I knew Dry Heaves was going to be trouble but I thought it would be hard and reasonably well protected whereas it turned out to be reasonably easy but too scary to finish. I couldn’t commit to the last smeary/undercling moves without getting some more gear in and nothing that looked like it would take gear from the ground actually took gear once I was up there. It felt like a long way to go. I ended up backing off. Of course I’m filled with second thoughts today.

If I had my hand there, couldn’t I have gotten the #3 in right next to it? It would have been blind but a #3 is a hard thing to screw up. Am I sure I couldn’t have reached out to the #3 spot from the good stance? Maybe I could have hit the wider bit and maybe the wider bit really was #3 sized and not bigger like I thought. Would it have helped to place a small cam in the flared crack only six inches or so from the corner? Six inches isn’t much and it would have been a sucky placement but maybe I’d have felt better. Couldn’t I have just pulled through it, screw the gear? I think I could have, but what if I hadn’t?

Steven’s friend Mark had the same experience I did, so that made me feel better. He backed off after being unable to place the #3 and unwilling to continue to the end of the traverse without it. (Mark also said the final roof pitch/variation of V3 was hard for 5.8 – I said he should have tried it when it was 5.7 – so Mark was my good buddy on Saturday.) If I get on it again, I guess I’ll try to pull through without gear. Or I’ll put a TR on it from Alley Oop, which is how the day should have gone.

I wanted to do Absurdland because I’ve never led it cleanly but I wanted to warm up on something easier first so we started on Cakewalk. I remembered being scared by the start when I led it before but I’m a much stronger leader now. Didn’t matter.

Then I led Alley Oop, which doesn’t get any stars but should. It has a “bouldery start” leading to a spot where you hope you’ll get gear but don’t, then on to a final mantle move off a jug we called Mt. Kilimanjaro, it was so caked in chalk. But after that, it’s a really nice route, especially the exit moves.

Insert hours wasted on Dry Heaves here.

Later we looked at Son of Bitchy Virgin which I’d never been on. Steven said it was PG/R and I asked him, jokingly, how that compared to what I’d already done that day. Starting with the scary Cakewalk start, then on to the bouldery Alley Oop start, and finishing with the swinging Dry Heaves fall, it seemed like it wasn’t my day for good protection. As it turned out Son of Bitchy Virgin was easy enough that I didn’t mind having a piece every 25 feet, but I wouldn’t put a 5.6 leader on it.

We finished the day with Fingerlocks or Cedar Box which is a really sweet route and very well protected. Steven was hassling me to take the hexes up because there were such great hex placements but when I got up there I disocvered that there were great X placements, X being anything on your rack. It reminded me of Squamish. Alas, too short and too easy, but a great end to the day.

We never did get on Absurdland.

Cakewalk (Dawn)
Alley Oop (Dawn)
Dry Heaves (Dawn-ish)
V3 (P1: Steven)
Son of Bitchy Virgin (P1 & 2: Dawn)
Fingerlocks or Cedar Box (Dawn)