Kentuck': The Highlights

So Margaret worked until Eight o'clock on Saturday. The plan was to try and drive four or so hours that night so we could get some climbing in on Sunday afternoon, but the weather would not have it so. It rained really really hard and the wind was whipping us all over the road. And on top of that, we discovered a leak in the cap of my truck...So we crashed at Margaret's sisters' place in Scranton -- only two hours into the twelve and a half hour drive.

Managed to get on one climb Sunday afternoon at Roadside. And suddenly all that driving was instantly worth it.

We woke up full of gumption, and headed to a crag with climbs all across the grade spectrum, ranging from 5.8 to 5.13. A Brief History of Climb (5.10b) was one of the highlights of the day. A spicy boulder problem with crimps and smears down low leads into steep steep jug tuggin' at its finest. Another stand out climb was Different Strokes (5.11c). It's a relatively short climb, with six bolts in fifty feet, but it has hard climbing for pretty much every move. The guide book says of this route, "If you find a horizontal hold, you must be on a different route." I mean, this route had every kind of hold you could imagine, but not one single thing to pull down on. Very much fun.

Tuesday was a fun day for me. I got finally got on Iniquity (5.12b), which is something I've been looking at for a long time. It's one of the classic Kentucky climbs that is just mind-boggling steep. "How could it only be 5.12b?" It starts with a boulder problem right off the ground. Couple of crimps, a sloping rail, smeary feet, pop, pop, jug. And from there it's pretty much jug, jug, jug, jug, jug, jug, jug, dyno, jug, heal-toe cam, jug dyno, no hands rest, jug jug jug jug. Crimp. Crimp. And that's where I fell. I crushed the opening boulder problem and was cruzing the thing, thinking I had it and meanwhile, unbeknownst to me, there was another crux near the top! With only one bolt to go I fell. What a sweet route. Pure fun. I'll have to go back and try the horizontal hand-jam beta. Whatwhatwhat?!

Tuesday was also a fun day for Margaret -- she took her first whip! After I had my fun on Iniquity, we went of to a wall with a bunch of 5.10s. Gettin' Lucky in Kentucky is one of those classic, plated jug walls. It's steep and pumpy. The perfect combination for a whip. And she went for it! We're all so proud.

Because of the rain on Wednsday, it was a bit of a rest day. Probably the most interesting route of the day was the last -- Capture the Flag (5.11b). I was climbing up and I got one bolt from the top when I spotted a wasp building a nest right where my face was going to be in one move. So I had Rich lower my down far enough to reach the stick clip. After evicting Mr. Wasp, without getting stung, I passed the stick clip down to Rich and finished the climb.

The last day of climbing gets the award for both best weather and highest number of high-quality climbs. Everything we did was really really good. Pogue Ethics (5.9+) was a real adventure, with well spaced bolts and route finding as a requirement. Quite good. Margaret hung the draws on Lord of the Flies (5.8) and totally crushed it. It's one of those super-pocketed faces and with no hesitations, she just walked right up the thing. The climb around the corned Overlord (5.10b) was atypical for Kentucky -- almost slabby, with small holds and precise footwork. Way much fun. Margaret said along with A History of Climb and Different Strokes, it was one of her favorites climbs of the trip.

So I had sort of a back-burned goal for the trip of on-sighting a 5.12a. Other than Iniquity on the second day, I hadn't gotten on any 12s or even 11ds. With the clock ticking away towards end-of-trip-o'clock I decided to get on Twinkie. So. So. Steep. Like way way way steeper than Iniquity. It starts out on a slab, and then kicks back at a forty-five degree angle. This thing has some of the biggest hold you've ever fallen off from. And fall I did. I made it to the second bolt on the steep part and lost my feet and fell. Then I gave it one more try and just wasn't making and real progress so I bailed on that. We headed over to Left Flank after that to try and squeeze in two more climbs.

There just happened to by the another 5.12a that I wanted to try and on-sight right next to a super classic 5.10a. What a good way to end the trip, right? Too Many Puppies follows an arete for 60 feet or so. It starts out really bouldery, continues to be bouldery, and then ends with a boulder problem. And this isn't one of your standard jug tuggin routes either. Delicate footwork is most certainly required, along with crimpy fingers and a bunch of skill. I hung on every bolt. And actually, I think I pulled on every draw to clip the rope. But it was much fun. With a morning of working on that thing, figuring out the beta, it could go down.

And just to remind us why we climb in the Red, To Defy the Laws of Tradition (5.10a) gave us everything we could want. Cool holds, steepness, beautiful rock and jungle setting.

So no hard on-sights for the trip but lots of pitches in four days --26 to be exact -- and decent weather for most of the trip, despite the forecasts.

Next up: "The Miguels ' Sport Climbing Scene from a Crusty Tradster's Perspective."