The day started on Scrape and Pillage (5.10-), a steep but not overly physical route on the left side of the face – a good place to test fingers and mind. Rich picked April Cool (5.9) to warm up on and I actually found myself enjoying this one star route. Pyramid (5.10) was a blast and then Rich stepped it up with a nice lead of Emotional Vampires (5.10):
- Emotional Vampires.jpg (71.26 KiB) Viewed 2520 times
After the fifth route [ Snakeskin (5.10) ], the decathalon felt well in hand in to me…only a couple of hardish routes and it was in the bag. In fact I was even wondering whether the big sweep of all trad lines on the face (13) was possible that day?! But alas the decathalon was not to be. A combination of bugs, heat, and weak forearms ended the day at 7…and just barely at that!
Here’s a shot of Rich squeaking up Black Diamond (5.10-)
- Black Diamond 2.jpg (97.95 KiB) Viewed 2516 times
And me starting up on Ghost Dance (5.10).
- Ghost Dance.jpg (108.92 KiB) Viewed 2514 times
At around the halfway mark (3rd overlap above me) the gas tank ran out and it was doggin’ from there to the top. Maybe next time there will be more juice and less blood lost! [ The bugs are ferocious now!!! ]
- Sean
PS. Don’t worry, I won’t be posting trip reports of every trip this season. Just thought a some people might be interested to hear about a few things that are going on at the crags. Back to your bouldering!
