December T-Wall with Daniel

December 14, 2024. T-Wall.

Puppy Ride (5.9) - (Daniel's lead). Bouldery/reachy move off the ground. Many beautiful hand and fist jams in the corner after that. 

The Heaven of Animals (5.10+) - Did this on top rope after moving the anchor over to the other side of the dihedral. It's a solid finger crack; there's a stiff move over the roof but not too bad if you find the side pull above the roof out to the right.

Hidden Assets (5.10a) - (My lead). Tough start, then easy at the bottom of crack, harder at the top of crack, and easy climbing to the top above the crack.

Margin of Profit (5.9+) - (Daniel's lead). Definitely felt easier on top rope for me than it felt when I led it a few weeks ago. Also, Daniel went farther right near the bottom than I did on lead at the bottom, and I think the protection here was better.

Stone Wave (5.11a/b) (My lead)

Starting move beta: hands on slopey rails, left foot high onto slopey edge out left, crank as hard as possible and grab the triangle hold high and left with left hand. Turn right hand upside down and palm it down against edges slightly closer to ground out right. Bring right foot up out right? Then move left hand far out left to a very positive edge and stand up.

Above the stone wave: there is a slopey but good foothold for the right foot just at the lip of the wave. Grab the lowest finger lock and finger/hand jam up. Be sure to grab the really positive but sharp finger lock between thumb and index finger instead of just jamming your pinky in there (otherwise your nerves will scream out and hurt for a long time). Get right foot onto foothold out right. Keep moving hands as high as possible. Bring left foot up into crack and press with it against the right wall of crack to provide opposition. From this position you should be able to stand up. Above this move use both the crack and footholds out on the faces outside the crack.

Day's Work (5.10b) - (Daniel's lead). At the start, face straight in, get the right foot as high as possible so that you can jam it in the crack. This feels very awkward but it is possible. Work hands up the crack with this foot located in the very bottom. Eventually find a thin foothold up on left side of chimney. Work higher, find feet on right wall outside chimney or just on the lip of the wall. If necessary you can walk gear in the crack on the way up. When Daniel climbed this he led the original variation but was very surprised and nervous to find a large block far out right in the roof section to be loose. Instead I climbed the direct finish variation above the roof on toprope. This variation wasn't too hard although it may have felt a bit run out on lead.

December Red Rocks with Derek

On top of Black Orpheus (Solar Slab Buttress)

Derek and I spent three days climbing in Red Rocks (Dec 6-8, 2024). We were extremely lucky to have wonderful weather all three days. We were also lucky that Derek's hand, although hurting from a surgery just a few weeks before, did not completely shut down our adventure.

December 6

We hit the park right when it was opening, parked in the Pine Creek Canyon lot, and hiked over to Cloud Tower to climb Crimson Chrysalis. This route has been on my tick list for over 20 years, so it was a great way to warm up and start out the trip.

Crimson Chrysalis (5.8+) - This route is easy to cruise, largely because it has a lot of bolts. Derek led pitches 1, 4, 5, 8, 9; I led 2, 3, 6, and 7 (we were linking pitches). Pitches 4, 5, 8, and 9 were the real money pitches. After rapping the route we made our way south around the buttress to 

Power Failure (5.10) - We climbed the first two pitches of this route, Derek the first pitch and I the second. The second pitch has an exciting traverse from the face climbing section over to the right into a corner. We opted not to do the third pitch, because Derek's hand was starting to hurt a lot from his surgery and because daylight was running out. Unfortunately this turned into a bit of a problem for rappeling the route, as the single-rope rappel line lies 20-30 feet to the left of the climb along a water groove. We were able to get down reasonably easily through Derek's clear-headed thinking: he set up a single-line rappel for me (which was long enough to get me all the way to the ground), and he himself did a series of three rappels (one off a single bolt which he carefully bounce-tested before trusting). As he mentioned that evening, it would have been the perfect day for the Beal Escaper.

Derek on top of Crimson Chrysalis (Cloud Tower)

December 7

We got to the park a bit later, taking the morning more casually. A longer hike took us to the base of Brownstone Wall (Armatron). There was already a line of people waiting to climb Armatron when we got there. We opted to climb the first two pitches of Mayday Malefactor and to transition from there into Sweet Thin.

Mayday Malefactor (5.10) - Derek led the first pitch and I led the second. I'm not entirely sure which exact route I followed, although my aim had been to climb the standard 5.9 variation. This was fun climbing on heavily-featured black varnish. At the top of the pitch we moved onto 

Sweet Thin (5.9) - We started on pitch 3, the namesake pitch, which I led. This flake gets extremely thin (although still seems rather strong) at the top, thin enough that I worried I might even cut my hands on it. The moves were a combination of hand and foot jams in the crack between the flake and the main wall as well as standing on the edge of the flake and slowly working my hands up it as on a railing. I also led the offwidth (pitch 4) which followed. I have to say that this pitch intimidated me. I think I get a feeling of claustrophobia when I try to climb chimneys. I was able to get two small pieces in down low, one out on the face and one near the opening of the crack on the right side. This gave me enough confidence to keep moving up in the offwidth until I was high enough to pull myself back out onto the face. Near the top it turns into a far more straightforward fist/hand jam. Derek led the final pitch which placed us at the same summit as Armatron. From here we traversed 3rd/4th class to the north and followed the standard walk-off descent back around to the base (where we had left some gear) and then back along the creek bed to our car.

On top of Sweet Thin (Brownstone Wall)

December 8

We entered the park right at 6:10 AM and parked at Oak Creek Canyon. We were debating between Levitation 29 and Black Orpheus, but we decided to go for Black Orpheus in the hopes that we would have a more successful day (Derek in particular was also worried about his hand). Walking up the canyon, we struggled a bit to find the right trail up to the north. This turned into an episode of bush-wacking followed by some scrambling up easy 4th class.

Black Orpheus (5.9+) - I linked the first two pitches, not realizing I would ideally need to build a gear anchor before reaching the chains at the top of P2. Luckily there was just enough rope for me to reach the bolts as Derek moved a few feet closer to the wall. I found the first bit of this climb right off the ground rather intimidating. The pro was not as straightforward as I would have liked, and at least once I got suckered into moving towards the face on the right when I probably should have stayed farther left near the arete. P2 had an exciting lie-back/jamming section and finished up much easier terrain. From here there was a long section of very easy climbing to take us much higher up and then over farther left. None of that is very memorable. I led P8, and it was one of my favorite pitches on the climb. Solid at the grade, with a long, sustained finger crack and stemming feet. The crack is so splitter that I found myself just walking the same pieces (0.5 and 0.75 cams?) up as I progressed. Derek led the next pitch P9, and I then led the crux pitch P10 which followed. Rather than do a lie-back as I have seen described elsewhere, I came straight at the hard move, pulling on a few crimps and smearing to get me through the section. Above the crux was a choice between a 5.7 hand crack and a 5.8+ corner. After briefly spending some time in the hand crack, I decided instead to tackle the corner, hoping that it would hurt Derek's hand less, even though the climbing would be harder. Derek led P10 which we both agree may be the finest "5.6" we've ever done. Sustained finger lie-back on medium grade slabs for feet. I led the following runout pitch and can't say I was happy to get as far above the bolts as I did. The climbing is easy, but I was constantly worrying about the possibility of holds breaking off. This slowed me down, and along with taking much longer to build the final anchor than I should have, Derek was actually worried there was something wrong with me by the time he reached the top.

From the top we scrambled north and traversed left a bit deeper into the canyon, following a series of cairns that led into a wide groove down to a set of rap rings precariously close the edge. Three raps brought us to the Upper Painted Bowl. From here we followed our instincts, a hodgepodge of cairns, and an online GPS track to get us to the bottom. This involved quite a few sections of 3rd and exposed 4th class scrambling. The final 30 feet literally felt like sliding down oily glass. The descent was far more involved and nerve wracking than I had anticipated, and I most certainly would not want to have been doing it in the dark. 

Derek nearing the top of Black Orpheus

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