I fell off Drunkard’s

Posted by & filed under Gunks.

Off the high traverse too. People keep asking me what happened. Well, I hit the ground, that’s what. I hit it pretty well – on my feet and only toppling back onto my butt onto the pointy rock at the last second. Then I laid down on my back for a minute. I was fine but startled and a little breathless. All across the cliff people were calling out to make sure I was OK so eventually I had to stand up so everyone would know I was OK and stop worrying about me. I think I shrieked pretty good. “Falling” but maybe something non-verbal as well. And then the sound of climber hitting ground. I bet that’s pretty distinctive.

I’ve done Drunkard’s so many times and it’s always scary, of course. I prefer to do it with my feet on the good holds instead of my hands on the good holds. This unfortunately puts me somewhat higher and makes it harder to get to whatever questionable gear there is to begin with, so I’ve always soloed it. It’s not actually hard when you do it on the good feet, I tell people. It’s like 5.4. If it were on the ground you wouldn’t think twice about it.

It was a dampish day and I had my hand on one of the nothing-really-there holds that I use to keep my balance while my feet do all the work and the next thing I knew my hand was slipping off that hold and there went my balance with it. I waved my arms in the air looking for all the world like the coyote who hasn’t figured out yet that gravity requires him to fall. It was like I almost could stop it, but no.

So after I picked myself up I told Laura that I supposed I had to do it now or I’d never do it again and I went back up there and did the high traverse without gear again, only without hitting the ground this time. I guess the good thing is that I know the fall isn’t so bad if you stick the landing. That ought to add to the confidence level which ought to help keep me over my feet next time.

Red Cabbage, 5.9
Pink Laurel, 5.9
Classic, P2 (Laura)
Drunkard’s Delight
Travels with Charlie, P1 (Andrew)
Strictly from Nowhere, P1 (Laura)

Dry rock at Rumney

Posted by & filed under Rumney.

Having had a little too much of Gunks seepage, I escaped to Rumney with Dan where I made another pitiful attempt on my 12. Everyone must try my 12. No one can do it but Scott (and eventually Todd) but all must try. I did finally figure out the sequence on Bullwinkle Craters, so maybe next time on that one.

Things You Should Have Learned in Kindergarden, 5.6
Things I Never Learned, 5.9
Things As They Are Now, 12a
The Beginning of All Things, 10a (follow)
Debbie Does CPR, 11a
Bullwinkle Craters, 11b
Couch Potato, 5.9
Ten of Spades, 10c
Air and Pleasant Danger, 5.8

Will we ever see dry rock again?

Posted by & filed under Gunks.

Sente was harder than I remembered it, fresh bolts and all. I led that one many moons ago as one of my early 8 plus/9 minuses and sailed up it for all I can recall. The bolts have gotten better but I think the moves have gotten harder. Someone suggested that the hardness stems from a foolish insistence on climbing the bolt line. That someone may have been me. I was a little left, but perhaps the first time I led it I was even more left.

Thin Slabs Direct, which we did as a finish to Sente, is absurdly challenging.

Son of Easy O (Dawn)
Absurdland (Scott)
Sente (Dawn)
Thin Slabs Direct (Scott)
Erect Direction (P1: Dawn)
Three Doves (P1: Scott)
Annie Oh (P2: Dawn)

Racing rope teams

Posted by & filed under Gunks.

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

New Hampshire Waterfalls

Posted by & filed under Cathedral, Rumney.

Paulina wrote:

where does one go on Memorial Day weekend? If one wishes to avoid the crowds that is… Clearly not Cathedral Ledge.

I went to Cathedral Ledge.

First we climbed – very slowly – two pitches of a route that all the locals kept pointing us to but which was, surprisingly, free. This should have been a tip off. I spent most of the route afraid for my life and ultimately skipped “the mantel” which is the whole point of the route (and didn’t even have the courtesy to run the rope so Steven could try it).

Then we sat on the Upper Refuse ledge for about 2 hours waiting for the approximately 20 people arrayed above us to leave. (It never happened.)

Then we did P1 of Book of Solemnity, which possibly made the whole trip worthwhile for me, and were lucky enough to catch a ride to the ground (through a nest of red ants who apparently also wanted a ride to the ground) on someone else’s double ropes.

Three pitches car to car: approximately 7 hours.

What wasn’t helping the crowds is that the other side of the Kanc was soaking. Rumney was nearly unclimbable Saturday (only the bolts made it climbable) and we didn’t even go near Cannon although that was the original plan. I wasn’t going to do that approach only to see yet another waterfall cascading down my route of choice.

Saturday at Rumney:
Bolt and Run, 5.9
Terrace, 5.8
Romancing the Stone, 10c
Junco, 5.8
Nuthatch, 5.7 (Steven)
Things As They Are Now, 12a
Mutiny, 10b
Keel-Ho, 10a

Sunday at Cannon:
Three Birches, 5.8+ (P1 & 2: Dawn)
Book of Solemnity, 10a (P1: Dawn)

The luck runs out

Posted by & filed under Gunks.

We’ve had a long, funny spring of rain-filled forecasts followed by rainless weekends. It’s kept the Gunks mostly empty and the rock mostly dry. Today, however, the luck ran out and we got rained on, but not until I revisited Arc of a Diver and got over that little roof on pitch one that had stumped me before.

Trusty Rifle, 5.9 (Dawn)
Arc of a Diver, 5.9 (Dawn)

24 people pitches

Posted by & filed under Gunks.

Not bad for a rainy day. The drive was a gamble and I thought I’d be home early. As it turned out, there wasn’t a sprinkle all day and I didn’t get home until after ten. Although I started the day unmotivated, I forced myself to do something and got more motivated as the day went on.

In one day I led Dirty Gerdie (scary), BB Route (hard and hung on before), Maria Direct (all of the above) and Absurdland (more of the same). All clean. At the end of the day, Steven wanted to do Sonja (of course) and I refused (only sensibly) so I took a stab at Stupid Crack instead. The thing that’s starting to seem hopeless in my quest to climb a 12 is that I can’t do the moves on a 12. At least, not the 12 moves. I’m not ever going to link the moves if I can’t do the moves. Maybe I should just stick to leading 9s on gear.

Dirty Gerdie, 5.8+ (Dawn)
Rhododendron, 5.6 (Steven)
BB Route, 5.8 (Dawn)
Maria Direct, 5.9 (Dawn)
Maria, 5.6 (last two pitches, Steven)
V3, 5.7 (Steven)
Absurdland, 5.9- (Dawn)
Sonja, 5.10 (TR) & Stupid Crack, 12- (TR)

Waiting in the Rain

Posted by & filed under Rumney.

A long day with a lot of waiting around, unfortunately. A bit of a wait in the morning as Scott and I were quicker and more prompt than some and then a long wait at the end of the day when it started to rain and Scott and I bailed and the rest didn’t. Learned the right way to start Things As They Are Now but didn’t get any further up it. Almost flashed Peer Pressure but made a wrong move at the top and then gave up instead of trying to downclimb or find a better option or just pull through. Kind of disappointed in myself over that one. Hard to believe Oby-Won Ryobi is 5.9+. That’s a steep, hard 9.

Things I Never Learned (5.9)
Things As They Are (10c and wet!)
Things As They Are Now (12a)
Yoda (5.9)
Oby-Won Ryobi (5.9+)
Peer Pressure (10d)
Arm and Hammer (11b)

Closer . . . clooooser

Posted by & filed under Rumney.

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)

So NOT a 12

Posted by & filed under Rumney.

I didn’t really think I’d climb a 12 on Saturday. I wasn’t even planning to get on a 12. My goals were to do some 11s and to take some falls. I failed at both. I did try an 11 but I didn’t get to the top and the next hardest thing I tried, a 10d, I had to hang all over. Which I did. Hang, I mean, rather than fall, so it was kind of a double failure.

I learned that I need to learn Rumney and that the 11s up there aren’t going to be easier than the 11s at the gym. It’s not like I flash 11s at the gym. So I’m probably going to need to spend a few months working 11s and learning to sport climb (i.e. take falls) and familiarizing myself with the rock and the moves at Rumney. And then I’ll pick out a 12.

The most important thing I learned this weekend is that if I want to climb with the big boys I’m going to have to learn how to belay with a gri-gri. A lot of sport climbers feel like they’re not safe if you’re not using one. I don’t agree with them but it’s not the belayer who needs to feel safe. For this weekend, at least, I convinced them that they were safer with me belaying if I used my normal device. I convinced them of this by displaying supreme gri-gri incompetence. I’ve belayed with one before but not often and only on TR. I understand the concepts but some of them have never been put into practice. Threading it, for instance.

You know how a gym climber can be mystified by a rope without the starter 8 pre-tied into it? That was me trying to thread a gri-gri. I’m not sure I’ve ever done it before. On the rare occasion that I’ve used one it was pre-threaded and I only checked it. I mean, I know I’ve got to be the hand, but orienting everything right side up, left side left, and so the rope goes to the climber isn’t a no brainer. As I stared at the device in one hand and the rope in the other in obvious befuddlement my partner finally said, “Just use your ATC.” And I don’t blame him.

So to prepare for climbing a 12, in addition to forcing myself to boulder, I will force myself to become comfortable with a gri-gri. Maybe I’ll even buy one of my own, although it hardly seems necessary. On Saturdy our group of five had three ropes, three sets of draws, and three gri-gris.

Anyway, I had a great time Saturday. The rain held off and the company was excellent. Hopefully they’ll let me climb with them again even if I’m not gri-gri certified.

Sixth Sense, 5.6
Son of Sammy, 5.8+
Bullwinkle Craters, 11b
Dog Star, 10b
Puppy Love, 5.9
Bad Dog Arete*, 5.9
Dog Biscuit, 10c
F’ing the Dog, 10d
Tool Time, 10d (on TR)
Little Angler, 5.8

* I can’t find the bolted arete variation to Bad Dog Crack listed anywhere but the consensus at the crag seemed to be that it went at 5.9.