Castle Rock with John

December 17, 2022

Castle Rock. Temps in the low 30's with wind at the beginning of the day chilled our bones to start, but the wind died down and the sun warmed up the rock by lunch time.

Tallboy (5.10a) - Warmup. It was windy and cold though!

Kingpin (5.11-) - Wandered a bit. Some runout near the top. Interesting overall.

Wish I Was Trad (5.11c) - Hard. Very technical. Worked me over. Fun.

Copperhead (5.12d) - John's lead. I toproped but only made it two-thirds of the way to the top before I ran out of gas. Fun. Technical. Thin, but doable.

Red River Gorge with Dave

Standing in front of Miguel's after a cold day climbing at the Red

On November 19 and 20, 2022 I climbed with Dave in the Red River Gorge for (my) first time. It was a chilly weekend, having dropped from temperatures in the 70's the week before to highs in the mid 30's when I was there. Despite the conditions, Dave and I convinced ourselves to head out for two full days of climbing, chasing the sun at the crags.

On Saturday we climbed at Funk Rock City. It was incredibly crowded, perhaps because this is one of the sunniest walls, so there were lines for many of the classic lines.

Rite of Passage (5.9+) - Dave's lead. Straightforward hand jams for the first two-thirds of the route followed by some more awkward hand and finger jams with a bit of liebacking near the top.

Cruising Lane (5.10a) - My lead. Fingers almost the whole way. I found it tough to find solid feet in the middle section finger crack. I kept trying to jam my foot in the toe/finger crack but it kept slipping.

Goodstone (5.10c/d) - Dave's lead. Another thin finger crack. My toes kept slipping the thin crack but I managed to (barely) keep holding on in the finger jams.

Prime Directive (5.11b) - My lead. This line shut me down two-thirds of the way up at a crux moving around from left to right across the arete, so I was unable to finish. I couldn't find good enough feet to make the move. Apparently I was supposed to stay a bit lower down with both hands matched on the slopey rail, but I didn't really try this out.

Hardcore Jollies (5.12a) / L'ile Au Ciel (5.11c) - We did these two climbs as separate pitches, with Dave leading the first one and me leading the second. I fell several times near the start of Hardcore Jollies before figuring out the beta that took me farther left than I had initially been trying. The second pitch was a bit overhung and really pumped me out, probably because I hadn't had much rest between the two pitches. But it was at least very straightforward.

On Sunday we climbed at Drive-By Crag. It was sunny in the morning but moved into the shade by early afternoon, so we spent most of the day feeling pretty cold!

Make a Wish (5.10b) - This was crimpy, and my fingers quickly grew very cold. The route overall felt harder than I expected.

Breakfast Burrito (5.10c/d) - This was comparatively juggy, with only a crimp or two on the arete. My fingers didn't get so cold.

Dave tried climbing Kaleidoscope (5.13c) but unfortunately fell two bolts from the top. He tried again later but fell a few moves higher up.

Spirit Fingers (5.11c) - This line was totally my style, crimpy and only slightly overhanging. My fingers got quite cold, but there were several rests along the way where I could pause to warm them back up.

Check Your Grip (5.12a) - I was pleasantly surprised to on-sight this one. It was rather juggy, with not as many crimps, and easier than expected. My fingers did get cold, but there were at least two knee-bar no-hands rests where I could warm up my fingers and shake out. I also could definitely tell that the caffeine from the Clif Bloks I had just eaten gave me a huge boost!

Primus Noctum (5.12a) -  I just couldn't quite finish this one. I had a clean ascent until 10 feet below the anchors, but from about 20 feet below the top the holds became much crimpier (rather than the jugs I'd had until then). And it was a bit run out, so every time I tried repeating the crux move I kept needing to climb back up, thereby tiring me out for the move itself. Still, this climb was also my style, and I really enjoyed it overall.

October/November Eldorado Canyon with Malcolm and Derek

Friday October 30, 2022

Malcolm touches the top of Rebuffat's Arete

Rewritten (5.7) with Malcolm. I climbed the standard start, not the Great Zot alternate. Malcolm was apprehensive at the traverse on pitch 3 but climbed it easily once he got his courage up. Rebuffat's arete gave him all the excitement he needed for the day! Done in 4 pitches (1, 2, 3&4, 5&6). We were happy to have Derek's descent beta (see track on Strava), because some rockfall events have significantly altered the terrain back there.

Saturday November 1, 2022

Kenton after completing the pitch-one traverse on Rosy Crucifixion

Rosy Crucifixion (5.10b) to Ruper (5.8+) with Derek. Rosy was a real challenge. With a stiffie I was able to clip the first bolt right at the start without much trouble. The traverse was pumpy and exhilarating, but doable. I stayed low the entire time. We combined pitches 1 and 2. The second pitch felt as hard as the first one to me, and I fell doing the very last sequence of moves to get up onto the belay ledge (I was protected by a solid #3 so it felt plenty safe here). The final pitch felt much easier. Tons of fun. We finished by simuling the upper pitches of Ruper, then walked down the East Slabs descent.

September Linville Gorge with Malcolm

 

Malcolm savors the view midway up Maginot Line

On Friday September 16, Malcolm and I drove up to Linville Gorge for a weekend of multi-pitch excitement. We spent the first night in Morganton, then drove up to Table Rock on Saturday morning. We had some trouble with the Mummy approach. After leaving our packs at the big flat rock, we proceeded downward just a few feet and took a left instead of backtracking up the trail a bit and branching off there. Our approach put us near the Mummy as desired, but at the bottom of the gully was some 5.2 scrambling that I wasn't super happy about. We both rappelled, and then I climbed back up and down to retrieve the rappel anchors. We later figured out that we should have stayed higher on the ridge line heading south (as discussed above) before dropping into the descent gully between the Mummy buttress and the main wall (where there are rappel rings at the bottom).

We climbed The Mummy (5.5) and it was a lot of fun. It felt like the perfect kind of route to be putting Malcolm on at his current level. We had wanted to climb the Daddy as well but didn't feel there was enough time at the pace we were going by the time we finished The Mummy. So, we traversed over and exited up The Prow. Again we had some trouble finding the actual "start". I ended up doing an extra pitch from down low which put us on the ledge where most people start The Prow. The last pitch of the Prow is money!!! It definitely gave Malcolm some excitement to finish the day. The entire climb was far better than I had expected based on the grade.

Malcolm near the top of The Prow

It was dark when we got back to the car. We fixed some dinner and then started driving northeast on FS Rd 496. Halfway up we found a pull-off with a campsite and plenty of water in a nearby creek. We spent the night here, refilled our water bottles, and left in the morning for the 45-minute drive to Wolf Pit to begin our Shortoff Mountain day of adventure.

For Shortoff Zach's approach directions were on point. We didn't get lost at all this time, at least until we were at the bottom of the hemlock rappel. The rappel anchor could use some love. One of the fisherman's knots was starting to get chewed through, and I re-tied it on a cleaner section of cord. It also only had a single quick-link which I backed up with an (aluminum) locking biner which is still in place.

We had a bit of trouble finding the start of the climb, Maginot Line (5.7). The trail at the bottom almost doesn't exist anymore. Is trad climbing a dying art? So, we were bushwacking and not entirely sure we were going the right way. But the climb itself was made obvious enough when we arrived by comparing to photos on Mountain Project. This climb was spectacular. It gave Malcolm some of the most exposure he's ever experienced, and I think he was truly thrilled at the top of each pitch. 5.7 perhaps seems a bit like a sandbag, but hey, it's old-school, right? Finding our packs at the top was easy enough. Again, we didn't have time in the end to do two climbs (we had to make the drive back to Atlanta before too late), and I was a bit worried about getting stuck down at the bottom of the wall. Zach later told me that it is possible to climb out of the gully relatively easily. Anyway, we made our way back to the car and drove home.

Malcolm nearing the top of Maginot Line

It was memorable trip for both of us. I'll be going back.

August Rocky Mountain National Park and Clear Creek with Nick

 

Kenton wishing there was more oxygen halfway up Magic in the Middle on Zowie

August 13, 2022

Climbed Zowie in Rocky Mountain National Park with Nick. We were in the Park by 4:45 AM. Approach was just under 5 miles from the Bear Lake parking area. Weather was so hot that I was on fire in my long-sleeve shirt, t-shirt, and pants. 1.5 liters of water were definitely not enough even for just the morning, and I spent a good part of the day dehydrated. The altitude also seemed to make me lighter in the head and give me headache more than it has done on previous excursions to the Park, perhaps also because of the heat. This was such a huge contrast with my experience of feeling frozen on previous trips! I would have stripped to just my t-shirt but had not applied sunscreen to my arms and feared the sunburn that would result.

We climbed Magic in the Middle (5.9). This was a shorter climb than I had done in the past, and I was perfectly happy to finish only around 12,000 feet instead of even higher. Nick led the first pitch, and I led the rest, linking pitch four with pitch five and pitch six with pitch seven. There were several runout slabby sections, but the climbing was chill enough that I wasn't too concerned about it. The route-finding was also pretty straightforward. My favorite sections were the traverse from the corner onto the arete in pitch two, and much of pitch seven which felt more technical than much of the rest of the climb.

August 14, 2022

Climbed a few sport routes in Clear Creek Canyon. The day was cut short because of an impending thunderstorm.

Grizabella (5.7) - warmup

MacCavity (5.9+) - one hard move getting over mini roof, got through it with a high left foot

Crystal Cat (5.9+) - crux near the top felt very difficult, much harder than 5.9. I was really splayed out with a high foot and smearing with fingers on small edges

Jellicle Cats (5.10a/b) - Felt pretty hard for 10a/b, and had more hard moves than Crystal Cat. This slabby stuff was really pushing my abilities! But none of the moves felt as hard as the Crystal Cat crux.

July Sunset Rock with Derek

Date: July 10, 2022

Partner: Derek

Location: Sunset Rock

Weather: Hot, humid in the morning, rain around lunchtime

We got a few routes in at least before it started to rain on us in earnest

S'More (5.8+) to Flagstone (5.11a). Hung on the draws near the top. Then avoided hard move to last bolt near the top by moving to easier ground near the arete on the left.

Either Jug Mania (5.7) or Afternoon Delight (5.7+). Derek's lead. Kinda a choose your own adventure from right to left.

Pancake Flake (5.9-). My lead. Chimney down low was unprotected but was a chimney so hard to fall from. Higher up the crack was well protected fists then hands. Struggled to find anchors at the top. Initially tried straight up, then right, then finally went far left and found them. 

July Little River Canyon with Derek

Date: July 9, 2022

Partner: Derek

Location: Little River Canyon, Lizard Wall

Weather: Hot, rain

Lizard Wall is overhanging with a big roof, so despite the rain, it stays completely dry. 100% humidity means that the rock is kinda seeping in these conditions, but there is no direct rainfall hitting the wall.

Cedar Poke (5.10c/d) - I fell between the first and second clips. The move here felt hard for 5.10c. It also felt hard at the top.

We made a stick clip out of an old dead stick. For this, we held the gate open with a rock, and used a loose loop of tape to attach the spin of the carabiner to the stick.

Lemonade (5.11a) - Start felt pretty hard but otherwise grade felt OK. Much easier at the top.

Bon Voyage (5.11c) - Fell between first and second clip. Felt sustained, clipping from crimps.

Stella Blue (5.11b) - Very hard climbing. Are holds missing? Was a blank face between clips 2 and 3, I was forced to stick clip the second clip from below and jug on the rope. There was also a bat in the jug above the second clip, I was scared about getting bitten. Again I was forced to stick clip the third clip and jug on the rope to get past the bat. Finally beyond the third clip the climbing got easier. Not recommended.

Sodomy (5.11c) - Tons of fun. Bouldery first few moves. Easier in the middle. One move side pull wonder at the top.

Robyn's Route (5.12b) - Hard Boulder problem near the start. Hard move near fixed draw. Hung many times but finally did all the moves. 

June Sunset Rock with Zach

June 25, 2022 trip to Sunset Rock with Zach

There was light rain in the morning, but the clouds kept the temps down to a tolerable level, and the heavy treecover above our first few climbs kept us dry enough (and the routes dry enough) that we could still climb.

Nuclear Blue (5.10a) - my lead, fell on a black totem at the crux.

Unleashed (5.11-) - toprope. I tried the route twice and fell at the crux both times.

Harassic Park (aka Devil Dog) (5.9) - Zach's lead, I followed.

Stan's Crack (5.8+) - I led the first pitch to set up a toprope for the next climb.

Toothpick (5.11b/c) - toprope. I fell at the crux the first time. I had been trying to grab at a sloper on the right wall rather than a positive sidepull to the left. I tried the route again and did it cleanly.

May Foster Falls with Bryan

 

Kenton on one of his many takes while ascending Bottled Up Warrior

Went to Foster Falls on May 29, 2022 with Bryan and his two sons Brendan and Aidan.

Narcissism (5.10b/c) - Hard for the grade. Top crack was cruxy.

Dihedral (5.9 trad) - A fun little climb in the corner.

Bottled Up Warrior (5.12b) - Crux clearing the big lower roof. I hung on the rope many times on this climb, but made it to the top eventually. This was fun.

Lynn's Route (5.11b) - The start of this felt quite hard to me, and I was glad to have stick-clipped the first bolt. I got nervous about taking a big swing (and potentially cutting the rope on an edge) when I was being lowered, so I kept a draw between me and the rope to my belayer the whole way down. Not my favorite climb.

Moonscape (5.10b) - Short, but not easy. Quite a hard move at the top. I ended up using an undercling and moving my feet high up to reach the last holds.

On The Side (5.8 trad) - Felt hard for 5.8 to me, I was struggling to place gear in the fist crack near the top. Many face holds looked good but weren't as good as they looked.

April Denny Cove with Jacob

Jacob pulling the rope...

April 19, 2022 returned to Denny Cove, this time with Jacob. Temps were in the high 30's when we started, and it took a few hours to warm up, but by afternoon the conditions were perfect.

Three Star Salad Bar (5.9) - warmup.

Gas Powered Flight (5.11a) - Hard move with only a thin right hand finger pocket two thirds of the way up.

Wish-bone (5.10b/c) - Fun, technical face climbing.

Frozen Lightning (5.11a) - Relatively juggy until crux in the middle. I moved left when I should have moved right and fell on my first attempt.

Magic Meat (5.12a/b) - Pumpy. Juggy most of the way, but very overhung, with three or four harder moves on thin holds thrown in.

Little Orange Corner (5.8) - Short. Sweet. Fun enough. 

April Denny Cove with Julie

 

Kenton and Julie at the base of the Buffet Wall

Went last-minute to Denny Cove on Sunday April 10, 2022 with Julie. Look at how we represent the Access Fund!

The temps were in the low 30's in the parking lot, but we were sweating in t-shirts by lunchtime. This is definitely a cold-weather crag. The Salad Bar and Buffet Wall areas where we were climbing face almost due south.

Three Star Salad Bar (5.9) - warmup. 

Casa de Condimientos (5.10c/d) - This has a thin crux in the middle, I used a thin undercling to move through it.

Tossed Salad (5.10d) - I moved left instead of right through the middle crux section, and I think this was the harder way.

Pressure Cooker (5.12a) - The bottom felt relatively easy. The top was hard with thin crimps and side pulls. I hung on the rope once or twice.

Canned Heat (5.12a) - There was a hard crux in the middle, where there were thin hands with almost no fee. I hung and/or fell on the rope several times here.

Pestilence (5.11b) - This felt super hard for the grade. Near the top there is a slabby crux. Rather than trying to move through it, I traversed a few feet to the left where it was rather chossy but the holds were large. This was a mistake.  I ended up pulling off a large block (maybe 1-2 feet in diameter) which went crashing down onto the hiking trail, and I feel about 30 feet or more before Julie caught me softly. Nobody was hurt, but it gave me second thoughts about climbing near choss again!!!

Red Rocks February 2022 with Adam

Adam standing in front of Armatron

Adam and I met each other for a quick weekend of climbing in Red Rocks on February 26 and 27, 2022. The weather was nearly perfect, sunny with highs in the 50's and lows in the 20's.

February 26 - I wanted to try linking MysterZ (5.7) to Armatron (5.9-) again after giving up because of crowds the last time I was here. However, today I lived up to my reputation of getting lost easily and managed to get us onto the wrong climb entirely at the start of the day. We went up a single pitch on a buttress closer to the parking lot before I realized my mistake and we were forced to bail by rappelling off a #10 and #11 nut placement. I am really bad at route finding. But, we managed to figure things out and get onto MysterZ soon afterwards. We climbed the whole thing pretty quickly, but we still didn't get to the top in time to climb Armatron. I had brought too much gear for this climb (perhaps for an easy climb like this I don't need to bring a double rack) and this, combined with the weight of both double ropes and my backpack was really weighing me down. I will say that I was more efficient on this trip than on any previous occasion with the double ropes. As usual, my problem on this line was route-finding. I was glad to have another party ahead of me, even if they were climbing a bit more slowly than I would have preferred. The climb felt extremely easy, and I was constantly running it out way above my pieces. I also know I did not pitch it out as described in the guidebook or on Mountain Project, so there were two occasions when I actually ran out of rope early and was forced to build an anchor. I brought lots of large gear which was useful to have in places, but the climbing overall was so easy that I probably could have skipped it and carried less weight instead. The part where you reach something that looks like an overhanging chimney/offwidth at 5.9+ was interesting. Here, as I had read in several comments, you avoid going that way by rather blindly traversing over right through a roof into an easy hand crack. There was also a section of stemming through a very wide crack/chimney where I placed almost no gear, which certainly felt rather dangerous, but the climbing here again was super easy. By the time we got to the base of Armatron the sun was already behind the mountain, but this at least gave us a chance to get our bearings and be sure we found the base of the route easily the following day.

February 27 - We set out early on this morning and made it to the Armatron base right at the same time as another (more local) party was arriving. This turned out to be ideal, because this guy Dave was a really chatty character, and he gave us all the beta we needed to do both the climb and the descent. Overall, I felt that Armatron was very very easy for the grade. There were, perhaps, two 5.9 moves on the entire climb. The rest of the thing just felt super chill. That said, the climb itself was really beautiful. We were climbing it in full sun, and it was the perfect temperature (high 20's when we left the Pine Creek parking lot) on the wall (even a bit chilly when the wind started to blow and I didn't have a jacket on). This time I left my pack at the base and only brought a smaller rack consisting of single cams through #3 and a double rack of nuts. Even with this, I didn't ever feel as if I was running out of gear. The first pitch had 5 bolts and I didn't place a single piece. The next pitch was two finger cracks (5.9) where I did place some gear, and from there it transitioned around a bulge to the right into easier face climbing. Pro was plentiful. The next pitch was the "money" pitch. The black sandstone here is just so much harder and seems so much more dependable than the white/red stuff we often see in other places at Red Rocks. This pitch really could take a nut wherever you wanted to stop and place one, and I climbed it a good bit more slowly than I needed to so that I could savor the feeling of the warm black plates baking in the sun. The fact that all of the belay stations on Armatron are bolted definitely made things go even more quickly - I was constantly riding on the tail of the party in front of us (Dave and Dillon). I was surprised by this, because Dave seemed to have done so much climbing and knew the route so well, but I guess I was just climbing quickly. Pitch 4 felt like more of the same as pitch 3. Pitch 5 was easy climbing along an arete. Pitch 6 was the boulder problem (do a pullup!) followed by easy climbing to the top along another arete. From here we unroped and scrambled the last hundred feet or so to the top (this was exposed but very very easy climbing). The view from the top was expansive and beautiful, we could see all the way to the lake in the distance. I wrote a note in the summit register in an ammo can, and we then followed Dave and Dillon back to the Armatron base to retrieve my pack and other gear. This climb has a long (1.5-2 hour?) approach and a similarly long descent, but this just adds to the fun of the day. It would be fun to link MysterZ with this climb, but that would require climbing quickly and not getting lost on the approach and on the climb. I definitely DID NOT want to be making the Armatron descent in the dark without someone else showing me exactly where to go. It was quite icy and exposed in some places, and slipping could have been really bad.

February Tennessee Wall with Zach

Zach ties in at the base of In Pursuit of Excellence

February 20, 2022. Climbed with Zach at T-Wall.

Mad Hatter (5.9) - Warmup. Zach's lead.

Multiple Use Area (5.9) - Toprope (shares anchors with Mad Hatter).

Prerequisite for Excellence (5.8) - Toprope (shares anchors with Mad Hatter).

Love Handle (5.10) - My lead. Lots of fun. Sling through the handle. Tricky face climbing above the handle. Then a chill roof.

Infinite Pursuit (5.10c) - Zach's lead.

No More Tiers (5.11a) - My lead! Only my second time leading 5.11 on trad. This route pushed me, especially through the final roof, both physically and mentally. But I managed to hold it together (there are plenty of rests) and do it cleanly. We linked both "pitches" (there is a large ledge in the middle of the climb). It was a hard lie back rock over to pull the first roof off the deck. Then a beautiful finger crack to the top of "pitch 1". From there it was a thin finger crack which I fell on during my first attempt. I lowered back to the ledge at the "start of pitch 2" and then led it clean to the top. It ends with a long series of tiered roofs. These are not particularly difficult, but it is a long and pumpy stretch of climbing, and at times it wasn't easy to see where the next jug was, so I would need to place gear high to trust that I could go up to explore further for good holds.

In Pursuit of Excellence (5.9+) - Zach's lead.

Dirt Bag (5.8) - Our cooldown on toprope (shares anchor with Pursuit). This felt hard for 5.8. Was I just tired after the rest of the day?

January Tennessee Wall with John and Rachel

 

John and Rachel at the base of T-Wall

Sunday, January 30

A chilly day to start but it quickly warmed up. It was sunny and a perfect day for being outside. Temps were in the 20's when we parked but probably hit the 50's by midday. We were climbing in just long sleeves starting at 9:30 AM and for various other portions of the day.

Open Sesame (5.9 or 5.8+) - A juggy warmup, this route had me being extra careful when traversing right under the roof where the feet were more smears than holds. I wish I had double-extended the piece near the wall in the crack under the roof to avoid rope drag.

Crack Attack (5.10a/b) - A very crack-centric climb. There was tons of good pro. However, I went left about 2/3 of the way up instead of right. This seemed like the easier way to go, and someone told me later in the day that by going that way I had avoided the crux.

Espirit Nuvo (5.10c) - The bottom section was very easy but quite chossy. The finger crack felt really tough for me, especially at the top. There just were no good feet, and it had me thinking that I need to practice my slab climbing some more. Traversing to the right after the finger crack also felt very challenging. The top was easy but I was exhausted by the time I got ther. I ended up using all 14 double-length slings. I rested twice on the gear while leading this route.

Electric Rats (5.10c) - This one was tons of fun, I really enjoyed it. This climb starts hard but gets progressively easier. There is a big roof to pull at the beginning, then a smaller roof with a heel hook into a corner after that. It was tricky getting up from the ledge into the crack. From there it works up into a hand crack and is basically a hand crack all the way from there to the top. I could have brought one or two #4 cams and would have used them. I placed all the larger gear except one #1.

Woodcock Cove with Malcolm

 

Malcolm ready to ascend

January 8, 2022

Woodcock Cove, went with SCC (Meagan Evans, Executive Director, and some other folks).

Double Toke (5.8) - trad lead warmup. Malcolm got freezing cold because the route too quickly moved into the shade after I led it.

Natural Born Drillers (5.10+) - some tricky bits in the middle

La Femme Makita (5.10)

The Thrill of the Drill (5.10)

Overall, I feel this area will be very popular. Well bolted, with direct southern exposure makes it a great winter destination.