Following up on my refusal to lead any more 7s, I dived right into Broken Sling on Saturday. I’ve led Broken Sling a few times before and although those opening moves will never feel trivial, the route doesn’t scare me as long as I stay off the second pitch. I’ve led the second pitch once and I’ve followed it once and I don’t see any need to ever do it again. But the alternate finish intrigues me.

A couple of years ago, the fixed anchor at the end of P1 moved higher. I’ve got the idea now that you’re a good part of the way through the direct finish by the time you’ve clipped the anchor. It seems worth investigating. At least the fall wouldn’t be a swinging fall. The new location of the anchor actually manages to make the second pitch more dangerous for the second. Best to clip the anchor and lower, which is what I did.

Aside from Broken Sling, I led the second pitch of Yellow Ridge which is a cruiser and the first pitch of Layback, which is not. Slimy chimney thing, no pro. Freaky. I didn’t layback any of the top though. There’s no such thing as a 5.5 layback and if you’re laybacking up there, can I suggest that you try stemming across the corner? It’s less than vertical, there’s featured rock on both sides of you. The crack is huge. Why would you layback that thing? I think people do it because the name tells them to.

While I was belaying Steven up on the first pitch of Layback, we got to witness an epic on Grand Central. The leader took a nice whipper. Good to know the fall’s clean. We ended up dropping a rope down to him from the top when he decided he’d just as soon not try it again. I can’t blame him. Even though he came out fine it made me less happy about leading it again someday just from watching him.

Then we rescued some gear off of Te Dum for some guys who had just about the funniest epic story I’ve ever heard. It’s hard to imagine how you could get yourself so flummoxoned on a route with a nice fixed anchor. But then we sent Marc up there and he somehow missed the fixed anchor too. It must be protected by an invisibility cloak.

To end the day we TR’d Swingtime (or Slingtime, whichever the 10 is). It took me a few tries but I finally managed to pull over the roof. I can’t remember if I’ve been on it before or not. Todd used to try Slingtime (or Swingtime, whichever the 11 is) every once in a while, but I’m not sure I was ever on the other one.

On Sunday I dived straight into Directissima. I had tried to lead the second pitch once before and ended up hanging when I felt like I didn’t have the strength to pull the last move to the pin and was too scared I’d swing into Todd’s head if I fell. Even the first pitch has always frightened me a little, but inspired by the fact that none of the pitches are rated 5.7, I leaped right on it. The first pitch fell easily and the second capitulated as well. Although I hesitated before moving up, I had a little more gas left and my belayer was tucked away safely on the ledge, not down on the ramp where I had to worry about his head meeting my feet.

The crux of Directissima has never bothered me. It’s nearly the easiest move on the route. Once I had that pin clipped, I knew I was golden. We let Marc take the stellar third pitch while I basked in my accomplishment. Before the rain began we managed to knock off Groovy and even get Marc a ride on someone else’s TR setup on Bonnie’s, so it was a pretty full day even with an early ending.

I knew there was something wrong with the Gunks. It’s those 7s. Just skip ’em, I say. Tain’t worth it.

Saturday:
Broken Sling (P1: Dawn)
Yellow Ridge (P1: Steve, P2: Dawn, P3: Marc)
Layback (P1: Dawn, P2: Marc)
Te Dum (P1: Marc)
Swing Time (TR)

Sunday:
Directissima (P1 & 2: Dawn, P3: Marc)
Groovy (Marc)