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?
1 comment:
Meiosis is a rhetorical device used to greatly understate something.
Example: "Oh, the Himalayas are kind of big, I guess."
Example: "Rock climbing is fun."
Example: "Looks like some sweetness."
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