Welcome Spring!

I can't tell you how nice it is to have an early spring this year. I crushed my ankle in December and the lack of physical activity has made this winter a long one. I was hiking down from the East Side with Kevin after putting the last bolts on Pastry Rage (a resumed Derek Doucet joint) and I slipped on some mud covered ice. Could there be anything more slippery than mud covered ice? Probably not.

As of this writing many of the local cliffs are uncommonly dry for this time of year. The Cat's Ass is totally dry, most of the Carcass is doable, The East Side is almost entirely in and, though I've not been up there yet, I've heard the 82 is also "in".

I've had a few good days out this spring already and I've been hitting the Cat's Ass a bit. Despite my recent inactivity, the yoga and bouldering I've been doing have done a lot to keep me in reasonable shape. I've been amazed at the control I have high stepping now that I'm not super-inflexible.

On Saturday, Dereck, Derek, Dennis, and Ross Chongo (new guy) met up at the Cat's Ass. Perfect temps and good cheer for sure. I was feeling pretty plucky and managed to redpoint the Cat's Ass routes except for the crack, It's Only Interment. Man- that's a sandbag, even with the new bolt. Here's the gear for future reference (in order of placements)

1. .5 Camalot
2. Yellow Alien
3. Green Alien
4. .5 Camalot
5. Bolt

The trick for me on the crux was two things. I'm going to write 'em down here so I'll remember (well, I'm sure I'll forget, but at least I'll be able to kick myself if I read this after falling on it again).

Hit the thin fingers where the aliens are placed. Use the better of the two jams (left hand) as a sort of gaston (pushing left) and skip or bump past the beak to a palm-up two finger (pinky and ring) lock. Use this to sidepull-jam-layback up onto a good high right foot. Reach over into the good lock where the .5 goes. Step low and right and move to the jug.

This is a great route- it really deserves more traffic. I'll need to get on it again soon.

All my blokes have been climbing well. Here are a few pictures:

Derek in hot pursuit of Cat's Ass.

Derek mid-crux.

Blunt Force

Derek onBlunt Force

Dereck on Pussy Galore

Dereck demonstrates his signature move