Deadwater

So, I'm still working crazy hours. Many doubles and only a day or two off a week. But, I did find some time to get out to climb on Friday. I worked breakfast that morning and didn't have to work dinner. I met up with Alex and his girlfriend Phoebe and we headed out to Deadwater.

Deadwater is a pretty cool crag. It's out near Route 87 just east of exit 30. Getting out of the car and looking around, you wouldn't think that tucked just behind some trees is a 100 foot tall cliff. But, after an easy, almost entirely flat 15 minute stroll through the woods, you come upon a neat little wall. It's not, however a promontory as the name might suggest, as there is no actual water around. But for such a short approach the setting is serene and the climbing is great. What's more, the cliff was set up as a (once) secret local guiding spot, making it really easy to lower, top-rope, and just to climb in general.

We started out by doing the Variation to Geronimo (5.9). You start by climbing an offwidth (protected by bolts). Then you up to a roof with a hand crack through it. Climb that and the rest is yours! Very fun climbing indeed. I led it, then Alex did it, the Phoebe almost did it. Personally, I thought the roof was pretty tough.

After that, I Alex and I totally got spanked on Crazyhorse (5.12a), which is a mostly bolted line just to the right of where we were. It pulls three roofs, two of which are cruxes. Alex pulled the first one, and I couldn't even get established above the first roof. It was a slightly frustrating experience, given that I'd climbed the route (with some falls, of course) last year. I guess I'm out shape.

We wrapped it up by climbing Space Cowboy (5.7). It's a dang good route that follows a corner system and ends with an airy traverse. Phoebe like it so much, she climbed it twice!

I'm hoping soon that we can get out for some more climbing more frequently. There are some hard projects that are going to take some serious work if they are going to go down.

Must...

Climb...

More...

Often...

A New Proj-i

So about a month ago I hung a rope. It was soooo hot and humid that day I barely made it out of there with out heat exhaustion. I came back twice to scrub it down and look it over. When I fist hung the rope I wasn't sure if it would go down to our talents -- it looked really hard. But the more I scrubbed and look at it, the more it seemed possible.

It's steep . Probably 15-20 degrees overhung. And the face is more or less blank, with a few intermittent knobbins. It starts out on a block-ledge. From there you enter a scrunched corner with a roof. A few awkward moves and a mediocre lock get out up and over to a jug. From there the locks and jams spread out. A long move gets you to a decent finger lock. A few more moves and the crack opens up to hands and fists. At the top of the fists it the crack dwindles to a seam, and the next jam is a long ways off. That's as far as a got.

It all seems possible, but hard to link. It's at least 5.11+, it might even be 5.12a? Here are some photos.

Some things.

So, the last post I had was almost a full month ago. I swear I haven't been lazy. I've been working too much. In the last three weeks I have been climbing a grand total of three times. Also in the last three weeks I've worked close to 150 hours. YAY!!!!!! (psych...)

A couple days after my last post Davis and I went out to the C Chimney cliff and we ended up nabbing the First Free Ascent of Hippie Sticks and Black Flies (5.11a). I tried to lead the first pitch, but after several attempts I just couldn't seem to do it. Davis jumped on it and totally crushed. I led the next pitch, and then he led the last, totally walking the hard exit moves.

When we rapped down we ended up getting a rope stuck. I had previously hung a rope on a new project [more to tell later ;-) ] and so I started to ascend that rope to free the stuck rope. On the way up I pulled a pretty large sized rock onto my head and face. Of course I wasn't wearing my brain bucket and I bled a lot. Not a major incident, mostly just annoying. But to date I have a nice scar on my face and head -- probably lifers.

Then, about a couple of weeks ago, Kasia and Chris came up en route to Canada. We went up to the C Chimney for...

*gasp*

...BOULDERING!!!

BOULDERING?!?!?!?! AT SILVER LAKE?!?!?! THAT'S LIKE JERKING OFF IN A WHORE HOUSE, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!?!?!?!?

Oh stop, it is not. There is actually some potential up there for some fun boulder problems. I mean, there are a lot of rock routes too, but hey, diversity is important. We ended up going to one boulder and did a little bit o' scrubbing. We did like four problems with some elimination stuff. But it was good. And fun. I'm not sure if that one boulder is worth the approach alone, but the other dozen or so problems that we found later probably are. 50 minutes may be to long to walk for boulders...but it also may not be...

I'm going to save my third day of climbing in three weeks for it's own post. Cause I got some cool photos and stuff.

In absentia

Sometimes the sound of silence can be deafeningly piercing. Ouch. Make it stop.