There were a group of us or three teams of two, depending how you count. I ended up paired with Lisa (little Lisa). We started with City Lights in one pitch. Once I got to the top I realized I should have been more thoughtful and belayed in the middle since she’d never been on it before, but she actually had no trouble with the start. She’s short but very strong. Then, since the other pairs weren’t down from their trips up the Maria wall, I led Jean. Lisa had fun on it and the second rope team down got to TR it too while we waited for the third rope team.

Then we walked down to the Madame G’s area. I started up Columbia while another group did Hawk and the third team waited for the guy starting P2 of Madame G’s to clear out as his belayer was still on the ground. As I was nearing the shared belay I realized he was climbing my route. I asked him if he was intentionally climbing Columbia and he said no and I told him he could leave his top piece and downclimb on TR and I’d clean it for him. That took a while and then his belayer pitched a fit that she was bored and could he bring her up there.

At that point, I checked out. I started up Columbia, leaving the drama beneath me. I didn’t find the right spot to trend right so I ended up climbing the corner all the way to the top, getting into some dirtier, looser stuff. But no one seems to pick the right spot to go right and if you go too soon you run into dirty, loose stuff that’s also hard and run out.

Once back on the ground I learned that our third rope team had given up on Madame G’s, which had turned into a slow-moving, bicker-fest that was still going on, and had followed us up Columbia. No one was down but us. I’d taken off a layer and thrown it from the first belay where it had ended up in a tree from which it couldn’t be dislodged, so we went up Madame G’s to get it back. I figured the folks ahead of us had a two pitch head start and were bound to clear out of the way.

I was wrong, but not by too, too much. We were at a less than comfy belay because the second was still at the comfy one when I got there, but once she made it through the crux I followed on her heels and Lisa was just as quick. We met rope party #3 at the top for a shared rap down. Fast and sweet. Oh, and Lisa got my shirt out of the tree too.

City Lights, 5.7
Jean, 5.9
Columbia, 5.9
Madame G’s, 5.6