You know what I really need? A personal photographer. I just can't be bothered with it myself, the pictures I take usually look like crap anyway, and it's too bad because photos would really help me remember things. That said, I'd better write down my climbing before I forget. Friday, Joe and I went up to Poke-O because I had never climbed there and wanted to go. We did not run into anyone else there (can you say that about ANY day at the gunks?) For whatever reason, my head wasn't really in the game (it hasn't been for a couple of months now... maybe too many climbing hungover days so that I've lost confidence even when I'm not hungover? Residual effects from the cellulitis cat bite? Hard to say), so Joe did all the leading. First pitch of Gamesmanship was first; the first move off the ground is the hardest and then it eases off. It is a beautiful handcrack all the way up for 140 feet, but there are loads of face holds so it just feels very secure and nice, without that painful foot feeling you get when you have a full on jam-your-feet crack. Then we popped over to the Sting, which again started off with what I thought was the hardest move - crimping from a couple of small edges and basically lungung up to a huge, incut bucket. Next, we went downhill to Fastest Gun, which starts off with a great layback crack, and then we did the P.T. Pillar (nice to see where the climb is in the winter!) which was a little awkward, but easier than I expected it to be. Finally, we finished up by doing Bloody Mary as one long single pitch, though the book splits it up into at least 3. By the end, I had to scramble up on to the starting block, but the rope just barely made it. It was beautiful as a single long pitch, but I wouldn't want to lead it as that! One pitch at a time would be sustained enough for me... It seems like most people must rap down from the hanging belay at the end of the second pitch, as the third was quite licheny, but it was definitely worthwhile as well, ascending a dihedral. The views and exposure from the top are fantastic, minus the Northway cutting right through...

I can't even recall what we did Saturday morning, but I think it mostly consisted of lounging around in the sun and playing with the dogs... went to a wedding later that afternoon at the Barkeater and it might have been the best ceremony ever - less than five minutes long, and even still, the Justice of the Peace managed to screw up, calling Micheline the husband ("Wife! I'm the wife!") etc. The D.J. was very cute in a tux, playing airguitar the whole time, and of course the women had to throw off their shoes and get on the dance floor when the electric slide came on... between the keg of Ubu and the self-serve bar, a good time was had by all!

Sunday, after lazing around a bit, trying to get some breakfast at some place other than the Noonmark, and finally getting my shit together, we went to go meet Mike & Derin from the gunks over at the Creature Wall. I needed to get on the road and get home to do some work for my english class, so when we showed up around 1pm, there was time for only a single climb. I decided to try to give leading Arachnid Traction (5.8, left leaning handcrack) a go - for whatever reason (the lack of a roof, I think?), it looked better than the other climb (some 5.7) that Joe suggested. I was carrying Joe's rack, as mine was all packed up, so it was quite small - .5-2 camalots, 00-2 TCUs, some nuts and some tricams. Also, only 8 draws, two of which were extendable. It all went off pretty much without a hitch until the top (the crux), where the jams are great, but you pretty much run out of feet. You can get in a bomber yellow cam before you start off, but after that there's not a whole lot you can place anyway. There's a nice horn in the middle of the crux section which you can cling to to sort of get a rest, but pretty much, you just need to go for it. It wasn't really pretty, with me trying to jam my shoulder in to the crack to get a bit of a rest before making the exit moves, but I made it just fine. There are slings directly up from the finish; don't use the ones on the cedar to the left. I placed all the camalots, orange and yellow TCU and two nuts on the pitch (no real need for grey, blue, purple TCU, but red might have been nice), so I came back down with no draws, and just a few nuts and tricams and a couple of small TCUs. Apparently this means that my rack was still too big! Ended up sticking around to watch Mike take a shot at leading the climb; he had to hang at the crux but he's also a lot bigger than me, was carrying about twice as much weight rack-wise, and since his hands are much bigger, the jams through the crux weren't as secure for him as they were me. He stuck it out though, and made it. I decided I was hungry before leaving, so we stopped for a late lunch at the Barkeater before I headed off through the thunderstorms and got home. Don't know when I'll be able to get out climbing again, but soon, I hope...