Assorted August Climbing

My big goal was to climb Keiners Route on Longs Peak ever since I started reading about it last winter. It features some steep snow climbing, some high altitude scrambling, and a couple pitches of 5.4 rock. I spent much of the late spring and early summer building mountaineering skills on one mountain trip or another. A set of willing comrades and a good window of weather finally gave me the opportunity and a few 'refresher' leads on local crags gave me the confidence to tackle Keiners. When the trip finally happened, it was all fairly mellow and anticlimactic.

With my big mountaineering goal accomplished (and my toes still numb from many hard miles in heavy leather mountain boots), I've settled into a state of summertime nonchallance, happy to go with the flow and enjoy easy trails and post-sunrise starts. Amy, happy to have my attention back after months of mountain mania, has pulled me back into our mutual love of rock climbing. The thing is, I find that I get somewhat ambivilant about climbing the longer I go without doing it. I've been climbing for nine years now and trad leading for six, but I haven't significantly improved my toproping grade (5.10a) or trad lead grade (5.6) in at least five years. I've been stuck in a rut and, frankly, intimidated by all the options and hard routes here in Colorado. Maryland was a comfortable place to learn to climb simply because there were less options. Amy feels the same way and has been stuck a couple grades below my level in both toprope and lead.

August, in particular, has been a good month for both of us thanks to various local climbing friends and the weekly after-work cragging expeditions they organize. We've been introduced to a couple new areas and have regained the confidence to push our abilities. Amy lead a nice 5.2 climb in Eldo early in the month which got her all fired up about climbing. After Keiners, we went out and she lead her first 5.5 pitch on the North Face Route of Castle Rock in Boulder Canyon. It was a very confidence-building experience for both of us.

Lumpy is loaded with ultra-classic climbs on a series of rocky crags (the Lumps of the Ridge). The one in particular that I've heard many good things about is the colorfully-named "Magical Chrome-Plated Semi-Automatic Enema Syringe (5.6)". It seemed within my abilities and would set me up nicely to push my limits on a future trip. When we got to the trailhead, we found many other parties headed in that direction, so we set out for the Left Book formation instead. The Left Book is loaded with classic 5.7s. I've technically lead three, short 5.7 routes before, but neither one was really all that challenging or, in my opinion, worthy of the grade for more than a move or two. Today was the day, apparently, to push my limits.

Amy and I set up shop at the bottom of the classic White Whale (5.7). The first pitch was easy enough to follow with a large left-facing flake on moderate angle granite. It had rained heavily for several days and the west-facing rock was still a little damp and cold. This didn't inspire confidence in my footwork and my hands didn't grip as well as they might. Generally, I climb best when it is ridiculously hot out. Nevertheless, I worked my way up the flake placing gear in the crack below, wishing my hands would warm up. Kristie grunted and swore her way through the harder first pitch of Manifest Destiny (5.7) about twenty feet to the left. At the top of the pitch, I came to a small roof. I moved left around the roof and discovered that there were scant hand holds and less pro on the other side. Fortunately, the belay tree was just above so I ran it out a bit and set up an anchor. Amy came up and all was well. So far, so good.

Pitch 2 was a bit more exciting. The rock had warmed up a bit, but was still a bit damp in the cracks. Justin took over to the left and lead up an easy-looking flake that was the second pitch of Manifest. I climbed over a face and up some more left-facing flake. After 50', the flake gave out and I found myself on a granite face split by a 'crack'. The problem with cracks in granite is that they often become flaring, shallow seams which look much better from afar than they do up close. Still, the gear was reasonably good and I moved carefully up the rock.

This was a long pitch and I began to worry about whether I had enough gear. Since the route was pretty straight, I started clipping the rope directly to the cams to conserve my precious supply of slings (also minimize the distance I might fall if my feet peeled). The crack became shallower and more flared and finally gave out all together. I found myself under a huge roof with no good pro and on wet rock. My last cam stuck forlornly straight out of the shallow seam it was wedged into (marginal placement at best) about 20' below my heels and I became profoundly unhappy. There was a good set of cracks about 10' to the left, but it would require a no-hands traverse across the face. Did I mention that the face was wet? Or that I was looking at a 40' slide if I slipped? After a few tense moments, I calmed my mind and stepped across to the good holds. Safe! Running out the last few feet of rope, I pulled around the left side of the roof to a deep chimney where Justin had just finished setting up an anchor. I clipped in and we brought our respective better halves up.

The last pitch was short, but the first move out of the chimney was challenging. I stemmed over Amy's head and worked my way up 10' of rounded knobs on the steep face. Fortunately, the angle eased off a lot after that and I was soon on 3rd-class terrain as far as the Paperback Ledge. We sat in the sun watching the clouds build ominously in the west while I brought Amy up. A short down-scramble brought us back to the base of the route where two other parties were busy working on the route. Thank goodness for early starts!

Two and a bit pitches of bone-fide, sustained 5.7 climbing. How about that? My confidence is improved and I feel like I'm ready to push farther into 5.7 leading.

Amy ponders the committing crux move of Walt's Wall, P1 (5.4). Kristie belays.

Saturday morning, Justin, Amy, Eric, Marge, and I headed out for the main climbing area to get in a few routes. Edward's Crack (5.7) on Walt's Wall is one of the ultra-classic climbs in the area and, fueled by my success on White Whale, I was eager to try it. It's also a popular climb and we waited most of an hour while a Japanese trio climbed the first pitch. I borrowed a couple cams from Justin and eyed the climb. The first 20 feet were a steep, off-width with a fist crack burried deep in there. After that, it looked pretty mellow, but those first few moves looked spicy.

And indeed they were! I sank two #2 camalots in the first 15 feet of the climb, sketched like crazy, and attained the first rest. Hardest lead of my life! In the course of 20 feet, I came to accept the fact that I might fall and that it might hurt. It felt strangely liberating to do this and a zen sort of peace came over me. The Japanese crew were still messing around on pitch 2, but there was a nice belay stance about 20 feet below their belay. I did a few exposed slab moves (many people consider this the crux, not me!) and gained the flaring hand and fist crack. Sixty feet of this brought me to the belay and I set it up.

Far below, Amy attempted the first couple moves and backed off. Justin took over and breezed up showing his crack climbing cred. We sat on the ledge and waited. The crux of P2 is 8' of overhanging body-width chimney. Above us, the Japanese leader had cleared the crux and the second was working on it. It turns out this was his first climb ever and he was having an epic of it. We kept waiting because it looked like he might finish at any minute. After probably an hour, he finally fought his way through and we got our chance to move on. Justin took over lead and got through the crux. I came up and found the chimney harder than it looked. I was very greatful to have a top rope on this and fell a couple times. We finally got to the summit and were, once again, backed up behind the Japanese trio, this time on the three-part rappell. Turns out he hadn't done that either!

By early afternoon, we were finally back on horizontal ground and glad to be there. Kristie, her Mom, Sarah, Thad, Josh, and all four dogs had arrived as well as numerous other people and their dogs. Amy lead the first pitch of Walt's Wall (5.4) with one very committing move and we toproped that for a while. Finally, it was back to camp for beer, burgers, and the best wurst ever.

Yours truly working on P1 of Edward's Crack (5.7)

Justin squeezes into the offwidth crux of Edward's Crack.

Eric hard at work on Cold Finger (5.7)

Sunday, we headed for the Clamshell area for some easy leads and topropes. The approach was pretty impressive, involving some 4th and easy 5th-class moves to gain the top of the Clamshell. Once there, I lead the 50' crack of E.O. Lieback (5.5) to a set of anchors and set up a toprope. Very casual and nice. Eric went to work on Cold Finger (5.7, bolts) and eventually got up it for a second TR anchor. We spent a few hours toproping things and playing around before pulling the ropes and heading for home. The heat was getting to everyone and it was time for icecream.

It was a great weekend of casual (and not-so-casual) climbing, good company, and great white-man fires.

Rock On!

Neithernor