5.8 Onsight

THIS week, Matt Way's work schedule seems to be very conducive to climbing, so we have been doing a lot of it. Yesterday we got up kind of early and went out and did a climb called Snooky's Return 5.8 PG. But before we did that, we stopped at the local gear shop, Rock and Snow, and got 50ft of webbing, and now we have a slackline in our back yard. Yay! (We bought it with money we got from returning beer bottles. Also yay!)

Matt and I had been talking the night before about me maybe leading the 5.8 pitch, and when we got to the climb yesterday morning, we didn't even really talk about it -- it was just assumed that I was gonna lead the harder pitch (the other two go at 5.7). The climb starts on this beautiful long crack that runs up about 100 feet. On either side of the crack the rock is somewhat smooth, so feet are sometimes hard. Matt led it no problem. Great pitch.

I led the second pitch after that, which goes up a ways (without gear for a while -- scary), and then it traverses slightly left. After the traverse is the crux. Just before the crux I put in a marginal .75 cam, and I started to climb above it. The holds to get to the crux are a tiny crimper, and a three finger sloping pocket, and then a big horizontal crack. I was pretty scared to make the move, and started to make it several times, backing off with timidity every time. I wasn't sure of my feet, my hands my gear -- anything. I looked around for a while, and found that I could get in a bomber #3 nut in a horizontal if I slotted it right. After I got that guy in I was much more confident with my gear, and pulled the crux no problem. Wooohooo.

We climbed the last pitch too, which is a 5.7, but kind of a one move wonder over a roof. Even though the roof is fun, I wouldn't recommend the last pitch.

We had a little bit of time before Matt needed to be at work, and I sort of got onto this bouldering kick recently, so I suggested checking out the boulders at the Near Trapps. From the small amount of exploring we did, the boulders looked really cool. We worked to V3s for a while, and both sent one of them within a few tries. The one we didn't get was a cool dihedral facey thing that I definitely want to go and try again. We also sent a V2 with a nice little dyno in it. Fun stuff.