The Variety Pack

 

I did it all this weekend, from scrubbing boulders to putting up rad new lines to leading my first real trad route to groveling up a chimney.  Well the last part isn’t quite true, I’m still projecting the chimney…

I started off at Black Mountain, bouldering with Ian and B.  Ian brought us to a new area that is actually just a short walk from the road.  We spent the day scoping new lines and cleaning rock.  What we ended up with was a surprisingly quality circuit of climbs ranging from V0 warmups to V9’s and projects.  In total we ended up with 7 or 8 new problems for the day.  One of the lines I put up with Ian is a rad arete to the left of Moondrop.  It isn’t a short climb and the landing drops away so it is a touch commiting.  We think it is around V5 and I’m calling it Blenny Run.

The highlight of my day came in the evening at the striking 20 foot bloc you see when first entering this new area.  Ian showed me two projects on either side of the 20 foot wall.  We started on the right line which appeared to be more feasible.  It is an overhanging face with small sharp crimps to start, leading to a dynamic throw to a jug and finishing with a couple of really lengthy moves to top out.  The start of this problem is rather difficult, featuring some small crimps and only one decent foot.  I spent about a dozen attempts just trying to pull off the ground!  Then I finally figured out a method that worked and pulled on to stick the first move.  From there I setup for the large semi-blind throw to the jug of the climb.  I barely caught it and proceeded to setup for the last hard move.  A very long move up and left to a flat crimp rail which I failed to reach several times but finally found a foot that helped to give me that extra inch of stretch to gain the hold.  So I managed to finish this line the first time I stuck the opening move!  It was rather exciting being high up on a project, being the first person to test the integrity of the holds, hoping that nothing snaps under your weight!  Ian was super psyched after seeing the project go so he booted back up and gave it some more effort.  He quickly repeated the line, using a different method for the crux.  This new line is now called Megalomania.  I have video of my ascent that I will post up soon.

After finishing the day on a high note I made my way over to Idyllwild to meet Sonja and Nick for some camping followed by some trad adventures at Suicide.  Sonja managed to beat me out of bed early and we were on our way to the opening hike up the mountain.  After a few warm up routes, we rolled up to Johnny Quest which is a sweet looking 10b crack line.  Sonja led it and I followed her up.  Luckily this line didn’t require much actual hand jamming because the crack formed natural constrictions, so I managed to cruise up it no problem.  After that, Nick was psyched to get back on this 5.9 chimney called Hot Buttered Rump so we went and did that.  Nick and Sonja climbed it no problem but after I pulled a few chimney moves I gave up.  I haven’t learned the ways of the funky trad climbing yet so this type of thing still seems really weird to me.  To finish the day they brought me to a climb called hernia and made me lead it.  It’s only 5.8 but it was still a little scary, only because I don’t trust the gear yet.