Adventures during September 10, 2005

Saturday, September 10, 2005

8:00 AM: Doug and I start out on Madame G's (5.6) which is one of the rare climbs I wanted to lead after following it. This was supposed to be training for High Exposure (5.6+) since it's so steep. I link together P1 and P2 and setup the exposed hanging belay with no less than 4 bomber pieces (Jim, Thanks for letting me borrow the yellow alien). Doug follows up and makes the crux look much easier than I did. Now, P3 is the money pitch. It just looks intimidating from the ground. It's steep, exposed and a jug fest the whole way up. The biggest problem was picking which jug to use. Just find a stance to place some gear - usually one handed, crank for a few moves and repeat until you top out. I topped out with no epics and Doug cruised right on up wondering I was able to place gear while climbing that. We rap down the beautiful, free hanging Madame G's rappel. 11:00 AM: After TRing a few routes, Kurt goes biking, so Doug and I pick up Agnes for her first multipitch climb. Minty! It's easy and I've done it a few times. And it was also taken. During our search for a good intro climb, we walk past Credibility Gap (5.6) which is something I've wanted to climb for a while - what an adventure this turned out to be. I sew up the bottom crack that makes up the first 25 feet of the route and I get under and to the left of this left facing corner that I need to get into. The move looks pretty hard even though it's not the crux. I'm also looking at a ground fall at this point so I place a #1 C4 and a bomber passive tricam. Several minutes later I finally go for the move. Reach left hand way up high, left foot up. Now…swing way right hoping your right hand reaches a jug - got it. Then land a crappy right foot - almost knee bar type thing. It's not over yet. Several more pumpy moves and still not stance. I'm gonna pop off this thing and deck if those two pieces don't hold. TAKE!!!!!! TAKE!!!! I down climb quickly, almost step into a sling and drop a few feet onto the C4. Alright, now that my mental game is destroyed, let's try this again. I just keep cranking through the pumpy moves until I reach a stance. Place a .75 C4 faster than I've ever placed a piece of pro in my life and yelled TAKE. Thankfully, Doug was on the ball and was a very attentive belayer. So now that I'm scared out of my mind and hanging, I place another bomber passive tricam and a #4 nut (Thanks for getting this booty for me, Kevin). Make a few more moves, place a #3 C4 and take on last hang before the real crux - blindly exit left under a roof to a face. I don't really remember how I did it but it was hard and the sun was in my eyes and I was so happy to reach a good stance. I setup a hanging belay about 20 under where P1 really ends - I just wanted this pitch to end. 80 lbs Agnes heads up with a 60m 10.2 rope tied to her back and a few water bottles attached to her harness - must have been almost a 1/3 of her bodyweight. She climbs well and gets under the crux and then hangs and/or falls a few times. Eventually she makes the blind crux move. I had a sweet angle. I wish I had my camera with me. Then Doug comes up and cleans the gear and makes the climb look pretty easy. Well it is 6 grades under his limit. We discuss the first pitch and decide the real rating is somewhere between 8+ and 10a. We move the belay to a more comfortable ledge and climb the less eventful P2 to the GT ledge. Sometime during P1, a leader a few climbs to the right of us took a fall, rolled for a little bit and had a tree stop his fall. I only heard it but I think Agnes and Doug saw it. Then another climb went up to get his gear but backed off the climb. Just when you think the epic is over, we now have to rap off the GT ledge, two ropes will get us to the ground. There was a giant tree half way down that the knot would have got stuck in, so we had to do 2 raps. Well, the knot got stuck anyway and I was in no mood to lead back up to get. After about 10 minutes, Doug and I freed the knot and then we got back to the ground. Alright, that's enough adventures for one day, let's climb something easy. We finish up on 69 (5.3) which was only a single short pitch but lots of fun. Now the big question is: Am I ready for High Exposure after Credibility Gap took me to school?