Thursday, November 29, 2012

Frustration Creek, 11/22/2012


I have to say that projecting my routes is taking longer than I had hoped due to bad weather.  The last time we had planned on going up there (last Saturday) we were rained out, so I was really hoping that Thanksgiving would bring us decent weather.  Lucky for me the weather was pretty much perfect today. 

I planned on trying to redpoint the easier of my two new routes (The Expedition), then maybe giving my other route a go as well.  I have been going over the moves in my head for the last week and a half since I figured them all out, so I figured that I was ready to do the FA.  I started up the route and was doing well, but once I got to the crux I was already feeling a bit tired (I'm sure that the two games of football I had played an hour before didn't help that), so I down-climbed to a good stance and shook out so that I could be ready to just power through and cruise to the top of the route.  After I shook out I did just that, I quickly pulled through the crux (which didn't go quite as well as what was in my head, but at least I made it through), and continued up the route fighting the pump clock to get to the anchors.  Now the last couple of moves to get to the anchors are pretty bouldery and sequency, but I hung on and got to the last jug before the clipping hold for the anchors.  From there you just have to reach up to a crimp with your right hand, then go to the clipping hold with your left hand and the route is over.  Unfortunately, I didn't remember where the crimp was and I grabbed a spot where there was nothing but a slight indent in the rock and off I came.  I was so mad, I was one move away from the FA, but because I couldn't remember where the hold was I lost it.  Well, after hauling myself up to the last bolt I was able to climb back up to the anchors, and I put a nice big tick mark on that crimp so that the next time I wouldn't mess it up, then I lowered down.

I knew that I wanted to give the route another go, but I realized that it would be easier to clip the bolt above the crux with a longer draw hanging on it, so I toproped the route back up to the bolt above the crux so that I could swap out that draw for a longer one, then I came down and rested up a bit.  When I felt like I was all rested I headed back up to try and get the FA.  Unfortunately, that wouldn't happen.  When I got to the crux and tried to clip the bolt above it, I couldn't even hold on to the hold that I had used to clip before.  My left arm was just too dead, so I just ended up hangdogging my way up the rest of the route so that I could get the moves a bit more dialed, but I'll have to go back up tomorrow to try and get the FA.  I also realized that I was just too dead to give my other route a go, so we just went and set up Danny's route so that he could get some climbing in, then we headed home so that we could make Thanksgiving dinner.

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