Yesterday, Deniz and I took a well-earned rest day…what did we do you ask? Well, mostly a whole lot of nothing – it being Sunday, everything was freaking closed – annoying right? The plan was to go to this Bakery and hang out there all day – they had wireless internet there…closed…then we went to a Marriot downtown – totally open, but you had to PAY for wireless internet….sheesh…oh and we also tried a Star Bucks - $6 an hour for net….RIIIIIIIIGHT….never go to a Star Bucks again – we did sit down in the Star Bucks and did some computer work – then we finally found a lobby (the Shilo Inn) which had free internet, but no tables – so we just did some necessities and then head back to our campsite.
That previous night – we had a bit of trouble – mostly that all of the campgrounds were full....it was late, we were tired, so we finally just pulled our car up to one of the bouldering areas and drug our sleeping pads up and crashed – Once the screaming teenagers left (I guess it’s a popular hang out), we actually got some decent rest.
Today was a good day – we had a good night rest (albeit at $18.00 a night in the Little Cottonwood Camp site), but the site was really nice. (For 18 bucks a night, I was figuring we’d get massages – but whatever…)
I didn’t sleep SUPER well though, I kept having bad dreams (I read the Stephen King Book, ‘Regulators’, that day…)
Deniz cooked some really good Oatmeal – I’ve been trying to be Raw (uncooked food – mostly fruits) for all my meals but dinner, but she convinced me that Oatmeal was a good idea…
I made a quick sketch of my translation of the Mt Project guide for the Pentapitch climbing area – which is mostly multi-pitch trad and mixed routes. There were several other people there, with guides, so we didn’t have TOO much trouble finding the correct line. Though we didn’t do any routes in double digits, we did do a 5 pitch route – the Pentapitch – which we linked into 3 pitches – it was really good – three VERY clean pitches with some scrambling in-between. I let Deniz take the prized first pitch on lead first, but came back and did it later on lead to reach the “Sasquatch” belay – the route named for the naked space alien biomorphic creation in Canada was Extremely good – Balls to the wall (or in Deniz’s case Ovaries to the to wall) for most of the pitch – when they say 9+ - they mean it! It was really clean – and really techy the whole way.
If you’ve never climbed granite, just thing about a friction slab – the friction is good – and overall (on surface of a palm) more sticky that Cooper’s Rock – but individual crystals are slick – it sounds weird, but its sort of like a conglomerate of “glue” and “crystals.” Because it is glacier carved (or so I’m told), it tends to be slabby – and have perfect (by East Coast Standards, not Indian Creek) cracks – on slab – though some slab is steep – and sometimes there’s roofs…
Unfortunately, I left most of my nuts back in my tent at the red, but thankfully I brought a lot of balls…just kidding – the granite cracks are perfect candidates for the 1990s leader (no cams, nuts only.)
I’m dropping Deniz at the AP tomorrow – and then heading to Rifle – where I hope to climb at least a day – and also hopefully to hang out with Dave Pegg and then to Carbondale to hang out with the R&I guys.
If I were back out here with someone next summer, I’d LOVE to take them up the Pentapitch and Sasquatch – those two routes were probably the best and most memorable I did on the trip – (That’s right – better than the Indian Creek Routes – but Indian Creek is an area I’d climb at for a full month – Little Cottonwood – cool, but no so much a full month- maybe a few days.)
Oh – I forgot to mention – some stupid animal ate our lunches…we came back down ,both bagels gone – with crumbs and a chalk bag (the plastic one) with holes…whatever it was didn’t like the taste of chalk (I hope it poison the little…well nevermind)
It felt really good to read – I love reading – I totally banged out that book in a day and a half….I really need to either slow down or pick some bigger books…else I’ll be buying books with all my would be beer money at Miguel’s (Just kidding – I don’t really think I’ll drink all that much – not that I ever really did…)
I had one momentary lapse of fear – on the horrid talus hike out – I jumped down, and stuck my face RIGHT INTO A paper wasp nest – one of them swarmed me a little, but I just remained calm and walked away – no stings…I’ve found that works well – if you just remain calm, they’ll leave you alone – I think they can sense your panic…and it makes them go after you…
My feet are really dirty – as soon as the sun goes down, the cloths are coming off and I’m going in the river…
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