What happened to the weather? It was supposed to be beautiful this weekend but after the rain on Saturday we woke up to fog and drizzle on Sunday. It looked like another bad day until Todd decided he was going to lead Retribution (5.10b), wet rock and all. He spent some time hanging below the crux to dry off the crucial pocket but otherwise cruised it. We all did Retribution and Nosedive (also 5.10b but way harder) and I got them both clean despite the conditions. Then we wandered on down to the Mac wall where Todd decided to lead Try Again (5.10). The man was on a mission.

To everyone’s surprise he fell off the crux (blame the dampish rock). And I had explicitly asked him if he was going to fall off before he started! Luckily there was plenty of rope drag so he didn’t take me off my feet this time. When I followed it I stopped at the famous jump move. From a ledge you have to jump to this jug. Well, I’m probably the most static climber you’ll ever see. Dynoing just isn’t my thing.

“You don’t have to jump,” a climber to my left said. “You can go up left.”

I looked over and saw all the chalk to my left and instantly decided I was going that way. It’s more moves but Dawn doesn’t dyno. The next challenge was the crux, which I’d been on before one day when Todd led Co-existence and I couldn’t pull the roof, so I’d tried pulling the roof on Try Again instead with a similar lack of sucess. On Sunday I managed on the second try, even though the holds were a little bit greasy, so I felt pretty good about that.

Todd starting up to try Fly Again (5.11+)

Once we were all done with Try Again we TR’d Co-existence (5.10+). This was actually my third time on the route. The first time, as I mentioned, I hadn’t been able to pull the roof at all. The second time I got through it after a lot of beta (and a little pulling) from Todd. So on Sunday I had some hope of getting it clean, but that wasn’t to be. Next time though.

I wanted to lead something. My lead head is too fragile these days to go a whole weekend without, so we pulled out the book to find something in my grade in the area. Somehow we ended up with Groovy (5.8+), not in the area and a little steep for me these days but very G rated and I’d followed it cleanly in the past so it seemed like a good choice. I was doing OK at first but got a bit panicked when my legs started doing the Elvis thing and I couldn’t make them stop. Steven suggested that I bail right to a good stance. I’d already thought of that. It seemed a bit like cheating, but once I had an invitation . . .

With steadier legs I got back into the corner and climbed up to the crux – the traverse under the roof. I was in a horrible smooshed position with my entire left arm stuck into the crack under the roof, my helmet jammed into the corner and my legs up by my waist. I knew I couldn’t spend long in this position, but my lead head was screaming for gear. Luckily, Steven had told me on the ground exactly which piece I needed and where it went so I managed to fumble it in almost blindly. From there it’s one move till you can clip the anchor, which I did as soon as was humanly possible. I wasn’t stopping there though – I was moving up to the higher anchor (the Ursula anchor) so we could TR Space Invaders afterward.

I was a little stymied. I couldn’t figure out how to get past the anchor. Then I realized that I needed to use the chocked block the slings were around. Because anchors are normally “off limits” the block itself had become invisible to me. Once I got that figured out I moved pretty quickly to the top anchor and lowered off, feeling really good about the lead. I’d been scared more than a few times but I’d remembered to repeat “I am strong and confident” to myself instead of crying for my belayer to help me.

I think the times I’ve been coerced into hanging on gear since my lead head problem started really have helped. Now when I’m feeling desperate I concentrate on getting in a piece and I think to myself that I’ll hang from it once its in. This helps me to feel like safety is eminent and not all the way up at the anchor. Then once the piece goes in, I usually find that I relax enough to carry on without hanging from it.

As a final bonus, I flashed Space Invaders (5.10+) on TR, the hardest route I’ve climbed cleanly at the Gunks yet. It was a great day, only spoiled by the fact that my Cowboys lost. But I guess you can’t win them all.