Rappeling

Originally went up to climb Neuromancer, as I wasn't in the mood for the Trad head game. Then decided that I wasn't in the mood for hard sport. I didn't pack my rack so luckily Howie had his. So I had a set of old school BD stoppers and 2 brand new Trango flex cams. Threw down the lead preety good. I was sketching out, and really wasn't in the mood to fall. So I french freed one stupid placement... grr... Anywho, got to the top, belayed up Howie and Jessica. Then we all chilled out on the ledge at the top of the first pitch, and rapped down.

Went up with Howie at 7 in the morning hoping to do beckys wall. Unfortunately it rained untill 1:00ish. We went back out at around 4:30 because they sun came out. We had planned on going to bushwack beause it was west facing and got lots of sun, but on the drive up he metioned Hand Jive and we couldn't resist. Went up and found the climb (a bit of a chore if you're not careful), and went for it. In order to get to Hand jive you need to climb Crack in the woods. So I led up it with no problems using only passive pro (as none of my cams were small enough). It was a really short pitch, I was really surprised by that. He followed up and we sat there for a while. I'm not exactly sure how to get over to hand jive so I want to go with Jason for it. So we rappeled from there, cleaned up and all was well. There is a gnarly old forged friend in the crack that I picked at for 5 minutes while rapping, but gave up on. Way stoked about the climb.

Yes, we went again a day later. Jason Felt the urge to lead it after witnessing my marvel. We took Paul Sharp along with us so he could experience the wonders of crack climbing. Jason led, Paul followed with a bit of trouble, as he is new at the crack climbing thing. Then Jason tried getting me to go up, but I thought there was no time before dark.. so we argued about it and I ended up speed climbing it in about a minute and a half. I felt really dumb when another group came up just as we were leaving, convinced there was enough time for 4 people to climb it.

Feelin good. Led it perfectly with sound placements (except one, but it was backed up). Most glorious thing ever. Really warm day, though there was snow on the ground.

First trad lead! I led, Jason followed, I did very well I think and had fun doing it. Jason tried mexican crack but got spanked.