So I’m onsighting this 11. The crux is a long move to a horn, very steep. The end of the rope pulls through unexpectedly and whips me in the eye, blinding me, but I pull off the onsight anyway.

OK, it didn’t happen quite like that but the real story is just so stupid.

The day started with a retrospective at Jimmy Cliff. I’ve been here before but I couldn’t get on the classic Lonesome Dove because it had an endless line. That the line was comprised entirely of people from our own party isn’t important. What’s important is that I decided to do Hammond Organ, 10d, instead. It was the lead of my life at that time. Saturday at Jimmy Cliff, as I got to start the day on Lonesome Dove, surprisingly free, I learned that Hammond Organ has been rebolted to remove the unnecessarily exciting aspect of having all the clips out of reach to the left. Also, the rickety log ladder I had to climb to get past the swampy slab is gone. The slab was clean and dry and had a bolt. Someone must done some serious gardening. Well, that’s OK. I’ll never forget Hammond Organ, and the out-of-reach bolts and slimy log ladder start are the reasons why, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to go through what I did.

Lonesome Dove was beautiful by the way.

After that my partner, who shall be referred to only as Julie’s Sport Climbing Boy Toy (JSCBT), and I went to find my 12: Things As They Are Now. There’s a 10 to the left and a 10 to the right, either one of which could be used to set up or clean the 12 but since the crux of the 12 is below and at the first bolt, you can also just stick clip it. We started on Things As They Are, the 10c to the right, as a final warm up before getting on my “project.” On the previous trip in question I’d done this one on TR and got it by the skin of my teeth. That’s the fun thing about sport climbing is that you really can lead those same things and get them by the same skin.

Then we seiged the 12. JSCBT eventually worked out the beta and I’m excited to report that not only did I repeatedly have both feet off the ground but I once even did the next move. So that should go.

In reality, once I do get the next couple of set-up moves (which I think someday I’ll be able to get) I then have to do the crux move which is a throw. Throwing isn’t my best subject, but the advantage of this route is that the crux is close to the ground, where it can be worked without doing a lot of tiring climbing to reach it, and the overall route is short. If I can hit the jug on the throw, it looks like the rest should go with work. At least this week I was actually on a 12.

Then I thoroughly embarrassed myself on the 10a to the left, but we’ll gloss over that part of the story.

Next we went over to Upper Darth Vader. We didn’t have a stick clip and it was my turn to rig up a stick stick and get the first bolt of Three Easy Pieces (11a) clipped while JSCBT put a rope up on something easy around the corner for a couple of beginners we had with us. So here’s how the eye injury/onsighting the 11 story really happened:

I put the rope bag beneath the route and untied the top end. As I pulled the end of the rope through the tie-in loop, it whipped up and whapped me in the eye. I spent the rest of the next 24 hours learning that the phrase “blinding pain” is literal not figurative. Actually, once the initial pain wore off, I thought I’d be OK and that it would naturally hurt less as the day went on. So I continued my business of getting the first bolt clipped and actually did get the first bolt clipped, which I felt pretty proud about. Then JSCBT came over and I did flash the thing, which I also felt pretty proud about. I was using both eyes though. The eye generally didn’t hurt while I was climbing.

We finished the day at Bonsai. I’d never been there before. I bet I wouldn’t have appreciated it earlier in my climbing career but now I do have enough overhanging technique to make Bonsai really fun. We did a couple of 10s and a 9 in between them that was harder than either.

As the day was wearing on, my eye was getting worse, not better. It particularly hurt while belaying which I attributed to a lack of adrenalin and needing to look up but which I guess was probably light related. The story is that I scratched my cornea in two places, which is painful and causes light sensitivity. If I’d realized that light was the problem, I could have rigged up a patch and saved myself a lot of pain on the ride home (the headlights were like ice picks through my brain). Now I have an adorable pirate patch (arrgh), some eye drops to prevent infection, and it’s already about 95% better. So all in all it was a great day and worth the temporary blindness to start working my first 12. Thanks JSCBT and friends!

Lonesome Dove, 10a
Things As They Are, 10c
Things As They Are Now, 12a
The Beginning of All Things, 10a
Three Easy Pieces, 11a
Masterpiece, 10a
Jug Line, 10b
War and Peace, 9+ (TR)