November Nuevo Bayamon (Will's 35th Birthday)

November 21, 2024

Went to Nuevo Bayamon outside San Juan to celebrate Will's 35th birthday. Kellett and Jacob were with us, too.

I led all of the following climbs.

Sexy Elf (5.10a/b) - Slightly more sustained than I was expecting.

Pindongo (5.10d) - Thoughtful moves over several bulges. Needed more draws than I brought.

Dogmatica (5.10c) - Fun and juggy overhang at the top.

Over the Hill (5.11c) - Bigger moves between solid stances.

Deja Vu (5.10b) - Juggy but sharp.

Chocolate Sky (5.11d) - Several very hard cruxes. A bee swarm/nest to the left was very distracting. The hold I used to make the penultimate clip broke off just after I had made the clip and was making the final move to the chains, leading to a fall. 

November T-Wall with Will

November 16, 2024

Went to T-Wall with Will. A gorgeous day, we were legitimately hot in the sun despite having left Atlanta when temps were about 40 degrees.

Dirt Bag (5.8) - Warmup. Harder than expected. Three spots where I struggled to get my feet under me.

Finagle (5.9) - Tried three times from the bottom, jumping off or falling in the hard campus moves right above the first rail. I ended up placing two #3 cams in the horizontal crack and had to hang on one of these before hauling myself up to the holds above the horizontal and getting my feet onto it. From there I traversed left; near the top I followed a finger crack up and right instead of following the arete proper. I was disappointed not to send this clean, having done so in the past.

In Pursuit of Excellence (5.9+) - Felt classic as always. There are a few cruxes on this route, especially in the middle. The rail near the top was actually dry this time instead of watery/soapy!

Cake Walk (5.10a) - Harder than I remembered it being. The feet are thin especially in the middle. I fumbled the gear at the middle mini-roof crux and was forced to hang on it. For future reference, the gear here is a 0.4 in the finger crack above the mini-roof.

Margin of Profit (5.9+) - Very thin, very balancey, very technical. The gear is sparse, but there are enough placements at least to protect the climb reasonably well. There are definitely some run out sections. Start on the face almost directly below and maybe ever so slightly to the right of the bolt. Move straight up and place some gear in the horizontal cracks. You don't necessarily want or need to clip the first bolt; that is intended for a different climb, but you are moving towards it. When you get close to it, move out to the right and into the left-leaning finger crack that's maybe 8 ft to the right. Move up this finger crack to the ledge above, and then move directly above that onto the an even higher ledge. Move up and right gradually over towards the arete. From here follow the arete up and all the way around to the other side where you can find more protection and some horizontal bands. Follow the easier climbing to the top, placing gear in shallow horizontals.

September Denny Cove with Jami and Jack

 September 8, 2024

Denny Cove West

A beautiful day of some moderate sport climbs with Jami and Jack

Kenton halfway up Copperhead

Tulip Poplar (5.9-)

Indigenous Beverage (5.10c/d) - Hard 5.10. Bottom felt much harder than the top, although perhaps I did it "the hard way".

Last Dance (5.10a/b)

Copperhead Road (5.11b) - Very juggy. Lots of heel hooks. But no super-hard moves.

July 2024 Sunset Rock with Noel

Left the house at 4:40 AM for an early arrival at the upper lot for Sunset Rock.

Wind Walker (5.9) - Delicate moves through the start. Big holds at the roof, then a high right foot. Slab climbing above the roof. Noel really struggled with rope drag because he didn't extend his leftmost piece below the roof far enough. You should use not just a single shoulder-length runner but two of them.

Liberty Bell (5.9) - I got the hard boulder problem at the start cleanly, in contrast with the many other times I've tried this climb, but I also got flash pumped too. Above this I tried the Windmill finish to the left but gave up when I realized it was thin and run out. Then I struggled with pump all the way to the top through the beautiful hand crack.

Walk in The Park (5.8) - Noel led this. Flake, corner, roof, off-width. I used two fist jams in the high crack.

Train Time (5.10a) - A bit harder than expected at the beginning. Many of the crimps I kept reaching for were actually flattened or rounded on top, or maybe the top edges had broken off, which turned them into pinchy crimps instead. This climb had fun movement with thin protection through the arching corner halfway up. From the top of the arch it was easy climbing to the anchor.

Pigs in Space (5.10) - Noel led the first pitch of this one. It climbs up through a series of bulges, then into a large left facing corner. Above the corner you move up to a ledge and traverse right to build a belay. This is the end of the first pitch. From the belay I traversed back left and tried to send a tricky finger crack. I struggled at the crux because I couldn't find any good constrictions, and I ended up hanging on a 0.4 Totem three times before pushing through to the top, using some thin edges on the face rather than pure finger-crack technique. We rappelled to the bottom. I would be great to come back and get this done cleanly.

June 2024 Utah with Derek

Derek and Kenton, very happy on the Notch Peak summit

On Thursday June 27, 2024 I flew to Salt Lake City, spent the night in a hotel near the airport, and picked Derek up on Friday morning around 8 AM. We headed west for about two hours on a two-lane highway to Delta, UT where we stopped for lunch before heading out to Notch Peak to check out the climbing. Our objective was Western Hardman (5.10c, 12 pitches). We figured we would drive out there, hike up to the base, maybe climb the first few pitches to orient ourselves, then rap to the base, return to our hotel in Delta, and be ready for a strong attempt the following morning. That's not what ended up happening.

After driving up an increasingly unpassable dirt trail, we came to a halt and parked on the side of the road when it became clear our rented Subaru would not be able to make it over some boulders. It was well after lunch by now, and I figured I would only bring a liter of water despite the now-sweltering heat. Derek convinced me to bring more, so I topped off the hydration bladder to its full two liters. We both put most of the gear in our small packs and started trekking up the approach canyon. Maybe two miles into the hike we found a cairn indicating a very steep dirt and scree scramble up to the right which we followed to the base of the climb. We were quite hot and sweating at this point in the unseasonably warm temperatures (mid-90's) that were in place this week. Luckily for us the north-facing climb seemed largely in the shade.

We racked up and I started up the wall, linking pitches 1-2. The climbing was fun but felt low-key. Derek led pitches 3-4. At some point he joked that if we got high enough maybe we should just run it to the top and finish the climb that day, despite our late start. Much of these first four pitches consisted of climbing through a series of right-facing dihedrals. The often flaky and hollow quality of the rock sometimes did not inspire confidence in gear placements, but there seemed to be a generous sprinkling of bolts in places where this was the case. I led the bolted pitch five and reached the base of the "Godsend" pitch six.

At this point I had been starting to seriously consider Derek's off-hand suggestion that we could make it to the top that afternoon. We were moving much faster than I had expected, and running the numbers it seemed totally doable to me. The forecast for the following day (Saturday) was for a much windier day, and that certainly didn't sound appealing. However, it was around this point that Derek mentioned he had only brought 750 ml of water. WHAT?!?! It was his comment earlier at the car which had convinced me to bring more water in the first place. We decided that I would try to lead this first cruxy pitch and, if it went smoothly enough, maybe we would continue on. Well, it went quickly.  I'll admit that this pitch felt no harder really than 5.10a or so, but maybe I was feeling particularly strong that day. There was a thought-provoking move about halfway through this pitch, but a solid rail out to the right of the crack made it feel casual.

At this point we felt committed. I was a bit concerned about the lack of water, but Derek seemed OK with continuing. He led the next two pitches, more dihedrals. I can't remember which one of us led pitch nine to the base of the second crux, pitch 10. But I led pitch ten through some solid but still relatively casual climbing well protected by judiciously placed bolts. I tried linking into the next pitch but the rope drag was too difficult (it continuous all the way around to the back side of the wall, around a gully, and then up the far wall). So I brought Derek up and he led this rather tricky section. At the top he belayed me from a ledge, and from there I traversed right about 25 feet, around a corner, and into the final pitch to the top, an interesting wide chimney (no chimney technique required) with cracks on both sides. Derek quickly joined me and we took victory photos at the top. Maybe it took us about six hours to climb the entire thing.

Kenton hanging from the anchors at the top of pitch 12

The entire time I had been climbing I had been thinking we would, at this point, just start to rappel as quickly as possible down the 12 rappels back to the base. Dusk was now falling and we had well under an hour of daylight/dusklight left. But somehow we convinced ourselves to explore the top of this ridge for a while to see if we could find the walk-off descent we had read hints about on Mountain Project. Derek was fully feeling the effects of his dehydration, and we wanted to be sure we chose the safest way to get down given that extenuating circumstance and the fact that the descent would be taking place in the dark. Unfortunately we never found the walk-off. After scrambling around to the south both east and west of the ridgeline, it became clear that without some beta for the descent trail it would be unsafe to continue this way. We resigned to return to the top of the climb and begin the 12 rappels in the dark.

Rapping pitch 12 was easy enough. Gaining the ledge at the bottom, we traversed back over to the left to the top of pitch 11. This was by far the most dangerous part of the adventure, as it involved rappelling directly into the open canyon to another ledge and gingerly tiptoeing back around the lip of the canyon to the front side, hanging onto some rope handles along the way. It felt very high stakes, as a fall here would have meant a big swing back to the wall farthest from the climb. Nevertheless we both completely this rappel without major incident, placing us back onto the north face proper. From here the rappelling was more straightforward, other than the fact that on more than one occasion the knots at the ends of the ropes became stuck down below the intermediate rap station and I was forced to rap past these stations to free it. About two hours after starting the rappels, we had reached the ground safely. Derek was desperate for water but still holding himself together admirably. We hiked the two miles back to the car, drank as much water as we could stomach, and began to breath more easily.

The next day we were both ready for a more relaxing adventure. Having slept the previous evening from four AM until 11 AM, we intentionally got a late post-lunch start on the day. This time we drove back out in the same direction to Marjum Canyon. My gouty toe was starting to really act up (it had started hurting a bit earlier in the week), and I wasn't super excited for a very big day. Well, we were in for another surprise as we started racking up at the car, staring up at the Eye of the Needle (5.10a). Derek had left his climbing shoes in the hotel! He was a great sport about it, nevertheless, and suggested we still try the climb with him in his trail runners. Well, OK! We hiked up the left side of the hill near the fence line, then approached along the base of the cliff to the right directly under the "eye". I led both pitches. The first pitch actually felt harder than 5.10a to me. It involved very small crimps and delicate footwork, with generously spaced bolts. Perhaps it would have felt easier if I hadn't been trying so hard to avoid stepping on my left toe. Derek unfortunately had to yank on gear on the bottom half of the first pitch. He did the second pitch cleanly (I think?). At one point I knocked off a rock maybe 3/4" across which smacked him right on the top of the head and left his ears ringing. I was very thankful he wasn't more hurt than this. The final pitch took us through the eye of the needle and up about 15 feet to the top of a pointy outcropping. For the descent we again deciding to do a walk-off. This time we found it, but it turned out to be a bit scree-filled and quite a bit longer than we had expected. Doing two rappels would have been far more efficient.

Kenton trying not to be blinded by the sun while looking up through the needle's eye

Derek stands on the spire atop Eye of the Needle

On Sunday, our final day of adventure, we got up at five AM and made the drive to Little Cottonwood Canyon's Becky's Wall area. Our first climb was Satan's Corner (5.8+). This was a relatively straightforward granite crack climb, but climbing granite always seems harder to me than sandstone. Derek led the first pitch but decided he didn't have enough gear left to comfortably link it into the second pitch and lowered back to the ground. I climbed back up to the top of pitch one, cleaning gear as I went, and then climbed up through the hand crack of the second pitch. This didn't feel incredibly challenging, but it certainly had me fully awake at times, as I was forced to jam my feet in for my footholds and my gouty metatarsal joint screamed out in occasional pain. With a top-rope slingshot belay now set up on the whole climb, Derek climbed it relatively easily. We then moved right and he led the first two pitches of Becky's Wall (5.7). Again, this climb didn't feel too incredibly difficult, but it felt harder to me than 5.7. We had originally thought we would continue on from here up a 5.9 called Pebbles and Bambam (5.9), but by now we both decided we had had enough adrenaline (and hot sunshine!) for the weekend, so we rappelled back to the base and returned to the car.

The weekend finished up with a leisurely hike up the White Pine Lake Trail, just up the road, before we drove to the airport and went our separate ways.

Looking out at the end of our hike up White Pine Lake Trail

June Colorado 2024 (Heather, Kishen, Dave)

Making my way up pitch two of The Grand Giraffe

 I flew to Denver on Thursday evening June 20, 2024 to get in some climbing at the same time that Amy would be performing in the Boulder/Denver area. On Friday I climbed with Heather. We agreed to climb The Grand Giraffe and then see how the weather looked, as the forecast was calling for showers in the afternoon. We got a reasonably early start, arriving in the Eldo parking lot around 8 AM. After racking up at the car, we made our way across the bridge and over to the low-angle ascent ramp. This is the same ramp that can be used as an approach to Ruper. We carefully ascended this ramp to find ourselves near the base of our objective.

The Grand Giraffe (5.10a) - I enjoyed this climb even if it did spit me off of the cruxy wide pitch. Heather led the first casual pitch. I led the second pitch, which had a bit of a run-out above the belay before I was able to clip the pins above. This pitch was interesting, still reasonably casual, although a bit anxiety-inducing, with nice movement up into a crack system. Heather led pitch three. I had it in my mind to lead the final pitch (four), but after getting about 15 feet up and placing a #5 cam, I ended up having Heather lower me down. I just felt completely over my head in this off-width style of climbing, and had no idea how to do the moves here. Feeling as unsure as I did, I also wasn't confident about walking the gear up to protect the route higher up (for protection, you are walking the #4, #5, and #6 up the crack as you make progress). Heather did an admirable job of leading it for us instead of myself. The crux really is this low-down section. The key is to get your right foot out on the right face where you can find some small but reasonably positive edges/microfeatures. It is also key to have all of your protection racked on the right side of your harness so that it isn't in the way as you try to get parts of the left side of your body and left leg deep into the wide crack. With the right foot out on the face, the left leg is slowly worked up by grunts and shoves inside the crack. Someone later that afternoon told me that it is possible to avoid putting your body/leg into the crack and to just stem through the hard section, but I'm not sure how much easier this would really be.

We rapped the Vertigo rappels and were making our way over to try another climb when the thunder and rain started to roll in. That concluded the day's adventures.

On Saturday I met up with Kishen at the Eldo parking lot around 5:30 AM. He had very graciously offered to guide me up it for my third attempt. As I had done the day previously, we racked up at the car and headed across the creek to the base of the climb. In contrast with my previous attempts, we did not climb Touch 'N' Go as our approach to The Naked Edge proper. Instead we climbed an easier route a few feet to the left which led up a shallow ramp. From there we ascended through the cave pitch to the base of pitch one. Kishen led all the pitches of the Edge today, as I really wanted to focus on getting the moves in my head and done as cleanly as possibly. On this first pitch I followed his advice of moving deliberately but quickly through the harder moves to rest between better stances. I did fall two-thirds of the way up, but overall I felt reasonably confident on this pitch.

Pitch two was as usual more chill, working my way up the slab, around the corner, and up the vertical face and corner to the top. Pitch three was also casual, although I fell a few feet above the mantle move (which I always find challenging) when my foot slipped. Pitch four was my best performance yet. Here I worked my way carefully up the corner through the finger cracks, making my way towards the chimney. There is a _key_ tiny edge just a few moves before the chimney on the face out right that can be used for the right hand. When I got to the chimney, rather than trying to crimp my way much higher, I moved into proper chimneying technique, putting both feet on the right and my back on the left and applying lots of pressure. By slowly shimmying myself up this way, I was able to reach the decent holds near the toip. From here I leaned out and right to reach for the good edges up and over the lip. Overall I was very happy with this sequence of moves and techniques.

Pitch five was a sufferfest. I did the initial boulder problem without too much trouble, using the holds/edge out right and putting my feet out right to get through the hard part. However, when I round the corner to the right and started trying to climb into the fist/hand crack above, I fell apart (just as I did earlier with Dave). There is a small triangular foothold that can be used to get into the crack. I probably fell six or seven times above this trying to work my hands up the crack. There are some decent jams down low, and it is clear that there is a better set of jams way above those, but in between it's just a flaring hole that I can't really jam at all. And I didn't feel tall enough to move from the better jams down low to the good jams above. Kishen tells me that he jams his foot way back into the crack/pod and does full hand and foot crack jamming technique to get through this crux, but I honestly just didn't feel as if I would ever be able to do it that way. In the end I pulled on the cam above my head to get through this section. It would make sense to really project this one sequence of moves by lowering in from above and top-roping it a few times.

Many thanks to Kishen for getting me to the top of this spectacular route one more time!

Kishen and Kenton on top of The Edge

On Friday I met up at 6:30 with Dave and we made a short drive up Boulder Canyon to Upper Dream Canyon's Lost Angel area. This proved to be a spectacular spot to climb today as temperatures climbed well into the 90s. After a five minute hike to the edge of the cliff, we made two long rappels (Dave brought an 80m rope) to the base of a steep canyon cut by a roaring creek/stream. Because of the high surrounding walls on all sides, we were climbing in shade almost until 1 PM, and the slightly higher elevation we gained in driving up the canyon also helped to keep the temperature in check.

I started up what I thought was the first pitch of Divination (5.11b), but after I had made my way past the fifth bolt, we realized that I was actually on Dynamometer (5.12c). So, I lowered back down and started again on the proper climb this time. I took the sharp end on pitches one and three, while Dave led the second one. The climb was fun, certainly not easy, and made an especially good reminder of how to climb on small, sharp granite features. Dave in particular liked the awkward move through the final roof. If I remember correctly I fell one time in the middle of pitch one.

Dave approaches the top of pitch one on Divination

For our next and final climb Dave suggested we try Earth Voyage (5.12a). He told me he remembered the first pitch being hard but the next pitches being more like hard 5.11. That was not my experience on this route. Dave led all the pitches and I'm very glad he did. The first pitch had some tricky route finding with a crux involving a hand crack. I was wishing I had worn my crack gloves for this one. The next two pitches were extremely thin slab climbing on tiny sharp crystals for feet and with edges for one or two fingertips. There was also a section involving an extremely balancy thin ramp. On the last pitch I was so tired that I was pulling on gear to make progress (I also felt some time pressure because of my afternoon flight back to Atlanta). Overall I would probably have rated this harder than 5.12a, but perhaps I just need more practice on thin granite slabs. One takeaway was that I need to remember to put the ball of my foot flat against the rock on slabby granite rather than trying to stand mostly on my toe tips. No matter what this climb was a fun time! 

May Tennessee Wall with Noel

 

Noel getting ready to send

May 19, 2024

Prerequisite for Excellence (5.8) - Noel's lead. Nice warmup. Remember to go right at the top not left.

Love Handle (5.10b) - Hesitated at the face crux, but it was easy when I did a sequence of smaller moves working my feet up instead of trying to do just two or three bigger moves. Hesitated again at the roof but did it easily after cranking on a small edge with my right hand to be able to reach up to the crack jug above with my left.

Shiva's Last Dance (5.9-) - Low angle corner at the start, cruxy bulge down low, run-out face, chill roof, ladder to the top.

Reptile Analysis (5.10b) - On the right face under big roof, the cracks/weakness side pulls for your left hand are better than you expect in places. Don't just pick one at random. For the roof itself, place a #3 in the slot out right near the lip. Then, rather than traversing across with your hands right under the roof, instead stay on the rail/edge out right about two feet under the roof, smearing with your feet. Crank up, and move your feet over onto the arete proper so you can stand up again. Do a few moves with your hands in the crack above the roof, and place another #3 in this hand crack. Work your hands and fingers up in this crack and step up with the left edge of your left foot onto a small edge over the roof. The climbing eases up after this. Near the top go left into the chimney if you want to place some protection, but you don't need to stay in the chimney. You can move out onto the left face or onto the large flake on the right of the chimney to make your way to the top. Anchors are on the left face.