Adventures during June 15-17th, 2007

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Audio day1.wma - 1.2 meg day1extra.wma - 0.5 meg day2.wma - 1.5 meg day3.wma - 1.8 meg

Friday, June 15th, 2007

"It's like riding a bicycle." Or at least it better be. I haven't touched real rock in over eight months and have only been to the gym a handful of times. Nonetheless, it didn't take much for Jason to sign me up for a three day Gunks trip. Although I closed last season leading Seneca 7s (ok, one Seneca 7), I wasn't taking any chances so we started off with Betty (5.3). The start of P2 had some nice climbing with an easy chimney followed by a traverse. The climb would have been completely uneventfully except for someone free soloing who cruised past us while Jason followed P2. This is the second time I've seen someone free solo Betty. I guess it has enough ledges to break a fall so you probably wouldn't die. Jason chose Belly Roll (5.4) as his first lead of the season. Since he's been climbing strong in the climb, I had high expectations for him. For the first time, I saw someone pull the Belly Roll move without rolling their entire body into the crack. Jason somehow managed to overcome the left leaning crack with only sticking his right leg in it. With two smooth climbs under our belts, I decided to try something a bit closer to my level. I climbed Horseman (5.5) two seasons ago and remembered it being worthwhile except for it being in the crowded uberfall area. Horseman climbs a crack to an inside corner, then you traverse around the corner and continue up a crack. I shouldn't have wasted anytime putting gear in before the tree 15 feet off the deck. The small nut I managed to place came out later due to rope drag. Though things went smoothly until I started to traverse around the corner. Suckered by some jugs and a good 0.75 C4, I started the traverse much lower than I should have. Once I neared the outside corner, I realized there were no feet. "That's ok" I though, "I'll just match on this hold and swing around the corner, there must be feet over there." There weren't any feet over there! But I made due with some poor smears, quickly placed a green alien to prevent a potentially nasty swing back around the corner and made several scary moves to get me back on route. Just when I started to expect smooth sailing, one of my ropes got stuck on the corner and I had to lower on the other one to free it. But besides that, the rest of the climb went smoothly. There are two lessons here. 1) Don't traverse too low on Horseman and 2) If you haven't climbed something in a few seasons, it's basically an onsight when you climb it again. To finish off the day, Jason led Jackie, his first 5.5. The climb itself went very nicely. He led it as smooth as I can and I've climbed it five times. The interesting events happened before the climb when a few (high school?) kids were climbing Daydream (5.4). The first climber following it must have pulled all the gear, setting up the second climber for a long swing, perhaps 30 feet. Some on the ground made the climber aware of the situation, and he wisely choose to downclimb. To add to the excitement, someone threw a rope bag filled with a rope and tied to another rope from the top and didn't yell rope until it was about to hit the ground. Who brings a rope bag up a trad route? And who thinks it's ok to throw one down? It could take off someone's head. I'm glad we weren't near it. We finished off the day at Biggy's BBQ Bistro, which was ok but certainly nothing like My Hero.

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

We started off with Frog's Head (5.6-). After waiting for a team in front of it, who lead it one pitch (wow!), I took off on P1. P1 is a sustained combination of face and crack climbing on polished rock. The crux is only about 25 feet off the deck. With an ok sidepull for your right hand, you get your right foot really, really high and carefully crank up. Compared to climbing it two seasons ago, it was easier than I remembered and protected better than I though. P2 continued the fun with some steep, juggy climbing. If the holds weren't so friendly I would have had a hard time placing gear. An easy traverse right led to short crack, which led to the real fun; a steep juggy corner. I wasted several minutes trying to sling a narrow tunnel, eventually gave up and placed a .75 C4 followed by clipping a rusty fixed pin, then I cranked thru the corner. I was unhappy to find that the last 15 feet of the climb didn't offer any protection. Not what I remembered! Nonetheless, Frog's Head was much better than I remembered it. It is good, sustained fun throughout both pitches. Fearing the rain that was predicted for the afternoon, Jason decided to lead the first pitch of Twin Oaks (5.3) since Fingerlocks (5.5) was in use by a guided party. Once we finished P1, I suggested he finished up on Northern Pillar (5.2) since the sky wasn't looking that bad and the last pitch of Northern Pillar has some good climbing. Jason soon found himself leading P3 of Northern Pillar in the rain but thankfully that part of the climb wasn't getting wet yet. After leading P3 in record time, we made the free hanging rappel down Madame G's. Once we got down, a climber from the guided party looked up at the rappel in awe. I told him it isn't as scary as it looks but he didn't seem to believe me. When the rain started coming in, the leader on P2 of Madame G's (5.6) backed off it and sent her husband up to finish the leading. They were going to rap down our ropes but eventually decided not too since they weren't use to the speed of rappelling down thin ropes. This was probably a wise decision considering it was raining hard. Since we were rained out, we hit up Hokkaido for some sushi and retired to camp early for some drinking and campfire.

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

We ventured over to the Near Trapps to get Jason some training for Madame G. Jason led the ultra classic Gelsa (5.4). P1 isn't anything interested by P2 has a nice traverse with committing opening moves, followed by a nose and crack. P3 climbs a steep, juggy corner. Jason climbed and protected it without getting pumped. I almost got pumped cleaning it! The climbing was very smooth except for the nut that I could not clean from the anchor before P3. If you manage to get it out, be weary of using it as I went to town on it with my nut tool. For our next climb, we made our way into the middle section of the Nears and I led Yum Yum Yab Yum (5.3). P1 was completely worthless but P2 had interested starting moves. After placing a .75 C4, you traverse left into a left facing cornering. The corner is then a joy to climb with a protectable crack going right up the center. Double #2 C4s would be useful once you get toward the top. Above the corner is lot of easy face climbing, the pitch was so long that I ran out of slings and had to use my prusiks! P3 is supposed to be a long traverse left on easy ground, followed by a short climb up a corner then a breathtaking traverse right. After making the traverse left, I decided there was no way we were going to do this as one pitch, so we setup an anchor under the corner after the first traverse. I am almost positive that when Williams comes out with his new guide for the Nears, he is going to recommend splitting P3 up like this. The corner caused a few problems for me. You can place a yellow alien at the start but once you crank up higher, I could not find gear and was facing a ground fall if I below the moves to enter the traverse right. I down climbed, bitched a lot, then climbed back up the corner and placed the tiny blue alien to protect the moves entering the traverse. I was then very happy to find two fixed pins. The traverse is absolutely insane for 5.3. Here you are at the top of the Nears, 150 feet of the deck looking out at a 30 foot traverse under one roof and above another one. There's nothing but air under you! A nice finger crack runs along the traverse, which is deep enough to take half the length of your fingers. The feet on the other hand are mostly smears and the occasional dime edge. My feet were burning so bad when I entered the traverse that I traversed back to good feet to rest them. Once my feet recovered, the traverse went smoothly and ate gear the size of a yellow alien. The further across the traverse, the bigger the gear gets. You exit the traverse with a red C4 under you and cruise up some slab to top out. The Swain guide has this as a one star climb but the traverse on P3 is an easy 3 star section. We ended the trip like we always do, with a trip to My Hero.