Adventures during November 5-6, 2005

Saturday, November 5, 2005

7:30am: Jason and Maureen meet me right on time at the MUA campgrounds. We quickly find ourselves at the base of Ribs (5.4) which turned out to be a rather uneventful lead but it offered a spectacular photo opportunity of climbers on Strictly From Nowhere (5.7). Ribs was Maureen's first trad experience and she did a great job and provided some comic relief when she refused to let go of the chains even after she was secured to the anchor. 10:30am: I turn the lead over to Jason and he wisely chooses Tipsy Tree (5.3) as his second ever multipitch trad lead. He cruises up P1, flying right over the rather intimidating roof and not placing any gear for the first 30' until he's under the roof. "P2 climbs the right facing corner and traverses under the roof." I tell him. Skeptical, Jason checks the book. "Ok then" he replies and takes off, sewing the pitch up with the 20 cams he had on his rack. Now Jason's got a pretty good head for a new leader. He places a #3 C4 and starts the crux traverse. Half way out he finds himself in an awkward stance and in need of more gear. Does he place it? No, even better. He climbs back to a good stance, leans out and places the gear and then plows right thru the crux. P3 wasn't too exciting except for the 5.8 layback move that Jason chose to pull on the 5.3 off width. 2:30pm: We had time for one more climb so we ventured to a new part of the cliff that had a 5.2, 5.4 and a 5.6 in the same area. No matter what route I got on, I know I was going to wind up on the 5.6 route so I just started with that route: Willie's Weep Direct. The first 50' were boring, low angle and entirely too run out for my tastes. But the sweet, steep right facing corner and crack system that it brought me to was totally worth it. I've went without pro or really crappy pro for a while now so I place a #1 C4 and #13 nut (who said I don't place passive gear?) and start laying back the crack only to down climb it twice. Well the gear is good and I have a policy of not bailing until I fall so I'm committing this time. Not a problem, 30' of laybacks, jamming and stemming brought me to a roof that I protected like crap according to Jason who apparently pulled out my #3 C4 without using the trigger! Well I try to pull the roof on its left hand side and once my head clears it, I see nothing but blank face above me. This can't be it! I down climb. Let's see what the right side looks like, I make an exposed high step onto a tiny crystal and bingo, I'm outta there. Now Jason really enjoys following the route until he's about 10' under the overhang. He matches on what feels like a solid hold, then he cranks real hard and the 1,000 lbs block moves. You should have saw the expression on his face (well actually you can see it in the pictures). With rope stretch, one rap made it to the ground and we headed into town for dinner.

Sunday, November 6, 2005

8:15am: Jason gets the first lead of the day and wisely chooses Three Pines (5.3+). Even though this is my fourth time on the climb, I give him very little advice since I knew he was capable of figuring everything out. And I was right. Jason speeds right up the first pitch and actually does some of the 5.5 variation. Before we know it, we're on the GT ledge, staring at the fun and exposed traverse above the Dangler. Maureen: "This route goes where? It looks like it's going to rain, are you sure we can finish?" Jason: "It's not going to rain. Climbing!" And off he goes, speeding through the traverse like he's done it 100 times. He decides to do the 5.6 variation to finish up the last pitch. This was actually pretty impressive, considering that Maureen, a solid 5.9 gym climber, slid off it. 1:30pm: I chose to lead Wrist (5.6) next. There was a team on the upper part of the first pitch struggling with the crux off width crack/corner. After a few minutes, the leader bailed. You can imagine how comfortable this made me feel. But you never know that person's experience level so I decide to lead it anyway. P1 started off with an enjoyable, well protected crack with a small bulge. I stopped at the optional belay below the crux. I spoke with the leader that bailed. "I wasn't comfortable committing to the layback" he told me. Jason followed up and managed to drop my red tricam in the process. Now I wasn't taking this off width lightly so I built the anchor out of no less than 5 bomber pieces including a piece for upward pull. I set off to climb this overhanging left facing corner with an off width crack were the corner meets the bare face. I lean way out and blindly place a #3 C4. "Is it good Jason?" I ask. "Yeah" he replies. "It better be." I think. The fact that the leader that bailed decided to stick around to watch me wasn't adding to my comfort level. A few more moves brought me right under the point of no return. I place the mighty #4 C4 and take off. I commit to the layback, reach way up right to a crimpier and crank real hard. Right before I top out, an old nasty pin appears and I clip quick it as hell and mantle my way to safety. All this turned out to be a warm up for the serious business on P2, which has an exposed, overhung traverse out under a giant roof. I easily climb up into the corner under the roof, at the start of the traverse. I place a temporary #1 C4 to protect me why I lean way out onto the traverse and place not 1 but 2 #2 C4s in the horizontal on the traverse. As much as I didn't want to, I used 4 footers for rope drag and removed the temporary #1. Now the real fun began. This traverse was about 8 feet of overhung, exposed terror, um I mean joy. "Jason, if you only watch me once in our climbing career, now is the time." I tell him. "Go for it" he reassures me. And I'm off, hand traversing my way out into space on a descent horizontal but crappy to no feet. You can't even see your feet, you can only see the trees 200' beneath you. Soon I reach the outside corner and take a terrifying look at those long 4' slings below me and way to right. Now that's a fall into the face that I don't want to take. "You got it. Relax." Jason yells up. "Yeah easy for you to say" I think. Nonetheless, I plow through the awkward mantle/heel hook/knee smear/grab on to anything you see move that brings me to a secure stance. I request my victory photo and I'm rewarded with clean, exposed, easier climbing for the rest of the pitch. Now Jason is quite the trooper because in all that excitement, I forgot to place a piece at the end of the traverse, not that I would have an a chance in hell from that position. I probably couldn't have even clipped a bolt. So in the event that he fell on the traverse, he would have had quite the swing but at least it would have been clean. Not to worry, Jason got thru and claimed it was harder than Shockley's (5.6). I'm not sure if I can agree with that but I'll say that it's just as classic as any 6 I've climbed at the Gunks. I don't know what Williams is smoking only giving it one star. It's a three star route in my book. Anyways, we take the uberfall downclimb, apologize to Maureen for making her wait 3 hours for us, then head to the Otter for dinner.