January T-Wall with Zach

 January 15, 2023

Beautiful weather, lows in the 30's in the parking lot, highs in the upper 50's. Was wearing long sleeves and a fleece the whole day but felt perfect.

Climbed with Zach.

Kenton just approaching the crux of Blood on the Rocks

Prerequisite for Excellence (5.8) -  Zach's lead. Fun. Dripping crack in places. Warming up in the sun.

March Hare (5.10a) - My lead. Stiff bottom, easy after the roof. Fun. Interesting movement through the bottom corner and roof.

Sugar in the Raw (5.11-) - Zach's lead. Stiff bottom, easy after the roof. Fun. Interesting movement through the bottom corner and roof.

Centerfold (5.10) - My lead. Just kinda on you the whole way. So much fun! Crack climbing all the way in a corner to the roof, then hand jams and liebacks through the roof to very easy face climbing over the roof. Maybe my favorite climb at T-Wall. 

Stepping Stone (5.10a/b) - Zach's lead. Thin arete. Tricky pro down low (but Zach led it, not me!). Thin start. Balancy, but it's all there.

Blood on the Rocks (5.10+) - My lead. Super techie finger crack and corner down low. Had to hang on a black totem halfway up at the crux. Made it through the crux by reaching high for a painful pinkie finger jam and smearing my feet up. Super burly getting over the roof using jugs on the left side.

January Denny Cove with Cammie

January 8, 2023. Had intended to climb at T-Wall with Cammie, but it started to rain as we drove toward Chattanooga. There was a band of storms that never came far enough south to impact Atlanta but which completely drenched Tennessee. So we made a last minute decision to climb at Buffet Wall at Denny Cove instead. I was glad I had brought along extra jackets, having at first believed that I would be climbing in the sun and potentially stripping down to a t-shirt. It rained the entire time we were at the Buffet Wall, but the wall itself was mostly dry. Unfortunately, the 5.11's were not dry, especially near the top, only the 5.12's stayed dry, so it was tough to start out gradually!

Squeeze Daddy (5.11), or was it Moral High Ground (5.12a) ? - first climb to the right of Donald Pump - Hung at first fixed draw because I tried to move right instead of left. Lowered off last draw (fixed) before anchors because the route was a stream of water above. My fingers were going numb constantly.

Pressure Cooker (5.12a) - My second and third times on this route. Had to hang many times at the crux. Finally made the move but couldn't do the clip. Came down and got a long draw. Went back up for another attempt and only made it through the crux by pulling on the draw. One more hang above that led me to the top. I can do this clean in better conditions.

Overall conditions were not optimal. Our fingers were going numb, and at one point we were in a fog cloud.