Lead

It was such a beautiful day outside, we needed to get out. So when Char came over and said "What are you doing inside on such a day as this" (paraphrased), I said "Let's go climbing". So, we did. We threw some gear together and took off up Little Cottonwood Canyon. I wanted to climb Crescent Crack, a climb I (am/thought I was) familiar with. It was my first TRAD lead back a few years ago, so I figured it would be a good place to get back to. My climbing went fairly well in some fashions, but not so good in others. A few things I did well were that I remained very calm on lead, something I was rarely able to do in the past. I took things a lot more slow than I did in the past. I used to try to rush through the climb, over gripping my holds, and losing strength. Also, I was a lot better at keeping my cool at the protection placing times. Instead of thinking with emotions "dang, if I fall before I get this piece in and clipped, that's gonna suck" which is generally a bad thing, I thought "You're in a good solid stance, so take your time and look for a good placement. That looks like a good spot for a nut. Yeah, that's solid. Should I use a draw? Hmm.. a longer runner might be better to prevent rope drag from popping the piece."



Anyway, it was good. However, halfway up the second portion of the climb I decided to call it quits and build an anchor and let Jason finish leading the pitch. So, he lowered me and I belayed him up to my anchor on top rope. He then Led the rest of the pitch and set a real anchor. Then, he belayed Char up from the top. She did pretty dang good for her first time.

So, I've lost the will to write much more, so... it's over

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.

Was indecisive on whether or not I even wanted to go. Glad I did. Jason and I went up to the challange buttress. Both of us were so lethargic that it was like "wanna lead?" "i dunno.. you wanna lead?". I ended up leading. Got about halfway up the climb and pumped out (overgripping, lack of climbing/training.) Started cheating by pulling on the draws, and did two hang dogs at different bolts (I think the 4th and 7th). Overall though, I wanted to quit and come down, but didn't. That's all that really matters to me. I finished the climb, though it took forever and I used gear to aid me. So, It's a good solid hangdog. Jason followed in good time, then we went over to winky and waxman go bolting. He tried and pumped. He restarted, fell on the last bolt then finished off. A good day all in all, as it was warm and beautiful outside, though it was extremely windy.. and at times I felt as if I was going to be blown off the rock.

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.