Summary

Description

Met Daniel at our house around 7am, and rolled out at 7:20. Got to the parking lot at 9:30 and hiked in.

Started up Block Route. Daniel said he and Lewis always climb it in two pitches, belaying at the rap rings half way up the pitch. Since it was my first time on the route, and I didn.t know if one rope would make it all the way to the top. The first half of the route was pretty easy. Well protected with gear in the crack. Setup an anchor at the rap station and belayed Daniel up. Before I continued, I looked up at the tree ledge, it looked like a 60m rope would make it all the way from the ground to the top. Rather than having Daniel belay me as I lead to the top then belay Lisa to the half-way point, I decided to have Daniel come on up after me and trail the second rope.

I started up the second half. No problem ... until I got to the block move. I was able to protect it well with a blue TCU under a horizontal flake and a pink tricam at the corner of the crack where started to go vertical. Both pieces were extended on 4. slings since my plan was to climb/flop up over the block. Then I looked to see how to make the move. The move is about 3. or so, and there.s almost nothing up on the upper face. Definitely no good or obvious hand or foot holds. I verified with Daniel that this move is really what Lweis does. I looked at it again. I downclimbed a little. I looked at it. I considered traversing to the left to go around the overhang. Tried to figure out how I.d get across the traverse, and decided that it would be dicey, so I went back to looking at the block move. Got my right foot up on the upper face a couple times and pulled it back down because it felt unsafe. After a while (10 minutes?), I finally decided that I had to do *something*, and the move would be fairly well protected with the pieces of pro I had in. Oh, and while I was trying to figure out the move, Lewis and Charlie got to the base of the cliff and gave me a little bit of beta about the hand hold and finger holds he used near the bottom of the vertical crack. I found them, and they help with getting in position with my right leg thrown up onto the face, but I could commit to the move without letting go of the hold. Finally, I just committed to it. Tough move, but I did it, and I did it without sliding to my death. Finished up the route and was very happy to get to the top. Set an achor using a stout tree and a bomber nut. Belayed Daniel on up. He had a little trouble with the block move, and used a .French free. move to get up and over. The 60m rope he was trailing was, in fact, long enough to make it all the way to the top. Lisa made short work of the climbing. With the friction of the rope, I had trouble keeping up with her. She got to the block move and found that she.s too short to get her hip high enough to get a foot up onto the upper face. So she did a little .French free. move, too, to get up over and over.

We had lunch on the tree ledge while waiting for the parties already on The Great Arch to get far enough up so we could start. (Randy and Dan . from R.O.C.K. -- were on it first, followed by Jordan and Jen, whom we met at the base of the cliff.) While we were waiting, Lewis and Charlie made it up to the ledge. Daniel teamed up with them at that point, and left Lisa and I to climb on our own for the rest of the day.

Once Jordan and Jen were at the belay for the second pitch, I started up. The weather was great, and I was hoping we would be able to top out this time. Started up the first pitch. I lead it OK, but it didn.t feel all that great. Not as elegant as I would like, and my lower back was hurting from the leaning over and pulling at the crack on the left. Brought Lisa up. She didn.t have a great climb, either. Just not in the groove. We came close to bailing from the top of the first pitch, but I wanted to get to the top, and it was a beautiful day. We kept climbing. The second pitch was a little bit better. The third pitch was a lot better. Lower angle, easier climbing and all that. Oh, while climbing the second and third pitches, there was someone down in the meadow or on the face across from it playing the bagpipes. It was nice . since we were fairly far away <*grin*> -- until the piper sequed from Scottland the Brave into Dixie. Ouch.

Got to the anchors up by the tree island. The wind had picked up a bit by then. Lisa made it up, trailing the second rope. She was tried and a bit wigged out by the wind. I belayed her over to the tree island to sit for a while while I hung out at the anchors. After a few minutes, Lisa decided she jsut wanted to rap down as soon as possible to get out of the wind. We had asked Charlie and Lewis about the descent, and they said they thought we could get down in 2 rappels with 2 60m ropes.

I rapped first to go down and find the next set of anchors, and I promised Lisa we wouldn.t have an epic. I passed the closest set of rings and went on down a little ways. Couldn.t tell if the ropes made it all the way down to the next set of rings I could see. I called over to a party of 3 at the anchors on Mercury.s Lead to ask, and they said the ropes were about 10. short. Damn. I pulled out a prussik, and ascended the ropes back up about 20. to the anchors I had passed. (If I.d known we were only going there, I would have only rigged one rope to rap to there since it was so close.) While I was waiting for Lisa, the leader on Mercury.s Lead came up and joined me at the anchors. Lisa came down to join us. We pulled the ropes and threaded them through the next set of rings. Rapped down to the anchors at the top of the second pitch of Rainy Day Women. Lisa rapped down which got her out of the way of the other party climbing Mercury.s Lead. She started pulling the rope and saw another party starting up the first pitch of Rainy Day Women. I called down to ask them if we could rap next to them, and the asked us to wait until the leader finished the first pitch since it.s pretty dicey. No problem. We waited to finish pulling the rope since we didn.t want the rope dropping down on the leader below. He pulled a hell of a lead, made it to the anchors, and was very thankful to us for not dropping a rope on him. We finish pulling thr rope, threaded it through the rap rings. The leader below helped make sure the rope went to his right and not across thier line of climbing. We rapped down and were finally back on the tree ledge.

Lewis, Charlie, and Daniel were back down from having climbed Great White Way. They decided to go climb the first pitch of No Alternative. Lisa and I were pretty beat so we decided to head on down to the ground and then decided what to do there: climb aother pitch from the ground up, do some bouldering, or just hike on out to the car.

TBD.