On Thursday March 1st Amy's brother Michael, his wife Kim, and their son Jonathan came from Utah to visit us for the weekend. Michael and Kim like to get out and climb with us when we are together so we decided to do some climbing Friday morning then take the kids to the OC zoo in the afternoon. Since the Riverside Quarry is on the way to the zoo we figured that it would be a good place to go (even though it seems like it's the only place we've been climbing lately). Since Michael and Kim don't do much climbing and since Kim is currently 7 months pregnant we thought we'd go to Schoolhouse Rock.
The weather in Redlands was beautiful, but as we started driving west, it started getting pretty windy. By the time we had reached the quarry the wind was crazy strong and we were about ready to just forget about climbing altogether. The wind was coming from the north, and I thought that if we headed to the Agony Arch area of the quarry it would protect us from the wind, so Michael and I decided to hike over and check it out prior to having everyone get out of the cars. We hiked over and found that there was basically no wind in that area, and there were a few other climbers there so we asked them what the routes were rated and decided that it would be a good place to climb.
Michael and I headed back to the car, got all of the gear, the wives, and the kids, and headed back to the Agony Arch (and what we later learned was the Fun Factory) area. We ended up climbing at The Fun Factory which is kind of an interesting area. From quite far away you are able to tell exactly where the routes are, not because of the bolts, but because they follow lines of drilled pockets. I really don't know how I feel about this because I am generally pretty much against manufactured holds, but you could argue that since this was a quarry, really all the holds are manufactured, and without the manufactured holds, the routes would have never been climbed. I'm sure that they probably could have been climbed without the manufactured holds, but I highly doubt that anyone would have wanted to climb them. As it is, there are now a bunch of fun routes on rock that would have never been climbed otherwise, so who knows, maybe manufacturing routes is okay in some very specific circumstances.
We wanted to start with something easy so that Michael and Kim would have a good time, so we began with the route "Fun Factory" which is a 5.7. The route follows a left leaning crack system through dirty chossy rock and in my opinion is one of the worst routes I've ever climbed. Why someone took the time and money to bolt and manufacture the route is beyond me, but that's their perogetive I guess. I onsighted the route, then Michael climbed it on TR, Kim climbed the bottom section of the route before deciding she was too pregnant to continue, then we pulled the rope and Amy lead the route and got the Redpoint.
Michael on "Fun Factory" - 5.7
More Michael
And some more
Kim Starting up the route
Amy starting up the route
Amy nearing the anchors
After climbing "Fun Factory", we wanted to do at least one more climb, and there was a climb that a couple of other groups had done while we were there that looked fun so we decided to give it a go. The route is a 5.10b called "Mass Production" and is much better than the first route we climbed. Mass Production climbes a slightly overhanging wall that is pretty much blank except for the drilled pockets. The route felt very much like a gym climb, but it was pretty fun nonetheless. I climbed the route and got the Onsight, then Michael and Amy went up on TR. I didn't really think that Michael would be able to make it up the route since we had never put him on anything harder than 5.8 before, but after much hanging he made it to the anchors. Not bad for someone who climbs a couple of times a year.
The weather in Redlands was beautiful, but as we started driving west, it started getting pretty windy. By the time we had reached the quarry the wind was crazy strong and we were about ready to just forget about climbing altogether. The wind was coming from the north, and I thought that if we headed to the Agony Arch area of the quarry it would protect us from the wind, so Michael and I decided to hike over and check it out prior to having everyone get out of the cars. We hiked over and found that there was basically no wind in that area, and there were a few other climbers there so we asked them what the routes were rated and decided that it would be a good place to climb.
Michael and I headed back to the car, got all of the gear, the wives, and the kids, and headed back to the Agony Arch (and what we later learned was the Fun Factory) area. We ended up climbing at The Fun Factory which is kind of an interesting area. From quite far away you are able to tell exactly where the routes are, not because of the bolts, but because they follow lines of drilled pockets. I really don't know how I feel about this because I am generally pretty much against manufactured holds, but you could argue that since this was a quarry, really all the holds are manufactured, and without the manufactured holds, the routes would have never been climbed. I'm sure that they probably could have been climbed without the manufactured holds, but I highly doubt that anyone would have wanted to climb them. As it is, there are now a bunch of fun routes on rock that would have never been climbed otherwise, so who knows, maybe manufacturing routes is okay in some very specific circumstances.
We wanted to start with something easy so that Michael and Kim would have a good time, so we began with the route "Fun Factory" which is a 5.7. The route follows a left leaning crack system through dirty chossy rock and in my opinion is one of the worst routes I've ever climbed. Why someone took the time and money to bolt and manufacture the route is beyond me, but that's their perogetive I guess. I onsighted the route, then Michael climbed it on TR, Kim climbed the bottom section of the route before deciding she was too pregnant to continue, then we pulled the rope and Amy lead the route and got the Redpoint.
Michael on "Fun Factory" - 5.7
More Michael
And some more
Kim Starting up the route
Amy starting up the route
Amy nearing the anchors
After climbing "Fun Factory", we wanted to do at least one more climb, and there was a climb that a couple of other groups had done while we were there that looked fun so we decided to give it a go. The route is a 5.10b called "Mass Production" and is much better than the first route we climbed. Mass Production climbes a slightly overhanging wall that is pretty much blank except for the drilled pockets. The route felt very much like a gym climb, but it was pretty fun nonetheless. I climbed the route and got the Onsight, then Michael and Amy went up on TR. I didn't really think that Michael would be able to make it up the route since we had never put him on anything harder than 5.8 before, but after much hanging he made it to the anchors. Not bad for someone who climbs a couple of times a year.
After finishing "Mass Production" we headed out to spend the afternoon at the OC Zoo where the kids had a blast.
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