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| Dexter puffin' on the Blunt |
I hung the draws on Blunt. At this point I've done the route so many times now it's almost effortless. It's interesting how that can happen. I think the combination of knowing every move and being totally confident and relaxed is the key. To apply this level of composure on a much harder route is clearly the next step. Mastery, confidence, and poise.
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| Kel snaking the crux side-pull on Blunt |
Courtney and John came over and I hosed them down with a healthy spray shower for a while. Courtney jumped on Blunt and crushed it. I talked them into trying Scavenger next. Those people are freaky-strong. While I was up on the cliff taking pictures I saw one hell of a big porcupine up in a nearby tree.
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| 5.13d Porcupine |
After the Blunt warm-ups, I got very close on Screaming Pigeon. Next time remember: Feet pretty high, move right up to quartz blob. Good quartz edges near and under the draw. Jack up the feet (pretty small and hard to find). Bowling ball right- then big move to bomber slot.
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| On the arete. |
Onto Pastry Rage! I was feeling quite good. The rotation of three, with a pretty good warm up on the previous two routes had me breathing fire. I cruised the crux and got my hands on the filthy "shelf". I had a lot of trouble clipping the bolt above the shelf- I climbed too far to the left and had to resort to a horror-show left-hand mantle while clipping with my right. Not recommended unless you're constipated and need something to help you evacuate your nether regions.
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| Stuck the crux! |
There's a pretty good no-hands rest that can be finagled once you get your feet on the ledge, but it was quite dirty with little crunchy lichens and I kept thinking my feet were going to skate off. I'd brought my brush so I cleaned off a few key footholds. I was really thinking I was going to send, but after a few more feet of climbing, I dead-ended into munge. The climbing was tricky and sufficiently dirty as to shut me down. I whipped. I cleaned a bunch of holds off and managed to get level with the anchor before whipping again- this time taking a long one and banging my ass into the cliff. Once again, a fall with good feet and bad hands = ass over tea kettle. I got over my jitters and manged to top out by grabbing the 9-year-old cord on the anchor.
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| Shutdown by dirty 5.11 climbing. Damn! |
I had to head out to make it back somewhat on-time. I was feeling pretty confident about my next attempt. The low crux was wired and the upper section was now clean(ish).
Fighting off a flu bug that struck my family, I came back on Wednesday with Dr. Katzman. By the time we made it to the base of the route, I felt like I was going to barf. I was feeling quite off balance and really questioning whether I should even attempt the route- especially since I banged up my ass pretty badly on the previous attempt. I figured I'd go up and at least get more familiar with the moves.
I moved pretty well up into the crux, but I was feeling pretty ill. I manged to fight through the little dead-point and nail the shelf. I hung out there for a while trying to get my heart rate down to a reasonable level; I was working my ass off- not because I was climbing badly, but because I felt like I had a bag of cement in my stomach. I found a really nice way to clip the bolt above the ledge (which had freaked me out so badly on the last attempt). It was mellow- I'm not sure why I botched it before; over-eager, I expect. I rested for an epoc at the no-hands.
The top went pretty well. I continued to feel crappy, but I really kept my head and focused more on making smart moves than strong moves. I felt very weak, but my form was making up for it. At one point I made a small mistake and felt myself melting off. But instead of pulling harder, I backed off a bit and fixed the mistake. At the anchor I futzed around trying to find something I felt I could hold onto well enough to clip off. I found a small crimp and trusted it. Done! A terrific route people will surely love. I clipped in and rested for a while before chopping Derek's old spectra cord and lowering off. If I can climb this well feeling terrible, I need to step-up. It's going to be a great season- I can feel it! What's next?
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| Pastry Rage (5.12a) |
