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Re: [Dip] Weekend Warrior:
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gblauer
Moderator
Aug 21, 2011, 11:09 PM
Views: 14694
Registered: Oct 4, 2002
Posts: 2824
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Gunks=3/4 Rain
Been up here since Thursday. Went out on Thursday with Bett (recovering from broken hip, just getting back in to leading) and we were excited to climb. Bett lead Betty and we hear thunder and more thunder and more thunder. Meanwhile, I encouraged Bett to build a gear anchor (tree as back up) and she fixed my orange mastercam. NO matter what we did, we could NOT get that damn cam out of the horizontal. It didn't help that the thunder was getting louder/closer and then it started to rain. We rapped quickly, left the rope hanging so that we could go back up and clean that peice. Well, as luck would have it, the rain stopped quickly and up we went. No luck with the piece. We left if for someone more inventive than us. Off to Rock and Snow to replace the piece. I now have a shiny new orange powercam.
Friday I climbed with Seth (totally cool, fun, easy going Seth). He ran up Betty to try and clean the piece; no luck. We ran up The Blackout, Wonderland, Triangle, Never Never Land and Jean (almost...oops rain AGAIN). Had to rescue the gear under the Jean roof by climbing sixish and doing some creative anchor building. By the time we recovered the gear, it had rained and the rock was soaked. It was 5 so we called it a day.
Saturday was gorgeous. I had made up my mind that I was going to give myself a kick in the butt and lead some harder climbs. For some reason I wanted to warm up on black fly or the 7 next to it and when we walked in that area was miraculously empty. It was a very good omen. I started on "That nice Crack climb", 5.7) and then decided to lead the 9 next door ("THat nice 9"). Why that 9? A few reasons: 1) If I didn't make it, I could rap in and get my gear (easy walk up), 2) MItch can see me through the entire climb. 3) Well protected crux
So, up I went, I cleared the first crux handily and was really looking for the second crux. Wow, I was at the top and I never did find the second crux. I was grinning from ear to ear; the climb was easy peasy and I felt great. So great that I decided to lead Dirty Gerdie a thin face climb (NOT my forte) on the Gerdie block. It's 5.8+/5.9- protected with thin gear and old pins. Interestingly, I made it through all of the moves that I thought were the hard moves and as I was moving up to some slopers, with not so great feet, I actually skittered off and took a 12 footer. All air, soft catch and incredibly exhilarating. I climbed back up, rested and finished the climb. HOnestly, in all my TRs of that climb, I NEVER noticed the run out after the crux. I carefully picked my way up and was totally thrilled that I pushed myself to lead a thin face climb and that I took a good whip. Mitch is just getting back into leading and he lead "69", a nice 5.3 with a bit of exposed climbing. Unfortunately, he placed our Clog (his first piece of gear from years ago) and every trigger wire popped. We could not get that piece out of the rock. Bett and Patrick came over for pizza on the grill and a great fire (thanks Mitch), a super end to a really good day.
Today, Bett and I got up early to get out before the rain. I wanted her to lead P2 of "Jackie" and "Classic". We got to "Jackie" before anyone else and I started up the climb. I was halfway up when Bett informed me that I was not wearing my helmet. Yikes...a little un-nerved, I placed much more gear than I normally place and finshed easily (but not before dropping my entire set of big nuts). Bett did an awesome job leading her pitches, her gear was super.
Mitch joined us and I was starting up "Belly Roll" (wanted Bett or Mitch to lead P2) when the party ahead of us yelled down to say that there was a storm fast approaching. It immediately started to rain, I down climbed and back cleaned my gear. We ran around moving everyones gear out of the rain when we heard a major fall. A climber a few routes over was attempting to pull a 5.8 roof and he greased off. His two equalized pieces pulled and he flipped upside down and smacked his back/head. Fortunately there was a rope on another anchor (everyone was abandoning climbs because of the rain) and we managed to get him off the cliff. The rangers came, ambulance called etc. He was checked out by the EMTs and he declined an ambulance ride to the hospital. It appeared that he may have broken a rib or two. He had large abrasions on his back and he was already uncomfortable. We waited for the rain to abate and finally walked out before the next set of storms were supposed to hit. There is supposed to be severe weather here (major t-storms with golf ball sized hail) but, so far only some gentle rain.
So although it rained 3 out of 4 days, I am satisfied with the weekend... I will call it two steps forward!
(This post was edited by gblauer on Aug 21, 2011, 11:18 PM)
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Edit Log:
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Post edited by gblauer
(Moderator) on Aug 21, 2011, 11:18 PM
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Post edited by gblauer
(Moderator) on Aug 21, 2011, 11:18 PM
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