Summary

Description

The forecast called for temps in the 70s on Saturday in Durham and Winston Salem so Lisa and I decided to hit the crags. We got up to Moore's Wall around 9:30am. The only problem was that it was far from 70 degrees up there. We were both in thermals and windbreakers, but it was chilly and windy, especially at the base of Sentinel Buttress which is tucked back in the shade for most of the morning.

Lisa got geared up and ready to lead up the first pitch of Sentinel. She started up and paused about 6 feet up to put in her first nut. She tried it a few times, wasn't having much success, and decided to backtrack back down to the ground since she was cold and not in the right frame of mind to be leading. She and I switched positions, and I lead up. I could definitely tell that I wasn't at my peak, and the climbing wasn't coming as easily as I thought it should have. I'll definitely blame it on the cold. I made it up to the Crow's Nest without any problems, slung the boulder there for an anchor and belayed Lisa up. She was wearing the new TNF Exocet backpack she had bought as a second's pack to see how it felt to climb in. (It's a sweet pack and worked pretty well, BTW.)

By the time she got to the Crow's Nest, I was shivering from sitting on the cold rock in the shade and wind. We decided to go on up to the top so I lead up the next pitch. It went pretty well, although I was climbing a little slowly, and I ran it out a few times since I couldn't find good gear placements. (I'm sure they were there; I just didn't find them.) I was always pretty safe since the climbing is relatively easy. When I got to a point where I stepped around the corner of the buttress to the right, it was nice to finally get into the sun, but I was also hit by more wind. The wind was at my back, and my anorak blew up like a sail in front of me and made it hard for me to see where to place my hands on the rock.

I made it to the top and started setting up an anchor to belay Lisa up. I was a bit slow setting it up, too. (I had trouble remembering how to set up one part of it to be self-equalizing and safe from extension.) Once I got it done, it was actually nice to sit at the edge and belay her up the second pitch because I was in the sun and the wind had lessened a little bit.

About the time Lisa made it to the top, another couple (Kevin and Laura) were coming down to rap off the pulley at the top of the buttress. The four of us shared a rappel on my rope, then we rapped from the Crow's Nest on one of their ropes. (I also found out -- for the second time -- that a single, doubled 60m rope is about 10 feet too short to rap from the top all the way to the Crow's Nest. We all downclimbed the last few feet with no problem.) It took about 3 hours total for Lisa and I both to make it from the ground to the top of Sentinel.

Once back safely on the ground, we had lunch and talked about what we wanted to do next. It was still pretty chilly in the shade, and we decided to pack up our gear and head down to the Moore's boulders -- where it would hopefully be a little warner -- to do a little bouldering and practice various rescue techniques. As we started down, we hit a patch of sun and the wind dies down, and we were caught up in the euphoria of it and decided to head back to the cliff and climb another route. So we headed for the classic Wailing Wall.

The wind was pretty minimal as we hiked over to the Amphitheater, but it started to pick up as we got to Wailing Wall. We got geared back up to climb, and as I was about to start up, the wind really started blowing. Lisa and I talked about whether doing this route was really the right idea, and I finally decided that I wasn't comfortable leading it that late in the afternoon (around 3 or 4pm) with that much wind. I'd be cold, moving too slowly, and it would probably be after dark before we got off the wall. So we decided to go back and climb something shorter along the way between Sentinel and the Amphitheater since had been less wind along there.

We stopped at My Wife's Pajamas, and I decided that I wanted to try it. Last time Lisa and I were at Moore's she led up the bottom two thirds, and I finished the route, leading the top section. Starting from the ground this time, I couldn't find many places for gear in the first 30' or so, but I made up for it by really sewing things up after that. The problem with that plan was that I was a little short on slings by the time I got to the ledge below the crux face. (I had left a couple slings in my pack since it's a short pitch (maybe 90' max.)) I swapped a couple prusiks for a couple of the slings I had used for protection there at the ledge so I would have enough slings to make it to the top.

I was a little nervous as I started up the final face. I was thinking about how I was tired and cold and how I had popped off when I took my first lead fall the last time I was out at Pilot Mountain. My mouth was getting very cottony, and my leg was starting to sewing-machine. The more I thought about it, the more freaked I was getting. After a while -- probably not more than a minute or two in non-subjective time -- I realized that I was completely not in the right head-space to be leading a tough section so I downclimbed the few feet back down to the ledge. I tried to relax and talk myself into the right frame of mind, at the same time debating whether backing off and just rapping down from there was the right thing to do. Lisa was helping with some comforting words from the ground, reminding me that I had successfully lead this section before. Eventually, I felt like I had things under control again, so I started back up.

I took a fairly different line compared to the way I had led it the first time I was on it; this time involved a lay-back off the main crack system rather that heading off to the left to find a handhold. There were a couple spots that felt dicey, but I got some cams in and kept going. I tried to remember to breathe and tried not to think about falling. By the time I got to the top, my leg was really shaking (off in its own world, doing a little dance) but I made it and didn't do too bad a job. It just goes to show what a mental game this sport can be.

I set an anchor using a couple cams and the fixed rap slings around the pine tree, positioned myself at the top edge to I could see the route and belayed Lisa up. She had no problems coming up and cleaning gear until she got to the top crux face. By that time, the sun was starting to go down, taking with it what little heat it had been providing, and the wind was picking up a little. To make short time of it up the face, Lisa yarded on a couple of the cams. I was pleased to see that they held; must have been OK placements. :) She made it to the top, gave me some of the water she had brought up -- remember that cotton-mouth I had? -- and we rigged the rope for the rappel. We made sure to double check each other since we were both cold.

We rapped down, pulled the rope, packed up our gear and hiked on out. We got to the car just after sunset, but still with enough light to see without needing headlamps. We were both pretty tired, but it was definitely a good day, even though it ended up being a lot colder than we had expected.