Wednesday, October 14, 2009

North Rim Temples: Hayden, Vishnu, Tritle

The Grand Canyon is one of the truly sublime sights on earth. No one can gaze upon it and not be taken aback, staring in awe. I've seen this sight quite a few times and it's like coming into Yosemite Valley and seeing El Capitan. It is just overwhelming. The canyon is huge, at 200+ miles long and 10-20 miles wide. Its interior is a massively complex series of side canyons, but the most interesting part, for a climber, is the 5000-foot relief and the summits littered throughout the interior. These summits are called Temples and some of them are extremely arduous to climb. Most of them are not technically that challenging, but the actual climbing on the temples is frequently not the crux. 

The most well-known to climbers is Zoroaster Temple. This Temple is accessed from the South Rim, yet it in on the north side of the river. Oh, and it's higher than the south rim. To climb it involves over 10,000 vertical feet of climbing and 32 miles of travel. Oh, and five pitches up to 5.9. By far the most photographed temple is Mt. Hayden, which is very close to the north rim. This was the first objective for my most recent trip to the Grand Canyon.

Homie and I drove out Friday, after work, and picked up the Loobster in Grand Junction around 9:30 p.m. We continued until 12:30 a.m. before sleeping at a rest stop. 

Saturday: Mt. Hayden

After five hours of sleep, we got up at 4:30 Arizona time (5:30 MDT). We stopped in De Motte to get a campground reservation and then drove into the Park and directly to Imperial Point. After a quick bite, we packed up our gear and headed off at 11:10 a.m.

From our online resource and especially my friend Opie's trip report, we knew the descent was a thorn-bush nightmare. Everyone recommended leather gloves and thick clothing. Homie bought a pair of gloves at a convenience store on the trip out there. I brought some old ski gloves. I also had a grand plan for body protection. I wore a jacket and pants made of coated nylon, thinking the thorns would slide off this material and not pierce it. In that respect, I was right and it provided great protection. I went up and down the dreaded approach gully with just a single scratch on my ankle from not wearing longer socks. This protection came at a cost though. Not only did I look like a hazmat worker in my Day-Glo yellow suit, but I came to realize why people pay so much money for Gortex. By the time I took off the nylon after 45 minutes of descending my shirt was just as wet as if I had jumped into a pool. I lost at least two pounds of liquids in each direction. While my companions didn't look like they had just escaped from the local prison, they too were well protected. Homie would take to the leather gloves so much that he brought them along for every climb on the trip.

At the bottom of the descent is a narrow, loose, very dangerous gully. It is filled with loose blocks and loose logs and carpeted with loose sand and dirt on top of slippery, breakable sandstone. Homie led us down to the pinch where there was a fixed-line. The climbing is only 4th class here, but it's so loose that he used the line as a handhold. Once he was down, I decided to do a dulpherzits rappel, wrapping the rope over my shoulder and then back between my legs. I'd used this harness-less rappel technique once before, about twenty-five years ago. It was so painful that I vowed to never repeat it, but these were different circumstances. Normally you'd have to have padding to consider this technique, but I figured my Haz-Mat suit would provide some protection and a nice frictionless surface as well. 

I wrapped the rope around me and when weighted it, we heard something move above. Loobster, who was off to the side, screamed, "Look out! Bill! Bill!" I couldn't see anything from where I was, but I heard the booming sound from above and knew trouble was coming. I tried to move out of the way to my left, but there was nowhere to go. I couldn't go right with the rope around me. I was stuck directly in the path of a huge rock. When I finally saw the rock come over the edge, I thought, for the fourth time this year, that I was dead. The rock was a rectangular block shaped like three microwave ovens, end to end. If I was downclimbing this section, I would have died, as there was no way to avoid this rock, as even jumping down the cliff would only have the rock landing on me. In an instant, I knew my only hope was to jump over it, if the tumbling of the rock allowed such a maneuver. Being attached to the rope allowed me to jump and yet not fall down the cliff. The rock crashed right in front of me and as it came down I leapt into the air doing my best to emulate Michael Jordan. Aided by life-threatening adrenalin, I sprang into the air for a personal best 12-inch vertical leap. I sucked up my legs and the block passed beneath me. I immediately thought of Homie down below, but he is young and quick and he was on the ground. He scampered out of the way before the boulder demolished everything at the bottom of the cliff. Yikes!

Once through the heinous bushwhack, we made our way over much easier terrain down to the saddle and then up to the base of the route on the Southeast side of the temple. We got to the base of the route after 70 minutes and I was heading up the first pitch after an hour and 25 minutes. The route is three pitches long, but the last pitch is mostly a 3rd class scramble. I led on a 9.3 mm line and a 7.8mm line. Homie and Loobster would simul-second on different ropes. The first pitch was pretty bushy and, in fact, the whole route could use a good wax job. I ran out 150 feet of rope on surprisingly fun 5.6 climbing to a big ledge. The boys followed and I headed up the second pitch, traversing right over to a neat chimney, which I climbed for a bit before moving left out onto the face where there was a good hand crack. I stopped at another good ledge after probably 120 feet where there were two old bolts and a newer one. Looby and Homie followed easily and I then scampered up easy ledges to one 5th-class short section and up to just below the summit. The direct finish was too tempting to pass up. It was completely unprotected, but consisted of an eight-foot, 5.9 boulder problem. I grabbed the top of the wall and used the only foothold out to the left, smearing my right on the vertical face. I deadpointed to another edge and repeated that one more time, before mantling up the finish. I was on top. Both Loobster and Homie took the direct finish as well, putting their rigorous gym workouts to good use.

The raps went easily if you don't count the macrame knots I made out of the ropes. In Opie's report he mentions doing the return trip in 1h38m. Now, as any of my friends or family will tell you, I'm not normally a competitive guy, but I wondered aloud whether we could match "Opie Time." We reversed back to the bushwhack, donned the yellow suit, and thrashed upwards. The ascent of the gully was nearly as dangerous as the descent, but we were careful. Above we headed more to the left and found the going marginally easier. We got back to Imperial Point 5.5 hours after leaving it, doing the return trip in an hour and twenty minutes. We were greeted by a female ranger and her group. They treated us as if we'd just returned from Everest. 

Sunday: Vishnu Temple

I was put off by the 12 miles of hiking just getting to and from the rim for Manu, so we switched to the 3-star Vishnu Temple. If I had known what I know now, I'd have stuck with Manu...

My phone's time was messed up and I inadvertently got up at 4:20. When this was brought to my attention we went back to bed until 4:45 a.m. It was quite cold (37 degrees) while we dressed, nuked some coffee and breakfast burritos, and headed for Cape Royal (with Cheese, for those Pulp Fiction fans). 

The ghost bison of the Walhalla Plateau were supposed to be mythical beasts and when I noticed the big, dark shapes moving off to my left on the drive in, I thought I was hallucinating, but then an entire herd came thundering out of the darkness and into my headlight beams. Bison at the Grand Canyon? Yes! The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is high, over 8800 feet in some spots, and it's even higher a ways back from the rim. We'd see this herd the next day as well.

It was more than an hour's drive from our campsite at De Motte and we didn't hit the trail until 6:45 a.m. We'd regret wasting those 45 minutes of daylight at the end of the day. The guidebook rates this temple "Difficult", the hardest rating, with "serious elevation change." This is true. The total amount of climbing would be only 5000 vertical feet - about what Longs Peak entails - but that does not tell the story. Nor does the total mileage. So much so as to render these statistics almost meaningless. We hiked for 10 minutes on a nice, paved trail out to Cape Royal and took some photos of our objective. Then we backtracked a hundred feet and left the trail for the rest of the day.

We dropped off the rim with some easy scrambling and then descended loose dirt and scree slopes to a small cliff, which we scrambled and continued down to a larger cliff. Here we traversed along a very cool ledge for a few hundred feet. The ledge narrowed to a foot in width at one point and Homie found it more secure to remove his pack so that he could better keep his weight over his feet. This section would be the most enjoyable of the entire day. In fact, climbing a temple like Vishnu is really a curious endeavor. It is indeed very hard and very physical, but it doesn't involve difficult climbing skills. The route is only rated 4th class, though it is probably more like 5.2 or 5.3. The mileage and vertical are large, but well within range of a strong hiker. So, why isn't this temple climbed more often? We were aiming for the 29th overall ascent. The first ascent was done in 1945, before Everest was climbed, but the tallest mountain on earth has now been climbed over 3000 times now and Vishnu is still under 30 ascents. Clearly, it is because it doesn't appeal to most people, and for good reason. It is grueling and dangerous. Not life-threatening dangerous, mostly, but almost every step is fraught with some type of danger. 

We descended down and to our right to a nice camp spot, arriving there in 50 minutes. After one false descent, we found the first rappel anchor, around a huge block. This rappel was only twenty feet long and while very steep was near a squeeze chimney. We'd all climb up this on the way back, without a belay, but we fixed a rope here. We then dropped down into the big, brushy gully on our right and descended quite a ways to the top of the precipitous Coconino band, where we fixed a hundred-foot rope (the rappel and jug is only about eighty feet). The rappel was dead vertical at the top and the bottom thirty feet hung free. This would make for some strenuous jugging on the way out. We stashed the jugging gear and some extra water here. Of course, we'd also left behind two ropes, so we continued much lighter. We still had a few slings, harnesses, a 100-foot section of 7.8mm rope and helmets, along with our food, water, and extra clothes.

We now descended and started a traverse to the east (our left), contouring into the Vishnu Drainage. We laboriously picked our way down through two Supai cliff bands. The first band was actually two separate cliffs separated by a significant slope of lesser angled terrain.  The first cliff was descended by steep, juggy 3rd class climbing. It took us a while to find the next section. The description was to climb "over and under a chockstone" at the top of a squeeze chimney. Indeed this was exactly the case and was perhaps the most fun climbing of the entire day - all thirty feet of it. We cut across the drainage just above the third band. Here is looked like there was no way down, but ledges connected and we zig-zagged down the band and into the drainage. We didn't stay long, though. We started a mile-long traverse just above the famous "Red Band". The Red Band is the most monolilthic cliff band in the Grand Canyon. Breaching this band is frequently the crux of the temple approaches, but for this temple we started above it and would never need to dip below it. 

I don't know how to adequately describe the next mile. It took us a solid hour, working hard the entire time. We traversed a steep slope, yes, but the slope consisted of loose boulders, steep side gullies, dense brush, prickly pears, and scrambling problems. Rarely did a single step not gain or lose elevation. Working so hard, yet barely getting closer was frustrating. It took us three hours to start this traverse and we were four hours and five minutes into our day when we arrived at the Freya Castle - Vishnu col. We took a break here to eat and drink. We were all in complete agreement that we must get out of the canyon before dark, as the going was so complex and there were hardly any signs of passage besides the cairn every twenty minutes or so and our faint footsteps in the loose soil. We did the math. We started with 11.5 hours of total daylight. The height of Vishnu was three hundred feet below the rim, so the climb out would be bigger than the climb in. We'd hopefully be quicker knowing the route (if we could remember it all), but we'd also be more tired. We needed to summit this mountain in six hours.

In order to save some energy, the Loobster and I ditched a lot of our gear here and combined it into one pack. We headed up the North Ridge of Vishnu 4h20m into the day. Breaching the first two Supai bands was easy but the monstrous third band stymied us. The description said to traverse to the right to the second "bay." We had no idea what a bay was, but in retrospect, if we had just looked at the dang photo in the guidebook, we'd have known where to go. This was an error that cost us at least twenty minutes as I probed to possibilities that ended in solid 5th class climbing. Homie saved the day by finally biting the bullet and hiking so far around to the right that he found the route. The Loobster and I followed. 

We entered a gully and climbed upwards on some solid, fun scrambling that was way too short-lived before got into loose, crumbly climbing. We topped out the last Supai band and then continued up the gully into the Coconino band. After topping that we traversed hard left into another loose gully and then up a steep slot to a sub-ridge of the North Ridge. Up to that point we'd been climbing mostly on the west face, near the north ridge, but this is a big mountain. We scrambled upwards on complex ground through some more cliff bands to a final steep slope that led to the Kaibab cap. The Kaibab is limestone and generally pretty solid with plentiful handholds. We did some 3rd and 4th class scrambling with one tricky low 5th-class crux which put us nearly at the summit. The final block was twenty feet high and nearly vertical. It was so intimidating that the Loobster didn't believe it could be correct. Homie and I were surprised as well, since the guidebook said the final section is surmounted by a 10-foot crack on the east side. I can categorically state that this is incorrect. I looked on the east side from the summit and there is no crack there. You can descend 4th terrain in that direction a bit but then get cliffed out. When I saw the stack of cheater rocks at the start of the steep wall, I knew it had to be it. Also, it was clearly the highest point. :-)

The climbing was probably 5.2 or 5.3. The holds were really positive and the only difficult part was the lack of footholds at the start. The summit was quite spacious with a military-style foot-locker summit register. We were the first ascent of the year and indeed the 29th ascent. It was climbed twice in 2008, once in 2007, once in 2005, once in 2002, and once in 2000. Vishnu is not a real popular summit. It had taken us six hours and 25 minutes to gain the top. We stayed for 15 minutes and while we didn't say anything until then, we knew ascending the last half-hour meant being caught in the dark. It was also clear that after so much effort, we weren't going to turn back without this summit. We'd worry about the consequences of getting lost in the dark when the situation came up.

We started down with some urgency, to be sure. Eleven and a half hours minus six and a half hours plus gave us less than five hours to reverse our route. The descent back to the saddle went quickly, taking just 80 minutes. We ate and drank and moved on after ten minutes. Seventy-five more minutes and we were back across the traverse and the Vishnu drainage. It had taken three hours to get there on the approach and now we had to climb up 1900 feet instead of descending it. It was 5 p.m. and we had 90 minutes of daylight. We really wanted to get up the fixed lines before turning on the headlamps, but we were all fading a bit. I started to have some serious thigh cramps here. Homie fed me three electrolyte tablets and I downed the rest of our Gatorade. The cramps went away about 30 minutes later and a potential disaster was avoided. 

We got to the first line in 45 minutes and Loobster jugged first. Once on top, he lowered the jugging gear back down and while Homie jugged, Loobster hauled up all three packs. I went last and everyone moved pretty efficiently up this line, especially Homie who last jugged seven years ago on Shiprock. We packed up the rope and carefully picked our way up the prickly-pear infested gully to the second fixed-line. Homie was nearly at the top, just climbing the rock and grabbing the rope, by the time I arrived. He hauled up all three packs in less than a minute and belayed the Loobster as he climbed this section. I also climbed it and we stripped off the harnessed and packed up all our gear. We also turned on our headlamps. Earlier I was quite concerned about finding our way back to the rim and kept going over this section in my mind, trying to remember each section and in which order they came. I needn't have worried because Homie did a great job finding our footprints on the way back to the rim. He has a great sense of direction and is a natural route finder. It was tiring, dirty work, but after 45 minutes we finally regained the rim and the paved trail. There was much rejoicing and high-fiving. We'd done it.

The roundtrip for this adventure was only 9 miles, but we moved nearly continuously and it took us 12.5 hours. Besides the five minutes on the paved trail at the start, there isn't a single step that is on any trail and most of the terrain is difficult, loose, and dangerous. Prickly pear cactus cropped up often enough that we all had numerous painful encounters with these desert beasts. The hiking is on loose, steep dirt and talus and cliffs with friable rock. In the Grand Canyon there are tiers of vertical cliffs

Monday: Tritle Peak

Today was mostly a rest day. We were pretty beat up from the day before and didn't set an alarm. We lounged around a bit upon waking and then headed back into the park. We still hadn't been to the main area of the North Rim: Bright Angel Point, where there is a nice lodge with many cabins, all clustered close to the rim. Despite having no vacancy in their 130 rooms, the place didn't seem crowded. The experience here is nothing like the crazy zoo on the South Rim.  The road out to the North Rim doesn't open until the late Spring and by then it is quite hot down in the Canyon itself, so the ideal time to come here is in late September to early October. I'll definitely be back.

We hiked the short trail out to the Bright Angel Point and this is a great trail, built right into the rock with wonderful exposure everywhere and frequent places to stop and rest. We took advantage of them all, despite the entire trail being only a few hundred yards long. Near here is also where the North Kaibab tops out. This in fact is the only point where all of us had been to the North Rim before. We have all done the Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim hike/run where we started on the South Rim and hiked over to the North Rim and back. Since we had all only done this in the early Spring, the North Rim was still inaccessible by car and snow covered the ground. 

We had a great lunch in the large dining room of the Lodge, with it's 30-foot vaulted ceiling. My view out the huge, picturesque windows was of Zoroaster and Brahma Temples. There are probably nicer places to eat, but not that many. Outside is a huge stone deck with wicker rocking chairs. I longed to sit there and just stare at the canyon, or perhaps, read a book. Instead, I decided we needed to climb something. Homie had mentioned that Tritle Peak, on the road out to Cape Royal, was only a mile, roundtrip, from the road. The guidebook said the 4th class route could be approached in under an hour. I felt this was a fitting objective for our rest day and we were off.

The Point Rooseveldt trailhead the Loobster opted for a nap instead, claiming that his `/3-pound burger had put him into a coma. I was ready to go when Homie walked around from the other side and said, "Geez, what do you have in that pack? It's huge!" My tiny HAWG pack was filled with a 100-foot rope, some gear, and a harness. I figured Homie would appreciate the security of a rope since the route, while only rated 4th class, mentioned an 80-foot rappel. Chastised for my caution, I hurriedly emptied my pack and we were off.

We followed the trail a couple hundred yards out to the point and then dropped down the ridge heading straight for our temple, which lay on the other side of an even larger and, from the looks of it, considerably harder, temple that blocked the ridge. We dropped down on the north side and did more of the now-familiar but persistently unpleasant side-hilling. Once past the big temple, we side-hilled around Tritle to get to teh easier East Ridge. We were a little taken aback by how steep the climb was. Homie commented that this was "California 4th class," noting the difficulty of some of the Sierra summits. I climbed up in my running shoes, wondering why I left the climbing shoes behind along with the rope. The crux section was about fifteen feet long, but it was sixty feet off the deck and involved some liebacking and mantling. I thought the climbing was more like 5.3 and it felt serious because of the exposure. Homie had brought a 10-foot piece of webbing and after tying loops in both ends we had eight feet with which to "belay" Homie. I sat on the scree-covered ledge holding one loop and dropped the other end to Homie. He threaded the other loop around his left wrist and proceeded up with caution. This was a crazy arrangement, of course. With the sling attached to his wrist, I couldn't give a constant tug of security and if he fell, I'd take a jolt as his arm extended, likely pulling me off as well. But he wasn't going to fall and just needed the psychological security that I was there for him. 

Above this was a series of boulder problems where you could grab the flat top of a ledge but were given minimal footholds. I solved each one with some combination of mantles. Soon we were on top, signing the register. We'd gone from the RV to the summit in 34 minutes. After ten minutes we carefully reserved our route back to the ground, using the same sling-belay illusion for security. We were back at the car after an hour and twenty minutes and immediately headed for Zion. Our plan was to bag something short the next morning and drive home by that night. 

Back in the day, I'd park my RV in Yosemite, in the parking lane adjacent to El Cap Meadow and sleep there for many nights. Nowadays that's a difficult feat to pull off, but I figured we could pull the same trick in sleepy 'ole Zion Park. Those country bumpkin rangers probably are in bed by 9 p.m. Sure enough, when we passed through the east entrance gate, it was closed down. A bunch of signs had warned us that RVs were not allowed to drive through the Zion tunnel without an escort. I knew about this restriction, but we had no intention of traveling through the tunnel to the main canyon, for we wanted to climb a done on the East Side. Our plan was to just park in the turnout for our climb and sleep there.

I drove to our turn-out and pulled over and almost immediately a ranger lady pulled up beside us. She had just closed down the entrance we had come through and pulled over to make sure we knew the tunnel wasn't an option for us. Now, I had a bit of a dilemma here. I couldn't come out and admit that we planned to sleep on the side of the road since that was illegal, yet there were no camping spots whatsoever on this side of the tunnel. I also didn't want her to think that my plan was go through the tunnel since that would have been very dangerous and illegal. Hence, what was I doing? When she walked up to my window, I spoke first: "Do you know a good place to turn around?" Now at this point I hadn't done anything technically illegal. When asked, I assured her that we had no intention of going through the tunnel, which was true, but I'm sure she thought I must have been planning this, since most RVers don't sleep by the side of roads. She asked, "Well then, what were you thinking when you came in here?" "Uh... Umm... We just wanted to see the sunset on the Checkerboard Mesa..." 

She drove off and I drove down a bit further before finding a spot in which to turn around. This lower turn-out was a bit flatter and we decided to sleep the night there. The Loobster, ever the law-abiding citizen, was his usual Nervous Nelly, imagining roving bands of rangers on nocturnal patrol, wielding nightsticks. I ignored him and we started up a movie. Two hours later we figured we were in the clear and went to sleep. An hour later a ranger on nocturnal patrol was pounding on my door. The Loobster was wide awake, too anxious to sleep in fearing the inevitable. I was blissfully sawing logs in the back when the Loobster woke me up. He said, "Get up there and deal with this dude." 

I opened the door still rubbing the sleepy seeds out of my eyes. I found a round-faced, big-boned ranger who politely told me that "there is no sleeping in parking areas in Zion...just like every other National Park." "You don't say?" I said, "Why is that? We aren't bothering anyone." He said, "Sir, do I need to beat you with my nightstick?" I said, "Do you know who I am?" He gave me a blank look, so I continued. "I don't know exactly how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal. People know me. I have many leather-bound books and Buzz Burrell and Dave Mackey are personal friends of mine." And then, in my best Scott Boulbol impersonation, I went for broke. "Look, I don't normally do this, but I'm just going to put it out there. If you don't like it, just send it right back to me. I think you should just let me sleep wherever I like, whenever I like. What do you think about there?"

And so, at 11 p.m., we found ourselves driving east out of Zion National Park...

Tuesday: Aires Butte and South Ariel Peak

The next morning we were back, however. After breakfast and some quick packing, we were off to the Southeast Ridge route on Aires Butte. It was 7:30 a.m. This was a 4-pitch 5.5 sport climb that involved a thousand feet of gain and two miles of hiking for the roundtrip. Courtney, the author of Zion Summits (highly recommended by the way) said the climb took 5.-7 hours for the roundtrip. I allocated three for us. A hundred yards down the road we dropped into a sandy wash, hiking north. Soon we left the wash and headed up the most beautiful slick slabs. Compared to the bushy nightmares of the Grand Canyon, this was the Brazilian wax job of approaches. It was like inclined pavement. We could gain altitude at any rate we liked or could sustain. Go up at an angle and took a bit longer, or power straight up and get a killer calf workout. 

We hiked to the "center of the universe", the saddle between Aires Butte and South Ariel Peak and then north towards our route. As we approached the steep, intimidating nature of the wall above us belied any sign of casual passage. Nevertheless, we continued upwards and around until finally spotting a drilled piton. The climbing just gradually gets steeper until if finally becomes 5th class. The route is never very steep and the climbing consists almost entirely of friction-slab climbing. Each pitch has 2-4 bolts or drilled pitons (I wonder how the first ascensionist decided when to use a piton and when to use a bolt, since no piton was actually placed in a natural crack). I led, trailing two 60-meter ropes for Homie and Loobster to simul-second on. We took the two ropes for the rappel descent. 

The climbing was super easy, but super fun. We all thoroughly enjoyed the climb and before I was done with the first pitch I was making plans to return with my wife and boys. Homie and Loobster climbed so fast I had trouble keeping up with the rope. We were on top an hour and twenty minutes after leaving the RV. We signed the summit register, which wasn't on the summit, but instead at the top of the route. We hiked around the spacious top and found the true summit on the far side in the midst of some trees. The raps went easily and after stowing the climbing gear we soloed up the 3rd class north ridge of South Ariel Peak. This jaunt only gained three hundred feet from the saddle. We picked out way down the East Ridge with some 4th class slab climbing and zig-zag traversing to get to the smooth, fun slick rock that led us clear down to the road.

We were driving home by 10:30 a.m. Right on schedule. It has been a great trip. We'd done five new summits over the two full days and two half days of our trip. I'd finally visited the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and while I can't imagine ever going back to Vishnu, I will definitely be back to the North Rim. I'm already thinking about Manu Temple...

Friday, July 31, 2009

At the Castle with Lord Byron

Years ago I made Country Club Crack (CCC) on Castle Rock a project of mine. The first pitch is a boulder problem face move rated 11b/c and the second pitch is a beautiful hand crack that passes a roof and pinches down to off-fingers at the crux (11b). I eventually got both pitches clean, but that seemed a lifetime ago this morning.

I met Byron at the Justice Center in west Boulder at 6 a.m. and we drove 12 miles up the Canyon to Castle Rock. It had been raining all week and I wasn't surprised to see the first pitch slab moves covered in water. This was my lead, as Byron wanted the crack and felt he was close to redpointing it. I stood in a sling on the first bolt, did one move, clipped and grabbed the draw at the second bolt and then made tenuous moves left and up over wet ground. This was a bit scary, but got to the crack without incident.

The crack itself is rated 5.8, but it's more like 5.9. It has a tricky, flared start and I was a bit desperate here and almost fell off. The rest of the pitch has some challenging moves, but interspersed with nice stances for placing gear. Fifty feet up I clipped the belay bolts and brought Byron up. Byron didn't like the wet slab below any more than I did.

Byron fired the crack pitch up to and over the roof to the leg-hook rest. He looked really solid, placing lots of gear easily. When I redpointed this pitch I had it down so well that I could go further between gear, but I needed to do that to save energy for the crux above. That doesn't seem to be an issue with Byron. He has power to burn.

At the crux Byron plugged a key jam with piece and had to downclimb, place a different piece, and remove the other piece. By the time he did all this, he needed a rest and hung on the rope. So close. After a brief rest, he fired the crux and up to the belay. He made the pitch look reasonable and since I had it down pretty well before, I figured it might go well for me also. Not so much.

The pitch has nice jamming, but it's tight in a lot of places and the crack leans a bit to the left, making it a bit more strenuous because of the difficulty with the feet. I barely made it to the stem rest below the roof and rested quite awhile. I pulled the roof with the thinnest of margins and rested from the leg-hook, though it isn't that restful, as your leg and abdominals are still working.

I climbed up to the crux, pumped silly and hung on the rope. After a rest, I climbed a bit higher and hung again. Finally, I was able to do the crux move and barely do the traverse to the right. I remember this was so pumpy when I first starting working this route and it eventually became really casual. It's back to be being really pumpy.

Ah, the memories... This is a great route. I should start working this baby again and try to get some fitness back. We rapped off and I was at work before 9 a.m.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Outer Space w/ Buzz

Buzz had recently climbed Outer Space with Bill Briggs and done really well. He wanted to return and lead the first pitch (10a), so I led the approach pitch (Werk Supp). Buzz fired the pitch! I was shocked. That is a very tricky and pumpy pitch. He looked better leading than I felt following. I led the second pitch (10c), which was a nemesis pitch for me for a long time, but I've got it wired now...

Apparently I forgot the beta. I barely made it through the first crux and was baffled at an intermediate crux before liebacking it (a feared technique for me since I'm weak). Then the last crux - going left stumped me for a long time and when I finally tried something it was wrong and I came within an inch of falling off of it. I was so pumped doing the last easy moves that it was scary. Dang...

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Bastille with Tom

The Naked Edge is now open and I need to build my fitness to climb this route. I met Tom this morning at 5:30 a.m. to start this process. We did Hair City (5.9) with Tom leading the runout first pitch and I leading the surprisingly burly 5.9 roof second pitch with the massive, but easy, runout above.

We descended and Tom led Breakfast in Bed (5.8) and then descended again and I led the first pitch of Out to Lunge (5.9) and Tom led the second pitch above the walk-off ledge (also 5.9). That was enough and we headed to work.

Friday, July 03, 2009

Reggae and Tagger with Mark Oveson

Mark and I hit Eldo again to get in some more training for Mark. The goal is to get him back to solid 5.8 climbing so that he is comfortable to try the East Face of Mt. Alice.

We started on Calypso and I led the first pitch up to the anchors. Mark followed, but not in the trivial manner he used to climb this pitch. He paused at a couple of tricky sections. I then zipped up the very familiar Reggae (5.8). Mark followed easily up to the crux section and, after taking a moment to figure out how to start it, did great.

Mark then led clear to the summit of the Wind Tower and I followed. We downclimbed off the usual descent and back to the base of Tagger. I led this pitch and set up a toprope for Mark. Mark expected it to go rather well, remembering it as more technical than burly, but hand strength still comes in handy here and Mark was stymied by the first hard move. He tried a few different things before coming off. He climbed back and up and still couldn't do it.

By now I have already switched into my Exum Ridge scrambling shoes, but I clipped into the rope and climbed the entire pitch again in these shoes (on toprope now, of course). The crux in these shoes was indeed the first move where good edging skills are handy.

Mark gave the move another try, but was done for the morning. We had met at 5:30 a.m. and it was just before 8 a.m. as we headed out.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Werk Supp and March of Dimes w/Mark Oveson

Now that Mark is done with his ultra-marathon, it was time to tune up his rock climbing in preparation for some alpine climbs we'd hoped to do this summer. We met at 5:30 a.m. and headed into Eldo. It was super windy, as usual, but not that cold. We were both in shorts and I put on a really light shell to block the wind.

We started up Werk Supp with the intent to climb the entire Bastille, if things went well and we had the time. I had to be back home by 7:30 a.m. I zipped up the very familiar first pitch (8+) and set up a belay. Mark made good progress to begin with but stalled at the crux for a bit. He deciphered it and started to move up. He thought he was solid, but his foot slipped off and he yelled up "Falling!" I caught him and he got the move the second try.

The rest of the pitch went slower as Mark was tiring and a bit rusty with this climbing. He didn't fall off again, though. At the top, without a watch, we were a bit concerned about getting down in time, so we opted to do two short rappels back to the ground. The last rappel was from the anchors at the top of the first pitch of March of Dimes (10c) and we decided to toprope it.

Mark gave me a belay first and I had no trouble at all on the pitch. A few years ago this pitch gave me fits and I worked it. I guess I remembered all the tricks, which seem obvious now, because it felt more like 5.9. Mark went next and did great getting up to the crux move and then he was just too pumped to complete it.

It was a good first training outing for Mark. Hopefully we'll be heading into the mountains in a couple of days...if Mark's confidence isn't too shaken.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

One Last Eldo Tune-up

Buzz and I met at 6 p.m. tonight to preview a couple of more routes on the Bastille in case crowds force us to alternative choices on the big day.

We started with Hair City (5.9, S). I had no trouble with the infamous mantle, because once I get my leg up, I can easily reach a crimp and stand up. Buzz had more trouble here since he couldn't quite make the reach. I took my time above the mantle because some of the runouts are large and there is some smallish holds well above gear. I nearly got to the ledge before Buzz hit the mantle below (simul-climbing on a 100-foot rope, remember). I had previously placed a Ropeman, so I was okay on the final cruxy moves Buzz battled the mantle below.

I put another Ropeman on the bolt at the ledge, where I met a pair of women climbing the West Arete. They were doing the 5.8 finish, so I took the 5.7 finish to the left, not wanting to battle the 5.9 middle option. We simul-climbed off and then hiked down and did Breakfast in Bed (super steep 5.8+) to the second pitch of Out to Lunge (5.9 roof). We belayed both pitches.

That was it. We descended back to the car. I gave Buzz my food to stash near Rewritten and he planned on doing that tomorrow (Friday). We'll meet at 4:45 a.m. on Saturday morning and start climbing. Hopefully finish by 4 p.m. but we're prepared to go until dark or 50 pitches. A lot will depend on the crowds. We've done our homework and are climbing well enough. Should be a fun day.

Flagstaff/Monkey Again

This Sunday, after my 50-pitch day with Buzz, Stefan and I plan to climb the four sides of the Maiden. Since three of these routes are 11b or harder and the fourth is 10d, I needed to get in some finger strength training. My 50-pitch training isn't going to do me much good on 5.11. The easiest way to do this is to bike up Flagstaff and boulder the V4 Monkey Traverse. Today Stefan (who climbs 2+ number grades above me) joined me. Stefan, who is also much fitter than I am, rode his single-speed bike with tires about as fat as my legs. The thing probably weighed 30 pounds. I was on my all-carbon, 16-pound LeMond Tete de la Course. This made the 1000-foot ascent about dead even. I was hoping to just break 19 minutes to ease back into fast climbing, but with Stefan trying to break 18, I went a bit harder.

I mostly stayed behind Stefan, but would something take a turn at the front on the flatter section. I was working pretty hard, but trying to stay relaxed. I ended up doing 16:24 to the junction. My best time is 15:35, but I've only broken 16 twice. This is a really good time for me, especially considering I've only ridden less than ten times this year. Stefan was right behind me. He's amazing. I think he had to stand pretty much the entire way.

We descended to the Monkey Traverse where my goal was to get four laps clean, since my record was three laps. I did the first one quickly, but bungled the finish a bit and struggled. I went too fast for Stefan to see the beta. He had never done the full Monkey Traverse, only because he doesn't boulder. I don't really either, except for the Monkey Traverse, which I have ruthlessly wired. That's the only way I'll be able to climb V4 or 5.12a: by trying it a hundred times. Stefan got a huge flash pump doing everything wrong, but being too strong to fall off. I talked him through the finish and he got it clean first try. I was able to do it three more times, with the second feeling the easiest and the fourth really pushing me. Stefan just worked on the sections since he was still so pumped. This was a bizarre situation for me. At no time in the past have I ever seen him even struggle on a route that I'm falling on (with the single Vertigo exception). But if you have something wired, that makes all the difference. I'd expect by his third visit, he'll be doing this backwards and forwards until he's just too bored and steps off.

We biked back to work. What a great lunch-time workout. Next up: I need to finally climb this things backwards (left to right). I've done the sections, but never linked it. I'll start working on that now.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Working out the Kinks

Buzz and I again met at 7 a.m. Today we weren't going to do many pitches since I have a big race tomorrow (Bolder Boulder 10K) and didn't want to drain the legs. We just wanted to remember some climbs we have scheduled for the 50-pitch day. The night before it rained an inch or more so things were soaked in Eldo.

We started on the Bulge (5.9, runout) and it was so slippery that I ended the simul-climbing after the second pitch and belayed the third pitch. While cleaning the Ropeman I had placed at the top of the first pitch, Buzz dropped it to the ground. Oh well. He retrieved it later. We did the 5.9 direct finish for the fourth pitch and it went nicely. I placed a Ropeman after the crux and we simul-climbed to the unroping spot. Buzz unroped a bit before the ledge and inadvertenly left a cam behind. We won't know this until the end of the morning.

We descend to find the usual zoo on the Wind Tower. The only thing open was Tigger to the third pitch of the Wind Ridge. Buzz led this and I simul-climbed behind him. We downclimbed off and hiked down the trail to find an even bigger zoo, but now Reggae was open so we climbed Boulder Direct to Reggae with me leading and Buzz simul-climbing behind. As soon as I topped out, I started downclimbing the Bomb while Buzz was climbing up Reggae. We downclimbed past a party on the Bomb and then unroped, coiled, and finished the downclimb down the Boulder Direct.

We were done for the day and re-racked the gear. I noticed that a 0.75 Camalot was missing. Ack! I told Buzz we needed to go back and climb the routes again to find it. He didn't want anything to do with that and offered me up his 0.75 Camalot. I didn't want to take it. It might have been my fault we left it behind. Besides I hate leaving gear behind. It's the mark of a neophyte and we were not neophytes. Buzz took the gear back to the car while I hiked back up to where we sorted gear. Nothing. I then hiked up to the top pitch of the Wind Tower and asked the belayer there if his leader, above, had found a 0.75 Camalot. No dice. I then climbed up to the top of the Bulge, via the descent route, hoping that we had left it behind there. But in the back of my mind, I knew that Buzz had unroped before pulling the last piece on the traverse at the top of the Bulge. I wondered if he had forgotten or didn't see that piece. I wondered what piece I had placed there. At the top of the Bulge I didn't find anything, but looking back across the traverse I spotted a sling attached to some piece of gear. I knew it was the missing piece. I found a safe way to get there by climbing up a featured gully and then down a crack, since I was only in my running shoes now. I retrieved the errant 0.75 Camalot and the sling and retraced my steps back to the car and a waiting Buzz.

A couple more mistakes today, but hopefully we are getting them all out of the way before the big day, which is currently planned for June 20th - the longest day of the year. I hope for cool weather, minimal crowds, and no mistakes.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

22 pitches in Eldo

Buzz and I met at 7 a.m. and took things a bit slow to get started. In the parking lot we met a guy and two women who were headed for the first pitch of Rewritten and then cutting over to Icarus. Let left the parking lot at the same time we did. I started up Rewritten at 7:50 a.m. and we took 40 minutes to climb the route. We descended found our party of three just forty feet off the ground and two other parties queued up for Rewritten. It was nice to have that one out of the way.

I started up Great Zot / Zot Face at 8:47 a.m. and placed two pieces of gear on the first pitch, passing, feeling really solid on this pitch. We took 37 minutes to climb that route and descended again and started up Green Spur at 9:47 a.m. As we descended the trail to Green Spur I noticed a party climbing the second pitch of the Yellow Spur. I figured these guys wouldn't be a problem, but we'd meet these guys.

We took 53 minutes to climb the Green Spur and simul-climbed the entire route by using a couple of judicious Ropemans. We descended once again and on the hike down I could see the party on the Yellow Spur leading the 5th pitch. Alright! I thought. They won't be in our way.

We started up Yellow Spur and things went very quickly. I protected the roof with a Ropeman and was set to string the entire route as one pitch until we caught a party at the top of the 5th pitch! In the time it took for the leader to lead half of the 5th pitch and the second to climb most of it, we had descended to the base of the Green Spur, grabbed our gear, walked over to the start of the Yellow Spur, ate some food, drank some water, geared up and led five pitches. Oh well.

We waited 30 minutes for then to lead the last two pitches and then I led up about twenty feet below the second. Since I couldn't move fast with the party above me, this time I free climbed the crux pitch. This is really fun, balancy climbing. I cut left on the Robbins 5.8+ exit and after turning the headwall, I placed a Ropeman and continued up the arete to the summit. Here the going was extremely slow for me as Buzz went slow and cautious on the pin ladder.

Unfortunately, he didn't follow the route I led! He continued up the 5.10 direct finish despite the fact that the rope went left to the fixed pin on the Robbins Traverse. At that point he was royally screwed and I would have been too, except for two things. We had the Ropeman, thank god. Also, I had just barely made the summit where I was pinned for 15 minutes all the while completely baffled at what could be going on down below. The only thing I could think of was that Buzz couldn't climb the route, but I know he pulls on the draws and should have no troble. The traverse is runout and has to be free climbed, but it was just 5.8. I was very confused and more than a little bit concerned. I was trapped as well. I couldn't move up. At one point I knew he had weighted the rope and indeed he eventually weighted the route and did a hand traverse / pendulum to get back over to the fixed pin. This had to be terrifying for him because it was the first time he had to trust a Ropeman and if it didn't work or if I didn't have some slack in the rope or if I hadn't made the summit, he could have pulled me off. If that had happened, I could have died.

But the Ropeman worked as planned and we were fine, but it did concern me greatly how he could climb off route while seconding a route he has done so many times and an exit we had just talked about 15 minutes earlier. We decided in the future to belay all 5.9 pitches for him. In all the cases we have planned I'd be on easy ground anyway, so there wasn't much time to save. I'll just belay him on these sections and then two minutes later I'll be out a hundred feet.

We descended the East Slabs and were back at the car by 1 p.m. We plan to be back tomorrow to practice some different routes.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Long John Wall and Yellow Spur

I met Tom in Eldo at 5:30 a.m. and we were hiking towards the West Ridge by 5:36 a.m. South Boulder Creek is really high now and we could barely make the traverse over to the West Ridge trail. Pretty soon Morning Thunder (5.9+) will be the approach to the West Rdige.

We hiked up to the Long John Wall with our 100-foot rope and I took the lead. I simul-climbed the 5-pitch route as one pitch, slung a horn at the top, and immediately started downclimbing the backside. I've simul-climbed this route many times. There is such nice climbing on it. I put in one Ropeman, but it wasn't necessary. Tom wasn't going to fall.

We cut across the gully to the base of the Yellow Spur and this time Tom took the lead. We had a rack of double units, but we didn't need them. Tom mainly clipped fixed gear. We placed no gear on the first pitch, two on the second, one on the third, zero on the fourth, two 0n the fifth, zero on the crux pitch, and two on the last pitch. Seven total placements. He did use 13 of the 14 draws that he carried as well.

I felt super solid on the opening 5.9 roof, but I knew I was protected by a Ropeman above. Tom climbed a variation to the second pitch, continuing straight above the tree instead of traversing left. It worked out fine, but following it took me a bit of time to realize that I needed to move right at one point.

I've simul-climbed the Yellow Spur many times, but always as the leader. This was my first time seconding. The pressure is on the second. He cannot fall. The Ropemans loosen this rule somewhat, but it still isn't a good idea. On the crux pitch, to keep things rolling and add a bit of security, I grabbed the draws on all the pins. It worked out well.

We downclimbed the East Slabs and were back at the car by 7:35, getting both routes roundtrip in under two hours. We've done them considerably faster before, but we didn't need to push it today. It was a bit overcast, but still quite warm - well into the 50's. We both went in long pants, but shorts would have probably been fine.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Flagstaff Bike Ride and the Monkey Traverse

One of the great Boulder lunch-time workouts has got to be riding up Flagstaff Road (1500 vertical feet from the Creek Path) to the Amphitheater Road junction and then descending to the Monkey Traverse for a couple of laps before heading back to work.

I've done this many times in the past and I'm resurrecting it now to try and get my fingers back into shape after being out of the gym for so long. It doesn't replace 5.10/11's in Eldo, but I can do it during lunch.

Two weeks ago I went for the first time (alone) and didn't even break 20 minutes for the time-trial course on Flagstaff. Then I was only able to manage 1.5 laps on the Money. A few days later I went again and rode a bit faster (19:40) and then did 2 2/3 laps on the Monkey.

I've now decided that I'll do this workout every Monday and this past Monday I just rode up to the Monkey (it was super hot out) and didn't go clear to the junction. Then I was able to do three clean laps on the Monkey Traverse. I've seen this baby rated V4, but it can't be once you have it wired. It's a bit pumpy for sure and a bit scary at the exit, but no where near as technical as say the Vertigo dihedral (11b) or as insecure as the first pitch of the Naked Edge (11a). But it's a good, quick workout.

Next time I'll go for four laps and after that I'll try to reverse it. I've tried this before and I've never been able to reverse the entire thing.

T1.5 and Werk Supp / Bastille variation

I met Buzz at our usual location outside of Eldo at 5:30 a.m. and we cruised into the canyon. It was warm and I went in shorts, but did put on a long sleeve shirt. We were hiking towards the start of Touch and Go by 5:45 a.m. We had a rack of double units and a 100-foot rope. Our intent was to climb something we call T 1.5. This is basically climbing T2, but avoiding the very hard and very dangerous 5.11 start of T2 and replacing it with the first pitch of Touch and Go (5.8). Then we substitute the very nice 2nd pitch of Jules Verne (5.9) for the less fun 2nd pitch of T2 (5.9, as well I think). Once on the Upper Ramp we just follow T2.

I led, as usual, and zipped up the first pitch of T2. A little ways above, I installed the first Ropeman to protect me in case Buzz fell off the tricky start to that pitch. I traversed left into Jules Verne and enjoyed the fun climbing up to the cool crack. Just below the crack there was tons of bird shit, but I could mostly avoid it. When I hit the Upper Ramp, I placed the second Ropeman and then moved up the ramp to the base of Upper T2. I stopped here and brought Buzz up so that we could re-rack.

Freshly stocked with gear, I led the 5.7 pitch with a single piece of gear, clipped the belay, and then clipped a high fixed pin with a long sling before making the very cool and delicate traverse left to the T2 fingercrack.

The crack went nicely and I continued up the leaning hand crack above to the ramp. I placed a Ropeman here and climbed up and right along the ramp with the tricky rotten band. I placed a couple of small cams and clipped a fixed pin here. After placing a high piece for Buzz, I continued up easy ground for a bit and then placed the second Ropeman to protect me from Buzz falling off the rotten band.

We simul-climbed to the top, doing the route in 90 minutes and topping out at 7:25 a.m. (10 minutes per pitch). We descended the east slabs and it was still early, so we went and did the first pitch of Werk Supp to Shadot's Revenge (5.8 pitch), to the 5.8 variation to the 4th pitch of the Bastille Crack, and then did the 5.7 direct finish to the Bastille Crack. I led the four pitches as one and Buzz simul-climbed behind.

We topped out, coiled the rope and hiked back down the base. The roundtrip on this climb took about 40 minutes (10 minutes per pitch). For our 50-pitch day we need to average 15 minutes per pitch if we want to get it done in 12.5 hours. That includes hiking, resting, drinking, eating, etc. So you need to keep the pressure on for over 12 hours. Right now things are on pace, but it's easy to keep on pace for 3 hours... Actually, we started at 5:45 a.m. from the car and got back to the car at 8:40, so call it three hours. We did 13 pitches, so just one pitch ahead of 15 minutes/pitch pace.

We've set our plan for the big day as well. We'll have to pre-stash water at the base of Rewritten the day before. Then we'll climb with a 100-foot tag line on our backs to use for rappelling. I'll probably also where a Camelback with more water and gels/bars. We'll meet at 4:40 a.m. Start hiking at 4:50 a.m. and start climbing up the Bulge at 5 a.m.

We'll leave any extra gear at the base and simul-climb the 4 pitches (with the 5.9 finish) of the Bulge and then climb down the East Slabs back to the base, where we'll pick up our stashed gear and tag line. Then we climb T1.5 (9 pitches) and do the Vertigo rappels to the ground and then descend the trail to the West Face of the Lower Ramp, which we climb up to Ruper and do the complete Ruper (7 pitches with approach pitch, 20 total now). We do the Vertigo raps again and now hike uphill to Rewritten. We then climb Rewritten, Great Zot / Zot Face, and Green Spur, hiking off after each. These are all 5 pitches long, so we now have 35 pitches done. We descended a bit and climb the Yellow Spur (7 pitches, 42 total now) and descend the East Slabs. We then climb whatever is open on the Wind Tower and/or the Bastille until we're at 50 or more.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Training for 50-pitch day in Eldo

My buddy Buzz and I want to do 50 pitches in one day in Eldo. Many years ago I did 40 pitches with two different partners: Trashy for 25 and then Homie for 15. It was fun. This time Buzz has set some rules for us: Each climb has to be rated 5.7 or harder, though pitches can be easier. Pitch count is whatever is in the Rossiter guidebook. Downclimbing a route counts. We'll also probably limit things to 5.9 at the hardest.

To get a bunch of pitches we needed to get familiar with a couple of classics: Great Zot and Rewritten. One morning we went over and did the Great Zot on a 60-meter rope. I led the entire thing as one pitch with Buzz following. We did 5 rappels down the Dirty Deed Chimney. It went fine, but not super fast, as I was learning where to go.

Next we showed up late on a Saturday morning to do rewritten - bad idea! This area is super popular. There were two parties gearing up at the base for Rewritten and another party on the third pitch. This time we came with only a 30-meter rope and were going to simul-climb again. The party most ready go noticed that we had a short rope and asked if we were going to speed climb it. I said, "As a matter of fact, we did hope to simul-climb the entire thing." They offered to let us go in front and we took it.

I cruised up Rewritten's first pitch and into the second pitch. Buzz couldn't get my second piece out (a 0.75 Camalot) and had to leave it. Already we look bad. I got to the base of the third pitch and the party was still there. The woman belaying was freezing and her partner was nearing the end of the pitch. It would have been too complicated to pass them and I didn't even ask. Instead I moved along the rotten, loose, red ledge trying to climb up a big crack to avoid the Rewritten party and a party on the Green Spur. Even though I was moving slowly and very carefully, I dislodged a couple of microwave-sized blocks! I screamed "ROCK, ROCK, ROCK!!!!" It was a horrible mistake and I feared I had killed someone. I heard one person cuss upwards, as I would have done. Then nothing. I yelled down to Buzz, "Is everyone down there okay?" He said they were and I carefully moved left and joined the guy belaying on the Green Spur. I stopped and brought Buzz up. We were off to a horrible start and it put a damper on the rest of the climb.

We simul-climbed the next two pitches of the Green Spur and finished on upper Rewritten. We walked off the top and back to the base of the climb where I admitted my mistake and apologized to everyone I could find. I learned that one guy and fallen escaping the rocks and had a cut on his face. He wasn't hurt badly, but it ended his day. I never found this guy. Not our best outing.

The next week we met early in the morning and climbed Green Spur. Unfortunately it was 36 degrees out at 5:30 a.m. when we met and Green Spur is tricky, rated 5.9+ and fingery. We were on the 30-meter rope again, but the hard section of the Green Spur is shorter than this and we were fine and belayed this section for both of us. I backed down twice from the crux before doing it. My hands were numb at the belay and thawing was incredibly painful. I also did the right varation at the wide crack portion and after figuring out a key foothold, worked out great. This avoids and awkward, physical wide crack that I had always climbed before.

We did the third and fourth pitches of Rewritten as we hadn't done them before and then finished left of upper Rewritten (which I assume is the top part of Green Spur) to complete all pitches of both routes. By the time we got back to the base of the climb it was already 7:50 a.m. and we decided to call it a morning and go to work.

Finally, this morning I got out with Hardly. We headed to the Green Spur again, since I wanted to get this route wired. We only had the 30-meter rope, but I climbed with two Ropeman's and protected the lower crux and the upper roof with these so that I wouldn't have to worry about Hardly pulling me off if he fell.

This time the crux of Green Spur went nicely. Warmer temperatures and knowing the tricks helped a lot here. I put in the Ropeman above the crux and continued climbing. In fact, I led the entire Green Spur as one pitch (no re-gearing) and Hardly simul-climbed behind. We topped out, hiked down, and it was only 7:10 a.m. so we headed back to the car and then over to the Bastille Crack.

Here we found a party. The leader was about halfway up the 40-foot first pitch, which everyone combines with the second pitch. We didn't want to intrude so Tom led up Werk Supp's first pitch (5.8+) and then cut over to the Bastille Crack at the top of the second pitch. I simul-climbed behind Hardly and we did the roundtrip in 20+ minutes or so. When we hiked by the base of the Bastille Crack the second was still belaying and his leader was still 50 feet below the end of the second pitch (he was linking the first two, as usual).

We were driving out of Eldo by 7:50 a.m. The morning was a complete blast. Very nice temperatures, great climbing, and super solid partner.