Summary

Description

Saturday was supposed to be a beautiful spring day with unseasonably warm temps around 80 degrees. We couldn't pass up the chance to get out and climb. We met Kerry, Mark, Danny, Tracy, and Jennifer in the morning and piled into two vehicles to head out. We rode with Danny and Tracy. Got to the parking lot around 9:30 and to the base of Sentinel a little after 10am. Surprisingly, there was no one on Sentinel yet so Lisa and I started gearing up. I thought it would be a good, easy route to start with since I was feeling a bit rusty.

The hardest part is the first few moves off the ground. After that, it went pretty well. There was one move on the first pitch that I'm sure I'm a lot harder than it should have been. The second pitch went really well, and I had fun climbing it. The ledge at the top of the second pitch was sunny and warm. I built an anchor and brought Lisa up. I wasn't completely sure about the pink tricam I put in, but the two cams were bomber, and there wouldn't have been much extension on the anchor if the tricam pulled out.

Lisa climbed well and rappelled down first. I came down next, having an uneventful rappel, turning my head and looking below me ... when I felt my hair pulling. Oh, crap. Part of my ponytail had gotten sucked into my rappel device. My first thoughy was "whatever you do, don't pull out your knife to cut it." I had rigged my autoblock so I wasn't too worried about hanging in mid-air. I pulled on my hair, and it didn't move much. I eventually pulled hard enough to break it, losing a couple inches from a small part. At least my hair is long enough, and I caught it quickly enough that I could see what I was doing. The rest of the rappel to the Crows Nest and then the one down to the ground was (thankfully) uneventful.

We headed over to have lunch and planned to get on Easy Hard. When we got to it, we found that John and Kim Iverson were already climbing it. We ate and watched John lead. He told us that he had backed off Head Jam and left a nut and biner, and that if we wanted to climb that route, we could get some booty. I wasn't sure if I was up for Head jam but eventually decided to try it.

I did some seriously ugly rock wrestling getting around the head jam move but made it up to the top ... just in time for some light rain. John and Kim were at the anchor waiting for me to finish and rappelled on down once I got to the top. Most of the belay ledge stayed dry, and it looked like the Head Jam route up the corner was mostly dry, but Lisa opted to stay at the bottom so I cleaned the gear on rappel. A second time my autoblock came in very handy.

Just before starting Head Jam, we had run into a guy named Tom who was looking to get on a rope, and Lisa invited him to join us. He had been planning to follow us up Head Jam, but instead decided that he could lead Zoo View on my gear after the rain had stpped. That was fine with me since I was pretty tired from the effort I had put into Head Jam.

When I got up the first pitch of Sentinel to the Crow's Nest, I decided that I was a little too spent to feel up to big exposure and pulling the roof on Zoo View. I felt like I was making the right decision, but I also felt like I was wimping out. <*sigh*> I hung out while Tom and Lisa had a fun time on Zoo View.

The only issue with their climb was that Tom, who was leading using my rack, placed a #1 WC Technical Friend (yellow) above the traverse that walked back into the crack. Lisa tried getting it out, but without a good stance, she was getting pumped, and she would need her strength to pull the roof so she left it. Tom tried rappelling back down to get it, but with the roof above, there was no way to get close enough to the wall to it get it. So it was left as booty for the next party. Oh, well.

When we all finally rappelled back down to the ground, it was getting late. We packed everything up and headed back to the parking lot. It was dark enough to need a headlamp by the time we got to the cars. Danny, Tracy, and Jennifer decided to head on back so Lisa and rode with mark and Kerry who were up for stopping for dinner. We went to the Foothills brew pub in downtown Winston Salem that John and Kim had recommended ... and ran into John and Kim. We all sat together and had a fun time a great food.

I napped in the car on the way home. It was very nice to not be driving. We got back to my car around 11pm and to the house arounf 11:20pm. It was a long but great day with perfect weather except for the brief spot of rain.