Work Stinks

Work does stink. I officially ended my six month hiatus from employment today. But as far as jobs go, it seems like working at the Mirror Lake Inn isn't going to be too bad. That said, work stinks.

But, to end my vacation, I took a trip down to the Gunks. I got to do some bouldering on the carriage road...did the Lorax and Million Dollar Problem, and worked a little on New Pair of Glasses and Jackson Pollock. I think I'm pretty close on Jackson... Also got to rope up with Maria and Margaret. We went to the Nears and climbed Disneyland and Grease Gun Groove. Always a blast.

Yesterday I had an "orientation" at the Inn. I was done with that at like 5:30, so I zipped over to Silver Lake and did some scrubbing on Zoinks!!. I was able to drive from Placid to Silver Lake, hike to the Chimney Cliff, then to the top of it, set up a static line and scrub pretty much the whole route all before it got dark. I was in race mode for sure.

I ended up just leaving the static up there and went back this morning and top-rope soloed the route. Got it clean (woo hoo) and then scrubbed the whole thing from top to bottom again. She's now ready for a clean lead. Having been able to top-rope solo it, I'd say the pitches go at like 10c and 10d. But it's also definitely way pumpy to lead.

One plus to the Mirror Lake Inn is that shifts start at 4:30. That means full climbing days still. Dat's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

An enchainment

Rich had to work yesterday, but Colin didn't. Upon waking up to a completely bluebird day, we grabbed our headnets and went up to Silver Lake to do some climbing. Colin had the great idea of doing an enchainment -- hit a climb on three different cliffs. I had never really done this before in any context, so it was cool to do it at Silver Lake.

We got a decently early start, arriving at the trail head at a little after nine. From there we headed up towards the Summit, and then turned out to the Outback Slab. I had never climbed there before and neither had Colin, so after a little while of wandering around in the woods and talus, we found the cliff and our climb. From Jim's guide:

Morticia 5.9 G (5.6 R) 370'

Excellent face and slab climbing, with some of the best friction anywhere—the water streak on P2 and P3 is "sand blasted" clean and has been climbed without hands. The route begins right of Bimathalon, joins that route on P2 for a few feet, then crosses to its left to ascend a parallel water streak.

It's a three pitch climb that ascends a pretty sizable slab. Colin did the first pitch, I did the second, which was spicy, spacey and really friction-ee. Way good. The other climbs on the cliff look pretty good too.

After that, we packed up and hiked up to the Blade area of the Summit Cliff and we did a two pitch link up of

It Goes to Eleven 5.11a G 100' and Queen of the Jungle 5.10b G 100'

Both pitches are really fun for sure. Colin led the first pitch, which is steep at first, with not very good holds, and then it slabs out and the holds almost completely disappear. I led the second pitch, which is definitely way harder than 10b. I think it's probably more like hard 10c.

Since the Summit cliff is right above the Center of Progress Cliff, we hiked from the Prow Area straight back, and rappelled over the top of Tooth and Nail Terrace, and then climbed the first pitch of

Tooth & Nail 5.10b G 200'

That climb never ceases to amaze me. It's always hard, and the gear is always hard to figure out...but hard in a good way for sure. The gear on this climb is as much a part of the crux as the actually climbing. And you know what? That's ok by me. Trad climbing is about knowing how to place gear effectively. If you can't do it, then there's always a crash pad...or Kentucky...

All in all, we did roughly 660 feet of rock climbing over 5 pitches at 3 cliffs. On top of that, we probably did 3.5 - 4 hours of pretty strenuous hiking. That Summit cliff approach is steep for a long time. And it's never easy to bushwack through talus.

On the hike back to the car, Colin and I were talking about two years ago, or even last year, an enchainment like this would be very very difficult at Silver Lake. Two years ago, there was little to no public information about most of the cliffs. On top of that, ³⁄₅ of the climbing hadn't even been done yet! If we had tried this last year, we would have been wandering around the woods and the rock a lot longer.

All in all, it was a totally splitter day. Next thing to do is a bigger enchainment...

Yo, check it

Jim's been hard at work updating the online Silver Lake Guide. All our new routes from the last week are already up! Check out The C Chimney Cliff . In other news, with our recent ascents there are now over 100 climbs at Silver Lake! That's something to get excited about.

It might thunderstorm?

Even if it does t-storm, I'm ok with that. Rich and I went back and cleaned up the third pitch of Hippie Sticks and Black Flies. After some short work of scrubbing the hell of that thing, it was good to go. And sending happened. Here is a photo of Rich coming up the last part of the climb.

You know what's stupid?

Rain. I mean, I guess plants need it, animals need it, the river needs it, people need it. But rock climbers...they don't need it. Not at all.

A rest day

Sometimes, it's nice to go to a cliff that is close. And that is clean. And it's nice to know how or safe a route is too. So, Rich and I took a rest from first ascending and went to the Beer Walls.

We did Frosted Mug first, then I tried Pat's Blue Ribbon. It's a sport climb that goes up through a steep cave called the Clutch and Cruise Cave. I'd tried it a couple times before, but could never pull through the crux. But yesterday I figured out how to do the heinous third clip, and did all the moves for the first time, which was sweet. I'd never gotten to the top of a 12b before, so that was exciting. I few more tries and I think I can send.

After that we capped it off with a relaxed ascent of Rockaholic, which is m-fing sweet. Not a bad day for sure.

Time to go do some scrubbing.

More Sickness

Today was a good day. I took two 30 foot falls. And we did a new climb today. But let me start at the beginning.

Our friend Mark came out with Rich and me to the new cliff to do some first ascending. We have been continuing with this theme of ground up first ascending and it's something that Mark had never done before. So, we got up to the cliff and we showed Mark the climbing we had been doing in the past days. Then, we started looking for the next line up the cliff. Mark picked out an awesome first pitch, and we threw the lead to him. He did a 60 foot 5.10c corner and crack pitch that was just awesome.

Second pitch was me. Also really good. Worked up a flake, climbed some railroad track cracks, and then cruised through easier ground with sparse gear, ending with a 30 foot traverse. Ended up being 5.9 and 110 feet. From the ground it looked like there were cracks that lead up the way to the top of the cliff. I realized after I got up a ways that that wasn't the case. There are definite lines and features to the top, but they would all require a bolt or two to get up. So on the traverse, I kept looking for gear and not being able to find anything. I'd get some awful micro nut in a crumbly flake, and try to move up to no holds.

Eventually I found a crack that appeared to go to the top. I built a belay on a nice foot ledge with a totally bomber anchor and Rich and Mark came up. Rich took the third pitch lead up the crack. Unfortunately the crack disappeared into nothing, and Rich lowered down with plans of bailing. I asked if it would be cool if I gave it a try.

So I got all racked up, scrub brush in tote, and and began climbing up through Rich's gear. At his high point, I traversed left 7 or 8 feet via a tricky slab move, and gained another thin crack. At the top of this I found a previously hidden flake that ate up a #3 camalot and then a #2. Then everything disappeared. No holds, no gear, nothing. I busted out the scrub brush and unearthed some small features, including to opposing, slanting crimp rails. I threw a high step up on the right, then brought the left foot up, underclinged with my right hand and palmed down with my left, shifting my weight onto my left foot. Then, I started to lean to the left, desperately groping for a hold around the corner. All I found were sloping nothings covered in a thin layer of lichen.

And then I was falling. And falling...and falling. That yellow cam was a good 15 feet away when I peeled and so I was falling for a while. Rich said actually that when I came off, a big loop of rope shot down through all the gear and was in a pile at Mark's feet. I decided to give it one more try after that. I got to the same point of no return, pulled up, shifted my weight to the left and peeled off again. Both falls were as clean as could be, considering the circumstances. The best part of the falls was the obvious parallel lichen-free skid marks my hands made on the way down.

We bailed after that. We did rap over a sweeeet looking crack climb though.

After that we hiked to the top of the cliff via a gully, and lowered down over the climb from the top. I cleaned the anchor that we rapped off of, and attempted to free the pitch on top-rope. I once again got up to that point of no return, and peeled off once again. After some serious scrubbing I was able to unearth some key foot holds, and I finally did the moves without falling.

Hard slab climbing is fun. Who knew?

We decided to call the route Hippie Sticks and Black Flies. It's starting to turn to bug season up here, and so we brought some incense to the cliff to try to keep them away. So, we brought the hippie sticks to battle the black flies. All said and done we can say 280 feet P1 5.10c, P2 5.9, P3 5.10d/5.11a?

Velma's Crack and Shaggy's Secret Stash

So, like I said, we went back up and did some new routing up there at Silver Lake. We went back to the same area as Zoinks!! and Mystery Machine and did two new routes there. Rich lead a two pitch climb we've called Velma's Crack, and I led a one pitch climb called Shaggy's Secret Stash. Both climbs are way fun.

This cliff is pretty cool for a bunch of reasons. First all there are a bunch of awesome boulders at the base. This is actually the first place were I've been really psyched about the bouldering potential. Secondly, there are hardly any pitches of climbing reported up there, so the potential for first ascents is vast. Thirdly, there are tooooooons of natural lines. Cracks all over the place. Like sick cracks. Like um, overhanging finger cracks and laser cut corners, and roofs and everything! The last reason this cliff is cool is because most of the rock is clean. Well, it's clean enough to climb. Rich and I did both Shaggy's and Velma's ground up and on-sight. The lichen and moss only caused minor frustration and a few falls. With a little traffic these routes will clean up nicely.

Velma's Crack shares the same start as Mystery Machine (5.6), which was a previous "exploratory" pitch of climbing, led by another party. From the end of that pitch, you move left into a discontinuous corner and crack system, ending in a nice fat crack. The route is 105 feet long (after the first 45 feet from Mystery Machine) and the first pitch goes at like 5.10b, and the second pitch goes at 5.9.

Shaggy's Secret Stash is a little left of Mystery Machine and although the start doesn't look awesome, the higher you get on it the better the climbing becomes. You start in a chimney/gully. When it's possible, move out right on to a ramp. Once you are at the top of this it's on -- the angle kicks back a little and the climbing becomes a little tougher. It ended up going at 140' long 5.10c. We had some fun throwing some pretty sizable rocks of this climb too. There were definitely a few that were 24 inches by 10 inches. Big rocks. This route also has some nice exposure too!

This means we have more than doubled the amount of reported climbs at this cliff. And in only two days of work. And we are going back today! Woo Hoo!

It is currently Blue Bird

And because it is currently blue bird, we are going back to the secret stash of sickness. More new routing! Yay!

?!?!?!

So, Rich and I did a new climb yesterday. We're calling it Zoinks!! It's about 170 feet long, two pitches (70ft, 100ft) first pitch somewhere near 5.10d/11a second pitch somewhere near 5.11b/c. It was mostly clean till the top. We ground up led the thing. I fell at the crux on the first pitch, and did a combination of french-freeing and free climbing on the second pitch. It got real grimy at the top, so I would scrub the feet and hands for a move, do the move, repeat.

The first pitch follows a tight right-facing corner with a thin crack in it. Follow this up to a stance (50 feet), then up the left side of two inside facing corners. We found some old tat on the right side of the corners. At the top of the corners, build a belay. Second pitch moves up and slightly right into an awesome under-cling and then up a nice finger crack. Gulp down some Scooby Snacks, and start pulling through the roofs on small crimps and side pulls. Savor the good holds. Do another sick under-cling move. Pull up through the last roof and take advantage of the crack on the face as well as the one in the corner. Up the top through some 5.6R stuff, and enjoy the view! Can't wait to go back and get this thing cleaned up.

New Routing

Found the secret stash yesterday of the sickness. Oh snap. Looks awesome. Going to check it out right now.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there. Thanks for being a mom!!

The past few days we've been doing some Silver Laking. On Friday Rich and I went on a reconnaissance mission. We looked into some anchor situations, and tried to figure a way to the top of the cliff on one of our routes. There are definitely three different options! We need to get some bolts, and a drill, and make some anchors!

Yesterday I had a job interview. Except that the place I was interviewing forgot that I had a job interview. The woman called in sick and no one called to tell me. So, I went climbing. Er, I tried to go climbing. Our buddy Josh was up visiting, and the weather was really compete crap (much like today too -- snow?! wtf). But the sun did poke out long enough for some climbing. Josh got to lead the first pitch of Where the Wild Things Are. There are like four pitches up there at Potter Mountain that just always seem to be dry, which is great news. It rained on the approach. Not for a long time, but it was definitely coming down. The rock at Potter -- still bone dry.

And actually, before that, while I was at my 'interview,' Rich and Josh did some exploring up at the Wayback Cliff. I went up there once with Jim and Tom but we never made it to the single climb that is up there. The report from Rich was that there is not too much to get inspired by back there. And the boulder field below Wayback -- lots of good angles of rock, no holds. Bummer.

So, everyone keep their fingers and toes crossed for better weather.

Oh, and...

I forgot to mention...

I stopped at Spider's Web on the way back to Wilmington, and lo and behold, Colin and Rich were climbing. So I scurried on up there and top-roped On the Loose (5.10a). Super fun. Then I tired to climb Romano's Route (5.11c). I got through the techy bottom section, only to get pumped. I fell off on the last hard move. It's ok though, I'll go back and get it.

Brewing beer now. It's raining crazy sun-showers. Downpour. Sun. Downpour, etc.

The past week I...

So, the last time we talked I was doing laps on the Raven. And then it snowed. Again. So I packed my bags and went south. Only this time only as far as New Paltz. Did some fun things down there for sure.

Went to Single Right and climbed Marooned which I'm told is somewhere in the 5.11 range...I think it's either 5.11c/5.11d. It was hard. But awesome.

Tried some boulder problems, didn't get Jackson Pollock, but got Megan Fox again.

Climbed Thin Slabs for the first time. Awesome. Got on Directissima, still good.

Also, went to a birthday party. Way fun.

All in all, per usual, my time spent in New Paltz was grrrrrrreat!