Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Aw, heck, I'm tired, sick and have vet school apps to work on, but I just need to post what I did last weekend before I forget!
Saturday: wedding at the Gunks. Rainy morning, got nervous for the couple, turned out to be sunny and beautiful, if a little chilly. Awesome party with great food and lots of great wine provided by Jen (who has a new wine store, but I need to get the link for that so I can post it), lots of fun with horseshoes and a live band, too. Sunday morning went to the Near Trapps and started with Joe doing White Pillar; watched a sport climber from France cruise Harvest Moon because the chimney start of White Pillar looked too scary (no pro!) for him. Then we went down and Joe did something, I don't know, maybe I'm OK-You're OK; it was OK I guess. Unremarkable, apparently, because I have no recollection. So then we went alll the way down and while Greg and Mike did Lean and Mean, Joe did Up In Arms which was sweet. It is a beautiful diagonal hand crack in an overhanging face; strenuous while it lasts but all too short. Not that I wasn't grunting by the end. Then I went and did Mainline with Mike belaying me while Greg belayed Joe on Mac-Reppy. I tried to do it in one pitch, but at the roof, I had second thoughts when I considered the slabfall potential and the fact that Mike couldn't see me; Joe throwing a tantrum the next route over didn't really help my state of mind. So Mike came up, then I went up and cruised the beautiful second pitch. I see why it is a classic climb. It was getting dark by then so we headed back but decided to stop and do Honky Tonk Woman. I talked Joe into letting me lead it. It's supposed to have decent pro if you're good at placing it, but I guess I'm not. It's got a bolt, and I got a marginal (body weight?) small wire and an OK (but not super inspiring) yellow TCU besides that through the harder stuff, but it went pretty well all the same. After you pull a couple of moves above the crux, the climbing eases off considerably. I finished it with a traverse left to the top of White Pillar (stay low and use the finger crack for your hand rather than the rail above. It's got better feet). My kind of face climbing, but hey, it was a 5.9, one of my few at the gunks. Monday I was deathly ill, but after following Joe up a warmup on City Lights, I did Twisted Sister which is 5.8+PG in Swain's book. I would call it 5.7+G/5.6R 1st/2nd pitch. I did it all in one, so basically the second pitch, since I'd used all my small gear down low, I was free soloing on licheny rock with a lot of rope drag. The climbing was pretty easy so I never really felt sketched out, but I definitely took my time. The last move pulling over a block with all the rope out below me was really really strenuous. I followed Joe up Rock & BRew after that, doing the opening crux entirely differently from him, and the belayed him on a few other something or others. I could barely keep it together, really; my nose was dripping like a faucet and I couldn't stop sneezing. I drove back that night and I've been working 14 hour days the past two says which isn't so bad until the 2 hour total commute and all the vet school stuff I need to get done is factored in. Then it's Aya + cold + stress + no sleep. Yahoo!!!!! Oh, AND I have a flat tire. And no time to get it fixed. Grand!

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

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23 September, 2007 12:37  

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