At the top of our third (guidebook fourth) pitch |
I elected to do the real first pitch of Anthill Direct. That sounds strange to write because "why wouldn't you do that pitch?" No reason really, except that I have usually done the more classic Touch and Go pitches. It had been awhile since I'd done this pitch, but it went well and I ran out 160 feet of rope.
Octavian followed and I led the second pitch and and then strung the third and fourth pitches together into a massive 180-foot wandering, runout 5.7 pitch, which I consider to be one of the best in Eldo. Following this, Octavian slipped off and fell! It was surprising, but my belay was solid and I caught him.
I did the 5.9 direct finish and I don't think I've ever finished this route with the original pitch. I need to do that sometime. At the top I racked the gear and Octavian coiled and carried the rope, sort of. For some reason he didn't coil it into a backpack coil, maybe because he didn't know about carrying the rope like that. I didn't want to patronize him and let him be, but I think it hampered him on the descent of the East Slabs, as he moved quite cautiously and it took us a long time to descend.
Once we hit the trail, I stopped to wait for Octavian to switch out of his climbing shoes into his hiking shoes. As I sat on a rock at the start of the trail, Octavian looked down to my right and said, rather calmly, "Rattlesnake." Sure enough, I was hitting within three or four feet of a sizeable rattler. I'd never seen one in Eldo before. Thankfully it was still early and the snake was in the shade. It never rattled, but slowly slithered off under a bush.
It turned out to be an exciting morning for both Octavian and I!
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