Autumn Speaks - 5.9

The weather is starting to get a little more reasonable so it is getting time to start hitting it hard. My partner didn't feel that good about our last ascent and wanted to try again. Plus, it only takes an hour or less to get to the top from the ground when doing all five pitches. On the third pitch, we climbed the slab just left of the corner without touching the corner or flakes until it was time to climb over the corner to reach the belay. I ran out the pitch with zero gear to make it more interesting. I combined pitches four and five with a 70M to save time.

My partner chose the route this time. The heat made the climbing nearly unbearable initially. Sweat was actually running off of my face and splashing on my footholds. On pitch 3, we have always run up the slab just left of the corner to make it more interesting. This time around, I decided to go up on top of the arete formed by the corner. For the first little bit, I followed the arete and placed two cams in some flakes for pro. After that, I just followed the slab straight to the belay rather than use the arete. About the time my climbing partner reached the belay, it started to sprinkle a little. Rather than bail, we quickly combined the last two pitches with a 70M rope. We had no choice but to simul-rappel back down. With five very fast rappels, we were on the ground with the single rope. It didn't start raining hard until near the end of the fourth rappel. At least we were able to complete the climb and leave safetly.

I had a newcomer with me today and he wanted something a little better than the usual beginner routes so I chose this one. It was a little hot but the traction was good and a nice breeze kept it bearable. As usual for this time of year, we had the rock to ourselves.

It's hard to believe that the rock was free of climbers on such a beautiful day. The weather was perfect and it was wonderful to see everything turning green. This is one of the best full length moderates at Stone and is usually devoid of climbers. I always climb the slab just left of the arete on pitch 3 up to the anchors to make it more fun. I lead all pitches including the easy fifth pitch to the top.

We had minimal time and were just looking for one fun route to do and chose this one. My climbing partner usually prefers to follow, so I lead all 5 pitches to the top. We also rappelled back down using a single 70M rope.