Riverside Quarry - 02/25/2012

Amy has been wanting to go the the beach for a while, but it seems like every weekend when there is the possibility to go to the beach it is always cold outside. On Saturday the 18th she wanted to try going, but it was so smoggy outside that it wasn't very warm, so we decided to go climbing at the Riverside Quarry until it warmed up enough to go to the beach.

We arrived at the quarry and the smog was so thick that you couldn't even see any details on the rock from the road which might be a quarter of a mile away, it almost was like a fog, but without the wetness. We were really hoping that it would get nicer and warm up a bit, so we decided that we would start out by doing our projects. Amy has been working on figuring out how to do the crux move on Shattered dreams (5.10c) for a while now, and I figured it would be a good warmup for trying out Vertical Vee (5.11d) again, so we started out with it. I ran up the route without any problems, and then Amy took her turn on TR. She did really good and cruised up the route all the way to the crux, but then she was once again unable to figure out how to do the move, and since she is shorter than me, I am really no help either. Eventually, she ended up pulling herself up with the rope until she could reach the crux hold, then finished the route that way. We decided that sometime I need to set up an anchor right next to the crux and belay her from there so I can try and help her figure out a way through it.

After Shattered Dreams we headed over to try Vertical Vee again. I had tried the route the week before, but I couldn't get to the fourth bolt. I had been thinking about the moves all week, and thought that I knew a way to do it, and it looked like the route eased up considerably after clipping the fourth bolt, so I figured I would be able to make it up the route this time. I started up the route, and cruised up through the crux to the fourth bolt, clipped the bolt, reached for the awesome looking finger crack above the bolt, but found that just like the part below, the crack was shallow and flaring and not nearly as good as it looked. I ended up coming off, then had to work the moves for a while until I figured out the foot sequence that would work to get established above the roof. The rest of the route was pretty easy, the only problem was that I was so spent from working the crux moves that I still had to take at the second to last bolt and the last bolt to get my strength back, but at least I made it to the top of the route (I'll have to go back and get the redpoint sometime soon).

After finishing the route, it had warmed up quite a bit (even though the smog was still horrible), so we packed up and headed to the beach where we had a great time doing something non-climbing related.