Kentucky -- the round-up

Kentucky was the sickness. So so so so much fun to sport climb. It's amazing how much harder you can climb with bolts below you. My focus was so much more on the movement on the rock as opposed to the line as a whole. That is to say, sport climbing felt more like bouldering than trad climbing Clipping the bolt was only a minor part of the climb on the whole. In trad climbing, protection is everything. If you aren't in the process of placing gear, and thinking about a particular placement, you are getting ready for the next one, or maybe thinking about how good the last one is. Trad is about placing gear, and climbing in between placements -- sport is about climbing, and clipping bolts periodically. That said, had a lot of fun. Here is a list of the crags and climbs I did (or at least got up). A starred climb indicates I did it clean -- no takes, no falls.

Monday afternoon

Roadside crag:
Trouble Clef (5.9-) *
Ro Shampo (5.12a)

Tuesday

Tectonic and Johnny's Walls:
Plate Tectonics (5.9+) *
Gettin' Lucky in Kentucky (5.10b) *
Spinner (5.10b) *
Mancala (5.10a) *
The Great Wall
Mamma Cindy (5.11c) *
The Solarium
Manifest Destiny (5.12a)
Air-ride Equipped (5.11a) *

Wednesday

Raaaaiiiiinnnnnnn
(Tried Recoil (5.11d) at Torrent in the late afternoon)

Thursday

Torrent Falls
Wadcutter (5.9+) *
Bandolier (5.11a)
Recoil (5.11d) *

Military Wall
Jungle Beat (5.9+) * [Trad climb; two pitches]

Friday

Funk Rock City
Rite of Passage (5.9+) * [Trad climb]
Eye of the Needle (5.11b) *
Go Easy Billy Clyde (5.12a)
Cruising Lane (5.10a) * [Tope rop]

Greetings from old Kentucky

ALTHOUGH it is raining very hard right this moment, yesterday was an awesome day of climbing. Atma and I drove down here to the Red River Gorge after I got done with work on Sunday night. After 12 hours of driving and a few of napping, we pulled into Miguel's and quickly decided to go up to the roadside crag and do some climbing. I climbed a 9 with no problems, and the hopped on Ro Sham Po, a super classic 5.12a. I took a fall at the crux, and one more a little higher up. Not a bad first day.

Yeterday we met up with a bunch of the St. Lawrence kids, and headed off early to Muir Valley. Ended up getting pn 7 climbs, ranging from 5.9 to 12a. Some of the more fun climbs we did were Getting Lucky in Kentucky (5.10b), Air-ride Equipped (5.11a), Mamma Cindy (5.11c), and another 5.12a. Mamma Cindy and Air-ride Equipped were probable my favorite.

Today is wet, so we are resting, but tomarrow we are planning on going to the Military Wall. Woo-hoo Kentucky!