Summary

Description

Lewis was running late due to issues that had cropped up at work. He and Daniel ended up getting to my house around 4:30, and we got on the road around 4:45pm Friday. Stopped for dinner at Sagebrush in Statesville. (It was fairly crappy.) Arrived at Table Rock around 9:45pm. I had massive headache that had started at dinner. The 2 ibuprofen I took right after dinner didn't help. Setting up my tent was very painful, and I was also feeling a bit nauseous. I went to bed around 10:30 right after I finished setting up the tent and took 3 more ibu. My headache was mostly gone by 12:30. I slept well and comfortably only waking up a few times.

Got up around 8am Saturday. Lewis and Daniel were already up so I had a quick breakfast of a couple of Oatmeal to Go bars and threw my gear in my pack. We left the parking lot around 9am. We had discussed what to climb a little on the drive up Friday and talked a little more about it on the hike in. Lewis was just getting back to climbing after shoulder surgery, and Daniel's a new leader. So it was mostly up to me. I decided that I was up for jumping on Hidden Crack for an onsight lead. Unfortunately, I had only brought my Kelly guide, and Hidden Crack isn't in that guide. It's in Selected Climbs. Oh, well. Just a little more adventure climbing, and Lewis had climbed it before so could give some direction. What could go wrong?

I led the first 3 pitches. The first pitch was the hardest. The third pitch was next hardest. The first pitch took me an hour; Daniel also took about an hour, although he spent a little more time on it than he might have otherwise when he popped off at the crux; Lewis only took about 25 min. After Daniel came off at the crux, I got to put a little bit of knowledge and training into practice and setup a 3:1 haul off the anchor to help Daniel get past the blank and lichen covered section and back onto the route. It was pretty cool. The fact that I was belaying him directly off the anchor using a Reverso in auto-blocking mode made it very easy to setup. There was enough rope at the belay that I could lower it down to him and have him help haul himself up. Everything ended up OK.

I got off route on both the second and third pitches. I followed the clearest path through the lichen on the slabby second pitch and didn't see any obvious alternate way that I could have gone. But I also never found the claimed bolted anchor. No worries since there was a huge ledge with lots of trees, and I used one as an anchor for the belay. On the third pitch, I'm pretty sure I should have stepped over and gone right above the big crack, but I had already committed to the way I went (straight up) because of where I had placed a piece before the step-over. Unfortunately, this led me into a lichen covered section with no good protection, and I made my way 12-15' up (above a ledge that I would have fallen on) before I was able to get in my next piece. There was a fair amount of swearing involved, made worse because this is when I heard the sound of thunder. (Luckily, the rain never materialized.)

Ended up building a gear anchor at a nice ledge that I found and calling that the top of third pitch. Since I didn't really know where I was going and there was no obvious route -- although plenty that was climbable -- I wanted to bring Lewis up and get his advice on which was to go to continue.

Lewis ended up leading the fourth pitch. He started off by traversing a little down and to the right, and he said he could see the bolted anchor for the intended top of the third pitch so I'd ended up not too far off (or above). The fourth pitch ended up on the Lightning Ledge. The books say there's a walk off from there. Not sure if they mean some way around and the same altitude or if they mean the climb on up to the top. There were a few bolts on that climb so I'm calling it a fifth pitch. I led it and belayed Daniel up. Lewis soloed it. (It was very easy. Just a bit exposed. This is the same "pitch" that Lisa and I climbed with some folks after climbing Block Route once.) We topped out at 4:45.

[Edited 6/1/09 - After climbing and leading Hidden Crack a second time -- and having the Selected Climbs guidebook with us -- I found that on this trip the big, obvious, left-facing crack that I led to start the third pitch was actually the start of the third pitch of Rip Van Winkle. So I've renamed the route I climbed on this trip as "Hidden Winkle Crack". The bolted belay/rap station at the top of the second pitch of Hidden Crack is on the far right end of the ledge, and the third pitch goes straight up from there. From the bolted belay/rap station at the top of the third pitch, heading up and left and up the face just right of the chmney/crack. Heading up that way ends up at a couple of bolts (no rings) at Lightening Ledge then and easy walk/scramble up to the top, skipping the short "pitch" that we did on this trip.]

I ran out of water at top of the third pitch; one liter is not enough for all day in the summer, especially when I'm leading. Lewis and Daniel had some extra water to spare for me. (Thanks!) I had 2 half sandwiches - after the second and third pitches - and one Lara bar. I wore my Mythos shoes, and I'm so glad I did. They are less comfortable than my other shoes but have a much better feel for the rock. I feel really good about the pitches that I lead. It was definitely challenging, but I felt confident. Some of the best leading I've done it a while.

We got back to our packs around 5:30pm. There was a very brief rain shower. We almost decided to head back to the parking lot, but it quickly stopped, and we headed around to the Cave Route. Daniel led the first pitch. (His first time leading it, but he'd climbed it before.) We all rapped down by around 7pm and were back in the parking lot by 7:40pm.

Dinner started off with homemade perogies with sour cream and salt and pepper that I had brought as an appetizer. Then we continued with burgers and beer and pretzels for dinner. (Lewis had had problems with charcoal going out in the past. He used enough lighter fluid this time to ensure that wouldn't happen.) Dinner was great. We were done and packed up by 10

We had some rain overnight, between about midnight and 2am. I didn't sleep nearly as well as I had the night before. I suspect it's because I was so sore from the long day on the wall. I got up just after 7am feeling tired and very sore. It was mostly clear, and there was a bit of wind blowing which was a good sign since it would dry off any water from the rock. Lewis had the honor of being the last one up Sunday morning, although none of us were in a huge hurry.

We were still the second group to leave the parking lot. Most of the first group were on Peek-a-boo, and a couple of them were just rappelling down from the first pitch of Jim Dandy. Perfect timing since we were hoping to hop on Jim Dandy. Lewis led the first pitch, I came up second, and Daniel came up third. Daniel was debating whether to onsight lead the second pitch. We did our part to convince him to go for it. It was beautiful day, and there's no better time to get up on it. He did a great job of leading it, yelling down around the point of the fourth bolt -- where the route turns vertical -- that he wished he had taken some trad gear. He found the anchors (with a little help from the group rapping off Peek-a-boo second pitch), and brought the two of us up. It was a great onsight lead for him!

Lewis led the (easy) third pitch up to Lunch Ledge. After a quick break, we scrambled down the walk off, hiked around to collect our packs, and headed back to the parking lot. We were on our way out by just before 2pm. We stopped for gas and a late lunch at Wendy's in Morganton then got on the highway. The drive home was uneventful except for the heavy rain and a little bit of hail that we ran into around Burlington.

Overall, it was a great trip, and though it was very strange not to have Lisa around.