John Simpson and I went to Tennessee Wall last Sunday, February 26. It was perfect weather for climbing, cold, but not freezing in the morning, and with clear skies allowing the sun to bake the rocks for us.
We warmed up on Puppy Ride (5.9). I led and John cleaned. It had a tough start, but eased up after that.
John made short work of cleaning Puppy Ride. At the top, he traversed 10' to the left and set up a directional on another set of anchors. This way we could toprope The Heaven of Animals (5.11). It felt relatively easy on toprope, but it was fun nonetheless, and I certainly didn't feel prepared to lead it.
From there we moved a bit farther east to Precious Orr (5.10-). John tried to do the lead this time, but unfortunately he was stymied 2/3 of the way up at the crux. After a few takes, he asked me to lower him back to the ground. I don't think it helped that his hands weren't taped up, and he didn't have any crack gloves on. I followed up the section he had already protected and made short work of the final section with my crack gloves. This was a challenging climb filled with nearly pure crack climbing in places. It had a cool person-sized hueco 15 feet off the deck, large enough to stand inside and rest.
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| John standing in the rest hueco on Precious Orr |
Fifteen feet to the right of Precious Orr is Golden Gloves (5.10). This is another great crack climb. The first half felt relatively easy, while the top half really kicked things into gear. In addition to straight-in jamming, there were also some powerful sections of lie-backing. Only 10 feet from the top I was forced to take on a #4 cam that I desperately threw into the slightly larger than fist sized crack. After several weak attempts at clearing this crux, I made a strong push, only to fall back hard onto the cam. Forced to reevaluate my game plan, I moved far left, found some small face holds, and shimmied my way to the top.
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| John in the chimney at the start of Golden Gloves |
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| John lowering off after finishing Golden Gloves |
Our last climb was People's Express (5.10-). Once again I tried to take the lead. That was a mistake. I was already completely exhausted from the first few climbs I had done, and I was unable to pull the roof at the start of this route on the first try. It took several attempts, by which point I was even more exhausted. Half way up the route I lost all my strength and motivation. I was sketching out placing gear, and as I stared up at a particularly technical section of crack climbing I lost my desire to continue. Now it was my time to shout down to John that I was done, and I had him lower me to the ground. It was his chance for redemption! John really shone here, quickly climbing up to the point where I had bailed, evaluating the situation above, and making short work of the remaining distance. I was so tired that I didn't even bother top roping and cleaning it when he was done.
We finished with dinner at the Tremont Tavern.
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| John lowering past the initial roof on People's Express |
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