I lead 5.6! Or is it 5.7? The guidebook says 5.6 and rockclimbing.com says 5.6, however when I reached the anchor there was a brass tag on it that says it is 5.7. Whatever. Anyways, this was my first lead climb. I went with spence during the first saturday session of General Conference. I know, I'm a sinner. Anyways, The climb I was going to do was being climbed so we did this one. Spence went first, and after he lowerered we just pulled the rope through the draws and I was good to go. Then Steph showed up. She started getting on his case about a bunch of stuff that isn't important. Point is, she was distracting my belay on my first lead. But we got everything under controll, and I went up. I did a few hang dogs at some bolts which I;m not to proud of, but I didn't fall so maybe the hang dogs were worth it. This may have been one of the freakyest things I have ever done though. I was frantic right before I clipped a bolt and after I had a split second of relief knowing I was clipped in, I looked up at the next bolt, 12 feet away. Seemed so far, but it didn't take too long to get to, once I worked up enough balls to leave the bolt. I probabley could have red pointed, but didn't have the mental game worked out. I'm gonna meditate before I lead next. As it turns out, it was a good thing steph showed up. She got my digital camera out of my pack and snapped a few shots of me on my first lead.
P.S. The tyrolian on the approach to salt slips rocks my world.