Toprope princess

I'm going to go through the climbing days one by one, since I just finished day 4 on yesterday.  I'm tired.

Monday we went to Broken Tooth.  I toproped all day and it was rad.  First Polygrip, and was psyched i hadn't led it...the layback section is super pumpy.  Then again I wasn't warmed up.  The rock was still a bit damp from the rain/snow on Sunday, but it warmed up nicely and turned out to be a lovely day. Then I ran a lap on Rock Lobster, since some friends had a rope on it.  Joe wanted to check out this new route by Chris Kalous (Mushrooms with Hefner) with a .5 splitter on top of a 5.10 chimney/squeeze pitch.  The 5.10 pitch wasn't that bad, but there was a reachy face move that I pulled through. Then I just belayed Joe and we rapped off.

Next up was Heat Searcher. I know I'm crazy, but I think that the first pitch is harder than the 11+ splitter second pitch. Pitch 1 is sandy and loose and awkward, and pitch 2 is an amazing red cam splitter that is slightly overhanging.

I'm annoyed because I got this back goby from dragging my right shoulder up the dihedral on polygrip.  Lame. It's sticking to all of my shirts and it hurts.

The next day we went up to Sacred Cow and Joe OSed Sacred Cow and Twin Cam. I got the TR flash on Sacred Cow, Joe gave me some shit about not leading it, but that didn't really sway me. My gear leading skills are pretty abysmal right now. I don't like to climb above my gear and I bump cams so much that I pump myself out. I don't think I could hang with the scared-man technique for 160 feet.  But the route is beautiful and maybe I'll go back up there some day when I can rally like, 20 red cams.  The first half takes more varied gear though...like greens and purples.

After that I TRed half of Twin Cam but bailed when it became apparent that the size/my technique/the heat was destroying my skin.  Not worth it.

Wednesday we went up to Pistol Whipped, and I did the Coyne Crack Simulator, which was fun. Belayed Joe on Sig Saur, but didn't want to follow because it was hot and again, I'm trying to preserve my fingers.  Plus it just looked painful. Then I got on Spaghetti Western which had erroneous gear beta in the Bloom guide. it calls for mostly gold cams but the last third of the climb takes smaller gear.  I ended up TRing it after that, and was psyched I hadn't finished the lead.

Thursday was Six Star Crack. I would have liked to be more well-rested for it, because the second pitch splitter is really beautiful. The guide makes it seem like it's more red cams and big greens, but really it was purples to a loooong section of greens and then it pinched back down to purples.  It looks like a longer, steeper version of Slice and Dice but without the rests. I pulled through the purple section and was able to climb quite a bit of the green section in the middle with the thin-hands-in-front-of-the-face-genie-pose-with-the-feet technique, but I was tired and it was pretty damn hot and I ended up not finishing the pitch. I have a feeling however, that it will make Slice and Dice feel super easy.

I'm so happy to be resting for a couple of days.  We'd decided to do 4 on because of the poor forecast for today, but so far it's not too bad...it's raining, so it's good that we're not climbing, but it's not the mega-storm that was predicted.  I'm happy for that.

Brad and Katie are coming tomorrow to climb Sat/Sun, and I might meet up with them...Joe wants a belay on Switzerland, and a trip-capper with an offwidth.  I'm not sure what I want to do. Mostly just toprope more, and maybe redpoint Slice and Dice.  I'm still undecided about whether or not I'll stick around next week (the weather looks amazing) or I'll bail to Joe's, or just go home and save up vacation time for a longer trip in the fall.  A guy from Boulder is looking for a partner next week, and he's hooked in with some mutual friends, so if I stayed I'd probably climb with him.

I'm not feeling the try-hard and overcome-fear feeling right now (not that I ever am, really, but even less so since I got sick 2 years ago).  Maybe I'm bored with IC, or maybe I just need to climb a bunch of easier shit, or redpoint things like Spaghetti Western which I have gear beta for now. Regardless, it's been fun, and I've gotten to do a lot of climbing, and I've run into some friends from last year, which is always nice.

Oh I forgot to write about how my car got stuck in the pit of despair, aka the far side of Creek Pasture. The whole campsite just turned to muck...serious muck.  Sunday night Joe dropped me at my car and I went forward and then backed up and got my back left tire stuck about halfway down in mud. We had to dig it out in the morning.  I was a little sad that the AWD didn't get me out of the mire, but the mud was pretty damn bad...think of the consistency of wet concrete....and I have road tires.

No photos of climbing.  I'm so bored with climbing photos. I'm trying to take more photos of camping life and friends though.  I'll try harder!