Viva Las Vegas!
Every pitch I was on the sharp end was my favorite pitch. In fact, it was becoming comical. Clipping into the anchors each time, and thinking "Okay THAT was the best pitch so far," just to think the exact same thing on the next set of anchors. There is something about it. The mental clarity. Rhythmic breathing. Wind swirling around you, feeling as if it could knock you off at any point. The perfect combination of body movements. The feeling that there is no where else in the world you would rather be.
Pitch 4 - Alex's lead, 10d face climbing, few bolts with sparse placements in between. The crux involved Alex literally performing a one arm pull up on the greasiest, slickest sloper I've EVER felt and continuing up bad holds until he reached the anchors. I have never seen try hard like this in my life! He barely snatched the sloper with L hand, cut feet, L hand came off as R hand was speed matching the bread loaf, one arm pull up lead to bad holds with smeary feet to FINALLY stand up on the crap sloper to grab a freaking hold as big as an EAR. IT WAS AWESOME. I had no excuses. After that, it was ON! I followed up and by some miracle I did not fall. When I met Alex at the belay, I gave him the 'I'm so glad you lead that pitch' spiel and racked up for my next two pitches.
Pitch 5 - my lead, 10b face climbing AKA crimps with high feet. Needless to say, I WAS IN HEAVEN! I felt very far away from bolts at all times and there was no supplemental gear, but I was so content and so in the zone. Pure fun climbing.
Pitch 6 - my lead, 10b "more face climbing more bolts" my ASS! I was in for a treat with this one. At one point I looked up and saw a lone bolt in the middle of a BLANK face and thought I was off route. My last bolt was a good 15 feet below me. After figuring out what I needed to do, I then had to talk myself into doing it. Mantling a slopey ledge to barely clip the bolt, traverse the ledge with my hips as close to the wall as possible while using hands for balance (there were no holds), then having to lean out far left to snatch a good hold while feet cut over to the good spot. It wasn't over. The crux was going to the anchors. A few insecure moves far above your last bolt to clip the anchor. After gaining the little belay ledge, I let out the biggest sigh of relief. A guy on Mt. Project commented on this pitch and it really summed up what I felt also...
When Alex got to the anchors, he gave me the same 'I'm so glad you lead THAT' spiel that I was giving him earlier. Just goes to show what you can do when your on the sharp end and making magic happen.
Pitch 7 - Alex's lead, 5.9+ (the dreaded grade!) runout gear, little bolts, the climbing was still tough and we were ready to be done!
By the time we reached the anchors it was total darkness. We rapped down the 7 pitches or so of the route to the left called Prince of Darkness (appropriate name). After going home and reading up more on FOTR, we were psyched to see other climbers comments had matched our thoughts exactly and that most people thought it should get a PG-13 grade. I'm pretty glad I didn't see all that before I went up honestly because I was able to create my own thoughts about it. I knew I was making some legit hard scary moves above bolts at times but I thought maybe this is just what multi pitch sport climbing is all about? Either way, it strengthened my mental game significantly and that is always a plus.
This route was really rewarding because we both felt like we lead the perfect pitches for our skill levels and couldn't have done it without the other person. We were both completely challenged but didn't overdo it either. We both needed a TON of mental fortitude to complete this thing. It was a really great feeling to get to the anchors with no falls!
The next day, we literally couldn't move. Every baby bone in our body was aching. We still tried to climb and had an excellent day in the sun but it was pretty anti-climactic. We ran into some RRG climbers and watched Sarah Brengosz crush a really fun climb called Fear and Loathing.
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Pitch 5 Fiddler on the Roof. Photo Credit: Kolin Powlick |
Our trip to Red Rocks began, as always, with an exhausting ER shift. The first crux of the trip was actually getting to Vegas flying standby after 3 days of snow in Chattanooga. This left many traveling passangers re-booking cancelled flights on the day we were trying to leave. It was not looking good. We contemplated Mexico instead, as there were plenty of open seats. Then outta no where, "Standby passangers Whitman and Sompel!" Vegas here we come!
Day 1 - We planned our first day as a "test" day. Alex and I had done plenty of climbing together but no multi pitch trad. He had a lot of trust in me to send me up the first pitch of Jubilant Song and build my very first anchor to belay him up. The day was a success as we summited Windy Peak, which was the longest route we've done with no fixed gear. It was a good experience and really cool to kinda create your own adventure with no bolts. We both choose alternate routes at the top and think we had a much better time then following the guidebook.
Day 2 - I don't think we planned for this day to be as difficult as it ended up being, but in a GOOD way. Don't get me wrong, we knew that Fiddler on the Roof was going to be a challenge. But this day turned into so much more. FOTR is an amazing route in the well known Black Velvet Canyon. It was known for having a "scary traverse pitch" over a roof. It was mixed so Alex was going to take the pitches with little to no bolts and I was planning to take the more bolted pitches (aka 7 bolts for 150 feet of climbing). This thing honestly just needs a breakdown. SPOILER ALERT!
Black Velvet Canyon |
Fidder on the Roof, traverse R over crescent roof to gain vertical face climbing |
Pitch 1 - my lead, slab 5.9 climbing, reachy move at the 2nd bolt. Thought I was gonna biff it but SO glad I figured it out.
Pitch 2 - Alex's lead, 5.9 chimney, crazy hard reachy move to a sloper to gain the chimney crack. No backpacks allowed here in order to gain one of the two ledges we had to belay on all day. Super fun pitch!
Pitch 2 Fidder on the Roof |
Pitch 3 - Alex's lead, 10c traverse above roof. Alex did a great job keeping it together and protecting the second on this incredible traverse pitch. The initial easy climbing lead to thin crimps and smeary feet all above a GIGANTIC roof. Following this pitch was nerve wracking, cause I knew I pretty much couldn't fall or it would be really difficult to get back on.
Pitch 3 Fiddler on the Roof |
Pitch 4 - Alex's lead, 10d face climbing, few bolts with sparse placements in between. The crux involved Alex literally performing a one arm pull up on the greasiest, slickest sloper I've EVER felt and continuing up bad holds until he reached the anchors. I have never seen try hard like this in my life! He barely snatched the sloper with L hand, cut feet, L hand came off as R hand was speed matching the bread loaf, one arm pull up lead to bad holds with smeary feet to FINALLY stand up on the crap sloper to grab a freaking hold as big as an EAR. IT WAS AWESOME. I had no excuses. After that, it was ON! I followed up and by some miracle I did not fall. When I met Alex at the belay, I gave him the 'I'm so glad you lead that pitch' spiel and racked up for my next two pitches.
Pitch 5 - my lead, 10b face climbing AKA crimps with high feet. Needless to say, I WAS IN HEAVEN! I felt very far away from bolts at all times and there was no supplemental gear, but I was so content and so in the zone. Pure fun climbing.
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Pitch 5 Fiddler on the Roof. Photo Credit: Kolin Powlick |
"All this blather about how pitch 3, 4 and 5 are [insert hyperbolic adjective here], and not a word—not a freaking word!—about pitch 6? Even the route description couldn't be more anti-climactic about pitch 6: “More face climbing, more bolts.” Ho-f*cking-hum. As if! Did the route submitter even climb pitch 6? Did everyone else rap after 4, or 5? Holy $hit!"
Alex following up Pitch 5 Fiddler on the Roof |
Pitch 7 - Alex's lead, 5.9+ (the dreaded grade!) runout gear, little bolts, the climbing was still tough and we were ready to be done!
By the time we reached the anchors it was total darkness. We rapped down the 7 pitches or so of the route to the left called Prince of Darkness (appropriate name). After going home and reading up more on FOTR, we were psyched to see other climbers comments had matched our thoughts exactly and that most people thought it should get a PG-13 grade. I'm pretty glad I didn't see all that before I went up honestly because I was able to create my own thoughts about it. I knew I was making some legit hard scary moves above bolts at times but I thought maybe this is just what multi pitch sport climbing is all about? Either way, it strengthened my mental game significantly and that is always a plus.
This route was really rewarding because we both felt like we lead the perfect pitches for our skill levels and couldn't have done it without the other person. We were both completely challenged but didn't overdo it either. We both needed a TON of mental fortitude to complete this thing. It was a really great feeling to get to the anchors with no falls!
The next day, we literally couldn't move. Every baby bone in our body was aching. We still tried to climb and had an excellent day in the sun but it was pretty anti-climactic. We ran into some RRG climbers and watched Sarah Brengosz crush a really fun climb called Fear and Loathing.
Sarah Brengosz on Fear and Loathing |
The next few days will have to be continued on the next post... continue on!
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