New Jack City - 04/07/2012

So, I'm way behind on my blog, so I am going to make this a quick post.

We headed to New jack City on Saturday the 7th of April.  Gwyenn had never been to NJC so we decided that she needed to check it out.  We drove out there and were thinking of climbing at Boy Scout wall so that the girls could get some leading in, but when we got there, the wall was covered in boy scouts of all things.  I had heard that Raven Rocks was a good area, and I've never climbed there, so we decided to check it out.

We started by climbing a .10a called "Holey Moley".  The route is almost a full 100 ft long and has a couple of distinct cruxes with really easy climbing in between.  I ran up the route and got the onsight, then the girls both TR'd it.

After "Holes Moley" there were some people who were climbing a route a couple over from us who recommended a .10c called "Espresso".  Espresso turned out to be a really fun route with a low crux at the first bolt, followed by steep but juggy climbing for a few more bolts to get to the anchors.  Once again I got the onsight, then the girls followed on TR.

While we were climbing "Espresso" there was a desert bighorn sheep that climbed up on top of some rocks not too far from us and just stood there for a while.  We didn't get any climbing photos while we were at NJC, but I did at least get a few of the desert bighorn.

 

Desert Bighorn Sheep

The kids were being a little bit crazy, and we needed to head out so that they could take a nap on the way home, bit I wanted to at least climb one more route before we left.  

Recently I read about this guy in Utah who is trying to redpoint 30 5.12s while he is 30 or something like that.  This got me thinking that it would be a cool goal to try and redpoint 20 5.12s in 2012.  It's been a long time since I redpointed a 5.12, but I onsight basically any 5.10 that you can throw at me, I redpointed a 5.11d in three tries a few weeks before, and I think that while this is a very lofty goal, it can be done.  I decided I'd give a 5.12a a go to see if I could at least hangdog my way up it.  

I chose a route called "Stop the Madness" as my first 5.12a attempt.  The first couple of bolts were pretty easy, but It took me a while to figure out the moves from the 2nd through the 4th bolt which ended up being the crux, and then finished with some more easy climbing.  I didn't come anywhere close to climbing the route cleanly, but I did all the moves and felt like I wouldn't have much trouble redpointing it with a couple of more tries.  I guess I'll have to go back sometime soon to try for my first 5.12 redpoint of 2012.

After my attempt at "Stop the Madness" we packed up and headed out so the kids could take their nap on the way home.

 

Frustration Creek - 04/07/2012

On Saturday the seventh of April, we only had a couple of free hours, but we still wanted to get a little bit of climbing in, so we decided to head to Frustration Creek since it is only about 10 minutes from where we live.  Asia's husband Drew was home which is very unusual for a Saturday, and he has been wanting to come climbing with us for a while now, so we invited them to come along, and we also invited Gwyenn.

Amy and I arrived first and decided to quickly set up an easy route for everyone to try, so I ran up a 5.7 called "Rumble in the Rubble", then Amy TR'd it.  About this time, Drew and Asia showed up, so Amy belayed Asia up the route while I went and installed a couple of TR anchors at the top of this 4th class slab that would be perfect for Danny to practice climbing on.

Asia Climbing "Rumble in the Rubble" - 5.7

After Asia finished climbing the route She belayed Drew up it while Amy and I went to climb a 5.11a called "Eco Challenge".  Eco Challenge is a pretty fun route that gets progressively harder the higher you get.  It starts out with a little .10a section followed by a rest, then there is a roof that feels like about .10c, followed by another rest, and finally an .11a roof.  After the final roof the route really should just end, but it continues up past a couple more bolts  through extremely easy terrain.   I easily got the redpoint of Eco Challange, then Gwyenn TR'd it, Drew tried TRing it, and Amy finished up the day of climbing with another TR of the route.

Gwyenn on Eco Challenge - 5.11a

Amy in the initial .10a section

Amy pulling the .10c moves

Amy just past the .11a crux

After that we cleaned up the gear and headed home.  It was a very short day of climbing, but we had a good time nonetheless.