December 2019 Tennessee Wall

Zach and Jacob ready to climb!

December 8, 2019. T-Wall. Zach (southeast regional director for Access Fund) and Jacob. Weather was cool but not cold, clouds held off until the afternoon.


Warmup: Jacob on Puppy Ride (5.9). Easy overall with a bouldery start (Zach liked to call these bouldery starts "paying the T-Wall Tax").

2nd: Finger Lockin' Good (5.10b/c). I finally led this cleanly!!! I definitely felt as if I could fall in a few places, but I kept my head together and kept moving. Protection is very good on this route. Thin crack climbing down low with face climbing closer to the top.

3rd: Zach led Points O' Contact (5.10c). This was a very solid lead which followed a line up a corner, through a roof, and up another crack on the face.

Zach under the roof on Points O' Contact

4th: Jacob led In Pursuit of Excellence (5.9+) with grace and style. I actually slipped and fell 2/3 of the way up while following him when my foot "hit a banana peel".

5th: I led Finagle (5.9). This was a short climb with another T-Wall Tax. I actually campused a few moves at the start. It transitioned to thin cracks near the top. I placed 2-3 thin nuts on this route. We only did the first pitch.

Kenton 2/3 of the way up Finagle

November 2019 Red Rocks

Kenton at the top of the Brownstone Wall

On November 7, 2019 I flew to Las Vegas with Jacob so that we could climb at Red Rocks on November 8 and 9. Our initial plan was to climb MysterZ (5.7) to Armatron (5.9-) on Friday and then to pursue a more casual Saturday. We entered the park when it opened at 6 AM and made our way from the Pine Creek lot to the base of MysterZ. MysterZ was almost relaxing, never really feeling even as hard as 5.7 There was another party ahead of us and yet another one behind, but the party ahead was slightly faster, and the party behind was slower, so this arrangement worked out OK. However, when we arrived at the base of Amitron, we were dismayed to discover that another party had hiked up the long way to the base and had just finished the first pitch. They were moving quite slowly, and the party that we had followed up MysterZ had not even been able to get onto the route yet. So, considering our options and realizing that we might run out of time, we decided to try a linkup recommended on Mountain Project: the first two pitches of Mayday Malefactor (5.10c), the upper crack systems of Sweet Thin (5.9), and whatever else from there to the summit.

Jacob somewhere on MysterZ

Unfortunately we had not brought our guidebook, and the only information we had to go on was from Mountain Project in the glare of our cellphones. So I got us lost at the top of the second pitch. I looked around for a while for the bolted anchor that was supposed to be on this ledge, but I couldn't find it. So I traversed over slightly to the right and built a gear anchor. Jacob joined me on the ledge and set off on what he thought was the third pitch. In fact we now believe this was the third pitch of Mayday Malefactor. Near the top of this pitch was a bolt right before a cruxy move. After trying to move past this section a few times, Jacob decided to lower down and let me give it a go. After re-arranging ourselves so that I would be on top-rope (this was rather involved because it consisted of swapping which ends of the rope we were tied into, and we wanted to be careful we always remained safe), I made my way up the pitch. Feeling pressed for time, I French-freed the hard move above the bolt by pulling on the bolt itself. Shortly I ended on another ledge with a real bolted anchor. From here we climbed the last few pitches of Armatron to the summit of the Brownstone Wall.

The sun set early, around 4:50 PM, so we did the majority of it by the light of our headlamps. Our toes were killing us: they were sore from having spent so much time in our climbing shoes. We made it back to the car around 6:30 PM, with plenty of time to exit the park before the 7 PM deadline.

The next day we hiked to the Lotta Balls Wall in search of some shorter, shadier routes (we had actually been rather hot during our ascent in the sun the previous day). We found a great one! Lotta Balls (5.8+) was a great way to start the day. Jacob led pitches one and three, I led the middle pitch covered in balls. The climbing was not super difficult, and the holds were very positive, but it was still rather exciting because the bolts were so widely spaced.

Jacob on the second pitch of Lotta Balls

Upon returning to the base we found a profusion of other parties getting on the same route and on the adjacent ones. We had wanted to try Black Magic (5.8) but decided against this to avoid waiting for the crowd. Instead, with the guidebook in our possession today, we decided to climb Rob Roy (5.10b). I had been itching to try something harder before we left town, and I told Jacob this was our chance to do one more longer route or to do a harder route, but not both. Rob Roy seemed like the perfect choice, a 150 ft single pitch of hard 5.10b climbing that I could take my time on. Well, I wish I had looked more closely at Mountain Project before making this decision. The climb turned out to be fun, but it also turned out to be quite hard at the (multiple) cruxes and rather runout in multiple places. Many comments on Mountain Project claim a PG13 or R commitment grade for this climb, and I just didn't know that heading into it. After clipping the first bolt I stared for a long time at the traverse back right into a relatively blank corner with a gaston and some high slopers. I placed a nut below this crux and hung on it, trying to screw up my courage to do the next set of moves. Jacob shouted encouraging words from below, although I'm not sure he realized what I was getting myself into.

Finally getting over my fear, I yelled "climbing" and started my way up the short corner, over the bulge, and onto a narrow ledge where there were some bigger holds. I worked a small cam in to a horizontal crack near my feet and took stock of the situation. The next pro didn't seem to arrive until well above my head. This turned out to be the case for the entire climb. Yes, there were two more bolts on the face section, but they sure were far apart. I would have fallen a very long way if I had missed the moves above either of these bolts. I quickly learned not to pass up any opportunities for gear. The guidebook had called for RP's, but I didn't have a complete set of small stoppers, so I just made do with what I did have. The higher I got, the less I worried about hitting the deck, but the more committed I became to finishing the route. It wasn't until Jacob shouted that I had climbed more than half the 70 m rope length that I realized how long the pitch was. It felt as if it just kept going forever. I still couldn't see the anchor at the top, and I was starting to worry that I would run out of rope. Just when I really started to get nervous, I spotted some slings and a quicklink at the top, maybe 30 ft above my head. 20 feet from the top and the climbing finally got easier, easy enough that I really ran it out to the anchors. How glad I was when I reached them. After Jacob had joined me, we rappelled down using the climbing rope and another 70 m half rope that he had brought up with him. Back on the ground, we decided to head back to the car. It was getting later in the day, and that was all the mental stress I could handle for one day!

Looking back at First Creek Canyon

August 2019 Clear Creek Climbing

Kenton negotiating the Tyrolean traverse across Clear Creek

The day after Derek and I climbed the Diamond, we went for the morning to climb a mixed route in Clear Creek Canyon. This was a linkup of two different climbs, Ride the Snake (5.9) followed by Gneiss Roof (5.10a). Derek climbed all of Ride the Snake in a single pitch, while I did the same for Gneiss Roof. The climbing was overall pretty easy the entire way, and I had a good time on the route, but as usual I made a mess with the double ropes we had chosen to use. Rather than reducing rope drag as intended, I both forgot to extend the bolts under the roof and clipped the wrong rope. The rope drag when pulling several of the cruxier moves after that was significant. I also got the ropes horribly tangled trying to pull them through the anchors while setting up the second rappel on the (very airy!) descent. Lesson learned: I need to practice more with double ropes to improve my skills. We made it back home in just enough time to have some lunch before I was on my way to the airport.

Kenton, blinded by the sun, looking up from the airy first rappel

Thanks to the folks who donated money to construct a "professional" Tyrolean setup for this wall, complete with steel cable and steel rings. It's very unfortunate that someone had to die here. Frankly, I think that doing the river crossing on the way back from the climb was the crux of the route for me. Very tiring.

August 2019 The Diamond on Long's Peak

Kenton on top of Long's Peak

Saturday, August 24 I climbed the Casual Route (5.10a) on the Diamond of Long's Peak with Derek. We left the parking lot at 3:15 AM. Past Chasm Lake we had to cross a short stretch of very icy snow, a feat which we accomplished more safely using microspikes (I had borrowed some from Sarah which barely fit but still worked). We free-soloed the North Chimney (5.4) approach after the ice field. I wasn't entirely happy about this, but we didn't want to knock loose rock onto each other or onto the climbers below, and we wanted to finish this segment quickly. The climbing was very easy, and we reached the start of the climb proper on Broadway ledge around 5:45 AM. Perhaps not surprisingly, there were already three parties on the route. At least one of them had camped overnight to make the approach shorter, and the other had left the parking lot almost an hour earlier than we had!

After waiting a bit for the other parties to get started, it was finally our turn. Meanwhile, several additional parties had shown up to climb the Casual Route, Pervertical Sanctuary (5.11a), and D1 (5.12a). So there was a bit of pressure to not climb too slowly (besides the obvious pressure of wanting to finish before any storms might roll in).

Kenton standing at the start of the Casual Route on Broadway Ledge. Chasm Lake is in the background.

Pitch 1 - Derek led this pitch, and I don't remember much about it.

Pitch 2 - I led this. It's called 5.9 on Mountain Project, but it felt perhaps easier than some of the ensuing 5.8 pitches. I led this and linked it with the 5.7 traverse pitch which came afterwards.

Pitch 3 - I led this, and it felt casual.

Pitch 4 - Derek's lead. This felt challenging for 5.8.

Pitch 5 - My lead. I went all the way to the Yellow Wall Bivy Ledge.

Pitch 6 - My lead. The crux, and the most fun pitch for me. This was the first chimney I've climbed outside where I really felt I was doing it the right way. I was squeezed in there with my hands pressing forward and my feet pressing forward, too, so that there was a good deal of pressure keeping my back against the wall behind. It was difficult to protect this chimney section, but I wasn't too concerned about a fall. Pulling the final 5.10a move didn't feel like a really big deal. Derek, on the other hand, hated this pitch. He could barely fit in the chimney, and he was unable to turn his head forward while inside. Also, the backpack that was trailing behind him was almost too large to fit inside, so it kept getting stuck. He was completely and thoroughly pumped by the time he made it to the top.

Pitch 7 - Derek's lead, although he was so tired after getting stuck in the chimney below that perhaps I should have led it for him instead. This pitch was a wandering traverse up onto a ledge where we felt comfortable enough to unrope.

Derek chilling out halfway up The Diamond

My overall impression of the climb was that it was fair at the grade and a ton of fun. It was very well protected; I never felt that I couldn't find good protection except in the chimney. Any time I reached what I thought was a more difficult section, I realized that I only needed to look around for some good feet, and the climbing got easier.

The two biggest challenges for us were 1. the altitude and 2. the slow party in front of us. There is no doubt that the altitude was affecting me, having just arrived from sea level the afternoon prior. Luckily, I never experienced any major symptoms of altitude sickness (no headaches, for example), but I was lightheaded for good portions of the climb. I often had to stop making moves to take some deep breaths. The other saving grace for me was that Derek carried the majority of the gear (both the protection and the rope) on the approach, thereby allowing us to move far more quickly than we would otherwise have been able to go. Our other challenge was the party ahead of us who moved at a glacial pace. I believe that Derek had to wait on the Yellow Wall Bivy Ledge for 2.5 hours while I led the pitch above, stopping every 10 feet or so to allow the girl in front of me (who was on toprope) to make more progress. It would have been nice to pass this couple, but we never felt as if there was an appropriate time/place.

The last few hundred feet of scrambling to the top were easy, but they went rather slowly simply because I couldn't move too quickly at that altitude.

We descended via the Cable Route (5.4). In one portion the rope got stuck after a rappel (the only one we did), and Derek chose to free solo back up to free it. Ugh. Other than this mini-disaster the descent was uneventful. We arrived back at our car around 7:30 PM. So, it was a long day! It would have been significantly shorter if we hadn't been stuck behind other parties on the route and if the rope had not become stuck on the rappel.

June 2019 Sunset Park

I went with Will to Sunset on June 16, 2019. We left the house at 7:30 AM and were in the parking lot (with a bit of traffic) at 9:30 AM. We were on our first climb about a half an hour after that. We climbed until 4 PM, so six hours overall, and we managed to do five climbs (one of which I repeated). Not a bad pace and day! If we could get ourselves to leave earlier in the morning, we could get more climbs in or, more likely, we could do the same number of climbs earlier in the day before it got so hot.

1. S'More (5.8+) - a fun warm-up
2. Alpha Omega (5.10b) - We toproped this. A solid crack climb with a squeeze/chimney section halfway up. This definitely was a challenge.
3. Friday the 13th (5.9) - Fun, but a bit of a two-move wonder. Felt like 5.9-. Still, it was shaded, and nobody else was trying to climb on this section of the wall.
4. Sense of Adventure (5.9+) - There were two cruxes on this climb. The first was an undercling to get over a bulge. The second involved a really high step to get up onto a face.
5. Bubble Bath (5.9) - Another really fun climb. The roof felt like gym climbing.

June Colorado Climbing

Kenton at the top of the descent from Melvin's Wheel

June 1 climbed at South Platte Buffalo Creek area with Derek. We climbed Vegomatic (5.8) and Central Corner (5.10a). The second pitch of Vegomatic was tougher than expected with an offwidth/squeeze chimney section that Derek led. Central Corner was fun and heady getting over the final roof. I didn't manage to do it without hanging twice on gear. Lesson learned: if I'm nervous, I should place some gear that I really trust as high as possible and just go for the move.

June 2 we climbed at Lumpy Ridge Bookmark area. We climbed Melvin's Wheel (5.8) and Twiggy's Crack (5.8+). Melvin's was tons of fun. Definitely a challenging second pitch (which Derek led). Third pitch felt run out to me even though the climbing was very easy. We really ran up Twiggy's because we were worried about approaching thunderstorms.

Kenton at the top of Melvin's Wheel first pitch

Sand Rock May climbing

Malcolm lowering off Standard Route

Sand Rock
May 19, 2019

Adam, Mariel, Andrea (Adam's sister), Malcolm

Kitty Litter (5.7+) - hard start for the grade, much easier in the middle to the top
Standard Route (5.6) - easy if you move left at the arete at the start before moving back right eventually
Logan's Walk (5.8) - pumpy and overhung for the grade, but well protected and plenty of holds
Comfortably Numb (5.9) - VERY heady, scary, poorly protected start. Much better-protected climbing after the first 50 feet on large chicken heads and plenty of pro.

Mt. Yonah April Climbing

Kenton leans back near the top of Edges to Ledges

Climbed at Mt. Yonah with Will on Tuesday April 23.

Edges to Ledges (5.7). Chill. Couldn't figure out the best way to go for a 2nd pitch. Ended up going left around a wall and then up to the top. We bushwacked our way down to the bottom instead of rappeling. Clearly we didn't find the intended descent route. Now I have poison ivy.

Some 10a or other (bailed). Way too scary. Long runout off the deck.

Dihedral (5.6). Interesting start for 15 feet or so, then not so memorable.

Snake Route (5.9). The only hard thing about this climb was at the start.

Overall I find that the climbing at Mt. Yonah is always a good bit harder than I expect it to be. Either that, or the protection on the harder climbs just isn't good enough for me to want to try them.

February Red Rocks and Joshua Tree

John in front of Mescalito. Snow dusts the ground this day at Red Rocks.

John and I made a weekend trip out to Red Rocks on February 9, 2019. Unfortunately, it started snowing on us as we hiked in to our eventual goal: a two-climb adventure, starting up MysterZ as a prelude to Armatron. We didn't even make it up five feet before we decided it was too wet to climb.

View of the first pitch of MysterZ from the bottom

Instead, we made the three hour drive to Joshua Tree and climbed there. On Saturday, we managed to climb two routes. Sail Away (5.8-) was a fun warmup, ending at the top of an almost towerlike formation. Leaping Learner (5.6) was the hardest 5.6 I've ever done. John was the first to get on it, but he decided to let me lead it instead after placing just two pieces. This climb had heady, hard moves right off the deck. Maybe we just started too far to the right. On Sunday we started on the Atlantis wall with Solar Technology (5.6) and Wet Pigeon (5.8-). These were both shorter, fun crack climbs with plenty of morning sunshine to keep us warm. As we started to lose this sun we quickly made our way up Fantasy of Light (5.10a). The first few moves were the only challenging ones on this particular route. We finished the day with a trip up a beautiful, sunny crack climb with a traverse in the middle, Cakewalk (5.8+). The traverse required a long, high reach on tenuous footholds and was particularly exciting. The name of this climb also had me thinking of a similarly named climb at T-Wall. Our final climb of the trip was Sig Alert (5.10b/c), a mostly bolted climb with a piece or two of gear near the bottom.

After a long day, we drearily made the drive back to Las Vegas for John to catch a red-eye flight home.

John and I with a backdrop of "boulders" in Joshua Tree. That sun was bright!

T-Wall Moderates with Malcolm and Adam

Malcolm on the start of Plastic Toys

Malcolm, Adam, and I climbed four moderates at T-Wall on Sunday, February 3. We chose to only do easy climbs in the hope that Malcolm could get up them. He did manage to make it up three of the four, only hanging on the rope a few times, and he made it halfway up the fourth. He's definitely getting stronger and improving his technique!

Motor Boatin' S.O.B. (5.6) - Our warmup. A bit chossy, but still worthwhile at the grade.

Plastic Toys (5.7) - The start is so much fun. You have to step across onto the main wall after climbing up onto a big boulder (see Malcolm in photo). I almost got off route halfway up by going to the right into 5.9 territory, but Adam clued me in and I backtracked.

Nappy (5.7) - Straightforward

Sunday Gardening (5.8) - This was tons of fun until I was 2/3 of the way from the top. At this point I hit a blocky roof and didn't really know which way to go. In the end, I trended up and left across a lichen-covered face to some anchors, but they seemed a bit off route.

Yonah Mountain Winter 2019 Climbing

Kenton placing gear in the middle of the Balance Area

January 5, 2019

Day trip to Yonah Mountain with Will and Ryan

We climbed two climbs in the Balance Area. I'm not 100% sure which was the first one, perhaps #5. The second one was definitely #9. These were both easy, low-angle, somewhat slabby climbs. Fun to do with Ryan tagging along.