consequences presented a long-awaited opportunity to DWS at Pace Bend for my first, but not my last time. Since purchasing the guidebook in 2019, I’ve been to every crag in it except for Pace Bend. I checked the water levels to see that they were the highest in over a decade and summer vacation was about to end so I decided to make a spur of the moment day trip on a Saturday. The drive was just under 4 hours, like any climbing destination is in any direction except east of Dallas is. Anika carpooled with me so the time flew by as we blabbed about ourselves to each other. We saw a Tim Horton’s on the way there and got it after our day trip, wasn’t worth it. Even though I wouldn’t ever get it, they don’t have the one thing that makes it worth going, poutine, the most Canadian dish I can think of. We drove through a lot of bends as you can see in the map below, very nice, upscale neighborhoods with varied quality. I was particularly impressed with some of the landscaping that featured plants that grow well in the region instead of a lawn.

Just before we could enter the park on time for our agreed meeting place, we were turned around to the closest gas station ATM for $5 cash that is required for each adult. What an easy job, eh?(Canadian accent) Sit around and collect bills and say you’re sorry about it while directing people to an ATM that will charge you a $3.50 fee for withdrawing $20. Learn from my mistakes I guess, I hate being late.

Paul, his friend, and John Nicols were in the water already so I jumped in with a life vest that I had never used but purchased after my Mt. Scott challenge, which you can read about here. It was nice to have it but not necessary, you can chill in recover in the water longer with it. In the case of Paul, he needed it because he couldn’t swim. I’m glad he told us that fact. I made sure that we were always in sight of each other, like in any other outdoor adventure I’ve ever gone on, and of course watching each other scramble up the routes was most of the fun.

Paul spent most of his time floating and posing for pictures as you can see above. He occasionally pulled on and onsighted lines that we were eager to repeat.

The life vest adds to the difficulty of the experience because you can’t get your body closer to the wall though. I slipped off of the top-out of the hardest climb that I tried that day and actually enjoyed the fall except for the scratches on my arms as I fell. It was because of the vest.

As usual, Anika flashed my proj by stealing beta.

Pro tip: use worn out shoes that aren’t worth resoling and that have holes on the tips, these weep holes are now a feature not a bug.

We only explored one part of an eastern cliff with our limited time. There were so many lines to pick from and they were mostly beginner friendly so I look forward to a future trip with bigger crew and perhaps more drinks. (I had my snack game on point that day)

I didn’t get a single photo or video of John Nicols, but he was running up and down the cliff line like a kid in a candy store, touching everything. “Hey! You break, you buy John!”

We felt a few chossy holds but nothing broke that day, thankfully.

After about three hours of cliff jumping and crawling, Anika and I said our goodbyes while the rest of the gang went to Monster rock, just a five minute drive away from the park. If you haven’t been to Monster, you need to do the epic traverse featured there. I have a few projects out there that will go down whenever I get good, but a 12+ climber can climb the 51 climbs out there in a day.

Most of the ride home was spent outrunning the storm the boys we left behind caught, which canceled their plans for Monster, hehe.

I look forward to the next trip once the temps lower a bit and we can stay a bit longer, perhaps labor day weekend?